Unlikely Exploits #02: Heir of Mystery, or Four Legs Good by Phillip Ardagh

Heir of Mystery, the second book in the Unlikely Exploits series is a funny and twisted continuation. Like the Fall of Fergal death plays a key role in the story. This is an excellent book for the Halloween season.

The story covers Fergal's funeral, and the discovery that Fergal's brain was not buried with the rest of his body. The McNally children spend the rest of the book trying to track down Fergal's missing brain and run into some very undesirable characters.

This was a good book, but it didn't grab me quite the same way that the Fall of Fergal did. There is no way that it could though, because the whole series seemed so unique at that point. With that said, this is still a very continuation. I admire Ardagh's writing style, it is like you are sitting with a crazy uncle and he is trying to tell you a story. Things aren't always told in a completely linear fashion, but he always takes a chance to answer the questions that the reader might be having as he reads along. One slight concern, which isn't a really a concern, but it does seem as if the vocabulary in Heir of Mystery is a little more challenging than in the Fall of Fergal. Not a bad thing, but just a thing for readers to be aware so that they don't get frustrated.

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with the teddy bear in book 3, and of course what happens with Fergal.

Keywords: Mystery, Horror, Death, Medical Experimentation, Family, Dogs, Storytelling

Ages: 9 - 12 (but I think older children will also enjoy this story, as will adults)