When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket

When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket
Buy When Did You See Her Last? by Lemony Snicket at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Gina Garnett
Summary: The familiar Snicket sense of gloom with a Film Noir Twist.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 277	Date: October 2013
Publisher: Egmont
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 9781405256223
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At first glance, it's difficult to separate All the Wrong Questions from Snicket's first and far more famous series, A Series of Unfortunate Events. However, the further into it I read, the more I realised that I was actually reading a Film Noir. A classic detective story with all the right characters. A little less subtle than some, perhaps, more Bugsy Malone than Sunset Boulevard but that's fine given the intended audience and makes it no less enjoyable.

Whoever Lemony Snicket really is, he's very, very clever. I get the feeling that all similarities are intentional, to create an autership for the persona. As with Unfortunate Events, he's playing the long game here. While the books are readable as standalone stories (When Did You See Her Last is question number two and I found myself not at all lost for having missed the first one) we're clearly settling in for a long series.

Told from Snicket's point of view at a young age, this is the case of missing Cleo Knight - an heiress who could well put the failing town of Stain'd-by-the-Sea back on the map. The title is the question Lemony asks of witnesses at the scene of the crime, when he should have questioned the discrepancy in what she was seen wearing. The intrigue continues with long running and new villains and reasonably dark and high stakes for young audience, in true Snicket style.

Refreshingly, while we know where Lemony went wrong from the get-go, the mystery remains a mystery. We're discovering as the characters are, which gives you great involvement and makes you want to see it through to the end.

The sense of humour is dry and witty, a brilliant change from the current fashion of in your face toilet humour that everyone seems so convinced that young people love (which, to be fair, many of them do). They’ll love this more. In some ways, this is both a Film Noir and a Film Noir Spoof at the same time. It carries on, gently making fun but still upholding the traditions and tropes that make the genre. It’s definitely worth reading and definitely worth looking up the first book Who Could That Be At This Hour?. If you’re a fan of the Unfortunate Events, read these because you’ll definitely like them. They’re just different enough to keep it fresh and just similar enough to keep the same charms. If you haven’t read either series, do look both of them up. There’s nothing and no one else quite like Lemony Snicket out there, so it’s worth the time even if it ends up not being for you. Fun reads if you’re not afraid of the melancholy and grim.

If this book appeals then you might also like to look at:

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

The Dark by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen

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