Shelly's Book Blog

I don't read adult fiction much any more, but I never miss a Sue Grafton novel, and her latest, U is for Undertow, doesn't disappoint. In fact, I had forgotten what a really, really good writer she is. This story is told in alternating chapters, part set in 1988, with Kinsey investigating, and the other part set in 1967, when the crime took place. A man named Michael Sutton hires Kinsey to investigate because he has a kind of fuzzy memory of seeing two guys digging a hole and burying something when he was six years old. He thinks the incident may be connected to the kidnapping, and presumed death, of a little girl back in 1967. A subplot involving Kinsey's estranged family adds to the nostalgia, and both storylines come to what I thought were satisfying conclusions. I wonder what the title of her next book will be?

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma is book 3 in Trenton Lee Stewart's series about four exceptional children and their benefactor, Mr. Benedict. I liked the first two in the series, The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, very much. I don't think this third book is quite as good, but I still enjoyed it and would recommend it to fans of the series.
What I liked best about this book is that the characters go to such lengths to support and help one another. The title sets out this theme nicely. The book begins with the four children, as an educational exercise, grappling with the prisoner's dilemma. Because they are exceptionally resourceful, of course, they manage to find an option C that pretty much turns the exercise on its head. Throughout the rest of the story, though, it is their concern for each other, Mr. Benedict, their parents, and all the other people they love, that drives the children's actions. In fact, all of the "good" characters seem quite willing to sacrifice their own well-being when it means helping someone they love. The bad guys, such as Mr. Curtain and the Ten Men, seem to lack this moral compass.
My favorite character is Constance Contraire, the insufferable four-year-old genius. I think that her character grows and changes the most in this story, and I have always delighted in her cantankerous, stubborn nature. So although I had expected a bit more from this book, I found I still enjoyed it and found the ending satisfying.