Dead Letter: A Herculeah Jones Mystery (Byars, Betsy Cromer. Herculeah Jones Mystery.)

Rating:
Summary: Have you read Dead Letter?
Review: Have you read Dead Letter? It's a great book. It's about a girl Hercula Jones and her friend Meat. She gets a used coat from a store. She finds a letter in the lining of her new coat. The letter is a call for help! So she decided to find out who wrote the letter. I loved this book!

Rating:
Summary: Dead Letter
Review: Join Herculeah Jones and her accomplice Meat for their third edge of your seat adventure. While visiting a thrift store Herculeah buys a coat and later discovers a letter in the lining of the coat. The letter is from a lady being held captive; afraid she is going to be murdered. After a little research Herculeah discovers that indeed the lady who had wrote this letter was dead, and died an accidental death. But Herculeah didn't believe that so she set out on an investigation to see what really had happened. But while looking for the ladies killer, Herculeah almost became the murders next victim. Afraid of death while being held hostage and guarded by angry Doberman Herculeah can do nothing but hope that her best friend meat will save her. Meat a boy who is not as adventurous or brave as his pal Herculeah, doesn't even realize how helpful he really is to her. Now just wonder what adventure Byars will put Herculeah up to in her next nail-biting thriller.

Rating:
Summary: Lettered Coat
Review: Lettered Coat

The book Dead Letter is about a very suspicious girl named Herculeah and her friend Meat. Herculeah buys a coat and she later notices the coat has a letter in the lining. She then got it out through a hole in the pocket. When she read it, her hair frizzled. Every time her hair frizzles, danger awaits her. The note was from a woman that had a huge amount of stress put upon her. I would tell you more but you will just have to read it yourself.

I enjoyed reading this book. I could just sit and read while someone else figured out the clues. I liked this book because it did not have a lot of suspense and everything happened right after I found out about a clue. I liked this book because I don't like books with a lot of suspense. If you like books that make you figure out the ending then this book isn't for you. But if you like the total opposite, then this book is for you!

Rating:
Summary: Exciting, but weak, youth mystery
Review: This story has some pleasant and interesting parts. The basic plot is Herculeah Jones stumbles across a letter that leads her to a mystery.

Having grown up on Hardy Boy Mysteries, and having read a number of Nancy Drew Mysteries to my own daughters, I can see the market niche this book is trying to fill, but I don't recommend this book.

The biggest problem with the book is for a "smart" girl, Herculeah does some really stupid things. The Hardy Boys got into danger, but they were normally fairly careful. (The Hardy Boys' mysteries are better then this, but they did have their own problems.) Herculeah rushes into danger. It is exciting to read about, but in reality Herculeah was doing some stupid things. She could have very easily been dead. She is not a good hero to read about.

If you have children who like mysteries, there are better ones to read.