Sabrina and Daphne Grimm finally have their parents back - in body, at least. No one knows quite how to wake them from their magical sleep. But the Grimm family of fairy-tale detectives has a more urgent problem. The fairy prince Puck - sort of an adopted member of the family - has been gravely injured and needs the attention of others of his kind. This means that Granny and the girls must take him out of the safe haven of Ferryport Landing, which for hundreds of years has been home to many of the Everafters (fairy tale folk) who came to America with Wilhelm Grimm. They must take him to the land of faerie, or what's left of it. Oddly enough, it turns out to be a restaurant in New York City.

Now if you thought characters from Grimm's Fairy Tales were trouble, wait till the fairies from Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream get involved. These days, the Everafters outside of Ferryport Landing have grown increasingly scattered, and Faerie has all but disappeared. What remains of it is a mafia-style empire, topped by King Oberon and his embittered wife Titania. This is why ex-sheriff Hamstead's romance with a fairy's main squeeze reads like the plot of a verismo opera. It also means trouble for Sabrina, when Puck's levitating coccoon chooses her, rather than his long-ditched fiancee, to be his guardian while he heals. (If you've missed the hints of a developing romance here, you may also have missed the Ron/Hermione ship. Ooh! Low blow!)

Things get serious when Oberon is fatally poisoned. Suddenly Puck is the King of Faerie, when he is least able to do anything about it. Meanwhile, Sabrina is struggling to understand new discoveries about her mother, who turns out not to have had such a fairy-tale-free lifestyle after all. Does she really know the people closest to her? Long reluctant to accept her calling as a fairy-tale detective, Sabrina wrestles with this question while searching for clues in dwarf-infested subway tunnels, Scrooge's psychic seance parlor, and Macy's Department store, where the robotic Christmas displays are supervised by... ha, ha, you'll have to find out for yourself!

In spite of all the suspects and clues, you may be amazed to find out whodunit. In fact, part of what gives the climax of this book its punch is the fact that there are really two crimes in it, and two bad-guys afoot, each promising Sabrina a chance to apply her growing skills as a detective, and her already considerable powers as a swashbuckling girl-hero. Cringe at the spectacular dangers involved in multiple climaxes, including (but not limited to) a scene that poses the question: What if King Kong was a giant robot? But don't worry. Sabrina lives to fight crime another day!

Robbie Fischer
USA

Recommended Age: 10+

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