Out the Rear Window

By: Michael Dahl, Lisa K. Weber

Narrated by: anonymous

Tyler Yu asked Charlie Hitchcock to meet him after school, and Charlie assumed it was for a fight. But when it turns out Ty just needs help solving a magical mystery at the Abracadabra Hotel, an unlikely friendship is formed.

©2015 Michael Dahl, Lisa K. Weber (P)2017 Capstone Publishers, Inc.

A fun mystery with a little bit of magic

Charlie Hitchcock knows he's going to get beat up. How does he know? Well, when the school bully gives you a note that has an address on it and tells you to be there after school and to tell nobody else, that's the only conclusion that makes any sense. Or it did until he got to the address and saw it was the Abracadabra Hotel.

Instead of beating him up, Tyler wants Charlie's help. Tyler's mother is the hotel manager, and his father is the chef. Apparently, a long-term guest has gone missing and Tyler is hoping that Charlie can help find him. Will they be able to figure out the clues and find the missing guest?

This was a fun mystery to listen to. Not only were there clues for the missing guest, but there were also magic tricks that were performed, with some being explained when the characters figured out how they worked. The unnamed narrator also did a good job reading the story. He had a way of reading it that reminded me of the old whodunnit tv shows; his voice was suggestive without giving away too much. The story's mystery was similar to those of Scoobie-Doo, with Charlie's deductive reasoning reminding me of Velma. As a result, there was a lot of nostalgia with me as I was listening to it.

As this book starts a series, I am looking forward to reading/listening to more books in the series.