We loved the start to this series, and I absolutely gushed over the first book, The Shrunken Head, in my review, Deliciously Macabre.
So when we saw the sequels at our library, we snatched them right up!
The Screaming Statue picks up a little while after the first, with the reader now knowing that Sam, Pippa, Thomas and Max were experimented on by the evil Nicholas Rattigan and given their remarkable powers: Sam, super-strength; Philippa, mind-reading; Thomas, super-bendiness; and Max, accuracy with her knife-throwing.
Likewise, Mr. Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders is still struggling to stay afloat.
Facing utter ruin unless he can bring in an audience, Mr. Dumfrey turns to the children's beloved grandfather-figure, Siegfried Eckleberger, who sculpts the wax dummies for the museum. He asks Siegfried to craft two heads (he'll cannibalize the bodies from other wax mannequins) for a crowd-pleasing and museum-saving exhibit depicting the salacious murder of Mrs. Richstone by her husband, Mr. Richstone!
Except, Mr. Eckleberger is murdered shortly after the heads are delivered, and one, uncharacteristically, is incorrect: Mrs. Richstone has a gap between two teeth. It's an odd mistake for the sculptor to make, as everyone's seen her picture in all the newspapers, and there's clearly no gap.
The police ask the kiddos to see if anything's missing from Mr. Eckleberger's apartment, and all Thomas notices is a photograph missing from a frame.
I won't spoil how the mystery unfolds!
These are great books, and I love the way they don't cut any punches with the macabre -- a display of murder in a museum?! And Rattigan is the ultimate nemesis, convinced of his godliness and how the children should worship him for giving them his powers.
It has a creepy, time-gone-by atmosphere that makes for a great read!
In this third book, The Fearsome Firebird, the orphans Sam, Philippa, Thomas and Max are back at solving mysteries, this time outside Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders.
The kids inadvertently stop a bank robbery, one in a series that has the city's bankers cowering under their desks in fear and trepidation.
When they get back to the museum, it's been invaded by a bug exterminator and fumigator --Ernie Erskine's Professional Extermination -- who's out to kill General Farnum's flea circus.
And an amazing talking bird, an Exotic Black-Billed Ethiopian Firebird, is given to Mr. Dumfrey by an intrepid explorer, Sir Roger Barrensworth, who claims he can't care for the bird any longer.
Meanwhile, police are still searching for the kids' nemesis and creator, Nicholas Rattigan, and the local press turns against the museum and the kids. Emily the Tatooed Wonder shows up and helps the museum compete against a new, rival freak show, The Coney Island Curiosity Show, but what are her real motivations?
General Farnum is arrested for Erskine's murder, and the kids have to prove he didn't do it -- and uncover Rattigan's latest nefarious plot.
The plot is quite intricate and well-executed, as all the threads come together at the very end for a satisfying climax. I won't spoil the ending!
