Official Review: The Secret of Willow LANE

[Mallory Whitaker]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Secret of Willow LANE" by Virginia Rose Richter.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The Secret of Willow Lane by Virginia Rose Ritcher is the first novella in the Willow Lane Mystery series. This children's mystery book has just the right amount of suspense for readers who are 8-13 years old.

Jessie is waiting for the delivery of her detective kit when she notices flashing lights in the empty house next door. The owner of the house, C.G. Johnson, recently died, and Jessie's father, a lawyer, is taking care of his estate. Well, he's trying to anyway, but he can't find the old man's will. Are the flickering lights and missing will connected? With her best friend Tina, they put their new detective kit to good use as they investigate C.G.'s life and the mysterious man Jessie saw in the attic window.

I read this 124-page book in one sitting. It's fast-paced and maintains the suspense from beginning to end. There are a couple of mysteries to solve. They overlap nicely and help bring the book to a solid conclusion. The clues are a bit obvious at times, but I think this works with the age range of the target audience. It's comparable to the Nancy Drew series.

The story is told from Jessie's perspective in the third person, which helps make her sense of humor shine; it also helps show just how observant she is. However, all of the characters, from Jessie to the strict librarian, are colorful and dynamic. They each have a unique voice and personality. Jessie's relationships with her parents, her baby brother, and Tina are genuine and well-written. I think any young reader could easily picture themselves as one of the two girls.

Amidst all of the suspense, there are some other elements at play. The girls are funny, and the exasperated adults are equally humorous. It also has an educational side. As the girls are using their detective kit, they go into detail about how to dust for fingerprints and how to use dental stone to create a cast of a footprint.

I would love to give this book four stars. Unfortunately, I can't do that because I found over ten errors. Most of the errors involved improper capitalization; other errors included missing/extra quotation marks and minor typos. The only other critique I have is that there are random line breaks in places they shouldn't be, like in the middle of a conversation. Therefore, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend this book to readers from fourth to eighth grade, especially girls. If you're looking for a contemporary book that's similar to Nancy Drew, I highly recommend checking this one out. There's some violence, but it's not graphic.

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The Secret of Willow LANE
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[La Cabra]

Sounds lovely, I would've definitely picked this up when I was around that age. I would recommend this to the kids I read to but I think I'll wait for the next edition to come out without the grammar errors before I do that. Thanks for your great review!

[Magnify3]

I really enjoyed reading the Nancy Drew series considering that I only read most of them 4 yrs ago for the first time. So if this is anything like that series I would definitely like to read it. Thanks for the great review!

[Maríe Wamakima]

I read most of the Nancy Drew books almost 10 years ago and I was fascinated. The mystery and the fun combined made the books great read. If this novel is of such kind I will definitely have it in my bookshelves.