Horn Book Review
Banned from detective work, clueless Timmy faces piano lessons, a teachers' strike, his best friend's disappearance, and his mother's impending wedding in this fifth series entry. Effective pacing and text-and-illustration interplay keep the pages turning, even as plot lines become increasingly nonsensical and the laughs are somewhat less hearty. After four books, seeing (just a little) growth in Timmy would be welcome. (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
A piano teacher with her husband's ashes in an urn, teenage cousins taking over, a jelly bean snarfing substitute teacher, and an orthodontist named Dr. A. Goni just more life hurdles for Timmy Failure. All that pales in comparison to the fact that Timmy has been banned by his mother from detective work, until the end of school. But he's on a case anyway, trying to locate his missing best friend. In the Author's Note, Timmy indicates this book was never intended for publication: it is the private record of a sensitive time in my life as a detective. Timmy hides behind his detective persona, but the sensitive time in question is his mother's impending wedding and Timmy's unhappiness about it. Timmy's behavior has never been willfully destructive, but in this case, he might be accused of trying to sabotage the wedding, or at least simply continuing to use detection as a means to impose his will on an often confounding world. Fans of this continually off-the-wall series can make the call.--Dean, Kara Copyright 2016 Booklist
