- Library Binding: 191 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Other (Sep 13 1991)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060217642
- ISBN-13: 978-0060217648
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.2 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 431 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,766,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Though Kerr may have stumbled in teenage sleuth John Fell's second outing, Fell Back , she is back on track and running strong in this absorbing, smoothly crafted third book of the series. Wisely, the author employs the same characters, themes and eastern Long Island setting that made Fell such a delicious read. Keats, Fell's neurotic blueblood ex-girlfriend, plays a pivotal role in this tale of a dead ventriloquist, his maniacal dummy and his missing best friend, the slightly bent heir to a major fortune. Fell's narrative is in counterpoint to that of "The Mouth," which turns out to be the dummy belonging to Lenny Last, the ventriloquist who caused the death of Fell's school chum Deem in a suicidal car crash. Investigating Last's and Deem's deaths brings Fell back to his old haunts at Gardner prep school and the Hamptons, where Keats lives and Fell had a truncated love affair with mysterious Delia Tremble. Along the way the reader is treated to ventriloquists' lore plus the same sort of pithy social commentary and quirky characterizations that enlivened Fell . With a few threads left untied and the appearance of Delia's look-alike sister April at story's end, Kerr leaves the door wide open for Fell's return. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From School Library Journal
Grade 7-12-- This third novel about John Fell ( Fell 1987, Fell Back 1989, both HarperCollins) opens in the Edwardian Room of the Plaza Hotel. Keats has taken Fell there so she can learn why he walked away from the Gardner School, leaving exams and graduation behind and unfinished. Fell, distraught over the death of his best friend, Dib, in a car accident, needs to make sense of the events that led also to the death of one Lenny Last, a washed-up Vegas comedian/ventriloquist and former Gardner student. By so doing, Fell gets caught up in a 28-year-old mystery. The telling of Fell Down is distinctly different from the earlier books: in alternating chapters, the two stories--past and present--are told by Fell and "The Mouth," whose identity is not revealed until the end. This device is jarring at first, but it eventually serves up an intriguing read as the events merge to create a satisfying whole. There is sure to be another book about Fell around the corner, for he returns to the newly coed Gardner School and Sevens House to find April, the sister of the love-of-his-life, Delia. A must purchase for libraries in which the other two books about Fell are popular. --Laura McCutcheon, St. Catherine's School, Richmond, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The best of the series!, Mar 4 1999
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fell Down (Library Binding)
Too bad this one is out of print, because I really thought it was very interesting. Fell is in a funk, contemplating leaving the school (sorry, blanked on its name) that had previously brought him so much happiness, including membership in its exclusive club, Sevens. He returns to Seaside with Keats, his ex-girlfriend, and becomes immersed in learning about the mysterious disappearance of a former Sevens member from the forties. The chapters alternate between Fell's point of view and that of a ventriloquist's dummy, which is used to provide a first-person account of the lives of the two Sevens members in the past. (Not nearly as dumb as it sounds.) Anyway, the story really was very interesting, and Fell's melancholy is realistic and makes sense in light of what's happened to him in the two previous "Fell" novels. The reason it only gets 4 stars, however, is that I still don't understand how we made the leap from wondering how the Sevens guy disappeared to knowing how it happened--suddenly, Fell was telling us, with no sense of drama to revealing something that had driven us through the book! I like subtlety, but not so much that I have to re-read the book to find out if I was paying enough attention! (I was, it was just vague.)
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Fell Down, Jan 24 2005
A Kid's Review - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fell Down (Hardcover)
"Is this seat taken?" Those four words started it all. That's when Lenny and Nels met. Lenny Last and Nels Plummer, "It takes two to tango...to tangle too."Fell last saw Dib in the car with Jack. Now the accident killed Dib but not Jack. Fell was angry, with himself and Jack. Everyone said that the other driver, Lenny Last, was down right crazy, but Fell knew Jack was drunk. The weirdest part of the accident was that before Lenny died he asked Jack to take care of his "dummy". Plumsie was it's name.
"I'm selling the dummy," Jack said. "The damn thing
gives me nightmares. It's cursed anyway. It might have caused
the accident."
The person who Jack sells the dummy to has some relations to the Plummers, and Fell doesn't know how to mind his own business. What will happen, and was the accident really and accident.
I'm gonna be honest. I did not really like this mystery. It was slow. I had to get to the ending to actually like the book. M.E. Kerr's choice of writing was very descriptive. You would have to real a page to get to the point. The book is split into two stories. "the mouth" is the chapters for the story of Lenny and Nels, and the other one is Fell's story and his connection to the "mishap" of Lenny and Nels. Although I did not like it, it doesn't mean you won't like it. I would recommend this book for those people that like reading stuff about possessed dolls.
2.0 out of 5 stars
fell down book review, Nov 18 2008
By Roderick Miles - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fell Down (Paperback)
Fell Down is an ok book, though I personally wouldn't recommend it. The book takes an extremely long time to get to anything interesting. It is very hard to tell who's talking and the point of view. Plus, it has two whole different stories going on at the same time in different time periods, with different people. One has a boyfriend and a girlfriend trying to figure out who the ventriloquists are in the other part of the story. The other has the two ventriloquists trying to steal an extremely famous doll owned by one of the boys' rich sister. Then they chicken out half way through the robbery, and the people from the more modern time find out the doll they were trying to steal had changed its name and look into a famous doll in their time! This book was heavy on description and light on action.Written By Reid Miles
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