คดีปริศนาราชาผักดอง

by Rebecca Promitzer, วรรณภา จารุมัยพร (Translator)

สิ้นเสียงลั่นชัตเตอร์ การผจญภัยอันน่าขนลุกขนพองก็เริ่มต้นขึ้น

เมืองเอลโบว์ขึ้นอยู่สองอย่าง หนึ่งคือฝนตกตลอดเวลากับสองคือผักดองของเฮอร์แมน เอาเป็นว่าหน้าร้อนที่ฝนตกทั้งวัน

ทั้งคืนมันน่าเบื่อยิ่งกว่าอะไรดี เพราะอย่างนี้ถึงได้ตัดสินใจส่งภาพถ่ายเข้าประกวด เพราะหวังจะชิงรางวัลไปฟลอริดา แต่แล้ว

แซมก็ดันชวนเธอไปถ่ายภาพศพปริศนาที่มีลูกตาเพียงข้างเดียว ใครจะไปรู้ว่าวิญญาณจะเข้าสิงกล้องถ่ายรูปติดตามเธอมาด้วย

แถมยังขอร้องให้ช่วยสืบหาสาเหตุการตายของตน บีและผองเพื่อนจึงไม่อาจนิ่งเฉยได้ ยิ่งค้นหาพวกเขาก็ยิ่งพบกับความลับ

ที่น่าตื่นเต้นและน่าหวาดกลัว ยิ่งขุดคุ้ยก็ยิ่งพบกับเรื่องราวน่าขยะแขยงชวนขนลุก

เมืองเล็ก ๆ แห่งนี้อาจไม่ได้มีแค่ฝนตกทั้งปีอย่างที่ใคร ๆ คิด ติดตามฤดูร้อนของพวกเขาได้ใน คดีปริศนาราชาผักดอง

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Adventure, Fiction, Horror

332 pages

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Diane Ferbrache · Rating 2 out of 5]

It rains all the time in Elbow and every summer most of the residents flee to warmer, drier climates. The kids left behind are expected to hang out together, so it’s not unusual to find 12 yr. olds Bea, Sam, Butterfly, and Madison spending time together even though they would normally not even speak during the school year. This summer, though, finds them up to their elbows (LOL) in a mystery involving a dead guy, a missing eyeball, a bag full of guts and the mysterious disappearance of Herman, the Pickle King.
This should be a great middle school adventure/mystery, but I gave up after 200 pages. What a great premise bogged down in too much detail. The author is an award winning screenwriter, and this is her first novel. I think she needs a good editor or needs to use some of her screenwriting skills to pare down an interesting story to make it flow more smoothly and at a faster pace if she wants to appeal to young people. It appears to be targeted at middle school students, but I don’t think they will have the patience. I read this in an uncorrected proof, and several pages were misplaced or missing. Perhaps that colored my review, but at this point, I can not recommend the book.
One other puzzling thing -- it is completely unclear where Elbow is -- US? Europe? Canada? Africa? While this is probably intentional on the part of the author, I found it distracting. If the intent was a town in Great Britain, where was the typical British vocabulary? It seems stripped of all colloquialisms. Perhaps the intent was to make visiting Elbow a universal experience, but for me it was only distracting.

[Diede · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books growing up !!

[Pudding · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who wants to be grossed out! I loved this book because of the mystery and intrigue that makes you want to read on. I never wanted to put it down and I could have read it all day and I was gutted when I had finally finished it. My favourite character was Bea (the main character/narrator) as she was the one that I related to most even though my mum isn't in a mental institution and my dad isn't dead! So if you see this book BUY IT AND YOU WON'T REGRET IT!!!

[Liel · Rating 4 out of 5]

okay i read this in like grade 7 and i just saw a tiktok taht said “nobody understands the bond between a girl and the mediocre book she read when she was 13” and i got viscerally transported to the memory that is this book.
Now i use the word memory in the most vague sense bc i rememver nothing about this book exept for the cover that came to me in a flashback and the fact that i love love loved it.
100% need to read again so i can accurately review it but grade 7 me was obsessed and im actually so shaken over remembering this it was lost in time for like a good 4 years now.

tldr im a historian/archeologist now unearthing the past. along with the fact that im a doctor and a genius in everything i do and that i am actually a licensed forensic scientist now bc i read one book about it back in march

[Teresa Garrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of the book grabbed me but the book failed to deliver. The mystery had too many layers to hold my attention I actually put it down and read another book before finishing. Bea and her friend Sam find the Pickle King dead and enlist their friends to try and solve the mysterious circumstances including an odd shaped ring, a bag of intestines, a missing eyeball, sinister characters around every corner, weird garbage dump dwellers and when it can't get any stranger a Frankenstein like character. Seemed like every weird thing possible dumped into a story and tenuously held together with an unplausible story line. Might hold the attention of some mystery lovers.

[Alexia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the more memorable books i read as a kid so i finally reread it. It’s really good-intriguing and creepy and with vivid characters. My only issue with this book is that some of the chapters end on weird cliffhangers that are never addressed. Eg, the camera starts moving on its own and a ghost starts moaning, then the chapter ends and the next chapter skips past her reaction. The author is a screenplay writer which makes sense because the ends of the chapters like that are very fade-to-black/commercial break

[Millie · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I have ever read in my entire life!! The book really didn't suck me into the plot and took me a really long time to get into it. I would definatley not recommend it to anyone.

[SHANE ELLIS · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. Truly, I did. However, it is just not great.
It started very well and was brilliantly written, but then it just falls apart.
This book doesn't know what it wants to be. It needed an edit badly. It was over-written and became unbearably boring in parts.
To be honest, I gave up near the end and just skimmed it.
I found the subject material too dark for children. And the fact they smoke and steal cars to be a pretty bad example.
I just found the story to be over-the-top.
This is the fifth children's book I've read that was written by an American and I just didn't like it.
I find German and British children's books to be better. Americans just don't seem to get it.
This book is aimed more for teenagers. But there are parts that are aimed at children. It's bizarre.
If I had children, I wouldn't have let them read this. It is a bad influence, for one thing, and it is far to miserable and morbid.

This is the plot in a nutshell (bearing in mind I skimmed the end as it was boring as heck and just went on and on and on and on...)

Five kids (like scooby Doo) find a body. The ghost of the body is trying to get them help. The protagonist has the shining.
The dog steals a bag of intestines from this creepy dude and they find out he had intestines because the body of the guy they found (the pickle king) ate a ring which belonged to a cult member that is taking body parts to keep the founder of the town alive.
There are rats and bugs and lots of boring sitting around doing nothing.
That's pretty much it.

It is a shame the story wasn't too great because the writing was amazing.

[Kauani Rachid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me encantou de um jeito que eu não esperava, já que ele era um dos "esquecidos" na minha prateleira há anos. Bea com sua capa de chuva laranja e sua bicicleta roxa, Madson sempre num tom de rosa, Butterfly sempre escondida atrás do seu guarda-chuva roxo-azulado e seu irmãozinho Nelson ao lado, Sam vermelho esmaecido junto com seu companheiro de quatro patas Jellybean e Eric um borrão esmaecido; todas estas crianças numa cidadezinha chuvosa durante o verão e um mistério, o que poderia dar errado? Até os personagens secundários têm suas peculiaridades bem definidas, e a cada fim de capítulo a curiosidade se aguça, numa narrativa que se movimenta a cada coisa desvendada pelas crianças. Elas se comportam e têm sensações boas da pré-adolescência, que nos faz lembrar que mesmo em meio a grandes aventuras com homens maus, raios e trovões, lama e magia, nunca deixamos de ser o que realmente somos.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Echt, er kwam maar geen einde aan dit verhaal! Ik snap niet waarom ik er maar niet in kon komen, want het had alles wat je maar zou willen: gekke gebeurtenissen, grapjes, avonturen en een berg fantasie. En toch... *gaaaaap*
De laatste 80 bladzijdes vond ik dan weer wel erg geslaagd en daarom krijgt het boek toch 2 sterren.

[Gloo The third · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically there is way too much in this book, it feels too crammed. Maybe If this had been 200 pages shorter, it wouldn't feel so boring.

[Alex.Maimy · Rating 4 out of 5]

10 yr old me loved this book sm

[Ismail Qureshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute gem

[Vanessa Humphries · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have rated 3.5 if the ending hadn't been rushed

[Eilonwy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bea Klednik, 11 (almost 12), is one of a handful of kids who are stuck spending the summer in the town of Elbow, where it rains for three months straight every year and most sensible people leave for the entire season. The local middle school tries to force the summer kids to hang out together by sending out a list with everyone's name and phone number on it, but usually Bea and her best friend Sam have ignored this and just hung out with each other. This year, Sam takes Bea to see a dead body he's found floating in the flooded basement of an abandoned house, and they soon decide they need to round up some other kids to help them solve the mystery of who the man is and why he was murdered. Can a motley group of five middle school students, a 7-year-old, a bright mutt, and a helpful ghost figure out what's going wrong in Elbow, and keep themselves out of danger?

Despite the frequency of totally gross imagery, I mostly enjoyed reading this book. Bea narrates the story with a strong voice full of creative, detailed descriptions, and I thought the story could have good cross-gender appeal because she's a tomboy with a fairly tough voice which made me occasionally startled when I was reminded that she was a girl. I found the kids to be believable characters, and the clues to the mystery were doled out regularly and at a pace that kept me turning the pages as fast as I could. Maybe I partly lucked out, because I read the bulk of this book during a period when the weather here was identical to that occurring day after day after day in Elbow.

Unfortunately, the book completely lost me at the end. The big reveal was completely implausible to me because there had been no hints that such a thing could exist, and the explanation for it was vague and rushed and involved a huge amount of hand-waving which may be acceptable to the 8 to 12-year-old crowd but was not acceptable to me as an adult reader. This rushed-seeming ending was followed by a couple of extra chapters which felt tacked on to tie up a couple of other loose ends which could have been rolled together better -- and then the last two chapters of the story turned out to be essentially the first two chapters of the next book, leaving off on a very unsatisfactory cliffhanger ending which was nothing but a ploy to try to force the reader to buy the next book in the series. Arrrgh! The author and publisher should have just left things so this book could be a stand-alone if necessary, and then put out the next book if this one did well. (I don't think there are any sequels).

As a total quibble, one thing which really bothered me about the writing in this book was that while most of it was extremely literate and read as though an adult had written it, whenever Bea did something with another person the construction was always "Me and So-and-So," as if the author felt she had to throw in something to remind readers that the narrator was actually 11 (almost 12). But because the rest of the writing wasn't so childish, I found this jarring, enough so that it threw me out of the story every time it happened. There is also an adult character called DW who is supposed to be Jamaican or something, but he speaks with a very artificial-sounding patois that didn't sound like anyone I've ever met, and just made him seem incredibly stupid.

I'd really like to be able to recommend this book because it was somewhat unusual and mostly intriguing, but the combination of the rushed/unsatisfactory/wide open ending really gives me pause about telling anyone else to read it.

Amazingly, the front flap of the library copy has a big fat spoiler in it. It didn't ruin the story, but there would have been a bit more suspense without it. So if you decide to read the book, DON'T read the jacket blurb.

[Amber Griesmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Initially, the title and front cover of this book is what attracted me to it and then when I read the inside cover and found out the story was about the murder of a local prominant buisness man I I knew it was the book for me.

I was excited to start a good YA murder mystery, but I found the actual mystery to be kind of weak. It wasn't that the plot wasn't well thought out or that the writing was poor, but what first attracted me to the book didn't have that much to do with the story. I thought the story would have more to do with information about Herman, The Pickle King of Elbow, the town where the story is set. Instead it was focused more around his ghost helping the main character, an 11-year old girl named Bea, figure out why he was killed. I couldn't tell if the story was supposed to be realistic fiction because it dealt with the serious issues of Bea's father's death due to alcoholism and also had a supporting character close to Bea who smoked cigarettes when he could, or if it was supposed to be funny because all the residents of the town developed a green mold in between their toes from all the summer rain.

I felt the story was a little confused as to whether it was supposed to be a scary semi-serious mystery or if it was leaning more towards an obviously goofy kids mystery. There are characters that live in (and yes I meant to type in, as in inside/underneath) the city garbage dump that are referred to as Swamp People and the kids in the novel also find a clue inside stolen human intestines. Some of this stuff seems a little gross and unbelievable for a mystery but I have to keep reminding myself that this book was meant for the 11 to 13 year old crowd.

While this book was interesting enough to keep me reading until the end, I wasn't so enthralled that I couldn't put it down, which is what I prefer from any mystery story. Overall, I like this book enough to recommend reading it if you have a long car trip ahead of you, but I wouldn't put it in the category of quality reading.

[Tweller83 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only OK. I will add to my collection but probably wouldn't buy it for a collection. It sometimes feels young and then other times feels too old for the protagonists. The adults don't seem smart enough to have pulled off what they have pulled off.

"The town of Elbow is known for two things—unceasing summer rain and Herman's Pickles. Bea, 11, is a camera whiz, so when her friend Sam discovers a dead body in an abandoned house, he wants her to document the scene. She photographs the twisted, waterlogged corpse with its missing eye, but once she develops the shots, her camera begins to act strangely. It moves by itself, spins around, and emits weird groans. The dead man has evidently hitched a ride—and now he wants the kids to investigate his demise. They identify the victim as the former head of the pickle company, now taken over by a big conglomerate. Furthermore, they learn that people tend to disappear in Elbow. Some end up in St. Agnes mental hospital, some turn up among the half-crazed outcasts in a filthy camp under the garbage dump—and some just never surface again. Gradually, the friends realize that there is an even more fiendish scheme behind the disappearances—and they may be the next victims. The rather convoluted plot often stretches credulity to the breaking point. The young investigators sneak out late at night, drive a car, access restricted hospital files, and spy on a meeting of the villains' secret Brotherhood. There is plenty of truly gross action as well. Even for a book of this type, the Frankenstein-inspired climax is a bit over-the-top. This is an additional choice where there is an especially strong demand for horror fiction."

[Ingrid Fasquelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Qui a tué Herman Henderson ? est un thriller fantastique haletant, proche du récit d'horreur, à réserver aux lecteurs avancés à partir de 11 ou 12 ans.

Cadavre énucléé, meurtres, disparitions inquiétantes, mutilations, l'auteure ne lésine pas sur les détails sordides et effrayants mais c'est l'ambiance, lugubre à souhait, qui constitue véritablement le point fort de son roman.

"Elbow est une très vieille ville, pleine de vieilles histoires; pour comprendre, il faut remonter aux sources, là où tout a commencé."

Phénomènes étranges, fantômes, mystère insoluble, tout est bon pour faire monter l'angoisse et frissonner le lecteur ! J'ai apprécié les nombreuses références et clins d'œil aux grands classiques de la littérature fantastique (Mary Shelley, notamment) dont Rebecca Promitzer reprend efficacement les thèmes.

Toutefois, les situations comiques et les blagues potaches de sa bande de préadolescents désœuvrés tombent à point nommé et ménagent des pauses bienvenues dans cette intrigue sombre et inquiétante. Grâce à l'humour dont elle parsème habilement son récit, Rebecca Promitzer évite la surenchère. Son roman reste toujours plaisant et agréable à lire, y compris par les plus jeunes et/ou les plus sensibles.

Bien entendu, le lecteur adulte y trouvera certainement quelques invraisemblances mais les ados, surtout ceux qui aiment se faire peur, se laisseront facilement prendre au jeu de cette enquête angoissante !

Du rythme, un récit riche en rebondissements, une fin peut-être un peu frustrante, Qui a tué Herman Henderson ? est un thriller jeunesse surprenant et inquiétant, à ne surtout pas lire avant d'aller dormir !

[Jackie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Pickle King is an odd, befuddling book about five friends (plus one loyal dog and infuriating little brother) who spend their summers in the never-ending rainfall in the town of Elbow. The school they attend requires them to spend the summer together (why...we really aren't sure, at least there isn't a good reason) if they have the misfortune of hanging around the dumpy, depressing town during the school vacation. Bea and Sam begrudgingly meet up with Eric, Butterfly, and Madison and try to find something to do all summer.

This is what they find:

A dead body missing one eye.

An underground community beneath the city trash heap...home to a group of down-trodden homeless people.

A ghost.

A secret evil society which preys upon people for their useful body parts.

A criminal for a brother.

Two very unusual crytic rings belonging to betrothed lovers about 200 years ago.

A mad scientist who is experimenting with cyropreservation.

A plastic grocery bag containing human intestines.

And, so many other non-related items that it is just too hard to comprehend.

I think the author thought that all these things came together at the end, but they didn't. And, she left an even bigger mystery waiting on the last page. The narrator tried hard to create all the different voices for all these characters...oh well, I guess it is great that she tried.

[Kelly Butcher · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book! I made it over half way through and I just couldn't take it any more. I had to go online and read other reviews to see how this book ends. Life is too short (and so is summer vacation) to read books that you don't love.

The good points:
1. It is a mystery/horror story written for upper elementary kids.
2. The main character is a strong girl.
3. The author set up the setting very well (too well- it made me yawn!) Promitzer usually writes for film, so may be she is heavy handed out of her past writing experience- kids don't need this.

The not so good points:
1. The ick factor may be too much for parents- dead bodies, a bag of guts, talk of human sacrifice.
2. Smoking children- one of the main children in the story smokes and offers smokes to the other kids who accept his offer.
3. Violence- the same kid gets beat up at one point, guns, knives, punching...
4. Very slow... It would take a very good reader to finish this book and still be interested- not for your reluctant readers.

[Claire · Rating 1 out of 5]

So far a wacky buddy story. The children left in Elbow during the truly dreary rainy season- almost the entire town leaves, it is so bad- must form a support group and report on their activities when school starts up again (when the weather improves). This year there are fishy goings on and the main characters find a body....maybe they won't be reporting exactly what happens over the summer come September.

Star ratings are all over the map from fantastic 5 to 1

I saw that this title is recommended on various indie sites so I pulled it to the top of my reading stack- I can (sorta) see what people like about this: unlikely group of kids thrown together, supernatural shenanigans, foul play that the kids have to face down, parent death to investigate...when older teen boys violently attack the kids I checked out. It looks like a ghost is going to save the day--- to grim for me.

[Linnae · Rating 2 out of 5]

The town of Elbow is known for its rainy summers. Daily rain. Constant rain. The kind of rain that makes moldy toes seem normal. That's why everyone who can leaves for the summer. Bea has nowhere to go, but she dreams of sunny Florida. Then her summer takes a turn for the creepy, when she and her best friend Sam find a dead body in the flooded basement of an old house--a body missing one of its eyeballs.

Soon they are on the trail of the mystery, along with a few other kids from school who are also enduring the summer in Elbow.

This one was definitely darker than your run-of-the-mill juvenile book. Sort of a Frankenstein for kids. Plenty of loose body parts showing up in unexpected places, trash people who live under the city dump, and ghostly presences, among other things.

The friendship and banter between the kids was the best part. The rest didn't do much for me.

[Sueli · Rating 5 out of 5]

You'll Fall In Love With This Book! My Son and I did :-)

What can I say about the book that made my son enjoy reading? Ok, I confess I initially bought the book for myself, not for my son, but the cover was just so beautiful I had to have it! I can still remember the first time I saw it on the shelf.
My son was a not a reader, but he sat next to me in the train and we started reading it together. Before page ten he was already hooked! He asked me if he could read it first. He has read it twice, suggested it to his classmates in the school book club and wrote a paper on it for school.
The plot is awesome, the characters are very believable & likeable and the mistery is perfect. The small town called Elbow where the story unfolds is perfect for the plot. So perfect that it's like the town is another character in the book.
Highly recommendable!

[Zachary.s · Rating 5 out of 5]

i thought that this book was a wierd but satisfying to read. I thought that it was staiafying because they talked about a girl that lives near a pickle factory called hemans pickle factory and is known for the best relish ever. While she was in this town with her garandma she has been seeing some weird things that she has never ever seen in this tiny pickle town before. while reading this book i wa sthinking that it was going to be a terrifying book just becaause of the cover but lie they say never judge a book by its cover.

[Victoriamelluish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this spectacular book, i spotted this curious little book in waterstones and i could not put it down after that! I read it all day and all night, this book is aimed at children but it really brings you back to your childhood roots when you read it!. The humor ,gore, adventure horror in this book is structured brilliantly, the contrast of reality and non reality seems to mix together in this book. One of my all time favorites!

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so glad to finally finish this book. It was way too long, gross, ridiculous, and completely unbelievable. Besides (and also because of) these fatal flaws, I don't know that it has much of an audience. It seems intended to be a children's book, but the 13-year-old smoker, the out of place profanity, the abuse, the body parts showing up in strange places, etc. will probably not appeal to kids or their parents.

[Brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

At parts it seems hard to comprehend, but you eventually get the mystery. Bea and her friends from a small town called Elbow try to figure out a mystery after Eric tells them about a man that is extremely creepy. In Elbow, it rained nonstop all summer but is sunny the rest of the year. They find a garbage city which seems even more disgusting because of all the rain. It has an awesome ending and I highly recommend this book for YA.

[Charlie Lud · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is fucking amazing

I get aroused when I read in Business Studies Lessons the characters sound smexy. Its a bit awkward though cause i usually only read it in these lessons, and I kind of get an erection in my panties. This one time i left my fly undone and it oped out infrount of my english teacher then the worst happend a white dart flew out and hit her in the face. Every time i read this book i happens and i dont know why

[RCRC · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading but then i forgot to bring it to school to read for english which was stupid cause it is so awesome and funny!

It dragged on a bit, but it was a satisfying ending. My favourite part was when Sam & Bea kissed and held hands after the FBI collected then from the Palace place...

[Liliana Venegas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was creepy but awesome. Everything was so descriptive. It was practically a movie on pages. Images flashed through my mind. I could practically see the body floating in the water in the abandoned house.Two thumbs up and who ever would not want to read this specatularly detailed book is crazy.