Down the Rabbit Hole is a
mystery story for teens and possibly pre-teens, but it will entertain some
adults too.  Ingrid is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her parents and
brother in the town of Echo Falls.  She plays soccer and is very enthusiastic
about theatre.  She will appear in a school production of Alice in
Wonderland, in the title role.  She is also a keen reader, and loves
Sherlock Holmes.  Her devotion to mysteries comes in useful when she finds
herself having to work out who murdered a local woman, "Cracked-Up
Katie." 

Peter Abrahams has written several
crime novels for adults, but this is his first novel aimed at young readers. 
He makes Ingrid a very appealing heroine, with lots of quirks.  She hates math,
gets into trouble for copying another girl’s homework, runs very fast, instant
messages with her friends, starts having romantic feelings for some boys in her
school, and gets grounded by her parents (not in that order).  The plot is
pretty simple, but it has enough twists to keep the reader interested. 

Developmentally, Abrahams pays
attention to Ingrid’s fast changing world.  She may still sleep with her old
teddy bear, but she is coming to grapple more with moral dilemmas, starting to
see her parents as human and fallible, and she is noticing her sixteen-year-old
brother’s rapid physical growth.  Very gently, Abrahams signals Ingrid’s
transforming awareness as she enters adolescence of her changing body, starting
the novel at the orthodontist where she is getting her braces tightened. 
Psychologically, she matures in many ways, starting to know where the different
parts of the town are and she takes initiative in exploring on her own, and
becoming closer to her eccentric grandfather.   Ingrid also has a crush on her
own father, admiring everything about him, thinking of him as the handsomest
guy around. 

So Down the Rabbit Hole is a
distinctive novel that’s fun to read.  The unabridged audiobook is read very
competently by Mandy Siegfried, who has a young voice that helps to give the
book an adolescent tone.  Girl sleuths in the making should like this work. 

© 2005 Christian
Perring. All rights reserved. 

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island.
He is also editor of Metapsychology Online Review.  His main
research is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: AudioBooks, Children