Lost within this unwelcoming place, Billy finds the companionship of two lonely children, Effie and Gus Mumford--one a science fair genius, the other a charming, silent bully. With a nearly forgotten bravery, Billy confronts the monotony of his job in telephone sales, the awkward beauty of a desperate pickpocket named Penny Maple, and the seemingly im possible solution to the mystery of his sister's death. Along a path laden with hidden clues and codes that dare to be deciphered, the boy detective may learn the greatest secret of all: the necessity of the unknown.
"Comedic, imaginative, empathic, and romantic, Meno, whose diverse works of fiction include Hairstyles of the Damned (2004) and Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir (2005), is particularly attuned to the intensity of childhood and its lifelong resonance. In this cartoony and dreamlike novel, Billy Argo of Gotham, New Jersey, receives a True-Life Junior Detective Kit for his tenth birthday, and in no time, the gifted boy detective becomes front-page news as he thwarts comic-book villains with the help of his younger sister, Caroline. But Caroline commits suicide, and Billy's grief is so profound he is institutionalized. Emerging from a mythic sleep at age 30, Billy--smart, kind, and wistful--ends up living in a bizarre halfway house and working a spooky job. It's always raining, buildings vanish into thin air, evildoers brazenly conspire, and Billy befriends precocious sister and brother misfits and falls in love with a pickpocket. Wizardly Meno entwines make-believe with emotional authenticity to create a playful yet plangent fairy tale-like satire, in which detection acquires metaphysical dimensions. Atmospheric, archetypal, and surpassingly sweet, Meno's finely calibrated fantasy investigates the precincts of grief, our longing to combat chaos with reason, and the menace and magic concealed within everyday life." --Booklist
"The Boy Detective Fails will break your heart, and then pick up the pieces and put you back together again." --T Cooper, author of Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes