“Herculeah Jones is unexplainably attracted to a used coat at her favorite second-hand store. She buys it and soon discovers a note hidden in the lining. Apparently, the last owner of the coat feared she was being poisoned and would soon be killed, having already been forced to sign over something. Herculeah, with the help of her reluctant but faithful friend Albert, better known as Meat, determines to find out who wrote the note, whether the author is dead, and if so, who killed her.
While this series is not of the literary quality of the works that have won Byars awards in the past, it IS written at about a fourth grade reading level. It is also fairly scary and involves a realistic mystery about a murder. Considering what kids see on TV and in the movies at a tender age, it is often hard for them to be impressed by the namby-pamby and trivial mysteries found in many of the books for and about kids. (Nancy Drew deals with dangerous “crooks”, which is probably one reason for her popularity, but she is probably college age, though unemployed and unenrolled.) There is a slight “supernatural” element in these stories in that Herculeah gets hunches and is warned of danger by her hair, which becomes wild and more voluminous. However, there is no actual magic, nor are there any witches, so enemies of Harry P. might still accept Herculeah.
SW
(1996) 147 pages”
