The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin (review)

Hearing-impaired Will Halpin has made the momentous decision to leave the school for the deaf and enter the world of a public high school. He doesn't exactly make a big splash in the social pool, but he does make a lot of very funny observations about his classmates, and he reluctantly acquires a geeky friend named Devon, who doesn't seem to mind that Will's deaf and overweight. He also discovers a bit of family history in his textbook: one of his ancestors was a deaf coal miner, who died in a local mining accident and supposedly haunts the Happy Memory Coal Mines. When a belligerent classmate is killed while on a field trip to the mines, Devon insists that he and Will go into Hardy Boys mode to figure out what happened. Between Will's sharp wit and Devon's kooky approach to just about everything, this is a thoroughly entertaining murder mystery. The triumph of the social outcasts blunts the pathos of the murder and its motive, keeping things light, and the unraveling of the family mystery introduces a nice twist to the compelling murder investigation. Will's insights—some funny, some rueful and trenchant—as a deaf, happily large person are value-added to an already successful middle-school buddy/detective/school story.