The Tell-Tale Start by Gordon McAlpine (review)

Apparently, there’s simply no end to the dastardly plots to rule the world that are inspired by quantum physics. In this middle-grades mystery debut, mad scientist S. Pangborn Perry, PhD, riffs on “quantum entanglement,” a scientific concept that explores the strange behavior of some subatomic particles to remain connected in spite of distance. Couldn’t this phenomenon also work between twins? Especially between twins as creepily connected as Edgar and Allan Poe, the great-great-great-great grandnephews of the American master of creepiness? And since no distance is too great to affect the bond, couldn’t one dead twin be used to communicate from beyond the grave? And wouldn’t this allow somebody to control the world? Determined to find out, Perry has been following the Poes since childhood, and now he lures them and their kindly aunt and uncle (guardians since the untimely and—egad!—orchestrated deaths of the twins’ parents in a rocket launch) to a phony tourist attraction where he’ll commit the murder and commence the experiments. The devilishly clever twins, though, prevail—as well they must if they are to reach Volume Two of the series. This opening act is a loose-jointed affair that painstakingly exposes its clues and explains its jokes, while bumbling through wacky school mayhem and near-tender family bonding. Serious mystery fans will have no patience with the premature revelations, but struggling readers who need guidance through the genre may appreciate the checkpoints along the way. Perry’s on the loose and the original E. A. Poe is sending misspelled messages from the Great Beyond, so check your fortune cookies and license plates for hints of what lies ahead.