Review: Strike Three You're Dead by Josh Berk

A Mysterious Review of …

Strike Three You're Dead by Josh Berk. A Lenny & the Mikes Mystery.

Review summary: This is an incredibly entertaining book, one that should greatly appeal middle school readers. And the mystery is cleverly devised, too. Lenny's narration is replete with funny lines, and the situations he finds himself him are more humorous than not. All in all, a terrific start to this series. (Click here for text of full review.)

Our rating:

Strike Three You're Dead
Josh Berk
A Lenny & the Mikes Mystery
Knopf (March 2013)

Publisher synopsis: Lenny Norbeck is a die-hard baseball lover. Unfortunately, he's no player himself (according to him, he's "the worst there ever was.") But he'd make a heck of an announcer. He gets a lot of practice sitting with his best friends, Mike and Other Mike, watching Phillies games from their lawn couch—a sweet outdoor TV arrangement Mike's dad hooked them up with. Being a real announcer is his dream, and he gets his chance to prove himself when he enters an "Armchair Announcer" contest and wins. The prize: he gets to be the broadcaster, live, for one inning at a real Phillies game.

The game goes very wrong, though. Before Lenny gets to do his inning, a young, promising pitcher fresh out of the minors literally drops dead on the mound. The official verdict is that he died of a heart attack, but Lenny has a hunch there's something more going on. So he and the Mikes set out to investigate. The suspects are many, and though the trio barks up the wrong tree a few times, they are always right on the heels of the real killer.