01813cam a2200253 4500 770949730 TxAuBib 20061129120000.0 061007s2006||||||||||||||||||||||||ENG|u 9781933354101 PAP $14.95 1933354100 PAP $14.95 TxAuBib Meno, Joe. The Boy Detective fails [Book]. Consortium Book Sales & Dist, 2006. Eleanor Steele Blocher Endowment Fund. Bklst 07/01/2006. SLJ Sep 2006. LJ 09/01/2006. PW 07/17/2006. Kirkus 06/15/2006. In the twilight of a childhood full of wonder, Billy Argo, boy detective, is brokenhearted to find that his younger sister and crime-solving partner, Caroline, has committed suicide. Ten years later, Billy, age thirty, returns from an extended stay at St Vitus' Hospital for the Mentally Ill to discover a world full of unimaginable strangeness: office buildings vanish without reason, small animals turn up without their heads, and cruel villains ride city buses to complete their evil schemes." "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 impossible solution to the mystery of his sister's death. Along the 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. 20061129.