Mistakes Were Made

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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A couple of my kids have been reading this series since #1, and since one of my favorite comic strip writers wrote it, I always intended to read it. Then I stumbled upon Steve Usery's podcast interview with him, and I really wanted to. But haven't gotten around to it yet. I stumbled on to the audiobook last week and figured it'd be worth a shot – especially with his appearance in town this last weekend. If I can make it amusing enough to bother reading, I'll tell you the story tonight of how my son and I didn't make it. But on to the book.

Timmy fancies himself a fantastic detective with a polar bear sidekick (named Total), he believes he's on the verge of becoming a multimillionaire with offices throughout the world. In reality, he's a lousy detective who can't solve even the easiest of cases, like “Who stole my Halloween candy?” when the victim's brother is literally surrounded by the evidence. You almost get the feeling you're headed for an Inspector Gadget-style conclusion to the mysteries, where things are solved accidentally, in spite of the detective. Nope – Timmy cannot solve anything. He considers cases closed, but he's so far from the truth (and so near personal vendettas) that it's laughable. Which is the point, thankfully.

There's a level to all of this that's really sad – Timmy's the child of a single mom (we don't know why, at least in this book), struggling to make ends meet, and Timmy's created this world in which he's thiiiiiis close to providing financial security for her. She's at the end of her rope with him, but finds ways to indulge and support his delusions and dreams (and get some actual completed homework from him). She dates a creep for a while, but thankfully, the fact that he and Timmy don't mesh too well dooms that.

Obviously, the big drawback to the audiobook format is that I don't get to see the drawings that accompany the text – and that probably detracted a lot. Thankfully, Goldsmith did a great job – the voice was a little annoying, but I'm sure that was intentional. I don't think I could listen to more than one of these at a time, but that's probably just me.

A cute story, best suited for younger readers, with enough grin-inducing lines to keep adults reading (and/or listening). I'll be back for more.