A Hitch at the Fairmont

Excellent service! Love Hitchcock

My kids and I read this for our book club. The book had humor and mystery with a bit of San Francisco and movie history intertwined. Overall my children enjoyed me reading this book to them.

Bought this book for my 13 year old nephew and his 78 year old grandma and 10 year old sister loved it too

My 10 year old son really enjoyed this story. He read it in two days.

I was expecting more.

Here is a deliciously, witty book that the young reader won’t want to put down, but then when he’s finished, he’ll wish he had more of it to read. Jim Averbeck has crafted a superb and fast-paced who-dun-it starring eleven year old Jack Fair whose mother has been killed in an automobile accident. His Aunt Edith arrives to take him to live in her suite at the classy Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. He has to put up with her making him fetch her chocolates for herself and her pet chinchilla Muffin, that is until she disappears. It’s 1956 and the man in the suite next to theirs is no other than the film maker Alfred Hitchcock, who Jack enlists to help him solve the mystery of his aunt’s disappearance. This leads to layer after layer of mystery to expose.Jim Averbeck has created the Fairmont Hotel, and indeed San Francisco herself, more as characters than setting, reminiscing about sites still there and mourning those now gone from their original locations, like Blums and Laughing Sally. I can attest to the authenticity of Jim’s most careful research having grown up near San Francisco in that era, visiting “The City” often. As well, each chapter refers to one of Hitchcock’s movies, interweaving the motif of the movie into the plot of the book. As a fan of Hitchcock, it was fun to watch this unfold. The young reader need not know of Hitchcock’s work to enjoy the mystery of this exciting tale. She’ll just enjoy guessing what happened while deeply identifying with the orphaned Jack and his plight. It would be fun to see this book made into a movie. I highly recommend this engaging book, not just for the middle grade reader, but for the young at heart of any age.

Jack's quite an artist for his age. He can draw almost anything, even places and people he's seen very briefly. All he has to do is close his eyes and grip a pencil and something magic happens. Sadly, the only exception to this is his late father who was killed in World war II. No matter how hard Jack tries, he comes up blank. Before she vanished by driving a car into the ocean in an apparent suicide, his mom, a small time actress, told him that he looked just like his father. The story opens in 1956 with Jack being hauled off from Los Angeles to San Francisco by his aunt Edith who not only is cruel and cold, but didn't give him time to pack his own belongings. Instead, she packed two crates, one with some of his stuff, the other with stuff his mother left behind. When they arrive in San Francisco, Jack discovers that his aunt is a permanent resident on an upper floor in the Fairmont Hotel and doesn't trust anyone. She's addicted to fancy chocolates which he has to get from a shop on the hotel's main floor whenever she's out. When he goes to get on the elevator for a late evening chocolate run, he's greeted by a large man whose voice is eerily familiar. Jack recognizes one of his favorite TV personalities, Alfred Hitchcock and notices that he enters the room next to Aunt Edith's. When he returns with the chocolates, Jack discovers that his aunt has been kidnapped and a ransom note has been spelled out on her bed in chocolates she'd discarded because of their flavor. At first, he's frozen and ready to panic. What can a ten year old boy who has recently been orphaned do? When he remembers who is in the next room, he begins to take control of things. It is a challenge to convince Mr. Hitchcock to help him, especially since he has a fear of policemen, but despite a comedy of errors when they try to report Aunt Edith's abduction, Jack manages to get Alfred to help figure out what really happened to his aunt, why one of the supposed ransom notes may not have come from whoever grabbed her and what the real significance of the seven characters on the silver coffin-shaped charm allegedly left by his deceased father is. Before the crime is solved, Jack and his hero have disrupted the funeral of a perfect stranger by singing bawdy lyrics, dressed in drag, outwitted some really evil people and discovered an amazing secret about Jack's late father. This is a fun read for tweens who like mysteries and books with plenty of action. If they know anything about the history of early television, that will make this even more fun to read. It's a book worthy of a juvenile Edgar nomination as well as being in pretty much every public and school library.

A clever mystery novel for middle school students this story brings in a famous character, film director Alfred Hitchcock, and combines the San Francisco city settings for some of his memorable movies with the novel's action. The action ranges from the Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill to Fisherman's Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge so any young reader who lives in The City or has visited will feel very comfortable with the setting.One way to get a youngster who doesn't like to read into a story is to give him or her a book with a setting he/she can relate to. This is one of those books. A good storyline and authentic setting plus interesting characters combine for an action packed adventure.Book provided by publisher.