Lemony Snicket fails to captivate with “Who Could That Be at This Hour?”

By Zack Gill
Copy Editor

Daniel Handler’s writings under pseudonym Lemony Snicket have always been somewhat paradoxical. “A Series of Unfortunate Events” novels are a rare combination of charm and pretension; they are thematically rich for young adult novels, yet are narratively simplistic.

Handler refused to answer nearly every unsolved mystery at the end of the “Unfortunate Events” series, so fans naturally perked up at the announcement of a prequel quartet of novels, featuring Snicket himself, during his fictional youth, as the protagonist.

“Who Could That Be at This Hour?,” Handler’s first novel in the “All the Wrong Questions” quartet, frustratingly (and likely purposely) fails to address any lingering questions from Handler’s earlier novels. It also doesn’t make for a very interesting read on its own merits, either.

“Who Could That Be at This Hour?” takes place decades before the “A Series of Unfortunate Events” novels, with Snicket himself filling in for the Baudelaire orphans as the main character. The novel follows Snicket as he joins “VFD,” a secret, conspiratorial organization whose very initials are up for speculation (Snicket presents dozens of various suggestions in the panoply of writings set in the “Unfortunate Events” universe).

Snicket’s apprenticeship under his “VFD”-assigned chaperone S. Theodora Markson (her first name is not revealed) brings him to Stain’d-By-the-Sea, a shanty town bordered by a dried-up sea and a gravity-defying, waterless kelp forest. Quickly, Snicket and Markson are hired to steal a statue from a local family, but, of course, discover that not all is as it seems, as Snicket faces betrayal and intrigue at every step of his task.

“Who Could That Be at This Hour?’” is too slight in its narrative ambitions. It feels like a part and not like a whole. The “Unfortunate Events” books were definitely steeped in convoluted lore, but they were also episodic, with each presenting a complete adventure. “Who Could That Be,” however, ends all too abruptly. The novel feels as if Handler was forced to cut it by his publisher in order to extend the prequel series to four books. Although
“‘Who Could That Be’” is over 250 pages, it can be read in two hours, and that’s a conservative estimate.

Handler fairs better in his prose. The “Unfortunate Events” novels utilize satirically purple prose, lampooning gothic fiction writers like H.P. Lovecraft. Handler is a bit more economical than he is in the “Unfortunate Events” novels, but he isn’t particularly adventurous. Snicket often defines the SAT vocabulary he uses and word play galore.

“Unfortunate Events” fans will be disappointed by how little “Who Could That Be at This Hour?” contributes to Handler’s mythology. In a brief, concluding chapter, a minor character from “Unfortunate Events” crosses paths with Snicket, and references are also made to another character who does not actually appear, but other than that, fans are out of luck.

Hopefully, Handler will be merciful enough to give his fans a little something satiating because there is no doubt that the most ravenous of them will read the next three books in the quartet, hoping for fan service more substantial than that offered in “Who Could That Be at This Hour?’”

Handler has three more novels left in the “All The Wrong Questions” series to prove that he isn’t just cashing in. “Who Could That Be at This Hour?” is trite and slight and may infuriate “Unfortunate Events” fanboys and newcomers alike. Handler needs to find a way to appease both his long-time fans and his new readers. “Who Could That Be at This Hour?” is available now from Little, Brown and Company.