The plot thickens! The series continues to improve, having gotten away from the useless-guardian format, and the tone is much more even here. I mean, it's still a finely balanced ridiculous, but the characters are acknowledging the ridiculous, which is good enough for me. By which I mean Klaus finding it hard to believe that the people around them are stupid enough to fall for his and Sunny's lame disguises, as opposed to the Sunny-swordfight of The Miserable Mill, which remains the low point of the series for me. Intriguing, too, is that the Baudelaires are actively choosing to do morally grey things - albeit on a minor level, and for the purposes of survival. It makes them more interesting.

Best part, as usual, are Sunny's continuing cryptic remarks, and the sly references of the author. (I laughed my arse off at the patient Clarissa Dalloway staring vacantly out of the hospital window, for instance. The patient names alone earn this volume an extra star.) I'm quite sure I've missed some of the references, but that's half the fun.