The Dark Stairs, Betsy Byars
The Dark Stairs, Betsy Byars
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The Dark Stairs

Author: Betsy Byars

Narrator: Lauren Davis

Unabridged: 2 hr 26 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/02/2019


Synopsis

Mystery is in Herculeah Jones’s blood. How could it not be, with a father on the police force and a mother who’s a private eye? So when Herculeah notices a man hanging around the "Dead Oaks" mansion, she can’t resist doing some investigating of her own. Legend has it the old estate was the site of a murder, and now it looks like there’s something even more nefarious going on. Can Herculeah crack the case before the mystery man closes in on her?

About The Author

Betsy Byars began her writing career rather late in life. "In all of my school years, . . . not one single teacher ever said to me, 'Perhaps you should consider becoming a writer,'" Byars recalls. "Anyway, I didn't want to be a writer. Writing seemed boring. You sat in a room all day by yourself and typed. If I was going to be a writer at all, I was going to be a foreign correspondent like Claudette Colbert in Arise My Love. I would wear smashing hats, wisecrack with the guys, and have a byline known round the world. My father wanted me to be a mathematician." So Byars set out to become mathematician, but when she couldn't grasp calculus in college, she turned to English. Even then, writing was not on her immediate horizon.First, she married and started a family. The writing career didn't emerge until she was 28, a mother of two children, and living in a small place she called the barracks apartment, in Urbana, Illinois. She and her husband, Ed, had moved there in 1956 so he could attend graduate school at the University of Illinois. She was bored, had no friends, and so turned to writing to fill her time. Byars started writing articles for The Saturday Evening Post, Look,and other magazines. As her family grew and her children started to read, she began to write books for young people and, fortunately for her readers, discovered that there was more to being a writer than sitting in front of a typewriter."Making up stories and characters is so interesting that I'm never bored. Each book has been a different writing experience. It takes me about a year to write a book, but I spend another year thinking about it, polishing it, and making improvements. I always put something of myself intomy books -- something that happened to me. Once a wanderer came by my house and showed me how to brush my teeth with a cherry twig; that went in The House of Wingscopyright © 2000 by Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers. All rights reserved.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Julie

The Dark Stairs is the first book in a cute middle-grade kid detective series, The Herculeah Jones Mysteries. I came across this series by accident, but I'm glad I did. I needed a lighthearted read to clear my mind between adult thriller novels, and The Dark Stairs was a fun, enjoyable read. The bas......more

Goodreads review by Josiah

Realistic fiction was Betsy Byars's go-to genre, and the Herculeah Jones Mysteries were something of a departure. Young Herculeah has detective work in her blood, her mother being a private investigator and father a police detective. So when she and her best friend, Meat, see her dad at the scary ol......more

Goodreads review by Katie

This review covers the entire Herculeah Jones series, which includes the following titles: The Dark Stairs (1994) Tarot Says Beware (1995) Dead Letter (1996) Death's Door (1997) Disappearing Acts (1998) King of Murder (2006) The Black Tower (2006) Between February and October 2018, I read all seven of the......more

Бетси Байърс е герой и ветеран на детската литература! Американската писателка е удостоявана с не едно и две отличия за своето творчество. Измежду престижните награди на които тя е носителка са медалът „Нюбъри” (едно от най-големите признания, които детски писател може да получи), Националната награ......more

Goodreads review by Jessica

The book The Dark Stairs was about a girl named Herculeah Jones and her friend Meat. Herculeah's mother is a private detective and one of her clients seems suspicious to Herculeah. She and Meat see him go in to an abandoned house and they follow. Eventually, she gathers up the courage to go inside......more