The Wide Window

2000, first edition, from HarperCollins
Lemony Snicket
Illustrated by Brett Helquist
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Third: The Wide Window
Hardcover in good condition
B+

This time the children stay with paranoid and grammar-obsessed "Aunt" Josephine in a cliff-top house (yes, with a wide window) on the edge of Lake Lachrymose, one of my favorite settings in the series.  As the children realize, Josephine isn't a very good guardian, although she's of course better than Count Olaf.  The best thing in the book is probably the "suicide note" that's actually a clue.  Helquist's best illustration is probably of the children sitting on Damocles Dock, with a sword hanging over Violet.

When the movie came out, the first three books were mashed together in a way that didn't quite work.  I didn't care for Jim Carrey as Count Olaf but otherwise the casting was good, and I did like the look of the film.