Echo Falls Mysteries is a young adults' mystery series by Peter Abrahams. It stars a young girl named Ingrid who lives in the beautiful town of Echo Falls. However, behind the town's idyllic facade, sinister plots take place. It's up to Ingrid to solve the mysteries, catch the crooks, and restore peace to the town.
There are 3 books in the series:
- Down the Rabbit Hole (2005)
- Behind the Curtain (2006)
- Into the Dark (2008)
Echo Falls Mysteries provides examples of the following:
- Adults Are Useless: Played with. None of the adults are portrayed as incompetent, but the ones who don't have malicious intentions simply misunderstand the situation and think that Ingrid is doing something bad. This is best exemplified in the 2nd book when Ingrid is tossing pieces of duct tape down the hill to try and find out what happened to the tape she had on her when she was kidnapped, when Chief Strade spots her and thinks she's planting evidence.
- Badass Driver: At one point, Ingrid drives a car, despite being in middle school! Though she doesn't engage in any high-speed chases or anything, the fact that she is able to drive successfully at all is amazing!
- Ingrid's grandfather as well, as shown in the climax of the 2nd book.
- Big Brother Bully: Ty can get rather unpleasant to Ingrid at times. Which isn't helped by a growing Steroid habit
- Bound and Gagged: Happens to Ingrid when she is kidnapped at the beginning of the 2nd book.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The Ferrand company is decidedly dubious, and some of their employees even more so.
- Darker and Edgier: The 2nd book is decidedly darker than the first. Not many young adult novels have the protagonist kidnapped near the start of the story!
- Also Vincent Dunn's retelling of Alice in Wonderland, with Alice as a mallet wielding invader of a terrified world.
- Doting Grandparent: Grampy loves Ingrid, to the point where he implies she's the only person he'd cover a crime for. It Makes Sense in Context
- Duct Tape for Everything: When Ingrid is kidnapped, she is Bound and Gagged with duct tape. Later, she tries using duct tape to figure out what happened to the aforementioned duct tape. That's a lot of duct tape!
- Embarrassing First Name: Not overly embarrasing, but Ingrid isn't very fond of her name. She tries to make up a nickname, eventually coming up with 'Griddie', only to learn that nicknames have to be bestowed upon you by others.
- Inevitable Waterfall: The aforementioned Echo Falls. Vincent Dunn goes over them in the climax of the first book, Ingrid only avoids that fate by clinging to the boom stretched across to prevent this exact occurrence.
- Kid Detective: Ingrid, of course.
- Little Miss Badass: Ingrid is a middle school-aged girl who has single-handedly gotten herself out of such situations as being chased by the Big Bad and being kidnapped, Bound and Gagged!
- Sherlock Scan: Attempted by Ingrid, Sherlock Holmes is her hero, but she usually just ends up noticing spinich in the teeth and odd wrinkles instead.
- Stern Teacher: Mrs Groome, who accuses Ingrid of cheating, signs her up for Mathsfest and generally acts like she hates having her in her class.
- The Dog Bites Back: Nigel finally gets his revenge on his abusive previous owner when she attacks Ingrid.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Ingrid loves Fresco energy drinks.
- Nigel is quite fond of T-bone steak. Also Hot Dogs.
- True Art Is Angsty: In-Universe, Vincent Dunn doesn't agree with the whimsical, comedic Alice in Wonderland story prepared, instead going for a darker, almost violent story with an evil Alice.
