And it doesn't disappoint. Once again we find our now familiar cast of characters: Dougal, his sister Sibble (or Sybil, as she insists it should be spelt), Mum, Dad, the Dog, and Dougal's gang, but this time there's another Sybil, who's really called Sybil, to add to the mix and she's a Goliath bird-eating spider.
Now, I had to include that photograph so that you would see what Dougal means when he describes her on his 'blog' as 'a soft brown colour with eight of the hairiest legs you've ever seen, almost as hairy as my sister, Sibble's.' This Sybil is adored by Dougal, and roundly detested and feared by every other member of the family (apart from the Dog, who probably would just try to eat her.) And if it's not Sybil causing the family's revulsion, then the meal worms she's fed hardly help. And as to the supply of frozen, dead, mice that Dougal has hidden in an old ice cream tub in the freezer, well, least said and all that.
Fortunately for the family, although not for Dougal, Sybil disappears shortly after her arrival, and Dougal starts to receive a series of mysterious comments on his blog from someone going under the handle of IhateDougie.
And yes, I did say blog in those last two paragraphs. About a third of this book consists of Dougal's blog entries. Partly they are about Sybil but they also include, often at the insistence of Dougal's friend, BigBadBurt, an assortment of Dougal's recipes. Some of these are for vaguely edible things. Some not. All seem to result in disaster of some sort, mostly for Burt, and these are reported in delightfully off-hand (Mum had to call the fire brigade again) comments by the individual gang members.
Just as with the first book, this is fast moving, ludicrous plot with crazy characters and the Dog.In fact there are two dogs in this one, as Dougal's Grim nextdoor neighbour has a gentleman friend - a blind man with a seeing-eye dog - and the fun that can be had with that has no bounds. Now, you have to remember, in this context that the nice lady who helps Dougal record his stories, Jackie Marchant, has spent more than a few years helping to raise and train such dogs and there really isn't much she doesn't know on that subject. So it's good to see a little of her other life creeping into the story, and it's much to her credit that it does only creep in and not dominate as it so easily could.
Anyone who loved the first Dougal book will love this one. I have only one slight worry. I don't do spoilers and so I can't explain my concern, but suffice it to say that I'm wondering what Jackie is going to do for the next story.
Now has that got you wondering?
The nice folk at Macmillan sent me my copy but if you want one for yourself please click on the link below - then those jolly Amazon guys will make a little contribution to the maintenance of this blog.
