Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye

Series: Warren the 13th, Book 1

By: Tania del Rio / Narrated By: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins

All ya have to do is look at the cover, and WHAM! You know you’re in for some fun!

Seriously. Tim Burton, anyone? E. Gorey? This book had me from the cover, and the story did not disappoint.

12-year old Warren, the 13th in a line of Warrens who’ve owned and run The Warren Hotel, has problems. Ravens are roosting in the chimneys; there’s a mystery in the boiler room; he’s an orphan left in the care of his lazy and feckless Uncle Rupert; Uncle Rupert married the dastardly Aunt Annaconda; the hotel has fallen on MAJOR hard times; and what’s this?

Why, it would appear the hotel has a guest, the first in maaaaany years, and how the heck are they gonna handle it? The guest doesn’t speak, has a face covered in ghost-like bandages, and Aunt Annaconda is absolutely POSitive the guest is after The Warren Hotel’s legendary, perhaps mythical, All-Seeing Eye. And that’s what SHE’S after. She’ll move Hell; she’ll move high water; she’ll have Warren followed all over the place by her evil apprentice.

And she’ll call in her “sisters”-in-evil, and THEY’LL make his life even more miserable.

Warren the 13th and the All-Seeing Eye is a desperately fun little book. At a little over 5 hours, it’s completely packed with enjoyable bits, pieces, puzzles, betrayals, whodunnits; you name it, this little gem has it. Most of all, it has Kevin T. Collins narrating it, and he adds a smoooooth sort of sinister appeal and drama. We feel Warren’s confusion as he gets closer to figuring out just what the heck is going on, whom he can trust, who is his friend, how he will handle the multitude of guests that the ramshackle hotel winds up attracting (Because, you see, while Aunt Annaconda is big into Mum’s the Word, her sisters are oh so totally NOT so, and pretty much the big ol’ adventuring world winds up staying there). Collins can twist his voice into anything, whether it’s a multi-tentacled monster, a strange and bewitching young girl, or even a Pirate who gets seasick on land. And as Warren, Collins makes us cheer and root for the boy, even tho’ we know that the poor dear is a hideous atrocity (See: Book cover!).

This book is SURE to delight younger listeners, but I was most pleasantly surprised to find myself tickled to death by the clever story, the whimsical characters (How ‘bout a little boy who keeps shooting Warren as his family is on Safari, and he’s hunting beasts?), and most certainly by the narration.

And what’s this? A sequel?

Yessssss!

And what’s that? ANOTHER book coming out in March 2020?

Yesssss!!!! heh heh heh….!