Tom Sawyer, Detective

Twain returned to Tom and Huck one more time in 1896, this time as a tight little mystery novel. The boys travel down to Arkansas to visit Uncle Silas and Aunt Sally Phelps, the same family from the end of Huckleberry Finn, and they walk straight into a murder case involving stolen diamonds, a pair of feuding twin brothers, and a corpse that may or may not be who everyone thinks it is. Huck narrates, as in the previous book, but the tone is lighter and the social commentary is mostly set aside. The plot moves through a courtroom finale where Tom Sawyer delivers the kind of dramatic reveal he was always going to deliver if Twain let him. The book was apparently inspired by a real Danish case Twain read about. It is short, breezy, and not the place to begin with Twain. If you have already read the other Tom and Huck books, though, it is a fun final visit with familiar voices.