English title: Learning by Reading 1
by James Branam
After the mild success of Bill Lorentz’s first case, Mistaken Identity, Fragment expressed interest in publishing a second book containing his second case. They wanted to rework the format to increase the size of the target audience. More grammar was added to accompany the detective story, more vocabulary, and the book grew considerable in number of pages.
The main part of the book is the detective story The Chips Are Down in which my bumbling detective stumbles through yet another case. He fails to see clues right in front of his eyes, and his life is saved again by Agnes, his cleaning lady.
The Chips Are Down differs from the Mistaken identity in that the story is more complex. Americans’ mistrust of Russians stemming from the Cold War is addressed in a comical way. Things turn well again for our hero, and he even gets married to his long-time girlfriend at the end of the book.
Author: James Branam
Publisher: Fragment
Illustrations: Sylvie Mikulcová
ISBN: 80-7200-194-9
Pages: 124
Year of publication: 1998