After escaping from the clutches of Count Olaf yet again, but forced to leave Uncle Monty’s house by his unfortunate demise, the Baudelaire children find themselves on Damocles dock, being put into a taxi by Mr Poe to take them to their Aunt Josephine’s house overlooking Lake Lachrymose. The children are not hopeful that she will be a better guardian than Uncle Monty, and unfortunately it’s looks like they may be right.

Because Josephine is frightened of absolutely anything. The door mat, the door knobs, the telephone, the cooker, everything. So much so that their meal on the first night in Josephine’s home is cold cucumber soup, and they have to put a pile of tins in front of their bedroom doors so they will know if a burglar enters the house.

But the siblings can handle this, as long as they are safe from the clutches of Count Olaf, after all, there’s a great big library overlooking the lake and they still have each other. But alas, not. Aunt Josephine is forced to take them into town to get supplies to stock up for the coming hurricane, and there she meets a man called Captain Sham. But poor Aunt Josephine won’t listen to the children’s protests that he is actually Count Olaf – after all, the Captain has a wooden leg, and Count Olaf definitely did not!

When the children wake up the next morning to find a hole in the library window and a note apparently from Josephine saying that she entrusts their care to Captain Sham, it looks like Count Olaf may finally get his hands on the children.

But the children won’t give up that easily, and they come through with ingenious ways to escape from this horrible horrible man.

I LOVE this book, and not just because the ‘Lachrymose Leeches’ have been a running joke in our house for the 15+ years since we first read it together. These are only short books, but very enjoyable and great for reminiscing!