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When last we saw the three Baudelaire orphans --- Violet, Klaus and Sunny --- they were hurtling down a raging river on a toboggan, headed for certain death. At the beginning of THE GRIM GROTTO, the eleventh installment in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, the three children are rescued in the nick of time by a passing submarine. Just when they think they are safe, though, the Baudelaires are in for their most harrowing adventures yet.

The Queequeg submarine is captained by Widdershins, a jovial but impatient fellow who is searching underwater for the mysterious sugar bowl that holds important secrets. It seems that the sugar bowl has vanished into a treacherous underwater cave, so small that only the children (including Widdershins's daughter Fiona) can enter it. Little do they know, though, that the cave is filled with poisonous mushroom spores, one of which is inhaled by one of the Baudelaires. Soon, the kids are in a race against time as they try to save their sibling and escape from Count Olaf, who is lurking nearby in a submarine of his own.

Unlike the earlier books in this series, Count Olaf is not really a central character here. Instead, this book introduces some new characters and helps shed light on old nemeses such as the hook-handed man. Lemony Snicket continues to be darkly humorous, with jokes that sometimes seem aimed as much at adults as at children; when the three Baudelaires try to decipher T. S. Eliot's THE WASTE LAND, Violet says, "Maybe it's all in code."

In the end, THE GRIM GROTTO introduces more mysteries than it solves. Since this is Book the Eleventh of a thirteen-book series, though, the end of the Baudelaires' adventures is rapidly approaching and the Hotel Denouement is in sight. It remains to be seen, though, whether these three unlucky orphans have any hope for a happy ending.

   --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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