The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket

Genre: Children's Literature

Setting: A fictitious lumber mill

First Sentence: Sometime during your life - in fact, very soon - you may find yourself reading a book, and you may notice that a book's first sentence can often tell you what sort of story your book contains.

This novel is the fourth in the author's thirteen book series entitled "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

The Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, are orphans.  Their parents perished when their house burned down.  When Violet comes of age, she and her siblings will inherit a vast fortune.  Until then, Mr. Poe manages their fortune and places them with a guardian, while the Evil Count Olaf attempts to steal the fortune from the children.

Once again, Mr. Poe has placed the Baudelaire orphans in dubious circumstances.  Dubious circumstances here means not safe and secure for three orphan children.

Mr. Poe has made a habit of placing the orphans in dubious circumstances.  For Mr. Poe dubious circumstances means convenient for Mr. Poe.

This time Mr. Poe has placed the orphans in a lumber mill.  Like all lumber mills this one is filled with dangerous machinery which no child should ever be near.

The owner of the mill has agreed to keep the Baudelaires safe from Count Olaf.  In return the orphans are to work in the mill.

Strangely, when Count Olaf dons a disguise, the adults who are supposed to protect the children can't seem to recognize him.  It is up to the children to unmask him.  Unmask here means finding the count's tattoo on his ankle.

I enjoyed this episode of the series.  There is real danger and the Baudelaires need to be creative in order to escape with their lives.