Customer Reviews

Who Killed Albus Dumbledore?: What Really Happened in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? Six Expert Harry Potter Detectives Examine the Evidence.

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The Harry Potter series might be the most intricate mystery/detective story of all time. "Who Killed Albus Dumbledore?" is an excellent compilation of several authors who have carefully read the Harry Potter series, and who offer well-informed analysis of what's really going on, along with thoughts about what we'll see in the final book. WKAD is an order of magnitude more sophisticated than John Granger's previous books on Harry Potter.

Here's just one example of the kind of high-end inquiry you'll find in WKAD: In the tower scene in book 6, Harry is petrified by Dumbledore. Harry sees Snape cast the AK spell at Dumbledore. Harry sees Dumbledore slowly fall off the tower. After Dumbledore hits the ground, Harry is now longer petrified. Harry figures that Dumbledore's death released the spell. But Harry must be wrong: AK kills instantly, so Harry should have been released _before_ Dumbledore started falling to the ground. Moreover, a third person can release the victim of a Petrificus spell; on the Hogwart's Express at the beginning of the school year, Draco petrified Harry, and Tonks released Harry from Draco's spell. On the tower, Harry was un-petrified just as Snape disappeared into the stairwell. And Snape, BTW, has previously shown that he can cast an area-wide spell that cancels all currently operative spells; he did this once in a class. All this suggests that what happened on the Tower may have been quite elaborately staged, and that the people who staged the event wanted to ensure that Harry saw everything.

Why? Well, that's still speculative, but now you'll be speculating much closer to the heart of the mystery.

Edmund Wilson once expressed his contempt for detective fiction by asking about one of Agatha Christie's books, in a wrongheaded and curmudgeonly burst of annoyance, "Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?" And there are still no doubt those readers who find Harry Potter too juvenile, silly, trivial or marginal to care about Dumbledore or any other HP character. But people with any degree of interest at all will find this book a feast of information, speculation, and background.

Just don't make it your first critical exposure to the HP series. The editor, John Granger, has previously written a couple of outstanding books on the HP series; it's worth checking them out, too, since they're perfect for beginners, whereas "Who Killed Albus Dumbledore?" which gets into nuance and presupposes familiarity with detail, is for more seasoned HP readers. Better than any other writer I know, Granger has correlated HP to wider literary influences, patterns, and sources, and, in his "Looking for God in Harry Potter," he spiritedly defended the series as a profound spiritual enactment of heroic, self-sacrificing action when it was under attack. In arguing the presence of age-old redemptive story lines and placing them in a whole context of Western culture, especially the misunderstood practice of alchemy, Granger has persuaded me (and many other readers) that the HP series -- enthralling and wonderfully entertaining as it is -- holds serious value expressed by Rowling with profound spiritual insight and consummate artistic skill.

In this volume, Granger collaborates with five other HP experts to show that what we think we saw might not be the reality and to speculate with tight reasoning on detailed evidence about Rowling's crucial technique of making us believe that what we see through Harry's eyes -- limited and incomplete evidence -- is only part of the whole picture. The subtitle sets the theme: "What Really [underscore] Happened in 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?'" The key is, as Granger argues, deliberate and skillful "narrative misdirection."

Other topics include Wendy B. Harte's analysis of the curse on the Black family tree, an essay rich with informed speculation about the actual role of the Black family. If only the other members were like Sirius! Have they been serving Voldemort or not? Harte's comments take us to the question of what happens in the seventh volume; none of the topics can avoid spilling over into guessing how the series must end.

Sally M. Gallo shows how Dumbledore and Slughorn cooperated to create a brilliant illusion, a beautifully planned deception, just as Joyce Odell weighs the evidence that the events on the tower could be a conspiracy to mislead. What Harry witnesses may be pure stage magic. But mislead whom? and why? You have to read it to find out. Daniela Teo sets out to identify the remaining horcruxes and show how to get to them. Is Harry himself a horcrux, as so many have surmised? Read about it here. Read, too, Swythyv's comments on the Nymphadora Tonks-Remus Lupin romance, which -- surprise! -- is anything but what it seems.

And don't miss the chapter "Great Expectations," where all the participants explicitly predict what the last volume will bring. The diagram on pages 218 and 219 is not to be missed, and it will be really fun later on to compare its predictions with actual developments when the book is published.

Although there's plenty here to satisfy advanced devotees, and while the speculation turns on smallish points at times, you can be certain that the issues are never picayune. Whole theories of perception and analysis are brought into play, and the entire volume is as serious in its methods as it is exhilirating (and sometimes exasperating) in its ingenious guesswork and analysis. After Granger's first couple of books, no interested reader could ever take the HP series for anything but a major achievement, and this volume deepens the analytical seriousness and the literary insight while keeping a great sense of joy in reading.

If you're past the introductory phases of what's too lightly called fandom, you will treasue this book. Hurry and get it now so you can compare it with the actual seventh volume. Keep an eye out, too, for Granger's forthcoming book; it has the best analysis of postmoderism ever, and I've read plenty!

"Who Killed Albus Dumbledore" proports to be a cross-section of the online world of Harry Potter theorizing. It consists of essays written by six fan theorists who dominate the land of cyber-Potter websites, blogs, and discussion boards. The book is not an attempt to understand or analyze JK Rowling's novels in a cultural sense, nor is it a forum for out-and-out predictions about the remainder of the series. For any astute fan of the Potter series, it is clear that Ms. Rowling is constantly engaging in misdirection while telling her stories. The books may not be mysteries, per se, but with only one book to go, there is still very much of a puzzle to unravel. This book is basically a series of very well written pieces that illuminate dozens of examples of this "narrative misdirection." They try to interpret Rowling's novels (Half Blood Prince, in particular), and establish theories about what has been going on beneath the surface of the series. Some of the theories are a bit "out there," and frankly I disagreed with many of them, but the point of this book is not to convince the readers of the authors' opinions. It is, instead, to invite the reader to read the series critically, and create his or her own theories. This is a very fun read. John Granger's essay is brilliant if not a little quirky. Wendy Harte's piece is extremely intriguing, as well. The Livejournalist "Swythyv" contributes a hilarious exerpt from one of her posts. The gem of the series is Joyce Odel's "Welcome to my Murder," which may be the most intuitive, observant, and comprehensive bit of theorizing I have ever read. All of these writers have been engaged in online discussions of Harry Potter for years, and this book is only an snipit of their individual contributions to the online theorist community. This is a must-read for any serious fan of Harry Potter, and it certainly makes you wants to check out the writers' respective websites.

I have to say, this is an impressive book, and each of the contributors definitely deserve the "expert Harry Potter detective" badge that they claim for themselves. There is an astonishing wealth of information in these pages, so much that if I had wanted to keep up, I would have had to get a pen and paper. This work reflects not only on the quality of the contributions, but also on Rowling's creation: the so-called "Potterverse". The climax of The Inheritance Trilogy doesn't have adults comparing Eragon to Hamlet, nor were dozens of books written on the only series which could compare in scope and literary significance, Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I mean no offense to those series, but mention them to serve as comparison to Rowling's unparalleled achievement. What an astonishing and tangible world she has created for six superbly intelligent adults to spend more than 230 pages dissecting. It's amazing, really.

Some of the stuff in here is what I would consider "out there", mostly (all apologies) John Granger's musings. It seems that he's reading far too much into these books than there is, and his discussion of House androgyns (I'm not explaining this correctly, I know) seemed, well, out there. But I know that I couldn't hold my own against him if he and I were to argue that point, so you'll have to judge for yourself.

But interesting theories abound, and the layout of the text was helpful. The six "detectives" present their cases, and at the end, three are asked a series of questions. That was perhaps the most interesting part for me, to have one place where the same questions are asked and each person gives their own, unique answer. Sometimes they're in agreement, sometimes they're in disagreement, and they always engage *you*, the reader, and make you think for yourself.

This book offers sophisticated, well documented theories and interpretations of the first six books in the Harry Potter series, particularly Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The contents are as follows: "Introduction: Fun During Interlibrum" by John Granger, "Why Half-Blood Prince is the Best Harry Potter Novel" by John Granger, "The Curse of the Black Family Tree" by Wendy B. Harte, "How Dumbledore and Slughorn Used Magic - and Stage Magic - and Fooled Us All" by Sally M. Gallo, "The Locket, the Cup, Nagini, Harry, and the Mirror of Erised" by Daniela Teo, "Welcome to My Murder, Act I" by Joyce Odell, "Brandy and Revelations in the Library" by The Usual Suspects, and "Afterword: About the Children's High-Level Group." Each of these chapters is compelling, thought-provoking reading. Perhaps the most persuasive are John Granger's essay on how Half-Blood Prince raises new questions while providing key (and unexpected) clues to answering existing mysteries from the series, and Wendy B. Harte's interpretation of the Black Family Tree and its relevance to the plot of the forthcoming final Harry Potter novel. This book is definitely worth reading for any serious fan, and it provides ample evidence of the depth, complexity, and sheer intellectual joy of the Harry Potter phenomenon.

As an serious adult fan of Harry Potter (and when I say "adult" I mean 40 + !) I've struggled to find forums for theories on what specific events in the books really mean, speculation on "what will happen next" and general appreciation of JK Rowling's writing and characters. The bulk of the online forums and published work is targeted to a much younger audience - and frankly, I've found a lot of it to be not all that interesting or well written. So I really feel like I've hit the jackpot with this new book "Who Killed Albus Dumbledore?" The book is clearly written by adults, for adults. It contains serious research, lots of thought-provoking questions, but also some juicy, fun speculation. Each contributor elaborates on their own pet theory (including what the remaining Horocruxes really are, and what was really up with the whole Tonks-Remus love affair), but in the end, they all go out on a limb with predictions about what will happen - including some bloodthristy speculation about who will die! Another kind of neat thing about the book is that theories explored don't necessarily support eachother - but they are all extremely well researched and supported with citations from "the canon" as they call it (ie, the 6 Harry Potter books to date, plus published interviews with JK Rowling), or other interesting material, like the life of a real life magician who just might be the model for Slughorn. I loved that there were two essays in the book that made the case for either an "evil" Slughorn (he was apparently up to much more than was revealed in Book 6, but in a bad way) or a "whitehat" Slughorn (he was apparently up to much more than was revealed in the book, but in a good way) - and both theories are totally plausible! Probably my favorite chapter in the book uses as its starting point a detailed Black family tree (eg, Sirius and Bellatrix et al) that JK Rowling apparently published for charity in the past year or so, and spins out an amazing theory about who the mysterious R.A.B. from Book 6 really is. (Hint: B stands for "Black"!) It's also cool that you don't have to read through whole book at one sitting (although I did) - you can dip into it, and come back after thinking about the theories (and maybe re-reading some of the books!) And since we still don't know when that Seventh book will come out - there's a lot in this book to keep you entertained and interested in the meanwhile.

This was definitely a fun read. It is interesting and diverting to check out some of the most popular (and some not so popular) theories about what will happen. I am one of the biggest HP fans out there, but I have to add that after having read many of the reviews posted here, some people are taking this stuff way too seriously (and I am the first to admit I take it pretty seriously, but there is a line). If you can read this book and take it with a grain of salt, it can be very thought provoking and entertaining. As to the spoiler in the title, how else were the authors supposed to convey what the book is about? "Who killed the person who gets killed in book six?" You have to admit that's not very appealing. This book really was written for an audience of people who already knew who was killed and was looking for a way to pass time before the next book. The target audience already had many of its own ideas and wanted to "compare notes" so to speak. The eventuality that these types of things, no matter what the book, if it's popular enough, will get spoiled is unavoidable. I will also add as a word of caution that if you haven't finished the series and you truly don't want to be spoiled, you'll need to sequester yourself from the internet, especially any websites that deal with HP, as there are always ongoing discussions about what happens in each of the books and there is just as big an event that happens in Deathly Hallows. I know I wouldn't want to be spoiled if I were you but at this point, I don't see how you can prevent it or how you've kept from being spoiled up until now. Consider also the fact that the authors have no control over where the book appears on Amazon. Amazon does that. So if you have any complaints, write to them. Don't dismiss the book or the authors. They had excellent, well thought out theories that they were presenting to a specific audience. In that, it was well done and enjoyable. I recommend this book to anyone who has already read Half Blood Prince but not Deathly Hallows and anyone who doesn't take it too seriously. If you like looking for clues and theorizing about what happens, then this book is for you!

This book is sooo deep. I loved the analysis. Points I had not noticed, and I have read the books at least 7 times. Each essay was as good as the one before. I loved the Slughorn switching, the 'stoppered death', the misdirection and of course the exoneration of my dear Snape.

These essays show exemplary detective work, and attention to detail. Loved it!!!

I admit that I rushed through Book 6 of the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," basically taking in the plot as it was presented on the surface and without considering much of what I already knew about the way J.K.Rowling has worked in creating the series. "Who Killed Albus Dumbledore" was a real awakening for me to the clever, layered and nuanced ways in which this series has unfolded, and to the deceptive techniques of mis-direction Rowling uses to create suspense and to focus the ideas beneath the surface of what appear to be simple fantasy narratives. I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to prime themselves for a rewarding reading of Book 7, "...and the Deathly Hallows" (which I'll be reading soon after a careful RE-reading of HBP...).

This book gave me things to think about that I missed on my own. I thought this book was very interesting and makes me want to re-read books 1-6 to see if I notice anything I missed before.