Review: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma
What choice would you make?
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
Trenton Lee Stewart
391 pages - 2009 - children’s, adventure
March 30th, 2025 — April 8th, 2025
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
If I had read the first book in this series when I was younger, I know that it would have become a big part of my personality. I was obsessed with A Series of Unfortunate Events, and this book feels like a spiritual predecessor to it, in many ways.
I enjoyed the second book, and I also liked this third book, but I’m almost glad I didn’t read it when I was younger. I think the joy and excitement of the first in this series perhaps was more muted in these next two. There was still so much to enjoy. I think, though, that the me reading it now found more beauty in it than I would have a decade ago.
My favorite part of the first book was the mystery of it. I loved the clues and riddles that the kids had to figure out together. My favorite part of the rest of the series, however, is the characters, as well as their complex relationships. Stewart outlined characters that are almost caricatures, and yet they feel deeper than their archetypes.
This book focused on Constance Contraire, the youngest of the group at three years old, and her burgeoning ability to read minds and use telepathic suggestion. While it’s a little more far-fetched than the other books, it has a similar level of absurdism. I think this book was the darkest of the three, but the ending was lovely and warm.
Summary (Spoilers!)
Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance—the titular Mysterious Benedict Society—are essentially in hiding in Mr. Benedict’s home. With them are their families (the Perumels, the Washingtons, Milligan, and Mr. Benedict’s right-hand pair Rhonda and Number Two), all living with the eccentric amid tons of security.
Benedict’s twin brother, Ledroptha Curtain, is at large and is on the hunt for the Whisperer, a machine that he had used in previous books to control people’s minds, alter their memories, and torture them. Mr. Benedict has the Whisperer and is trying to hypnotize himself with it to cure his narcolepsy; he falls asleep when facing any intense emotion, good or bad. He is also working on drawing up adoption papers to finally adopt Constance.
Mr. Pressius, a businessman, shows up at the house with records claiming that he is Constance’s biological father. To prove him wrong, Benedict uses the Whisperer to uncover her forgotten memories, which show that she is, in fact, an orphan. However, when she awakes from the session, she is confused and is reliving her memory of running away. The household all goes to look for her, which allows Mr. Curtain to steal the Whisperer.
Reynie receives a coded message in his mind, and Sticky helps him to realize that it’s a call number for a library book. Sticky, having memorized the local library catalogues, says that the only copy is in a specific library; they head there and find Constance. They also find a clue to where the Whisperer is, but this is a trap, and Mr. Curtain captures the four children. Kate tries a few times to escape with her various tools, but is caught every time.
Constance makes herself ill sending messages to Mr. Benedict with her telepathic powers, and she is able to tell them a secret code to allow them into the prison where Mr. Curtain is keeping the kids prisoner. They break in and fight the Ten Men; Milligan ends up falling off of a roof during his battle with the Ten Men’s leader, McCracken. Eventually, the entire team overpowers Mr. Curtain and his men.
Mr. Curtain realizes that he is about to be bested, and he attempts to commit suicide by crashing his Salamander car. However, one of his proteges, S.Q. Pendalian, saves him; Mr. Curtain is arrested and sent to prison.
After the events of the big battle, we learn that Milligan has retired from secret agent work; Reynie, Kate, and their families are moving into the first and second floor of Mr. Benedict’s house, with Sticky and his family residing across the street and Constance living with Mr. Benedict, as she has officially been adopted. She is also able to use her telepathic powers to cure his narcolepsy, and the story ends with Mr. Benedict laughing more heartily than he has ever been able to.
Whispers
My main praise of this book is also the source of one of my main critiques. I think Constance’s character had so much potential to adapt and grow, but it feels like she did not really change as a result of her newfound memories and powers. Similarly, I think Reynie was fully underutilized; he is described as being “exceedingly average”, and yet he typically has some importance within the narrative. This time around, he could have been missing, and the book would have been exactly the same.
On the other hand, though, I think Kate and Mr. Benedict were particularly compelling this time around. It was refreshing to have so much more of Mr. Benedict in this book, since the previous one barely saw him at all.
The mystery itself was not much of a mystery, but the story was exciting. I like the idea of having two sets of characters who have to rescue each other—the kids in the prison had to help the adults break into the prison so that they could break the kids out of prison. It was the right level of convoluted to be quite enjoyable.
I’m curious to see where the kids go next. This book was published in 2009, and the next book in the series was published a decade later, in 2019. It’ll be interesting to see how time has changed the style, or how it’s kept it the same.
Total pages read so far, 2025: 4,901
Total books read so far, 2025: 14
Next book: Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon