The Ersatz Elevator (A Series of Unfortunate Events #6), by Lemony Snicket
published 2001 - read 2004

The pattern with these seems to be that they alternate between being really entertaining books that retread the same material, or somewhat-less-entertaining books that advance the plot in some fashion.  This one's in the former category, so we get some great suspense sequences involving the titular elevator, and a hilarious new negligent adult, whose quirk is that she's obsessed with being trendy and fashionable.  Snicket gets some good mileage out of that.  The other best feature of this one is that the fate of the Quagmire Triplets remains an open issue throughout the story, suggesting an actual long-term, cross-book storyline.

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