Seria pożarów w najmniej oczekiwanych miejscach ogarnia miasteczko Stain'd-by-the-Sea, dzieci w wieku szkolnym znikają z ulic, a Hangfire nigdy nie był tak blisko.

Ellington Feint's father, who has been kidnapped by Hangfire and held for ransom in exchange for the statue. It's revealed in the final book that he is actually Hangfire himself, but this trope still seems to apply somewhat, as he has apparently all but abandoned Ellington for much of the series. Fantasy-Forbidding Parent: Quite a few of them appear, with some being behind one of the titular suspicious incidents in the short story collection.All The Wrong Questions is the prequel novel to the main story arc of A Series of Unfortunate Events. What we know so far The Butler Did It: Subverted. He's the mastermind, but he's not really a butler and he didn't do it personally, as Lemony points out. Title Drop: Subverted, several characters in each book ask the question in the title, but it's always described as "Then (character) asked the question that appears in the cover of this book", so it's never actually printed in the story. The main villain is the most complex you will probably ever read about; in all books series, if the villain is not after money, he or she is after revenge. This story is no different, but the villain is not after revenge for the death of a love interest or family member, but trying to get revenge on the town that destroyed nature by draining the sea. The villain's name is 'Hangfire', and he does love animals and nature; he loves the things that many of us hate. Dashiell Qwerty is named after Dashiell Hammett, author of The Maltese Falcon, and the QWERTY keyboard layout.

The Officers Mitchum, married squabblers. It's too early to make assumptions, but they are certainly among my favorite literary marriages.Captain Widdershins appears, mentions Gustav (Montgomery's deceased assistant at the start of The Reptile Room) and, like Hector, delivers Lemony some news that he really, really would not rather have heard. Ellington Feint's namesake is Duke Ellington, composer and pianist. His music is probably the "interesting and complicated" tunes that Lemony hears from the gramophone. Her father, Armstrong, is named after a different musician.

The novel begins with a cover sheet indicating a recipient named "Walleye", CCed to the V.F.D. headquarters. Daniel Handler, who wrote the original books (under his pen name) will be involved in the project and Barry Sonnenfeld is once again tapped to be involved. Barry was, of course, heavily involved in seasons 1 to 3 of A Series of Unfortunate Events directing many episodes in each season. Much like A Series of Unfortunate Events, All the Wrong Questions is set in an amalgamation of ambiguous time periods, likely sometime in the 20th century. Unlike A Series of Unfortunate Events, this series takes place in one primary location, the town of Stain'd-by-the-Sea, instead of changing every book. The town is nearly abandoned and falling apart after the sea was drained away and the ink business and economy collapsed, with the few residents remaining losing hope in their town returning to its glory days. The protagonists of the series are almost completely comprised of children, many of whom were abandoned due to their town's financial collapse; however, due to their age, they are underestimated and not listened to despite their competence. This echoes themes in A Series of Unfortunate Events, where the adults are incompetent and the children are not listened to.But the truth is like a doorknob. You can stumble around in the dark, and when you finally grasp it, you may end up someplace terrifying." Parental Abandonment: Lemony's "parents" at the beginning of the book were just pretending to be his. He mentions several times that his real parents can't help. LS illegally gets onto a train called 'The Thistle Of The Valley'. He does this because this is the train that is transporting prisoners from Stain'd-by-the-Sea to the city. Corrupt Corporate Executive: Although a side character, Cleo's father comes across as one, as his efforts to find more Ink for his factory by draining octopi ravage the environment, cause the factory to be dependent on a source which will eventually run out and ruins countless local jobs. It's somewhat mitigated by the implications that the decision was driven by incompetence and desperation, rather than simple greed and callousness, but he remains a negatively portrayed character.

Moxie Mallahan: a child and aspiring journalist living in Stain'd-by-the-Sea after her mother abandoned her. Stanza 2/7, sent on 14 November 2012, included the second image below. It reads, "Why does the librarian weep every night? / Why is the chemist so dour? / Why is the statue on everyone's mind? / Who could that be at this hour?" The sky was getting lighter and I was whistling the tune Ellington had played me, first on a Hangfire phonograph and then on a music box her father had given her. She had not told me the name of the tune. It was a mystery, like what the S stood for in Theodora's name. I kept walking, with nothing but Solitude for company. 'Solitude' is a fancy name for being all by yourself. It's not a bad name, I thought. Ellington says her father once read her a book about a bunch of elves and things who got into a war over a piece of jewelry that everyone liked but nobody could wear. Lemony thinks the wizard in it should have used his powers more. Some early signs of a prequel series potentially coming further down the line were the myriad of easter eggs featured in the main series on Netflix.

Bittersweet Ending: Lemony saves the town and defeats Hangfire. But to do that he feeds Hangfire to the Bombinating Beast, which pisses off Ellington and creeps out Moxie, Stew gets away with murder, and Kit is still in jail which Lemony could have prevented. Interestingly, her first physical appearance in each book of All the Wrong Questions occurs in each novel's Chapter Seven, about the halfway point. Half-Identical Twins: In 13 Suspicious Incidents, the Cozy twins look alike enough to be mistaken for each other despite being different sexes. Hector from The Vile Village is met in the final chapter as a twelve year old, and is already performing ballooning projects. His liking of Mexican food is also mentioned.