44 pages • 1 hour read
Sheila TurnageThree Times Lucky
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Cultural-Geographical Context: North Carolina
North Carolina is a state rich in ecological wonders and natural beauty. There are eight different tribal groups in the state, who settled the area thousands of years ago. English settlers arrived in the late 1500s, with the first English settlement created in the area in 1585. Settlers did not get along with the Indigenous people in the area, causing the English to retreat for a time. The state has a history rooted in Black enslavement, which peaked in the mid-1700s with about 40,000 enslaved people living in the state. Today, North Carolina is a highly multicultural region rooted in a deep and controversial history, and racism remains a prevalent issue. The state maintains traditions like wood carving, quilting, and bluegrass as cultural staples (Norrell, Robert J., and David Grier Martin. “North Carolina.” Britannica, 28 Nov. 2024).
Small-town life in North Carolina offers a steady, slow pace of life. Small towns in the state heavily depend on the 111,000 creeks that run through the region, and fishing and camping are celebrated pastimes. There is a strong sense of community in small towns in North Carolina, just like Mo’s town of Tupelo Landing. North Carolina receives about two hurricanes or other tropical cyclones per year, which is a time when small towns come together to protect each other and survive the extreme weather that, in many ways, defines the region.
Series Context: The Mo & Dale Series
Turner’s Mo & Dale series includes four novels, each with their own town mystery for Mo and Dale to solve. Three Times Lucky is the first title in the series; it introduces the town and its characters and sees the inception of Mo and Dale’s Desperado Detective Agency, along with Mo’s acceptance of her found family. Three more titles follow, beginning with The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing, which incorporates the supernatural into its mystery. In the third book, The Odds of Getting Even, Dale’s father is on trial for kidnapping, and Dale’s image of family is forced to change. In the final title in the series, The Law of Finders Keepers, Mo and Dale investigate the truth behind Mo’s mother and her whereabouts, which leaves Mo with having to face the reality of her past. She must learn to reconcile her feelings for her found and biological family.
Each story is based around the unconditional friendship between Dale and Mo, and each sees them growing in new and profound ways. Turnage’s series can be read either in order or as standalone novels, as each book acts as its own complete story. Turnage was inspired by her homeland of rural North Carolina, as well as by the idea of creating a pair of characters that each resemble a part of herself. She didn’t originally intend to write a series, but after the first novel’s success, she found herself writing three more.
