The Reptile Room

The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket is 190 pages.  The book is about the 3 Baudelaire children and Count Olaf's continuing scheme to steal the Baudelaire fortune.  The children now live with their Uncle Monty who is a herpetologist, and Count Olaf disguises himself and tricks Uncle Monty into hiring him as his assistant.  When Monty starts to suspect Olaf of being a spy for the Herpetological Society, Olaf kills him and makes it seem like a snake did it.  When the children discover that Olaf killed Monty, he disappears.