The Penultimate Peril

The Penultimate Peril  is a 2005 book that is the denouement of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It describes the Baudelaire orphans' job as concierges in Hotel Denouement. They have to serve many people that they have met before, including Sir and Charles, and they even have to give Carmelita Spats a harpoon gun. It ends with them burning the hotel down, as a signal for Kit Snicket that the last safest place was safe no more.

Beginning
For Beatrice,

No one could extinguish my love,

or your house.

Note at the Back
Dear Reader,

If this is the first book you found while searching for a book to read next, then the first thing you should know is that this next-to-last book is what you should put down first. Sadly, this book presents the next-to-last chronicle of the lives of the Baudelaire orphans, and it is next-to-first in its supply of misery, despair, and unpleasantness.

Probably the next-to-last things you would like to read about are a harpoon gun, a rooftop sunbathing salon, two mysterious initials, three unidentified triplets, a notorious villain, and an unsavory curry.

Next-to-last things are the first thing to be avoided, and so allow me to recommend that you put this next-to-last book down first, and find something else to read next at last, such as the next-to-last book in another chronicle, or a chronicle containing other next-to-last things, so that this next-to-last book does not become the last book you will read.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket