This final installment offers more than the usual complement of cliffhangers, daring escapes, and surprises; fans of this...
The young agent and codebreaking genius, recruited by the secret Spectrum organization, risks life and limb to uncover the traitor within its ranks.
With Spectrum agents sidelined while the traitor remains at large, Ruby’s forced to take survival-training classes. (Lessons in surviving an avalanche and avoiding hypothermia soon come in handy.) Is the traitor the same evildoer who terrifies even an archvillain like the Count? The answer may lie in Spectrum’s only other child spy, Bradley Baker. Ruby’s research takes her to Spectrum’s well-protected underwater vault on Meteor Island, where she learns that Baker, believed killed in a plane crash, may still be alive. Ruby’s familiar sidekicks return: loyal friend Clancy; housekeeper and TV bingo addict Mrs. Digby; Ruby’s clueless parents; and Hitch, posing as the family butler to keep an eye on Ruby. As clues pile up, new dangers loom; Ruby evades them with panache and nifty high-tech gadgetry, including a bicycle with a hyperspeed setting and a fur cape that doubles as a parachute. Readers can try a few codes that Ruby cracks (they’re explained in an afterword). Ruby’s world remains a largely white one; its decidedly retro atmosphere (a 1970s California that feels more like the ’50s) is reinforced by the narrative’s meandering pace, asides, and non sequiturs.
This final installment offers more than the usual complement of cliffhangers, daring escapes, and surprises; fans of this droll, quirky, and sui generis series won’t be disappointed. (note) (Mystery. 9-14)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5472-6
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In the wake of a destructive dustup with ghosts in the surprisingly rich rare-book room of their suburban public library,...
Young ghost hunters barely start their search for a magical artifact in this fragmentary series opener.
In the wake of a destructive dustup with ghosts in the surprisingly rich rare-book room of their suburban public library, classmates Jay, Pam, Danni and Brian find themselves in a race with shadowy but plainly evil opponents. Their mutual goal is to track down a crystal that can summon and control the spirits of the dead. First, though, they have to secure a certain Key by puzzling out cryptic rhymes that lead in apparently arbitrary fashion to grave markers, nearby crop circles and a local medium. A climactic spectral attack adds a bit of drama, though it leaves the quartet at the end no closer to the Key—much less the sub-titular glass. Along with page images of stodgy background from an “Encyclopedia of the Paranormal” (evidently a fictional one, not to be confused with the two actual reference sources bearing that title), some illustrations look blank until a small, included (and easily lost) square of lenticular plastic is laid over to reveal hidden messages or pictures.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-934734-48-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Seven Footer Press
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Lots of fun for the right audience.
Six British kids save the world in this suspenseful, comic romp through Switzerland’s famed CERN laboratories.
Iago leads a pack of diverse and talented kids in his attempt to save the world from annihilation by a mad scientist, Katarina Kreng, an over-the-top villain who intends to create a black hole that will swallow the Earth. She’ll use subatomic particles called killer strangelets in the CERN Large Hadron Collider, where Iago’s Uncle Jonas works, to accomplish her dastardly deed. The group of young heroes hops a private plane to Switzerland and plots their attack using schematic drawings stolen from Uncle Jonas. While one wields his hacking skills to open doors and dig up information, Iago and his secret heartthrob Charlie, his pretty female friend, try to infiltrate the facility. Suspense ensues when they succeed. Furlong keeps the narrative brisk and full of light humor, although the preposterous tale remains a bit of a jumble. The kids appear to be middle-school age, and that seems to be the book’s natural audience, although some older readers may enjoy it. Reminiscent of the Alex Rider series for a younger set, this appears headed toward James Bond–style mayhem but with as much an emphasis on comedy as on suspense.
Lots of fun for the right audience. (Comic suspense. 9-13)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9562315-6-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Inside Pocket
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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