HERO IN DISGUISE

Master Dreadthorn's School for Wayward Villains again (Good Curses Evil, 2011) lives up to the "Wayward" as some of its more challenged students keep rescuing captives and saving the day.

Never the brightest of bulbs, headmaster's son Rune Drexler fails to notice a series of broad clues—from leading questions to a glimpse of red undies over bright blue tights—that his new roommate, "Dodge VonDoe," is really a spy from Doctor Do-Good's School for Superior Superheroes. Until, that is, his father and a certain crystal ball disappear and the school is taken over by the genuinely villainous Mistress Morgana. As it turns out, VonDoe (or to use his real name Deven Do-Good) is both working for Morgana and plotting to boot out his own superhero father. Deven is also a thoroughgoing bully on his own turf, which leads to his ultimate downfall. Sanders throws family revelations, secret passages, reconciliations, villain humor ("Ugh, monologues. It was hard to believe Morgana had become such a powerful villainess when she was always blabbing her plans to everyone") and even a horrifying (to some) prophecy about villains becoming heroes into the mix, and dishes out just deserts to all.

An airy school story beneath a veneer of fantasy, low both on violence and actual villainy.