Review Detail

What Worked: This story picks up directly after the events in Spy School Goes South and the books should be read in order to fully understand what is happening and all the humorous references to past events. This book seems to be the major conclusion to the previous story arc involving SPYDER.

Cyrus Hale decides that only the people currently on the mission to Mexico can be trusted not to be double agents for Spyder and that they should pursue the intel they gathered to take down the leader of SPYDER, the mysterious Mr. E. However, before they can start the mission, he gets concussed as the SPYDER agents they had caught in Mexico escape. The others have no choice but to continue without his mythic levels of talent that would make it a safe bet that they would succeed. This also means going rogue from the CIA and MI6.

Ben Ripley and his friends, Erica, Mike, Zoe, and Erica’s parents Alexander & Catherine, find their first clue from Murray Hill on where to go. They obtained a key from Joshua when they briefly had him in custody. Murray thinks the key unlocks a box where Joshua has information to blackmail MR. E into letting him be high in the SPYDER organization.

Zoe and Mike’s love of typography leads them to place the unusual older key to a specific maker from London. Erica always said they couldn’t have a relationship because it would interfere with the mission. Ben is getting a taste of that wisdom throughout the story when he experiences jealousy with how easy Mike and Zoe work together. Zoe gets jealous when she sees Ben holding Erica’s hand. However, Ben has to hold Erica’s hand because Erica is temporarily blinded from an explosion and since she is portrayed as super gifted, she can still run and fight while blinded. The open-ended question of who Ben is pursuing as a love interest continues to plague him even when he is busy saving the world, bringing down SPYDER, and evading police forces in two countries that think they are terrorists.

This addition to the spy school series has non-stop action that is sure to keep you glued to the pages. I will say the description of the heroes escaping pursuit by leaping into sewage is very descriptive and sure to elicit sympathetic gagging.

Final Verdict: Stuart Gibbs leaves some things unresolved even though huge parts of the story arc do finally get resolved. Mr. E is a surprising revelation, which is not so surprising considering nothing is ever what it seems when SPYDER is involved. It will be interesting to see who Ben and his friends will face next to protect the world from evil organizations.