Review: Great little mystery novel for ages 8 - 15
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 17, 2013
(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to author Lisa Orchard.)This is book 2 in the `Super Spies' series, but may be read as a stand-alone novel.This book starts off with a bang when a bomb explodes at the Super Spies high-school. Fortunately the pupils aren't at school that day, but the teachers are.Sarah and Lacey's Uncle Walt is a teacher at the high school though, and they fear he may have been hurt in the blast. What was the cause of the explosion though? Was it really a bomb? And why would anyone want to bomb the high school?Sarah, Lacey, Jackie, and Scott set out to investigate once again, and also to try and find out what happened to Uncle Walt.  With the appearance of a strange man at the crime scene, followed by an overheard conversation, the Super Spies know they are onto something, and go that extra mile to try and solve the crime.Who are the high-school bombers? Why did they set the bomb? And are there more surprises in store?This is a really great little middle-grade mystery novel, think `the famous five', or `the secret seven', but a modern version!The Super Spies are once again investigating a crime, and they're not going to stop until they unravel the mystery. Sarah is focused on what she wants to find out, and doesn't always think of the consequences of her actions. Lacey is a little more level-headed, and tries to tell Sarah when she's about to get in trouble, and Jackie does exactly the opposite and encourages Sarah!The three girls work well together for the most part, and Scott is their go-to man when the police need to be involved because his dad is the police chief. The four are all good friends though, and it's clear that they look out for each other.I have to say that the girls do take some risks though; sneaking around in the middle of night, going to bomb sites, and even trying to follow the people who they thought were the bombers! While they thought they were just investigating a crime, I was glad that this was fiction because they did get into some risky situations! Sometimes their investigating was needed though.The storyline was interesting, and it wasn't easy to guess who the bombers were or what their reasons were for bombing the school. There were quite a lot of twists and turns in the story, and the girls put a lot of effort into working out the mystery. I'm not sure they would really get away with a lot of the things they did, such as sneaking onto a bomb site in real life (at least I hope they wouldn't!), but they made it work! The girls find out lots of cool stuff from the police and FBI though, and even make a possible step in finding out what happened to Sarah and Lacey's parents.Overall; a great little mystery novel for younger teens. Kids aged 8 -15 would probably love this.6.5 out of 10.