Horten's Incredible Illusions: Magic, Mystery & Another Very Strange Adventure (Horten's Miraculous Mechanisms)
Evans does a clever job of getting all that happened in Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms (2012) into the first couple of pages of this sequel, so readers can get the backstory out of the way and start the new adventure. And adventure it is. Stuart Horten, who found his great-uncle Tony’s magic tricks in the previous book, now must use those tricks to locate his will. Once again there are plenty of clues to figure out, puzzles to solve, and codes to break. The fun is enhanced when May and June, along with sister April, join the search. Old and new fans will find this good fun. Grades 3-6. --Ilene Cooper