Operation Storm City: The Guild of Specialists Book 3 (The Guide of Specialists)
Grade 5–10—Fearing for the safety of their British cartographer parents who have been searching for the fabled lost city of Ur-Can, Doug and Becca MacKenzie railroad their chaperone into going on a perilous mission to find them. Armed with research papers found in their parents' study, and accompanied by a pet Bengal tiger, the teens leave their home in India for the deserts of Sinkiang, China. This third book about the Honourable Guild of Specialists, a secret group of scientists and explorers, revolves around four gyrolabes that contain Tembla symbols that, when put together, reveal the whereabouts of Ur-Can. Knowing their parents may be the only ones able to decipher the code, the siblings have a race against time and a Russian bad guy who is certain to use the lost city for evil purposes. Returning to this installment is Julius Pembleton-Crozier (former Specialist and good guy gone bad) and Liberty da Vine, the MacKenzies' American pilot-chaperone who channels Amelia Earhart with her daredevil moxie. Historical fact and fantasy intertwine as technological marvels of the 1920s, such as the hydrogen-filled gondola and the Vickers Vimy fighter plane, are detailed in wonderfully illustrated gatefolds. These factual elements, which include a map of Sumatra's Toba volcano eruption, sidebars about such things as mustard gas, and illustrations of Cossack flamethrowers, make the hard-to-swallow elements about secret societies, codes, and technologies entirely believable. A great romp for history and mystery fans.—Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NYCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.