The Inside Job: And Other Skills I Learned as a Superspy

Gr 4–8—In The Doublecross (Bloomsbury, 2015), 12-year-old super spy Hale Jordan discovered that SRS, the agency that employs his whole family, is actually evil. In this sequel, Hale and the ragtag team of spies who call themselves the League plot to take down SRS any way they can. The trouble is that the League is comprised of five kids and two adults in a decrepit building filled with antique equipment, while SRS is a massive international organization with endless resources. The League's first plan is to infiltrate the Swiss Bank where SRS houses its money, but they soon realize that SRS funds are constantly being moved from one account to another by a bank employee named Hastings. When they confront Hastings, they learn that SRS is blackmailing him by threatening to reveal that his prize show dog, Annabelle, is not actually a purebred. Hastings promises to help the League, but only if they recover a set of valuable jeweled books that were stolen from his family. What follows are a series of madcap adventures involving a clown, a high-speed chase in a golf cart, a gold heist, an iguana, and the giant lovable dog Annabelle. Like the first book, this is a funny, smart spy adventure with strong characters and clever twists. Pearce does an excellent job of weaving the characters' internal struggles into the plot: Hale and the other League members who defected from SRS grapple with how to be a "good" agency, even while using methods they learned from their enemy; Hale faces unsettling news about his parents' criminal past; and several characters must cope with the fact that their parents chose "the mission" over their children. Although Hale lacks the physique and athleticism of a conventional hero, he always manages to escape sticky situations using his wits and the unique skills of each of his fellow agents.