Review by Booklist Review
In this continuation of the Fourth Stall series, Mac and Vince are now in seventh grade and have shut down their advisory business. But then they get an offer they can't refuse and make the mistake of selling the business to a punky classmate. After a remorseful old nemesis enters the scene, Mac and Vince try to help his nemesis's little sister who turns out to be running an advisory business of her own at another school. Rylander keeps up the delightful, boycentric beat, mixing bravado, embarrassments, and wisecracks with real wisdom.--Goldsmith, Francisca Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
Though seventh graders Mac and Vince have technically retired from their lucrative but dangerous middle-school detective business, they can't refuse when a new kid offers them easy money for letting him take over. However, things quickly spiral out of control, and the duo must save their school from a mysterious new criminal mastermind in this entertaining tale. (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In the third and final installment of the Fourth Stall saga, Mac and Vince are pulled back into the world of organized crime at their middle school. Life seemed simple for a while. Seventh grade had started, and Mac and Vince were no longer running their syndicate out of the fourth stall in the east-wing boys' bathroom. Their service had been to help middle schoolers with their problemsfor a price. But Jimmy Two-Tone moves in to reopen it, offering a 15-percent cut to Mac and Vince since they had built the business in the first place. "[R]isk-free money," Mac thinks, until Jimmy's operation gets out of hand, and Jimmy finds himself in over his head. All of a sudden a higher power makes a play, demanding a repayment of debts along with permanent records on every student at the school, including addresses, grades and disciplinary records, loaded onto a flash drive. The story becomes so diffuse, implausible and unpleasant that readers will find all characters unlikable by the end. A series that seemed promising in the first volume and improving in the second becomes muddled here, boding ill for the hint of future volumes when Mac gets to high school. Readers of the previous installments will be eager to see how it all plays out, but they may well be disappointed. (Fiction. 8-12)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
