Review by Booklist Review
The latest Ruby Redfort adventure features Child's trademark wit, with clever allusions to popular culture, gentle digs at out-of-it parents, and a complex yet accessible plot. An intriguing prologue establishes both Ruby's fearless and self-sufficient character and the introduction of one of many marvelous, seemingly unconnected factoids: a huge blue wolf believed to be extinct. Then we jump ahead nine years to the present and Ruby's ordeal at Spectrum's survival training camp, a step in her training to become a field agent. The obstacles in her path include not only possibly extinct animals but also clairvoyant old ladies, priceless missing jewels, and a wicked cold she can't seem to ditch. All the old friends are back: helpful and impossibly suave butler Hitch, irascible yet kindly housekeeper Mrs. Digby, and of course Clancy Crew, Ruby's sometime partner in crime. With short chapters, great hooks, and periodic interactive activities (Morse code, anyone?), as well as fascinating tidbits about science and natural history, it's a great read-aloud for families or the classroom and will be snapped up by the series' many fans.--Carton, Debbie Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
In her third adventure, spy-in-training Ruby Redfort joins forces with best friend Clancy to unravel a mystery involving missing jewelry, perfume, and wild animals on the loose. Child delivers an irreverent and fast-paced (if rambling) escapade that will appeal to any reader who has fantasized about life as a code-cracking secret agent. Back matter explains how to encode one's name using molecular structures. (c) Copyright 2015. 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
Teenage spy-in-training Ruby Redfort sniffs out something rotten in the town of Twinford in her third outing.Ruby's injured, ill and feeling her nascent career as a field agent hanging by a thread in the wake of a disastrous wilderness-survival test. She nonetheless soldiers on intrepidly as Child draws together seemingly unrelated incidents and puzzles: antique jewelry disappearing from a posh department store, rumored sightings of exotic creatures on the loose, Ruby's best friend's struggles to earn his father's respect, an attractive stranger ruthlessly interrogating a captive in a windowless warehouse, a forest fire, a corpse, legends of a particularly dangerous wolf and more. Ultimately, it all turns out to be a scheme involving a certain mind-altering musk, and not only does the author create a properly redolent atmosphere from the outset by pouring references to scents, odors, stinks and perfumes into the narrative, she concocts an actual cipher based on fragrances for Ruby to solve. The many short chapters and changes in point of view give the narrative an aimless air, but it moves more quickly than the page count suggests to a moderately suspenseful climax that leaves this expert sleuth, forger, lock-picker and sneak on her feet. Stay tuned for further adventures. Not exactly a high-tension page-turner, but an entertaining escapade with an offbeat whiff. (multiple afterwords) (Mystery. 9-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
