Agent Q, or The Smell of Danger!
Pals in Peril #4
“Quirky, unique, and never dull, this is one adventuresome fantasy readers won’t soon forget, whether they’re followers of the series or meeting the pals for the first time.” — School Library Journal
Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus
Beach Lane Books / Simon & Schuster (2010)
ISBN: 9781442426405
Ages: 10-14
Men in dark hats sneak up behind you. Eyes on portraits follow you. Even the flowers in their pots turn to track you as you pass by. Nothing is safe! No one can be trusted!
Having mopped up their last crime-fighting caper, our three heroes – Lily Gefelty, Katie Mulligan, and Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut – are eager to get home. But the secret police in the war-torn, fantasy realm where the three kids are trapped (the state of Delaware) don’t want them going anywhere. Our dynamic trio knows way too much about the whereabouts of certain fabulous treasures to escape the grip of Delaware’s Ministry of Silence. So, chums, it’s a race to the border of New Jersey against spies and government agents and double-crossers … That is, if our heroes want to make it home alive!
Novel includes: Trap doors, crossbows, passionate seafood, gunplay in a pile of rice pilaf, flipbook art, tusked airship pilots, a shark pit, and, of course, the mysterious CURSE OF THE JAGUAR!
Reviews
★ “In Anderson’s droll send-up of the spy genre, the latest in the Pals in Peril series, restaurant menus hold hidden meanings, sentient lobsters guard resistance hideouts, and informants win Precious Moments figurines for turning people in. Among the energetic chase sequences, diverting authorial interjections, and appropriately quirky illustrations (including flip-book art) is a quiet message about the importance of home, however ‘normal’ it may be.” — Booklist, starred review
“Quirky, unique, and never dull, this is one adventuresome fantasy readers won’t soon forget, whether they’re followers of the series or meeting the pals for the first time.” — School Library Journal
“Hysterical—for readers willing to surrender to a walloping smart ride.” — Kirkus
“Rousing chase scenes and the series' signature absurdist embellishments--sentient lobsters!--enliven Anderson's adventure-story spoof.” — Horn Book