Perfect for mystery buffs with “elements of Alex Rider, James Bond, and Sherlock Holmes,” (School Library Journal) the Framed! series continues with Florian and Margaret going undercover at an elite private school!
After helping the FBI solve an art theft at the National Gallery and uncovering a DC spy ring, Florian’s finding life at Alice Deal Middle School a little boring. Then his FBI handler, Marcus, finally has a job for him. Florian can’t wait! Is it a bank robbery? Counterfeit ring? International espionage? Not even close.
The mission is even more middle school. There’s been a series of pranks happening at a prestigious private school attended by the president’s daughter who may—or may not—be involved. So Florian and Margaret go undercover to see if they can use their TOAST skills to figure out what’s going on before the media gets hold of the story.
However, once the crime-solving pair arrive at the school, they discover that there’s a lot more than a few pranks going on, and the conspiracy of silence reaches all the way to the top. Then things take a sinister turn when a student vanishes in the middle of a concert at the Kennedy Center!
Can Florian and Margaret save the day? Or are they about to get toasted?
James Ponti is the New York Times bestselling author of four middle grade book series: The Sherlock Society following a group of young detectives; City Spies, about an unlikely squad of five kids from around the world who form an elite MI6 Spy Team; the Edgar Award–winning Framed! series, about a pair of tweens who solve mysteries in Washington, DC; and the Dead City trilogy, about a secret society that polices the undead living beneath Manhattan. His books have appeared on more than fifteen different state award lists, and he is the founder of a writers group known as the Renegades of Middle Grade. James is also an Emmy–nominated television writer and producer who has worked for many networks including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, History, and Spike TV, as well as NBC Sports. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida. Find out more at JamesPonti.com.
As in Framed! (2016), fast brain- and footwork saves the day at the last moment, but watching Florian wow everyone . . . with Holmes-style connecting of dots along the way is just as satisfying.
A splendid whodunit: cerebral, exhilarating, low in violence, methodical in construction, and occasionally hilarious.
