From the Publisher
The Mysterious Benedict Society is back! The cast has aged, but the criminal contingency, amped-up action, and derring-do remain the same. Now teenagers, bright-bulb Reynie, intrepid Kate, and Sticky, he of the photographic memory, have the biggest fight ever on their hands. All of the bad guys from previous books (a baker's dozen of them) have returned with revenge on their minds and nefarious plans in their pockets, along with all sorts of instruments of evil. Also in attendance is the ever-contrary Constance Contraire... A welcome return full of the right stuff.—Booklist (Starred Review)
Chases, narrow squeaks, hastily revised stratagems, and heroic exploits that culminate in a characteristically byzantine whirl of climactic twists, triumphs, and revelations... Clever as ever.—Kirkus
SEPTEMBER 2019 - AudioFile
When a beloved book series must change narrators, it can sometimes be disconcerting, but Eric Pollins admirably takes the reigns from the late Del Roy, who narrated the first four books in this series. In Book 5, the members of the Mysterious Benedict Society are older; Reynie, Kate, and Sticky are on the verge of adulthood when they and Constance reunite for a new adventure. A 5-year-old telepath named Tai, voiced with raspy, wide-eyed innocence, joins them to round up Ledroptha Curtain’s 10 dangerous henchmen who have escaped from prison. Pollins imbues Mr. Benedict with gruff warmth, and Curtain’s voice drips with arrogance. This cozy mystery full of puzzles and wordplay begs for the whole family to settle in and listen together. S.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2019-04-28
When deadly minions of archvillain Ledroptha Curtain escape from prison, the talented young protégés of his twin brother, Nicholas Benedict, reunite for a new round of desperate ploys and ingenious trickery.
Stewart sets the reunion of cerebral Reynie Muldoon Perumal, hypercapable Kate Wetherall, shy scientific genius George "Sticky" Washington, and spectacularly sullen telepath Constance Contraire a few years after the previous episode, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma (2009). Providing relief from the quartet's continual internecine squabbling and self-analysis, he trucks in Tai Li, a grubby, precociously verbal 5-year-old orphan who also happens to be telepathic. (Just to even the playing field a bit, the bad guys get a telepath too.) Series fans will know to be patient in wading through all the angst, arguments, and flurries of significant nose-tapping (occasionally in unison), for when the main action does at long last get under way—the five don't even set out from Mr. Benedict's mansion together until more than halfway through—the Society returns to Nomansan Island (get it?), the site of their first mission, for chases, narrow squeaks, hastily revised stratagems, and heroic exploits that culminate in a characteristically byzantine whirl of climactic twists, triumphs, and revelations. Except for brown-skinned George and olive-complected, presumably Asian-descended Tai, the central cast defaults to white; Reynie's adoptive mother is South Asian.
Clever as ever—if slow off the mark—and positively laden with tics, quirks, and puns. (Fiction. 11-13)
