The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma

I posted a review of the series as a whole on my blog at http://bookwi.se/mysterious-benedict-society/

The later books were a bit more action/quest focused than the first. I think they were also not quite as dark. But they still were very character focused books and that is what I really liked about the series.

Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance are once again pitted against the evil mastermind Ledroptha Curtain who of course just happens to be the twin brother of the benelovent Mr. Benedict. This tale is not quite as zippy as the preceding books but my two kids ate it up just as rabidly. As ever, Constance Contraire is a chief source of amusement, but the plot is harder to summarize. Basically Mr. Curtain wants to regain the Whisperer for his megalomanical plans. And Constance is developing some mental telepathy. Once again the kids would beg me to read more whenever I'd finish reading for the night. They love the Mysterious Benedict Society.

I love the story as much as I love the characters. Finding out the riddles of the puzzles is always fun to solve with the characters. Yet, I still find the fight scenes to be confusing and the sequence of events that happen offstage that are explained later for the plot are just as confusing as well. But I did enjoy the book and will be reading the next one!

Yes, yes, yes. I am a total MBS fanatic now. I love the children, the adults, the love-to-hate-em enemies. The third installment was my favorite of the books and though everything wraps up nicely at the end, I have hopes for another. Prisoner's Dilemma involves another life and death adventure for our four heroes to tackle and it is an exciting one. An excellent book.