If you are new to the series, you should read them in order. The missions are standalone, but it's much better if you know who the characters are and follow their growth.

I think this is the first book in the series in which James is not the main character. Here that place of honor goes to his sister Lauren. She is the one who shines bright in a a brutal black shirts' training exercise back at the Cherub campus and she's the senior agent in the main mission of the book.

At this point in the series Muchamore is mixing the Cherubs' life at the campus with missions, and this is a good example of it. The training exercise takes a lot of pages, and there's also a subplot about James and Kerry getting a few weeks of "work experience" like all other 16-year-old Cherub kids, and getting in some trouble. The main mission is Lauren and Jake's show, and it involves the investigation of a suspected terrorist attack against a passenger plane.

Some will be disappointed that the spy stuff is only part of the book, but I think it's a good idea to spend time showing us life at the campus. Just the missions would start being a bit repetitive after 9 books, and this adds variety. The limitation of this series is that there's not much room for deviations from the basic formula, even if the antagonists are different each time. Besides, the coolness of the Cherub campus and training is a big draw of the series. The training exercise involving all the black shirts in the campus was probably the highlight of this book for me.

The mission was not bad either. It touched close to home, since there were relatives of an important character in the series in the plane. It was also a bit different, since it was an "open" mission (i.e. to save time the Cherub kids openly acknowledged to some people who might be inclined to help them that they were intelligence agents).

All in all, another satisfying yarn. This is not by any means great literature. It has no deep themes. Instead, it has a lot of action and adrenaline, a fast pace and well-defined characters you care about. ( )

I loved the White shirt vs. Black shirt training exercise - Lauren is so totally kickass. I feel so sorry for Mac and his family. It was heartbreaking reading those scenes. Reading scenes from Fahim's point of view were interesting although I can't say I particularly liked Fahim as a character. I liked that Rat made an appearance on Lauren's mission. Kerry is all over the place - she's insane. It's nice to see James and Dana are still together - especially since James is a jerk. Although he does seem to have somewhat grown as a person. ( )

this book rocks it's awesome i have heard and i think as well

This book is an in thrilling part of the cherub series, however it is a little disappointing because it doesn't have the, well let say spiciness, of the other cherub books that have been, but this book sets the end up fairly well though ( )

it is a really amazing book. it keeps you glued to the page and you never want to put it down. you really wish it was true ( )