This is the 3rd in the City Spies series and it's a lot of fun and full of adventure and mystery. This is another well-written and engaging installment in this series and it's got more going on now that we've gotten to know most of the characters so we can watch them grow, learn and see what happens on their adventures. It's a simple yet complex storyline and series that can be enjoyed by both kids and adults alike. It's great to watch the kids develop and use their talents and skills in the story for their missions and this is a good example of a found family story, which is always a favorite for me. I can't wait to hopefully read more or reread this series and introduce it to my kids also.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing/Aladdin for letting me read and review this enjoyable book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )

As with the first two books there was a lot of humor. Great characters. Suspense. Great fun! Great characters that have some complexity. Great relationships. Yes, the spy kids (and adults) force the reader to suspend disbelief but somehow it all works for me. Learning a bit about other countries/places is also a plus.

I’ve been struggling to read but it’s at least partly the books I was reading because I found it easy to read this book and my last book, [book:Stella Peabody's Wild Librarian Bakery and Bookstore: A Novel-in-Stories|59449573], two very different sorts of books, but I was able to focus and concentrate on both, and thoroughly enjoyed them both. I wish that was true for all books I have interest in reading, at least the ones that arent’ too dense.

Kids who play chess might really enjoy this book. I liked how chess had a featured role in the story, and even the chapter titles.

This is a great series for reluctant readers, for girls and for boys.

It was weird reading this book right now given what Putin is doing right now in the Ukraine. Russia is one of the settings for this book.

I was told that the name Mother would be explained in this book and it was. I hate it less than I did before knowing the reason for it but I still don’t like it.

This author has two other short series. There are now three books in each of the three series. I hope that doesn’t mean that this will be the last book in this series. I love these characters and their relationships and the stories and the settings.

I loved reading the hardcover edition. I still prefer paper books to e-books but during the pandemic I've been reading a lot of e-books. ( )

Intrigue, puzzles, and forming friendships run high in an exciting race to solve the code and travel the world in the process.

This is the third book in the series, and while the others are quite a bit of fun and I do recommend them (yes, I read the first two already), these aren't hard to dive into and join the fun without hitting the other books first.

I do enjoy this series. Not only do the characters come across naturally but there's a nice sense of humor mixed in. Of course, there's tension and action and moments, where it's not clear if the heroes will complete their mission (and of course, that would have terrible consequences if they didn't), but there's also quirks in their personalities, shopping, misunderstandings, forming friendships, and personal issues (nothing to heavy). So while all of this dances along spies and such, it also carries the needed lightness to make it an easy and enjoyable read.

One of the things, which makes this book so enjoyable (outside of the needed atmosphere) are the character strings. Each one (outside of Charlotte) has their own, distinct subplot and problems to solve, while working on the bigger, main one (although Brooklyn is stuck in Scotland first). There's the friendship dynamic, and there's a bit of a type of family dynamic thanks to 'Mother'. And then, there's the travel. The author is a busy guy as he covers quite a bit of ground and research (whether in reality or information wise). It's a travel around the world, which incorporates enough details to make each place unique and, yet, never bogs down with descriptions. This one flows with a well-woven pace the entire way through, and that makes it a treat.

My final thoughts, this is a middle grade series to not be overlooked. The writing sits, the characters are tons of fun, the adventure is there, and...well, it's simply a good read. I received an ARC and got lost in the pages. ( )