One False Note by Gordon Korman

Allison wrote a great review of the second book in the 39 Clues series. I won't go into the synopsis but will say, I enjoyed the second installment. I agree with Allison's assessment that this series is a bit like a boy band. :-) It seems like a bit of a fad in a way. I'm not sure of the lasting power of these books. However, they are entertaining for now and I'm sure kids are loving reading them. I enjoyed the story leading the children to Venice (one of my all-time favorite cities) in this book. I'm a little puzzled with the series though. So far, the children have discovered only one or two clues per book. At some point the pace must pick up because there are only 10 books slated for the series.

Each book in this series is written by a different author. I am curious to see how the voice or story changes from author to author or if it stays fairly consistent. So far I didn't see a huge difference in the style of writing between Rick Riordan and Gordon Korman. I believe the third book The Sword Thief by Peter Larangis comes out March 3rd. Larangis is an unfamiliar author to me. A quick search on Amazon shows he writes two main series: Spy X and Watchers, both received very good reviews and sound interesting to me. I may have to look more into him. Now see, 39 Clues is working its marketing magic. I'm being exposed to an author I've never heard of and thinking about checking out his books. I have a feeling I'm a publisher's dream. :-) I would be very interested to hear others' comments if they have read any of Peter Larangis' books.