Book Review: City Of The Dead by James Ponti

I don’t think I’ve ever read a more wholesome spy novel! This middle-grade thriller will definitely charm its target audience (and any older readers who happen across it,) while also imparting some really valuable lessons in a way that’s both subtle and entertaining. 

Our City Spies are all kids between the ages of twelve to fifteen who’ve been adopted by Mother and recruited to the agency he works for: MI6. The first young spy to be recruited, Paris, actually pulled Mother from the burning building where he’d been left for dead after being betrayed by his own wife, Clemmie. Clemmie subsequently went on the run with the terrorist organization Umbra, taking their young children with her. 

Since then, Mother has thrown himself not only into his work but into parenting the exceptional orphans he encounters and adopts over the course of his own missions. Our crack team of five kids are based out of Scotland, but as City Of The Dead opens, are on a mission to infiltrate the British Museum in London. The math-loving Kathmandu, or Kat for short, is in charge and nervous, as this is the largest mission she’s been the lead on:

“Everyone good with what they’re supposed to do?” she asked.

 

“Yes,” Rio said with a groan. “We’ve gone over it and over it and over it.”

 

“Good,” Kat said. “Repetition leads to fluency, and fluency leads to confidence. It’s a cornerstone of executing complicated mathematical processes.”

 

“Except this isn’t math,” Rio said. “It’s a break-in.”

 

“You’re so funny,” Kat said. “Everything’s math. Now blend in and disappear.[”]

As the team wraps up the infiltration, they’re caught off guard by a series of cyberattacks targeting the capital. When it becomes clear that this digital terrorism is somehow intertwined with the very things they were investigating at the museum, their mission expands to getting to the bottom of this conundrum as well. The trail leads them to Egypt and the titular City of the Dead, but it’s several very living people who will cause the most problems for the City Spies. Our intrepid heroes must race across countries and against time as they try to nab the criminals attempting to hold London’s transit and medical systems hostage. But what will they do when they acquire a new team member who may not be the innocent kid he seems?

This novel ended on a terrific cliffhanger that has me so eager already to get my hands on the next in the series! I’m super invested in our five protagonists – each codenamed after the city where they were recruited: Paris, Brooklyn, Rio, Sydney and Kathmandu – and their ongoing adventures. I love how they each have their own strengths and weaknesses but have bonded together as siblings, with snappy, realistic conversations showcasing the quick wit you’d expect from a family of spies.

Most of all, I love how James Ponti throws in the most interesting educational material under the guise of all-in-a-day’s-spywork:

The guard scoffed. “And what crimes have we committed, love?” he said with a tone that was meant to sound paternal but was totally patronizing. “Have we broken the laws of fashion? Let me guess, we didn’t use the right designer for our uniforms?”

 

Sydney rolled her eyes. “I was thinking more about your violations of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.” She waited a beat before adding, “Love.”

City Of The Dead discusses Egyptian culture, history and geography, and the controversy over artifact repatriation in a way that’s lively and accessible for any kid. This is in addition to all the nifty math and computing facts, not to mention spycraft, peppered throughout the book. My editor and I agree that we would have loved reading this series as kids. I’m just glad that I get to read it as an adult and pass it on to my own children!