Spyglass: Mastermind of Mayhem

This breathtaking new action series from David Solomons is an adrenaline-fuelled, comedic celebration of the spy genre.

Adam Stickland lives an uneventful life for most of the year, using his talent for fixing things to help his parents with their barely-profitable holiday park in the country’s least exciting coastal town. Every summer, his mates – Tyler and Zada – come to visit and this year there is no time for the sun-lounging that Tyler craves.

Adam’s chores around the holiday park are relentless and his friends come along for the ride when it’s time to deliver groceries to the spooky old house on the hill with its mysterious new owner: Professor Goodspeed. Once they peek beyond his grumpy and rude character, the three friends learn that Goodspeed is an utter genius – former quartermaster to the very best British spies (including pun-spinning spy-hero Aston Drake). His inventions are beyond their wildest imaginations and, when his mansion is suddenly attacked by scary-looking soldiers dressed in black, the children get to see them in all their glory!

The usual mundaneness of the Golden Cliff resort is well and truly left behind when Goodspeed is kidnapped and Adam and his friends inherit his gadgets. They are soon getting to grips with monster tyres on their bikes and the power to bubble-wrap helicopters, as they try to find a plan to save the professor.

The classic evil baddy is played by Doctor Toe – a devilish chiropodist hell-bent on controlling the world’s population through their feet. By bugging Adam’s rabbit – Hoppenheimer – Toe tracks down Adam and charges him with locating Goodspeed’s Quantum of Shoelace device, or else there will be very explosive consequences!

The overriding feel of the book is one of pace and excitement. Chapters race along from one explosion to the another as the children take on everything from sarcastic AI drones to robotic sharks. However, as with Solomons’ previous successes, there are also plenty of jokes. Much of the comedy is in the form of sending up the spy-genre. The book relentlessly pokes fun at how ridiculous the plots of spy-movies are, with a highlight being ‘…the old raising-the-shipwreck-to-scupper-the-escape-submarine manoeuvre!’ The book is also rammed full of deliberately over-the-top, cringy, wise-cracks and quips that even 007 would baulk at. It’s funny throughout and some of the witticisms will go over the heads of younger readers but delight their parents.

Occasionally, the balance of action and comedy is not quite right and, just as readers are sliding towards the edge of their seats, they are snapped back by another silly gag as if the story suddenly remembers it’s supposed to be aimed at children. This is certainly the case in Dr Toe’s efforts to take over the world with a giant, nuclear powered nail file, but things don’t get really silly until the military wing of the foot care community arrive.

With new episodes in the series already planned, Spyglass is all set to become a major new series for thrill-seeking young readers.