INDIANA BONES AND THE INVISIBLE CITY
Though the villainous Sir Henry Lupton, self-styled “the Serpent,” and his oily associate, Philip Castle, seem always a step ahead, the plucky pooch and allies, including young “kick-ass archaeologist” Aisha Ghatak—dubbed the “Good Team” lest readers somehow confuse the sides (not likely)—travel from the catacombs of Paris to an underwater cave near Marseille. But it’s on the remote Orkney Isle of Skara Brae where the adventure comes to an end amid just deserts, family reunions, and, as promised, piles of golden loot that Aisha and her father, Satnam, being ethical sorts, immediately set about repatriating. All of this is related in waggish prose as the author fills in background about previous series entries for his readers while shepherding them from one predicament to the next until, his book having “officially run out of chapters,” he closes this story by leaving Aisha and Indiana in a museum back home in Oxford and offers advice to readers: “keep reading, keep reading, keep reading, for books are the real treasure and have magic in their pages.” Bagley’s often whimsical monochrome illustrations punctuate the narrative.
