M Freeman and a couple of her classmates survived the destruction of the Lawless School, in Lawless (2013), but now she and her friends are stuck at their rival school, Fulbright, and don't feel very welcome. Tracked and controlled by advanced technology, M is wary and takes to heart her father's message: "Do as they say, not as they do." She knows that the umbra mortis is still out there, and that, along with searching for her mother, is central to the continuing action. The engaging action of this sci-fi thriller will keep readers on their toes and hungry for the next installment.

Gr 4-7 "What happened next happened fast," the narrator says at one point, which aptly sums up the pace of this sequel to Salane's Lawless (Scholastic, 2013). The story picks up the action just after the close of the previous book as adolescent master criminal M Freeman is held captive inside the sprawling hideout of the Fulbrights, a disciplined team of vigilantes and arch-rivals of her own Lawless School. Here, M and her Lawless classmates are fitted for ultra high-tech battle suits and forced through a grueling series of tests, preparation for a dangerous mission kept secret from them. When M hatches a scheme to break out her mother, imprisoned on an upper floor, readers are vaulted on an urgent trip to a Soviet-era stadium outside Prague, the British Museum in London, and a secret apartment in Manhattan. Stolen art, moon rocks, medieval alchemy, and a lesser-known text by Geoffrey Chaucer all tie into a snowballing plot by the Fulbright leader to engineer a perfect human. Speculative technology elements are often thought-provoking. Though the narrative sometimes veers into the absurd, plot twists and vivid suspense effectively keep readers on edge. The cast here is large, and loyalties are often in question, so this volume is better understood after reading Lawless . A sudden dark turn and a cliff-hanger ending suggest another book is on the way. VERDICT A good choice for younger thriller readers, especially in collections where the first book is already circulating. Bob Hassett, Luther Jackson Middle School, Falls Church, VA