Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger! (M. T. Anderson)

Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger!
A Pals in Peril Tale, Book 4
M. T. Anderson
Beach Lane Books
Fiction, MG Action/Humor/Sci-Fi
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: When last we left our plucky pals - ordinary girl Lily Gefelty, Katie Mulligan (young heroine of haunted Horror Hollow), and Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut - they were in the Vbngoom monastery in the high mountains of exotic Delaware, having just thwarted an evil criminal network's plans to loot the place and turn it into a cheap tourist trap. Now they face the peril of escaping Delaware's many dangers and countless spies in order to get back home to their drab home town of Pelt. But the autocrat in charge - His Terrifying Majesty, the Awful and Adorable Autocrat of Dagsboro, who has long coveted the hidden monastery and its many secrets, secrets that could give him and his vast spy networks unlimited powers and ensure his cruel reign lasts forever - isn't about to let the foreign meddlers and their monk friends slip free without an extended stay in one of the state's many well-appointed interrogation rooms. Fortunately, the Vbngoom head monk has contacts inside the Delaware resistance, who promise aid in the form of Agent Q. Unfortunately, nobody knows what Q looks like... or whether one agent, no matter how good or no matter how many cool spy gadgets they may have, will be enough to help them escape.

REVIEW: The fourth installment of the hilarious series turns its attention to spy novels, as the imperiled pals deal with Delaware's devious spy network with the not-always-helpful-help of "Agent Q", a boy no older than themselves but with the arrogance of someone ten times his size. More wondrous (and not so wondrous) sides of the exotic realm of Delaware unfold, with everything from airship cities to sapient lobsters to state-sanctioned game shows unmasking traitors to the autocrat, though it does still sometimes feel like its repeating itself and could've used a fresh setting. Katie's crush on the young monk Drgnan (it was explained in the previous volume that there is a severe shortage of vowels in the autocrat's mismanaged state) gets some follow-through... along with the first hints of unease by Lily, who doesn't want to be jealous of her best friend finding some happiness but can't seem to stop that squirmy feeling in her belly when she sees them holding hands. Jasper Dash, meanwhile, is a bit unsettled to see some of himself reflected in the egocentric Q, another young hero of a book series who relies on all sorts of sciencey gadgetry and insists in saving the day. The story has a few more breather moments for incremental character growth, but is still fairly relentless in its action and its humor, more than once hiding just a little sliver of something sharper beneath the silly surface. I expect I'll polish off the fifth and final volume in the future.
(Edit - Apparently, there is actually a sixth installment, but my library's Libby service doesn't have it... dang it...)

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