Growing Up & Facts of Life
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City of the Dead (4) (City Spies)
In this fourth installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies go codebreaking in Cairo in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith's Spy School for Girls.
Codename Kathmandu, better known as Kat, loves logic and order, has a favorite eight-digit number, and can spot a pattern from a mile away. So when a series of cyberattacks hits key locations in London while the spies are testing security for the British Museum, it's clear that Kat's skill for finding reason in what seems like randomness makes her the perfect candidate to lead the job.
And while the team follows the deciphered messages to Egypt and the ancient City of the Dead to discover who is behind the attacks and why, Kat soon realizes that there's another layer to the mystery.
With more players, more clues, and involving higher levels of British Intelligence than ever before, this mission is one of the most complex that the group has faced to date. And it's also going to bring about a change to the City Spies…
Codename Kathmandu, better known as Kat, loves logic and order, has a favorite eight-digit number, and can spot a pattern from a mile away. So when a series of cyberattacks hits key locations in London while the spies are testing security for the British Museum, it's clear that Kat's skill for finding reason in what seems like randomness makes her the perfect candidate to lead the job.
And while the team follows the deciphered messages to Egypt and the ancient City of the Dead to discover who is behind the attacks and why, Kat soon realizes that there's another layer to the mystery.
With more players, more clues, and involving higher levels of British Intelligence than ever before, this mission is one of the most complex that the group has faced to date. And it's also going to bring about a change to the City Spies…
Readers Top Reviews
Mark S.
The book was very good so far (I read the first 3 and they were very good)
Kim Bartosch
James Ponti does a fabulous job keeping the story exciting and at a fast pace with plenty of action and compelling characters. The book opens with a heist at a museum, which draws you right into the story. From there the suspense and thrills keep coming until the end. This book is meant for middle schoolers between the ages of 10 to 13, though I feel it can be enjoyed by a younger audience especially if they're strong readers. The story is told through Kat, the leader, who is a girl but there are also two boys and two more girls' main characters making this book enjoyable for both boys and girls. If you haven't read the first three books in the series, no worries, because James Ponti does a wonderful job filling you in so your not missing anything relevant. I highly recommend this book if your middle grader loves spy books or shows, such as AGENT CODY BANKS or SPY KIDS. The thrills never end and it's an easy fast read.
Jim Danko
I'm only on chapter 4 but the book is so fun and engaging. Easily the best book out of the first 4.
Short Excerpt Teaser
Chapter 1: British Museum 1. British Museum
LONDON, ENGLAND-PRESENT DAY
ON A SLATE GRAY NOVEMBER day, one hundred years after the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb, a group of five young people converged in a part of London known as Bloomsbury. Like Howard Carter, they were looking to recover treasures of Egyptian antiquity. Except they weren't going to dig a tunnel in the desert. They were going to sneak through one in an abandoned section of the London Underground. And the artifacts they sought weren't concealed in some long-forgotten tomb. They were on display at one of the busiest museums in the world.
This was no excavation. It was a heist.
"Testing comms, one, two, three," Kat said into the microphone hidden in the red remembrance poppy pinned to her lapel. "Can everybody hear me?"
"Loud and clear," said Paris.
"Perfectly," answered Rio.
"All good on my end," Brooklyn replied.
There was a pause as they waited for a final voice to check in.
"Sydney, are you not responding because you can't hear me?" Kat asked. "Or is it because you're still pouting?"
After a moment, Sydney replied, "I'm sorry. I was under the impression nobody cared what I had to say."
"So, pouting," Paris commented.
"I'm not pouting," Sydney said defensively. "I'm just… disappointed. All I asked was that we slide the break-in a couple hours so we could see the fireworks at Battersea Park. You know how much I love Bonfire Night. It's going to be huge and everyone's going to be there."
"Which is exactly why we're going to be here," Kat said. "The police will be spread thin, and there are no celebrations scheduled for Bloomsbury. That means they'll be elsewhere, which dramatically improves the probability of us not getting caught."
Kat was the alpha on this mission, which meant she had to come up with the plan to break into the British Museum. She'd studied dozens of famous robberies and noticed that many took place on holidays or during special events, when police and security altered their normal patterns and were understaffed. She picked this date because of its connection to one of the most infamous figures in British history.
On November 5, 1605, a soldier-turned-radical named Guy Fawkes was captured before he could execute his plan to use thirty-six barrels of gunpowder to blow up Parliament. Ever since, Britons had marked the occasion with raucous public displays that included bonfires, burning effigies, and fireworks.
For Sydney, a born rebel who loved "making things go boom," it was as if Bonfire Night had been created specifically with her in mind. And here she was in London, so close to some of the biggest celebrations in the country, yet she was going to miss out.
"Just tell me this," Kat said. "Are you good to go with the mission? Or is this going to be a problem?"
"Of course I'm good," Sydney replied. "I never let anything affect our work."
"Excellent," Kat said. "And if it makes you feel better, I'll try to find something for you to blow up."
"I really appreciate it," Sydney replied with a smile. "That means a lot."
Rio cleared his throat and said, "Now that we've got everybody's feelings sorted, can we please get started?"
"Yeah," Brooklyn added, "you know we can't do anything until you give us the word."
As the alpha, it was Kat's responsibility to say the good luck phrase that kicked off every operation.
"Okay, then," she said, surveying the museum entrance from her vantage point in the Great Court. "This operation is hot. We are a go."
And just like that, the City Spies were in action. The five of them were an experimental team of agents, aged twelve to fifteen, who worked for MI6, British Secret Intelligence. They were called in for assignments in which adults would stand out but kids could blend in.
In this instance, the job was to steal two items on display in a special exhibition called Wonderful Things: One Hundred Years of Tutmania. They didn't know why they were stealing them; after all, spies weren't supposed to ask too many questions. All they'd been told was that it was in the best interests of the British government for them to do so.
Kat had never been the alpha for a mission this big, and she'd prepared for it like she did most things, as though it were a series of complex math equations. She split the heist into two parts so they could, in her words, "isolate the variables." The theft wouldn't happen until after the museum closed. But now, while it was...
LONDON, ENGLAND-PRESENT DAY
ON A SLATE GRAY NOVEMBER day, one hundred years after the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb, a group of five young people converged in a part of London known as Bloomsbury. Like Howard Carter, they were looking to recover treasures of Egyptian antiquity. Except they weren't going to dig a tunnel in the desert. They were going to sneak through one in an abandoned section of the London Underground. And the artifacts they sought weren't concealed in some long-forgotten tomb. They were on display at one of the busiest museums in the world.
This was no excavation. It was a heist.
"Testing comms, one, two, three," Kat said into the microphone hidden in the red remembrance poppy pinned to her lapel. "Can everybody hear me?"
"Loud and clear," said Paris.
"Perfectly," answered Rio.
"All good on my end," Brooklyn replied.
There was a pause as they waited for a final voice to check in.
"Sydney, are you not responding because you can't hear me?" Kat asked. "Or is it because you're still pouting?"
After a moment, Sydney replied, "I'm sorry. I was under the impression nobody cared what I had to say."
"So, pouting," Paris commented.
"I'm not pouting," Sydney said defensively. "I'm just… disappointed. All I asked was that we slide the break-in a couple hours so we could see the fireworks at Battersea Park. You know how much I love Bonfire Night. It's going to be huge and everyone's going to be there."
"Which is exactly why we're going to be here," Kat said. "The police will be spread thin, and there are no celebrations scheduled for Bloomsbury. That means they'll be elsewhere, which dramatically improves the probability of us not getting caught."
Kat was the alpha on this mission, which meant she had to come up with the plan to break into the British Museum. She'd studied dozens of famous robberies and noticed that many took place on holidays or during special events, when police and security altered their normal patterns and were understaffed. She picked this date because of its connection to one of the most infamous figures in British history.
On November 5, 1605, a soldier-turned-radical named Guy Fawkes was captured before he could execute his plan to use thirty-six barrels of gunpowder to blow up Parliament. Ever since, Britons had marked the occasion with raucous public displays that included bonfires, burning effigies, and fireworks.
For Sydney, a born rebel who loved "making things go boom," it was as if Bonfire Night had been created specifically with her in mind. And here she was in London, so close to some of the biggest celebrations in the country, yet she was going to miss out.
"Just tell me this," Kat said. "Are you good to go with the mission? Or is this going to be a problem?"
"Of course I'm good," Sydney replied. "I never let anything affect our work."
"Excellent," Kat said. "And if it makes you feel better, I'll try to find something for you to blow up."
"I really appreciate it," Sydney replied with a smile. "That means a lot."
Rio cleared his throat and said, "Now that we've got everybody's feelings sorted, can we please get started?"
"Yeah," Brooklyn added, "you know we can't do anything until you give us the word."
As the alpha, it was Kat's responsibility to say the good luck phrase that kicked off every operation.
"Okay, then," she said, surveying the museum entrance from her vantage point in the Great Court. "This operation is hot. We are a go."
And just like that, the City Spies were in action. The five of them were an experimental team of agents, aged twelve to fifteen, who worked for MI6, British Secret Intelligence. They were called in for assignments in which adults would stand out but kids could blend in.
In this instance, the job was to steal two items on display in a special exhibition called Wonderful Things: One Hundred Years of Tutmania. They didn't know why they were stealing them; after all, spies weren't supposed to ask too many questions. All they'd been told was that it was in the best interests of the British government for them to do so.
Kat had never been the alpha for a mission this big, and she'd prepared for it like she did most things, as though it were a series of complex math equations. She split the heist into two parts so they could, in her words, "isolate the variables." The theft wouldn't happen until after the museum closed. But now, while it was...
