A great addition to the Spy School series. I found that the characters were a little harder to follow this time around, but the storyline is just, overall, lots of fun. I know my readers will enjoy! Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

Murray is ready to talk, but only to Ben. He's turned over a new leaf, gotten some exercise, lost some weight, and is ready to turn over SPYDER's secret whereabouts. Cyrus decides that Erica and Ben should go, because they will work better in a stealth situation, so they are soon on a plane headed south. Zoe and Mike decides to stow away, and of course things start to go wrong. Murray is double crossing them, (it's not a spoiler if you expect it to happen, right?), and soon they are crash landing in the jungle in Mexico. NOT the Mexico of picture postcards, but the Mexico with crocodiles and clouds of mosquitoes. They eventually make their way to the resort where the SPYDER headquarters has been moved, and infiltrate it by pretending to be associated with the Farkle Family Fiesta taking place. This provides a room (via a stolen credit card) and camouflage (family t shirt). They manage to infiltrate it, only to have Ben decide that he couldn't let a former nemesis be killed, so he saves Paul Lee. Saddled with their newest evil criminal as well as Murray, Ben and Erica have to salvage the mission. They have to deal with Ashley and Warren as well, but thankfully Erica's mother shows up. After much adventure and mayhem, we're still not much closer to taking down SPYDER, although Ben has made some progress on his romantic life, which means we have more adventures to look forward to in book seven!

Strengths: You know how, as an adult, you read things like Lillian Jackson Braun's 29 book Cat Who mysteries? And you don't think about character development or plot or literary merit? You just read them because they are fun to read? Gibbs' writing is just so much fun that I definitely fall into this trap, especially on a Sunday afternoon. These books are all hysterically funny, with deft turns of phrase, improbably schemes, and great characters. I am especially fond of Erica because she is so skilled and competent. Can she fly the airplane they are in that is crashing to the ground? Well, she's flown OTHER planes, so why not? Ben is actually very complex-- he has a brilliant mind for fighting criminals, but his survival and defense skills are weak, which intrigues me. Great stuff.

Weaknesses: My biggest Gibbs fan has gone on to the high school. Excuse me while I go weep.

What I really think: Definitely purchasing, although seven books is about as long as a middle school series needs to be.

Kid is a huge fan of the series, but very disappointed with this one. While main character Ben was fine, all the other characters seemed different... and not in a good way if you go back to the 1st book. It's as if Zoe and Erica have lost their main essence, qualities that helped make these books such a hit. The love triangles have gotten kind of bizarre and turning the characters nutty, near unlikable and unrecognizable. Still, kid's a loyalist and giving 3.5 stars.