Eliza D. Braun and Wellington Books are finally back in England. The Queen's Diamond Jubilee is only a year away, but all is not right in the kingdom. Someone is behind the scenes, working from the shadows. It's Eliza's crew of street spies, the Ministry Seven, who stumble upon this behind the scenes mastermind, and suddenly, the entire Ministry is in peril and out of favor. Another department of the Queen's government has been tasked with taking out the Ministry agents, and it looks like the secretive Maestro may finally be making his move.
That's my summary. Here's the one I pulled from http://www.ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com/novels/
Having narrowly escaped the electrifying machinations of Thomas Edison, Books and Braun are looking forward to a relaxing and possibly romantic voyage home. But when Braun’s emergency signal goes off, all thoughts of recreation vanish. Braun’s street-wise team of child informants, the Ministry Seven, is in grave peril, and Books and Braun must return to England immediately.
But when the intrepid agents finally arrive in London, the situation is even more dire than they imagined. The Ministry has been disavowed, and the Department of Imperial Inconveniences has been called in to decommission its agents in a most deadly fashion. The plan reeks of the Maestro’s dastardly scheming. Only, this time, he has a dangerous new ally—a duplicitous doctor whose pernicious poisons have infected the highest levels of society, reaching even the Queen herself…
My Thoughts
Of the four Ministry of Peculiar Occurences books I've read, this one is my favorite. This book is the one that had some real plot twist shockers that left my jaw dropped. It got a few belly laughs out of me, and overall, it was more of a draw to my personal tastes. This is the book that will give me reason to go back and reread books 1-3, because those things that made my jaw drop were hinted at in the preceding novels. It was all done so subtly I didn't even notice, but now I know the clues were there, so I want to go find them.
This book did, though, sort of go a little "out there" in my opinion. It broke expectations for me... as far as limitations of the world go. I'm still wrapping my head around some of the things that happened, trying to decide whether or not I like the way some things went. Oh, I understand them plot-wise and all, but I'm torn on whether or not a particular section of the book sits right with me or not. Either way, I still enjoyed the book very much.
I am sad to say, though, that this book kept up the trend of being easy to get distracted from. Something about these books just keeps me from being riveted, and I still can't put my finger on exactly what that quality is. Most likely, it's just some disconnect between the writing style and my reading style. But it's yet another reason I want to reread them. I know I've missed a lot.
Would I Recommend This Book? Sure! This book had some great surprises that left me gaping and giddy. While I still have some attention issues with reading this series, it's still a lot of fun and worth the read. I give The Diamond Conspiracy a transformed 4 of 5 stars.
For more on the author, visit http://www.ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com/authors/
Thank you, August. The words "This is the book that will give me reason to go back and reread books 1-3, because those things that made my jaw drop were hinted at in the preceding novels." make me smile like you could not imagine.
ReplyDeleteI love taking folks on a long ride like this! :)