The Midnight Market

(Hardback)

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Description

City Spies meets Indiana Jones in this second book of the Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter series that follows Lola and her friends as they compete for a spot in top treasure-hunting society.

After saving her father and the world, twelve-year-old Lola Benko and her new best friends, Jin and Hannah, are a true treasure-hunting team. But after botching a huge job, they are looking to redeem themselves.

They decide to try their luck at Camp Timberwood, where teams will compete to join the legendary Task Force, a group that gets plumb assignments around the globe. When their former nemesis, Lipstick, shows up unexpectedly, she makes an offer they cant refuse: help her find the legendary Helm of Darkness and she will help them come out on top in the competitionand be the first team in line for the Task Force.

They just have to go to the mysterious Midnight Market, where the Helm is rumored to be. But Lola, Jin, and Hannah still arent fully back in sync after their recent failure. Can they prove to the Task Forceand themselvesthat they still have what it takes

Reviews

To reestablish their friendship and their reputations as treasure hunters, Lola Benko convinces Jin Wu-Rossi and Hannah Hill to join her at summer campand on another quest.

After their success reclaiming the Stone of Istenanya in Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter (2020), the three middle schoolers are eager to find the Pegasus necklace. Their overconfidence results in an epic failure to deliver, recounted here with cheek by Lola. Cast out of the treasure-hunting world, the friends drift apart. Anxious to bring the team together again, Lola jumps when her father pulls strings to get the trio into a camp for like-minded explorersbut it takes some doing to get Jin and Hannah to agree to attend. They immediately question their decision when they find Lipstick, their nemesis, is the camp director. She uses them to retrieve the Helm of Darkness while others are trying to off them. Thankfully, some of the villains are dimwits. As the team hurtles around New York City on the hunt, they depend less on STEM skills and more on zany happenstance plus help from brainy, comical Zeus, Lolas great-aunts talking parrot, who stowed away for the trip. Its the rapport between the friends that provides the real magic in this colorful, ridiculous adventure. The caper closes with a surprise reveal and the promise of more to come. Other than Chinese/Italian Jin, most characters read as White.

Laugh-out-loud funny. -- Kirkus Reviews * July 1, 2021 *

Author Bio

Beth McMullen is the author of the Mrs. Smiths Spy School for Girls series;the Lola Benko, Treasure Hunter series;the Secret of the Storm series; and several adult mysteries. Her books have heroes and bad guys, action and messy situations. An avid reader, she once missed her subway stop and rode the train all the way to Brooklyn because the book she was reading was that good. She lives in northern California with her family and two cats. Visit her at BethMcMullenBooks.com.