Urban Outlaws: Shockwave by Peter Jay Black

Urban Outlaws: Shockwave by Peter Jay Black
Buy Urban Outlaws: Shockwave by Peter Jay Black at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Linda Lawlor
Summary: A desperate struggle against impossible odds, and the whole of London in deadly peril: how can five kids save the city and themselves? A heart-stopping, thrill-a-minute conclusion to this excellent series.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 320	Date: November 2016
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 9781408851517
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Betrayed by someone they thought was a friend, their beloved home destroyed and each of them days away from death, Jack and his four young friends still battle on to defeat some of the most heartless villains imaginable. The Urban Outlaws have been infected with a deadly virus, but before they realised this they were in contact with dozens, maybe hundreds of other people and now, as the fifth book opens, the entire city of London is at risk. Exhausted, barely able to move, never mind think, and racked with guilt at the epidemic they've accidentally caused, the outlaws keep going, determined to beat the Del Sartos and find the antidote – if it exists.

Five gifted kids, some orphans, some abandoned, have managed to create for themselves a different kind of family. In their bunker home deep below the London Underground Jack comes up with plans to right wrongs and perform random acts of kindness for people in their local area. Den-mother Charlie builds amazing machines to help them reach their goals, and surveillance chief Obi hacks into all manner of hidden websites to track them on their missions. Free-runner Slink can climb anything, anywhere, and sweet-faced little Wren charms the hardest heart - while she picks your pocket. At least, that was the way things were. Now, they've been tricked into breaking into a secure facility and have been infected with a virus so deadly the bad guys don't bother to kill anyone they capture: what's the point in anything so messy when nature will oblige in just a few days time? And to make things even worse other enemies emerge while the government comes to a dramatic decision: in order to combat the infection they must take the unthinkable step of evacuating the whole of the capital.

With the odds stacked so high against them it's hard to see how the Outlaws could possibly win, and despite all their skills the enemy gets gradually closer to victory. The wild, risky plans, the sheer dare-devil exploits and the constant near-failures will have readers chewing their knuckles down to the elbows. If you like your action fast, with dangers piled on perils piled on jeopardy, and your characters likeable – even funny at times, though there's little opportunity for humour at this stage – then this is without any doubt the perfect series for you.

Readers should be able to read any half-decent book no matter where it is in a series and still follow the plot, and there's enough detail here for that to be perfectly possible. But people who've read the four previous books about Jack and his outlaw family will tell you that you gain so much more by reading from the beginning. A series as good as this one deserves some respect, after all! Start with Urban Outlaws, then move through Blackout and Lockdown) to Counterstrike. Epic!

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You can read more book reviews or buy Urban Outlaws: Shockwave by Peter Jay Black at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Urban Outlaws: Shockwave by Peter Jay Black at Amazon.com.

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