SURE FIRE

Fifteen-year-old British twins Jade and Rich don’t know what they’re going to do when their mother is killed in a traffic accident. Then a father they didn’t know was alive comes to the funeral and takes them to live with him in London. John Chance is far too mysterious about his life for Jade, and neither twin plans on going to the boarding schools he’s started calling. When they see him kidnapped by gun-toting thugs and find the police won’t help, Jade and Rich decide a hard-to-live-with Dad is better than none. The truth they find is more amazing than expected—Chance works for British Intel and has been undercover trying to stop a Russian oil baron from controlling the world’s oil supply. The kids rescue their father, and the three of them save the world’s oil. Prolific adult-thriller author Higgins teams with Richards, of Invisible Detective and Doctor Who, fame to create a page-turning spy thriller without resorting to the hyperbole and science-fiction gadgets of Alex Rider and Spy Kids. Well worth your teen thriller dollars. (Fiction. YA)