SuitabookTruth, evidence and justice
Max is told that his mother’s trial was rigged and begins examining a clue connected with the case.
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Book details
Paul Adam - Author
A brisk mystery-adventure centred on a young performer who investigates a suspicious death while pursuing answers about his missing father and imprisoned mother. Escapology provides an unusual skill set, while the numbered clue drives the central puzzle.
Think Alex Rider meets Houdini and you've got Escape from Shadow Island. The first book in a fantastic, fast and furious new action-adventure series.Max is an ordinary north London schoolboy by day, but at night he performs sell-out public shows as an escapologist - nicknamed The Half-Pint Houdini by the tabloid press. His father, Alexander, was also a world-renowned escapologist, who disappeared two years earlier in the Central American state of Santo Domingo. His body was never found, but Max's mother, Helen, was convicted of murdering her husband by a Santo Domingan court.One evening, after his show, Max receives a visit from a mysterious man from Santo Domingo. Lopez-Vega tells Max that his mother's trial was rigged and, if Max comes to his hotel room the following night, he has something to give him. When Max goes to the hotel, he finds Lopez-Vega dead, shot through the head. The room has clearly been searched by the killer, but what was he looking for? By chance, Max finds a piece of paper hidden under Lopez-Vega's wig. Written on the paper is a sequence of eight numbers - 83521113.What do the numbers mean? Are they a code, or maybe the combination for a lock or a safe? Could they be the key to unlocking the mystery of his father's disappearance and getting his mother out of prison?
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Sign in for personalised guidanceA brisk mystery-adventure centred on a young performer who investigates a suspicious death while pursuing answers about his missing father and imprisoned mother. Escapology provides an unusual skill set, while the numbered clue drives the central puzzle.
Max is told that his mother’s trial was rigged and begins examining a clue connected with the case.
Max seeks information that might explain his father’s disappearance and help his imprisoned mother.
Max performs as an escapologist and encounters an unexplained sequence of eight numbers.
The shooting and the possibility of a rigged trial introduce serious danger and injustice. Consider whether the reader is comfortable with a murder investigation, imprisonment and sustained uncertainty around a parent’s fate.
This is a grounded book brief while Suitabook strengthens the analysis: the current material supports only a cautious reading; another book-specific source is still needed.
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