Lerangis is the son of a retired New York Telephone Company employee and a retired public-elementary-school secretary, who raised him in Freeport, New York on Long Island. As a ghostwriter he has been published under the name A. He has also written novels based on film screenplays, including The Sixth Sense, Sleepy Hollow, and Beauty and the Beast, and five video game novelizations in the Worlds of Power series created by Seth Godin. Very intense, very fast paced, I may even go as far as to say, best one of the series yet.Lerangis's work includes The Viper's Nest and The Sword Thief, two titles in the children's-book series The 39 Clues, the historical novel Smiler's Bones, the YA dark comedy-adventure novel wtf, the Drama Club series, the Spy X series, the Watchers series, the Abracadabra series, and the Antarctica two-book adventure, as well ghostwriting for series such as the Three Investigators, the Hardy Boys Casefiles, Sweet Valley Twins, and more than forty books in the series The Baby-sitters Club and its various spin-offs. More of Alistar's background and character is revealed - we learn his father was killed by his uncle (the brother's twin) and that he doesn't have a very good relationship with his uncle. I like how the authors keep giving a little bit of insight in to each of the villains - in this one we read a bit of the story from Ian's point of view - and as much as he's bad he's not totally bad. There's a touch of romance in this between Ian Kabra and Amy. They're not particularly long - but then this kind of book never is - or at least never feels like it is.

The rest of the Cahill family kind of suck, but what's an adventure story without a villain? Or ten? The plot is riveting - the mix of fiction and history is fascinating and I'm flying through the series. She's laid back and loyal and can speak a seemingly million different languages. As a reader, I relate to Amy but I love Dan's way of looking at things. Unlike Alex Rider it's not overly sad and unlike Cherub - I like the main characters.

This was fast paced and action packed and it was wickedly good.

The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis