Book Info
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Paperback256 pages
Author's Website
www.sophiemckenziebooks.comPublisher
Simon & Schuster Children's an imprint of Simon & Schuster LtdPublication date
7th January 2010ISBN
9781847385260Children's Author 'Like-for-Like' recommendations
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The Medusa Project : The Hostage
Sophie Mckenzie
Part of the 'The Medusa Project' Series
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Julia Eccleshare's comment:
A breathtaking, headlong thriller that grips from the very first moment - this sequel to The Set-Up tells how Nico, Ketty, Ed and Dylan, recent recruits into the undercover crime-fighting force called The Medusa Project, tackle their next major mission. This time Ketty has to make decisions on her own if she is to save her brother but to do so she must keep her special psychic powers undercover or she’ll risk the safety of the rest of the group. Danger stalks on all sides in this action-packed adventure with its psychic extra dimension.
Click here to see the first in the series The Medusa Project: The Set-Up
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Synopsis
The Medusa Project : The Hostage by Sophie MckenzieFourteen years ago, four babies were implanted with the Medusa gene - a gene for psychic abilities. Now teenagers, Nico, Ketty, Ed and Dylan have been brought together by government agents to create a secret crime-fighting force - The Medusa Project. But now Ketty's brother Lex has stumbled into a dangerous game involving his boss and a hidden bomb. It's up to Ketty to save him without letting on what she knows to the rest of the team. But can she control her psychic visions, and her feelings for Nico, without getting the team's cover - and herself - blown sky high?
Reviews
Review of ‘The Medusa Project: The Hostage’ by Books for Keeps [3 stars]
This fast-moving adventure tale is the second in a series about four 14-year-olds with special psychic gifts who have been recruited by the British security service. As we join the four, they are established at their north London boarding school and have a back-story of the villains they have already encountered. This time, one of the teenagers, Ketty, is blackmailed when her brother is kidnapped by a sinister computer-entrepreneur threatening to plant a bomb in London if his own brother is not released from prison.
The story beats a frantic path through various locations in north London and the New Forest as characters are held at gunpoint (‘Listen to your brother, or watch him die!’), break into buildings and have last-minute escapes. Each chapter ends with a cliff-hanger and, at one point, The Third Man is evoked as the villain is confronted on the big wheel at a fun-fair on Hampstead Heath. Yet these escapades take place against a background of school-life and youthful angst. The teenagers often regret having psychic powers such as mind-reading and think that they are being exploited by the security service (‘I felt like a monkey doing tricks,’ says one). And the fear that they feel is real: when a gun is pressed against Ketty’s side, she thinks she is ‘going to pee’ herself. Like its predecessor, this book ends with the first chapter of the next book in the series: indeed, Sophie McKenzie says in an introduction that she changed the opening chapter of Hostage in the light of readers’ comments following its inclusion in the earlier book. This retains the readers’ interest and involvement and also provides a change in perspective, because each novel is evidently narrated by a different member of the ‘Project’.
Despite the fantastic events, there is an underlying realism to the characterisation of the protagonists, who are gradually becoming a mutually dependent group in contrast to their dysfunctional families. While the book is, in many respects, an old-fashioned adventure yarn, it reflects contemporary interests like computers and mobile phones, and has the teenagers talk in 21st-century argot. Some of the language, however, seems unsuitable for younger children: while we don’t expect quaint niceties such as the Famous Five’s ‘lashings of ginger beer’, some may feel uncomfortable with the ample helpings here of ‘Shit!’ and ‘Crap!’ For this reason only, the 11+ age-range suggested by the publisher seems too low. Otherwise, this is an exciting and well crafted adventure story.
About The Author
Sophie McKenzie has enjoyed great success and critical acclaim in less than five years as a published author.
Sophie was born and brought up in London, where she still lives with her teenage son. She has worked as a journalist and a magazine editor, but fell in love with writing after being made redundant and enrolling in a creative writing course. She burst into the publishing world with Girl, Missing, her debut novel (published 2006), which tallied up numerous award wins nationwide, including the Richard and Judy Best Kids’ Books 2007 (12+ category), The Red House Book Award and The Manchester Children’s Book Award. She was also longlisted for the Branford Boase award, which commends debut authors, and the coveted Carnegie Medal.
Following her exceptional debut, Sophie published the All About Eve trilogy, comprising Six Steps to a Girl (2007), Three’s a Crowd (2008), and The One and Only (2009).
A return to thriller-writing saw publication of Blood Ties in 2008, another multiple award-winner which again saw Sophie longlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and crowned winner of the North East Teen Book Award and the Red House Book Award among many others. Blood Ransom, the sensational follow-up to Blood Ties was published in 2010. Sister, Missing, Sophie’s long-awaited sequel to Girl, Missing, was released in September 2011.
The Medusa Project series was launched in July 2009, following the thrilling, fast-paced story of four teenagers impregnated with the Medusa gene, a gene which manifests itself in various psychic abilities. The series so far features The Set-Up, The Hostage, The Rescue, Hunted and Double-cross. A special short story, The Thief, was published for World Book Day in 2010 and Hit Squad, the final book in the series, is published in January 2012.
Sophie has also published The Fix, Time Train to the Blitz, Author’s Sword and contributed to Losing It, alongside the likes of Melvin Burgess, Keith Gray, Jenny Valentine and Patrick Ness.
You can see Sophie giving her writing tips in a video - click here.
Author photo © Middleton Mann
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