Okay, things are trundling along at a better pace now. The end of next month sees me half way through the year (where has it gone?) so to be totally on track for reading 30 books by the end of the year, my total come the 30th June should really be 15.

Which means the rest of May and the whole of June have to be good reading months - I need to get through 5 books!

Unsurprisingly, given the title, this book follows on the tale of the Spook’s Apprentice, Tom Ward, from the last book I read.

I got three of these books for Christmas so I’m going for the hattrick and working my way through all three in quick succession.

I think this is my favourite of the Spook books so far, but to be honest the writing is top notch even if it is aimed at younger readers and I can’t recommend the series enough.

As the series is progressing, the characters are becoming a bit more rounded as their back stories are filled in - as well as the younger characters developing as they age.

Unlike the Harry Potter books, there is no defined end in sight - Harry’s books were only ever meant to cover his school years and with one book covering each year at Hogwarts then it didn’t take a genius to work out how many there would be! With the Spook’s Apprentice, I can see this story going on and on - at some point, the old Spook has to move over and then young Tom Ward will progress from Apprentice to Master which may be a natural conclusion for the series, but I think it will possibly just be a new starting point.

Who knows, but with Tom off to study under a different Spook in the next book, The Spook’s Mistake, I’ll soon be seeing how the story progresses.