Summary: Moose still lives on Alcatraz, but his father has been promoted to Associate Warden because of his prowess in the prisoner-escape in the previous book. (spoiler, highlight to view) Natalie is living at home for the time being, and their parents go out and leave her in Moose's care for the night. Moose falls asleep, however, and their apartment is set on fire while he's sleeping. A new character has emerged, Donny Caconi, who seems pretty nice to the kids.
SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON!
Donny plays a throwing game with Moose in which they throw bottle caps for a bet, but Donny somehow wins, and Moose thinks he's cheating. Moose saw one of the convicts, Count Lustig, put a piece of paper in a sewer pipe, and he pulls it out, but it's just numbers. Piper has hired Theresa (another young girl on the island) to be her maid/servant, but it's a bit suspicious how she has enough money to pay Theresa. Moose is still a bit suspecting about Donny cheating in the game, and checks his laundry for any clues. He finds a large sum of money in Donny's mom's pants, but nothing else. Later, Natalie catches Donny cheating at poker, and their suspicions about him help them find out that Donny was the one who burned down their apartment (but he was paid by Darby Trixle, as his daughter accidentally revealed)! Donny was also helping Count Lustig make counterfeit money, which is how Piper got all her money (she accidentally got it in her pants pocket). He was sent to jail, and their apartment was rebuilt, thankfully.
Plot: I wasn't expecting that Donny was the one who burned down their house and was involved with counterfeiting, so that was a nice twist. The plot moves at a nice pace and makes sense. The intensity level was somewhere between book 1 and book 2, which isn't the best for a book. It needs to have a little more action or a little less action, but not how it is. Plot score (40% of final score): 8.5/10.
Characters: Donny was introduced very quickly and I feel like he needed to be more relevant to the book for longer to make sense as such a major antagonist. Other than that, the characters were all fine. Some character development was shown, most notably in Moose. He has more of a clear personality at this point, and the rest of the characters do too. Character score (30% of final score): 8.5/10.
Setting: Once again, the same as the previous books. The characters do have to live with another family for a while because of the fire, but the setting isn't often in the other family's house, so it's not a big deal. Setting score (10% of final score): 10/10.
Mood/style: As mentioned in the plot segment, it's at an awkward intensity level, but otherwise similar to the other books. Mood/style score (20% of final score): 7/10.
Final score:
8.5
Please note that scores are rounded.
Scores calculated using Ben Eggleston's grade calculator.
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