Review by Ian Keogh

A modified logo introduces Class Action, but the short review is that John Patrick Green has never let readers down yet with his likeable slapstick silliness, and he’s not about to start now.

Just as James Bond always has to visit Q to be kitted out with new equipment before starting a mission, InvestiGators Mango and Brash always have to pick up their V.E.S.T. Green delights in coming up with ever more complex uses for basic equipment, surely an equal delight for every reader.

The reason for new backpacks is Mango and Brash having to disguise themselves as school children in order to protect the school mascot. No, they can’t quite figure out why it’s a matter of national security either, but theirs is not to question orders. What Mango doesn’t realise until they arrive is the school they’re assigned to is his old school, and there are enough teachers still around who might remember him, especially the fearsome head teacher. Green certainly remembers enough horrors from his school days that he’s able to replay them to comic effect, although it’s a fair bet his school didn’t have a giraffe on the basketball team.

As ever, Green is the master of delay. He’ll set the characters off a mission, yet completing it involves all manner of detours, the longest this time to the home of Mango’s parents, where Brash has to have a sleepover. He’s got to be careful, though, as he’s caring for a packet of saltines. More unusual are brief moments when Green encourages readers to consider matters such as what makes a school bully. That, though, is only in passing, as InvestiGators concerns laughs, not messages.

One difference from earlier books is fewer recurring characters, because as of All Tide Up Green has transferred most of those over to his Agents of S.U.I.T. series. However, the new personalities introduced are almost equally strange and eccentric, the ‘almost’ being because none of them have a snake for an arm. Mango’s parents are very silly, and as always, there’s a genuine answer to the silly mystery.

Laugh out loud funny, oozing with charm, and great cartooning makes for another winner.