Gangster School 2: The Brotherhood of Brimstone by Kate Wiseman

If you enjoy books with a boarding school setting, you're in for a treat.

Gangster School 2: The Brotherhood of Brimstone by Kate Wiseman (out 24 September 2018) is a compelling, chucklesome, rollicking story, full of criminal adventures, double-dealing and dastardly deeds.

Witchcraft schools are so yesterday...
Move over, Harry, Ron and Hermione. Milly and Charlie embark on adventures of epic proportions.
Best friends, they are enrolled in the Blaggard's School for Tomorrow's Tyrants.

If a master criminal like Felonius Gru married Professor McGonagall and founded the school of villainy, that would be Blaggards.

There's never a dull day at Blaggards.
On top of the usual (or rather unusual) lessons like Fabrication, Defiance and Discourtesy, Forgery, Betrayal, Criminal Disguise and Deception, there are other problems to be addressed.

Sir Byron's Brain, a priceless legendary diamond, has gone missing. The legend claims that the Blaggard's will be destroyed forever, and its head teacher obliterated, once the famous diamond leaves the school premises.
Milly and Charlie suspect that the evil Brotherhood of Brimstone is the culprit. This ancient secret society has a bee in the bonnet about the Blaggard's school and would do anything to undermine or destroy it.
The brave duo must save the day.
Their canine sidekicks - smelly dog Gruffles and robot dog Wolfie - are the cause of much hilarity.

And as if that was not an alarming prospect, a notorious school inspector Dr X - Chief Inspector of Criminal Schools - is expected at Blaggard's. Nobody knows what he looks like, or when exactly he would appear.

We haven't read the first book in the series, and though the second installment reads quite all right as a standalone, it might have saved us some confusion as to who is who, if we were already acquainted with the Gangster school characters.

The book is aimed at children aged 7-12.
It's a good time now to start thinking of Christmas gifts. If there is an avid reader in your family, you might want to add this amusing story to their stocking.

Disclosure: We received an advance uncorrected proof copy of the book for the purposes of reviewing. The book cover design looks different from the one available to buy now.