Book Review: The Agency 2: The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee

The Agency 2: The Body at the Tower by Y.S. Lee
Publisher: Candlewick
Publication date: August 2010
ISBN: 9780763649685
Source: Library

When a body is found near a tower at a construction site, the Agency takes a hand in finding out what happened.  Mary goes deep undercover as Mark, an errand boy on the site.  She will find out just how difficult it is to hide who she is and what she is from the observant people at the site and at her makeshift housing.  Will she be able to find out what happened and still manage to maintain her disguise?

Things I Liked:
I still love Mary.  She's smart and spunky, but also still a woman, even if she is in disguise.  The relationship between her and James is really interesting - dynamic and changing and yet with so much potential.  I'm dying to read what happens next.  Really, the mystery kept me intrigued as well.  I wasn't entirely sure what was going on and who was doing what, but the suspense was good.  I'm quickly becoming a mystery fan because of this series.  Favorite quotes: 

But the most difficult part of Mark's life was not labor or filth or hunger.  What Mary found grueling was the sense that Mark would never get ahead, never gain a rest, never be at ease.  His meager wages bought him just enough food and sleep to survive.  There was no possibility of saving money and thus no hope for any sort of change or rest. p 132

It was an enormous, accidental tenement - a pair of houses that seemed to have fallen into each other and thus been prevented from collapsing.  One door was boarded over, and none of the ground-floor windows was intact. p 278

Things I Didn't Like:
Some of the ending was a little confusing - after all that build-up, I was hoping for a bit more explanation of people's motivations and involvement.  But, I wasn't disappointed in the overall story.

Read-alikes:
The Agency 1: A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee
The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Reeve

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !
a few here and there

mrg-factor: X
mostly just "scandalous" talk

v-factor: ->
a few people get beaten and there is a body (of course)

Overall rating: **** 

What series changes your mind about a genre?

If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage