Amanda Lester and the Red Spider Rumpus (Amanda Lester Mysteries No. 5)

The wonderfully colorful world of Amanda Lester returns in this fifth novel of Paul Berinstein's mystery series. The ongoing story involving the students and teachers of Legatum Continuatum school for aspiring detectives continues, as Amanda and her friends keep searching for clues that will lead them to the Detective's Bible, while at the same time dealing with considerable personal issues and fighting off the Moriartys and their gang of evil-doers!

Amanda Lester and the Red Spider Rumpus finds poor Amanda torn between her feelings for Scapulus Holmes and her deepening love for Nick Moriarty (who is still in hiding following the events of the previous books). In the midst of this personal crisis, she feels the heavy burden of needing to find the Detective's Bible before Moriarty does - and the two pages that Amanda and her friends had found were taken! Luckily, they have copies, from which Holmes discovers that the Detective's Bible - and the society of detectives themselves! - goes back hundreds of years. If those secrets are now exposed...but the discover of the red spiders of Ambleside changes everything. It seems those innocuous, shy little spiders hiding under an abandoned old house in the countryside have a very special gift - one painful bite releases a venom that causes a person to speak the truth - no matter what!

Berinstein provides another fun romp through the English countryside as Amanda and her friends work to outwit not only Moriarty, but also Amanda's own sneaky stepfather (to be), who seems to have plans of his own. The spiders, which play an important part to the story, also provide for a bit of comic relief, as the kids test the spiders on themselves, discovering some rather uncomfortable truths about their friends. And Berinstein also continues her tradition of the most unusual names for her characters - Professor Mukherjee, Professor Pargeter, Professor Snool, Professor Tumble, Professor Goodgrief, Professor Darktower, Professor Scribbish, Lovelace Earful, Banting Waltz, Celerie Wiffle, and so many others. Each one brings a smile to myself (and sometimes even a giggle!). In addition to all of this, there are some subplots involving a ghost-hunting student, the bid for power in the school by Amanda's mother, the artists who are moving in under the school (under the pretense of protecting all of the secrets hidden there), and the testing of Nick Moriarty to determine whether he should be allowed back into the school for detectives - a literal life-and-death test consisting of three parts!

Honestly, the best part of this entire book is the climactic battle with the Moriarty men at the end - which takes place on a movie studio set during the filming of a robotic monster film.  Berinstein pulls out all the stops to make it thrilling, dangerous, and fun all at the same time.  Quite frankly, this was one of the best scenes in any of the books to date!

Berinstein is also clearly setting up future stories, as there are several mentions of the monkeys that were used to take some of the secrets from the vault beneath the school - which are clearly meant to be foreshadowing of the seventh book, Amanda Lester and the Green Monkey Gotcha (or, at least, so I would think), which is still two books away.  So, it's nice to see that while the book has its own story, there are still elements of the ongoing battle between the school and the Moriartys that keep coming into play.  I'm curious to see just how long this over-arching saga will continue before it is wrapped up and the characters have an opportunity to move on to something else.  As much as I understand the need to have a main protagonist, and as much I enjoy having a multi-epic, multi-book story, it would be nice to see them wrap this one up and move on to something new.  At this point, we are five books into the series, and it doesn't seem likely it will conclude with book 6 or 7 - does Berinstein have the full story plotted, or does it simply evolve as the books are written, with no particular conclusion in sight yet?  Only time (and more books) will tell, I suppose...

Regardless, I am enjoying the opportunity to follow Amanda, Ivy, Simon, and all of their friends as they grow and learn and mature and solve one mystery after another in search of the Detective Bible.

RATING:  8 giant movie sea monsters out of 10 for offering fans of mysteries their own "wizarding" world of detectives learning and fighting to protect their school and profession!