London Calling (City Spies #6) by James Ponti

This series continues to be an utter delight, as a global team of former orphans now working for MI6 under the guidance of the agent called Mother face a brand new set of world-threatening problems.

It’s been a minute since Mother was reunited with his actual biological son, who has since joined the City Spies and taken on the codename Cairo. Their family was split when Mother’s wife, former MI6 agent Clementine, went so deep undercover in the criminal network Umbra that she seemingly turned, taking her children with her. Cairo has since been reunited with his father, but the whereabouts of his sister Annie have been murkier… until she becomes the target of a kidnapping by persons unknown to the City Spies.

Fortunately, she escapes, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for her brother to come find her. Cairo, Mother and the two other boy agents of the team, Paris and Rio, head to Istanbul to investigate, even as Clementine keeps a weather eye on everyone from afar.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn, Kat and Sydney have been enrolled at St Margaret’s School for Girls as part of the protective detail for math teacher Sophie Weir, the soon-to-be bride of the sixth in line to the British throne. There have been credible threats of disruption to the impending wedding, so the three teenagers are an important covert aspect of her security. As it’s a day school, the girls hand off Sophie to her adult protection officers once school is over, and head back to the sprawling research location in Scotland where they live with the rest of the City Spies. Little do our team know, however, that their home has already been compromised…

Will the teen spies be able to save Annie? Will the royal wedding go off without a hitch? And what is Clementine really doing, lurking in the background?

The answers to all these questions and more are found in this fast-paced, highly entertaining read, that has the team working together even when separated by hundreds of miles. The puzzles and ciphers are delightful: not too hard but, more importantly, always excellently explained by James Ponti, whose intelligence and wit make for such terrific reading. All the trivia about Istanbul, Rome and London only made each location feel that much more intriguing (and definitely whetted my wanderlust!)

I always look forward to each City Spies novel, and love how easy each one is to use as a jumping-on point for the rest of the series. While I definitely do recommend starting from the beginning, you can’t go wrong with any of these smart, thrilling and often hilarious books.

London Calling (City Spies #6) by James Ponti was published February 4 2025 by Aladdin and is available from all good booksellers, including