I’ve had a busy week reading four fast moving, fun books. It’s fun to read books with interesting characters, intriguing backgrounds and speed of light plots. Of the four this week Alfred Kropp: The Seal of Solomon was the most intriguing and fast moving.
I reviewed the first book, The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp, here in this blog post: Review: The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp YA Fiction Rick Yancey. The Seal of Solomon is the second book in the series. The third book, Alfred Kropp: The Thirteenth Skull is reviewed here.
Alfred has landed with a couple who are professional foster parents. They have a small house, several foster kids, almost no discipline and less attention or care. After Alfred’s stint on the Most Wanted list he faces even more nasty tricks from his high school classmates. When beautiful blond, tanned Ashley shows up at school and wants to be his friend Alfred falls fast.
Ashley is an operative for OIPEP who saves Alfred from a killer and delivers him to Operative Nine who needs Alfred – badly. A renegade OIPEP agent stole Solomon’s seal and the vessel containing demons from hell and it’s up to Alfred, Ashley, Operative Nine to put stop him from setting the demons free. They fail. Demons are loose and on the hunt for Alfred. They want to control the seal and the vessel and need Alfred to help. In hindsight I’m not sure why they needed Alfred and no one else, but it made for a great story.
Alfred figures out how to trick the demons and once more saves the world. Along the way he inherits tons of money which makes his professional foster parents determined to forcibly draft him into adoption.
Alfred Kropp: The Seal of Solomon is noteworthy for the intricate and interesting backdrop to the story. Who is Operative Nine and why does he have the authority he does. Why is renegade agent Mike so determined to kill Alfred. What would it be like to work for OIPEP. What will the demons do when they control the world.
Those questions swirled around in my mind but only as a footnote to the real questions about Alfred. He is an amazing person, able to ignore the constant nastiness at home and school, determined to grow and to do the right thing. He is believable, the character we all inwardly feel we are – bumbling, not too swift, and somehow responsible for far more than what we want.
Alfred Kropp: The Seal of Solomon had excellent dialogue, a fun, super charged plot, fascinating back story, interesting characters. I highly recommend it. Like the other Alfred Kropp books this is characterized as YA fiction, aimed squarely at 12-18 year old boys, but it’s good enough for adults to enjoy.
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