Swift and Hawk: Cyberspies
By Logan Macx
Walker Books
November 22th, 2022
Ages 8 to 12

Caleb lives in London with his CIA agent Mom, Harper, he goes to a school for genius kids and has all the technology he could ever want or use for his own projects. Then a group of shady mercenaries shows up at his home, telling Harper that they have information about the mysterious Xavier Torrent, the former research partner to Caleb’s dead father. The catch, Caleb and Harper must go with them. Unconvinced, Caleb escapes the kidnapping attempt catching up with his professor as well as his best friend Zen in a secret bunker beneath the British History Museum. Caleb and Zen are inducted into Möbius, a secret extracurricular school program. Given the code names Swift and Hawk, the duo must chase down the mercenaries that have kidnapped both their families and investigate why the villains are so obsessed with Caleb. The actions scenes are clear and have tension, the quieter moments filled with discovery of new information. The main duo is almost superhuman. Caleb is a programmer and hacker extraordinaire and Zen is a mechanical wiz and martial arts master. As young teens, the pair are able to outwit and outfight trained members of a criminal conspiracy. While this occasionally stretches credulity, the narrative plays it straight and keeps doubling down on how competent the duo is. This allows the author to avoid the grittier elements of spy stories and focuses on the cool gadgets and the fun and simple adventure. Caleb and Zen’s adventure is escapist, they always seem to have the right tool for the job at the right time.

A Europe-spanning adventure spy novel of best friends that sneak onto freighters full of mercenaries, escape runaway trains, and fight everything from wolves to drones to save their family, and maybe the world.