AUTHOR: Ana Alonso
PUBLISHER: Parramón
GENRE: Children’s Literature
READER’S NAME: Patricia Mason

This is apparently the first book in a projected series featuring 5.DET, an international team of brilliant kid detectives, who solve cases using their intuition and creativity and state-of-the-art technology.  
It’s the year 2102, and twelve-year-old Ed is confined to his room with a broken leg (medicine obviously hasn’t advanced much in a hundred years). From his bedroom window, he witnesses strange nocturnal happenings in the building opposite, which is being converted into a maritime museum—the skull and crossbones is raised, he sees an armed pirate figure at a window and flocks of seagulls entering and leaving the building. Disturbed by these happenings, the previously (literally) techno-allergic Ed finds distraction playing an advanced video detective game, and thanks to the phenomenal skill he displays, he is recruited to join 5.DET. With the help of their team-mates and cutting-edge drones, Ed and his friend Luna uncover the secret the museum holds, which turns out to be that Tim Luzos, who runs the world’s top e-commerce site and who was himself once a member of 5.DET, is building a factory deep inside the museum that will produce state-of-the-art drones. 
The book has a number of appealing features including the international makeup of 5.DET, and the equal balance of male and female members (5.Det becomes 6.DET with the addition of Luna). We see a lot of cooperation among the characters as they share their research and ideas, and it’s refreshing to see the lack of gender stereotyping, as, for example, when Luzos gives Ed and Luna their own drones—a fairy and a dragon—they decide to share them, rather than opting for the stereotypical gender choices. 
Overall though, the book fails to live up to the expectations generated in its Rear Window-style opening. Despite the attempt to build and maintain suspense, Ed and Luna are never in any danger as they explore the museum from the safety of Ed’s bedroom using state-of-the-art drones. The “seagulls” turn out to be drones and the “pirates” are robots. And it was a let-down to learn that the big secret the museum holds is a drone factory in the basement (drones again!) and that raising the pirate flag was just a benign ploy on the part of Luzos to lure the children into the museum as its first visitors.  

To uncover the secrets of the museum, the team has to solve a series of puzzles which require them, among other things, to be able to recognize a sextant and an armillary sphere, know the dates of important naval battles, and be familiar with several maritime stories and legends. www.amazon.es states that the book is recommended for readers aged ten and older.

Of course, just like the members of 5.DET have to do, young readers can research the answers on-line, but it’s pretty arcane material for the typical ten-year-old. 

The book is copiously illustrated, with its ninety-five pages divided into eleven short chapters. Curiously, the names of the author and the illustrator, Ana Alonso and David Puerta, do not appear on the cover. Puerta’s anime/manga-style illustrations follow the text fairly closely, but at several points (e.g. when the drones are moving the display cases around on rails) I found myself turning to the illustrations to try to figure out what was going on, and they weren’t always helpful. Some of the illustrations also seem rather childish for ten-year olds. 

One odd feature of the book is the frequent use of English words and names, starting with the name of the hero, Ed Shean. Several of the drones have English names (“Fist,” “Foot,” “Maverick”), indeed, apart from “Luna,” none of the characters have Spanish names. (The resemblance of “Tim Luzos” to “Jeff Bezos” surely can’t be coincidental.) At one point, 5.DET has to know the names of some of Luzos’s previous companies, and these too turn out to be English words. What seemed particularly odd is that the final clue and its answer are both in English. Given the international makeup of 5.DET, and the fact that no indication is given of where the story is set, one is led to think that there was an intentional attempt to target an international reading audience. 

For young readers interested in technology, this might be an interesting and appealing read. Ultimately, though, it’s all about drones, drones, and more drones, with presumably new 6.DET drone adventures to follow.