Five kids seemingly forgotten by the world join forces to hone their skills and become real-life spies in this first novel of a brand-new series that #1 New York Times bestselling author Chris Grabenstein said “may keep you up all night—reading!” And it’s perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls.

Five kids from around the globe. Home is a castle on the coast of Scotland. They attend an elite prep school, and just happen to be part of an experimental, off-the-books program run by Britain’s MI6. They call themselves the City Spies because the only connections they maintain to their pasts are the codenames taken from their hometowns: Brooklyn, Paris, Sydney, Rio, and Kat (short for Kathmandu).

Overseeing the team is an unlikely pair: a legendary British spy thought to have been killed in a massive explosion and a brilliant biophysicist/cryptologist who is part Marie Curie, part Mary Poppins. They help the five form a family while also training them in a unique blend of high tech gadgetry and old school spy craft.

This first story focuses on Sara Martinez, Brooklyn, who is a hacker. She recently broke into the New York City foster care system to expose her foster parents as cheats and law breakers. However, instead of being hailed a hero, Sara finds herself facing years in a juvenile detention facility and being banned from using computers for the same stretch of time. Enter Mother, a British spy, who not only gets Sara released from jail, but also offers her a chance to make a home for herself within a secret MI-5 agency.

Before she know what she’s doing, Sara is helping to hack into a rival team’s computer to prevent them from winning, dangling thirty feet off the side of a building in Paris, and trying to stop a villain from releasing a deadly virus into the air conditioning system of a secure building all while navigating the complex dynamics of her new team.