This is the third book in the 'Demon Headmaster' series of six. The book was first published in 1994, 12 years after the first book. The first book (The demon headmaster) is essential pre-reading and it makes far more sense if the books are read in order.
Adopted Dinah has now settled in and the incumbent boys (particularly younger brother Harvey) now treat her as an equal. The SPLAT team are still knocking about together, and Ingrid comes back from holiday talking of a fantastic new craze that is sweeping Wales - everyone there is completely infatuated with a great new TV show and its commercial spin-offs. Fortunately Ingrid has bought back the video of the program, so she insists that the SPLAT team sit down to watch it............
This book reads a bit less like an Enid Blyton's secret seven novel than the first two books, although the storyline is actually more dated than the previous books entrancing computer game storyline in `The Prime Ministers Brain'. This is simply because it mentions VHS videos and the obvious lack of mobile phones. In a way it's a shame the odd few sentences weren't updated as otherwise the story is still quite futuristic.
Like the other two books, my son (10) is really enjoying me reading this book to him at bedtime (at 190 pages it took a while). My son, a poor reader, happily reads a few pages as well. Again this book has no illustrations, despite being aimed at preteens, but the well crafted story reads well enough without them. Plus the vocabulary used is quite varied and challenging, which is useful for children reading. We have now bought all the other five books in this series, which in order are: The Demon Headmaster, The demon headmaster and the Prime Minsters brain, The revenge of the Demon Headmaster, The Demon Headmaster strikes again, The Demon Headmaster takes over, and Facing the Demon Headmaster.
As with the original book, the storyline kept my son's attention throughout. In this story there are definitely more sinister overtones than the first two, though, as all the characters now have `history'. It's not unduly scary at all, but parents may well find the odd bit disturbing (but that's what demon headmasters do). The storyline is very different to the first two books, and my son insisted we read it straight after the second one. Unlike his favourite AstroSaurs and Captain Underpants books, this book is probably more girl friendly as well. We are now well into book four: The Demon headmaster strikes again'.