What a great book! The first chapter pulls you right into the story with humour and action. There's a waterskiing dog and a confused tourist, Mr Peacock, who always spots the Spy Dog exhibiting her many unusual talents and his long-suffering wife who doesn't.
There's a scattering of illustrations, black and white line drawings with a little shading, and the chief villain Mr Big has the feel of a Disney villain, menacing yet too much of a cartoon to be overly threatening.
Mr Big escapes from prison and the first thing he wants to do is find Lara the Spy Dog. His cronies have trained a replica Spy Dog, Bambi, to be vicious and criminal. She mugs old ladies and robs banks all under the watchful gaze of CCTV in order to frame Lara, so that the real spy dog will be banged up and out of the way for the spectacular Diamond Heist Mr Big is planning.
Lara used to work for the Secret Service and, as the 007 of the canine world, she likes her milkshake "shaken, not stirred". In this book however, like Bond with his revoked licence in Licence to Kill, she is now just a family dog and is enjoying a relaxing holiday with them. The book is unashamedly set in England: holidaying in the Lake District, a portrait of the Queen in Mr Big's prison cell (!) and cricket matches. There are mentions throughout of mobiles and ipods, airbags and e-mails, etc. and though these are not vital to the plot they work to place the story in an absolutely contemporary setting.
This is a great story for both boys and girls. While Lara is obviously a girl dog, the adventure story-line is perfect for boys, and the siblings within Lara's family are 2 boys and a girl who all help foil the robbery with Lara. Lara, with her `fresian' look and odd ears, has heard comments on her "ugliness" but is sensible enough to know that beauty is only skin deep: it's a refreshing change to have a heroine who isn't the most beautiful bird on the block.
This is the third in a series but you don't need to have the previous ones (I haven't... yet) - it works perfectly well as a stand alone story. The last chapter is a great light-hearted ending for everyone, except perhaps poor Mr and Mrs Peacock, returned from their holiday.
Feisty action-packed excitement for the 5+s. Fantastic!
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