Like the first book in the series, the West children have a puzzle to solve and a quest to carry out. This time their journey lies in the Caribbean. I do quite like the vision of an alternate universe where the combustion engine didn't beat out steam power. It makes for an interesting landscape. Tensions are rising among the siblings and the mystery of what their father wants from them seems murkier than ever. The next installment promises to be a good one. ( )

In this second Expeditioners book, the three West siblings - Zander, Kit, and MK - are at the Academy of Exploratory Sciences, but all is not necessarily well. Zander is brave and popular, and MK is under the wing of the engineering professor, but Kit's talents go unnoticed. When they have a chance to explore a map their dad left them, Kit writes a proposal for an Expedition to the Caribbean, but Zander is the one who hands it in - and their enemy Lazlo Nackley is the one who gets the credit, and the one who gets to lead the expedition. Worst of all, Sukey is left out, assigned to another expedition in Iceland. Now the three Wests must carry out their own mission under the close supervision of Lazlo and his father, whose goal is to discover oil under the ocean.

Interspersed the scenes at the Academy and during the Expedition are pages from 16-year-old sailor James Rickwell's handwritten record of a voyage of a ship called the Adelaide, captained by Gianni Girafalco. Toward the end of the book, Kit discovers Rickwell's account in the library, though readers have been getting peeks all along.

I didn't feel that the build-up to the expedition was slow, as some reviewers did, but I found the story less satisfying than the first book. Kit catches a glimpse of what his father wanted him to find, but the rest of the crew doesn't have much time to explore, and the whole episode only serves as a clue to the next map. Sukey also seems affectionate toward Kit, but is more interested in Zander, though because everything is filtered through Kit's perspective, it's hard to tell what is really going on. I'm not sure I'll continue with the series, but I'd recommend it to adventure-loving readers.

See also: Gregor the Overlander, Mysterious Benedict Society ( )