Ally Carter. See How They Run. New York: Scholastic, 2016. Print.

See How They Run is part two in the Embassy Row series. This is going to be at least a trilogy. If it imitates the author’s Gallagher Girl series, expect five or six volumes. Be patient.

See How They Run continues the adventures of Grace Blakely, granddaughter to the American ambassador to Adria. This appears to follow more closely the formula of the Gallagher Girls stories except that it is slightly more believable. This episode is an improvement over the first in the series, All Fall Down.

In this episode, Grace’s brother Jamie is visiting. He is on semester break from West Point. Grace and most of her acquaintances we have met in part one join her brother and his army friend, another cadet, at an outdoor party. Spence, Jamie’s friend, gets in a fight with Alexei, Jamie and Grace’s Russian friend. The next day Spence’s body is found with a broken neck. Alexei is immediately blamed as multiple cell phone videos of the fight at the party are posted on the Internet.

Much of the story this time involves the group of friends trying to prove Alexei’s innocence. In doing so, of course, they get involved in both international intrigue and Adrian politics. This is a better paced and overall more effective novel than the first. There are two things that help its execution: (1) We have a lot of the background history of Adria and its capital Valancia as well as of the various embassy brats from part one, so we do not have to re-hash those things; (2) Grace is beginning to deal with her past and happy to have her brother around, so she is learning to get along better with others. She is becoming a more sympathetic character.

Although both books so far get their titles from nursery rhymes, there does not appear to be much of a connection between the rhymes and the novels. In fact, in See How They Run there is an Adrian kids’ song that is repeated throughout the story because it is set during a two week festival similar to the French Bastille Day when the people of Adria celebrate the overthrow of the royal family that ruled in the 1700s—although the actual celebration sounds more like Guy Fawkes’ Day with bonfires, masks, costumes, and general mayhem. The song is sung during the celebration but has a connection with the drama at Embassy Row.

Do NOT spoil the book and read the last page until you have read it all. The last page nearly wrecks the book. I have written in the past that even though the lead characters are female in Ally Carter’s books, guys would probably like them because of the suspense and adventure. That is true of See How They Run until the last page. I suspect that boys reading it will come to the last page and groan, “Is it chick lit after all?”