Lois Lane: Double Down

Now that Lois is at home in Metropolis, she’s started finding a rhythm: enjoying her reporter job, interacting with her friends, flirting with SmallvilleGuy, and diving into another unexpected mystery. Lois doesn’t know much about her friend Maddy’s twin (other than the twins don’t get along), but when Maddy’s twin starts having weird, sickly episodes after a strange study, Lois senses something dark is happening. She soon finds herself getting deeper into the seedy underbelly of the city she’s learned to love.

LOIS LANE: DOUBLE DOWN picks up from LOIS LANE: FALLOUT with Lois finally feeling a sense of home. However, as she starts to feel more at home, she also discovers more about the city and the many secrets it keeps. The mystery this time goes deep into corruption and serious crime, giving a darker edge to the story. Bond does a brilliant job of making Metropolis almost feel like a character itself, multifaceted and complex, as full of bright and shiny parts as neglected and struggling ones. The world seems to revolve around this one city, as is fitting since Lois’s own world is now settled there.

Lois’s narration is even stronger than it was in the first book. Her voice makes the story shine. Since Lois investigates and searches for the truth, she spends a lot of time in her head figuring things out, and Bond expertly captures her inner dialogue. By the end of the story, it’s hard to not to feel that Lois is a friend. Her conversations with SmallvilleGuy are especially fun, and readers will find a very positive development in their growing interactions.

The book also dives deeper into the lives and personalities of several of the secondary characters. Twins Maddy and Melody have a history of sibling dispute, and they have a strong subplot of navigating troubled waters as their lives become endangered. Readers will also get a bit more information on James and his home life, softening some of his hard edges. Overall, the secondary characters bring new layers to the story and give different examples of family lives.

The Lois Lane books are not to miss. DOUBLE DOWN goes deeper and darker in plot and is even more addictive than the first book.