Oddly paced with little payoff, this sequel falls victim to middle-volume slump. Rather than continuing the first volume’s excitement, this second installment reads more like an extended preamble for the next book. All the kids’ plans and wandering leaves them with new enemies and in worse shape than before. The rotating point of view is needlessly confusing and highlights uneven characterization. What worked well in the series opener fizzles in this sequel. However, Amber, with her poor impulse control, manic tendencies, and violent outbursts, is the source of most of their problems. Malik is pure bravado, focused on living life to its fullest, even if that means breaking some laws to do so.

Eli and Tori are torn between enjoying their mastermind skills and battling their fears over who they may become. Malik, Eli, Tori, and Amber will need to draw upon all their criminal-mastermind DNA if they are to succeed in exposing their captors and saving the other clones.

But as Malik gets pulled into the criminal world - tantalized by hints of a real family - his actions put him and Amber in greater danger.Įli and Tori get sucked into even bigger conspiracies as they hunt down Project Osiris’s most closely guarded secret - who does Eli’s DNA come from? With a surprising new ally and another cross-country adventure, the four will have to work together and overcome the worst parts of themselves if they are going to end Project Osiris once and for all.After discovering that their home of Serenity, New Mexico, is really a giant science experiment to test the effects of nurturing on clones of master criminals ( Masterminds, 2015), four teens escape and head out into the world in search of revenge and freedom.īut the scientists behind Project Osiris have no intention of allowing their test subjects to walk away. Now, separated into pairs, Eli and Tori, Amber and Malik are fighting to survive in the real world.Īmber and Malik track down the one person they think can help them prove the existence of Project Osiris, notorious mob boss Gus Alabaster, also known as Malik’s DNA donor. It was published on March 7th, 2017 by Balzer + Bray.įrom the master of middle grade, Gordon Korman, comes the final book in the bestselling Masterminds series - about a group of kids who discover they were cloned from the DNA of some of the greatest criminal masterminds in history.Īfter a serious betrayal from one of their former friends, the clones of Project Osiris are on the run again. Payback is the third and final book in the Masterminds trilogy by Gordon Korman.

Criminal destiny gordon korman