This second installment of the Red Hand Series was as adventurous as the first! The action was constant and the characters continued to develop as the story went along. Although this is historical fiction, the different cultures and the clashes between them are relevant today. I learned much about that time in history and the Moroccan government. I would recommend this book for boys.

Malik is the leader of a rebel band that is fighting against Caid, an evil tyrant. He rescued several kidnapped kids in book one, and and he makes Tariq an apprentice. Margaret returns to England, but she faces new problems when she arrives. Her father is still missing, possibly dead, but she receives news that the British consider him a pirate. Aseem, Fez, and Tariq try to sneak into a village to get information about Caid, but they don't know it's a trap. Malik kills Caid's son, and now Caid has hired an assassin, the Black Mamba, to kill all of them. Malik tries to intercept a shipment of weapons headed to Caid, but he discovers, too late, that he's leading his rebels into an ambush. With all of Caid's spies and his joining forces with the French, Malik and his rebels may not be alive much longer.

I could only get my hands on this title as an eBook in Net Galley. I enjoyed the obvious conflict between Caid and Malik, and I liked the mystery created by the spies and characters in disguise. The chases and fights added action and suspense to the plot. I didn't like the number of different settings used, because the plot continually jumped all over the place. That being said, I enjoyed the overall book. Tariq and the other boys were resourceful as they got themselves into, and out of, several sticky situations. The resolution left me hanging, and I'm anxious to read Legends of the Rif.

In book two of The Red Hand Adventures series, Tariq, Aseem, Fez, and Margaret have escaped from the caid’s clutches. They have joined forces with the resistance movement under the leadership of Sanaa and Malik. In the meantime, the caid, or warlord, has placed bounties on any rebels in the region, but especially on Tariq and his friends. With the help of his most ruthless assassin, the Black Mamba, the caid has vowed to wipe out any and all tribes that have aligned themselves with the rebels. This book is just as fun and exciting as the first one, and readers will be anxious to read the third and final book in the trilogy.