“If a person wants to murder any member of a family, then it is very important that the entire family also be done away with, or the distraught survivors might very well decide to take bloody revenge, or at the least make a detailed report at the local police station.”

From Eoin Colfer’s The Fowl Twins.

Eleven-year-old twin brothers Myles and Beckett Fowl couldn’t be more different; Myles is brilliant and refined, while Beckett refuses to be tamed and likes “talking” to animals.  While their parents are away for a lecture and their older brother Artemis is on a personal mission in space, the twins are staying alone at the family home (with the A.I. NANNI) off the coast of Dublin.  Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye Duke of Scilly is a criminal dedicated to using whatever means necessary to stay alive, including a tip about troll magic.  When a tiny troll climbs to the earth’s surface near the Fowl house, he is shot with a poisonous containment dart by Lord Teddy.  Beckett finds the trapped and drugged troll and mistakes it for a toy… which he names Whistle Blower.  A half-elf/half-pixie named Lazuli Heitz of the Lower Elements Police happens to be training nearby and decides to rescue the troll.  Shortly thereafter a nun arrives in a helicopter and informs the twins that her name is Sister Jeronima and that she has been sent by her anti-magic organization (ACRONYM) to rescue them.  Beckett charges onto the helicopter and Myles is given no choice but to go with his brother, so the twins, the troll in Beckett’s pocket, and the currently-invisible Lazuli are taken to a black site in Amsterdam, where Myles immediately begins to plan their escape.  Escaping the Black site with Lazuli and the still-wrapped Whistle Blower is only the beginning though, as Lord Teddy and Sister Jeronima join forces to hunt down the Fowl twins and the fairies in their company.

This first book in Colfer’s Artemis Fowl spin-off series allows the reader more fun that the original series while also building a solid story.  The two main characters are fun in their opposites and abilities and the fairy lead is also entertaining and endearing.  Readers of The Fowl Twins will be desperate to continue the story in future books.