The Hangman's Revolution by Eoin Colfer

 In this second installment of the W.A.R.P series, the reader finds Chevie Savano living in an altered present-day London. She is a cadet in the youth army of the Boxites, a totalitarian regime that has come to control almost all of Europe.  She keeps having intrusive memories about her previous life as a FBI agent, and they have gotten her in trouble.  When she once again gets sucked back into Victorian England, she joins up with her old friend, Riley, to try to stop Colonel Clayton Box before he begins the revolution that destroyed her previous past. 

When I read the first in this series, I wasn't sure I would read the second because I didn't like the narrative style.  In this book, it didn't bother me as much, either because I was used to it, or maybe the writing was better. Like the first in the series, this is a fast-paced action adventure with a pretty high violence and body count. The action is like comic book violence, without any real pathos or degree of detail. Still, it is high enough that I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone under 14. Colfer mixes in a fair amount of humor and silliness, and the characterization and setting are both well executed and fun. Colfer deals with the standard questions about cause and effect in time travel, and the ending is something of a cliff hanger with some basic plot questions unresolved.  The real question is, did I like #2 well enough that I plan to read #3?  I probably will, but I need to rest for a while. The cavalier violence does bother me, so I have to clear my soul for a while before I will consider returning for the next book. (385 p. 2015)