"Maximum Security" is a typical action thriller novel and is the third book in the Cherub series written by Robert Muchamore. This is a series in which Cherub, a branch of British intelligence, recruits teens and trains them to go on undercover missions. The novel begins by giving us a sample of what its like to be an agent at Cherub. We follow Lauren Adams through her basic training course. Lauren is a fearless and good-hearted young girl. Her older brother is James Adams an experienced cherub agent with amazing combat skills and the ability to think on his feet.
Following Lauren's return from basic training, James is handed a mission brief. He is briefed to go to Arizona Max with his sister and an older Cherub agent Dave Moss, a womanizing, very well known, skilled, gent. The trio is flown from Brittan to Arizona, America - the setting for most of the novel. Dave and James are admitted into Arizona Max as inmates while Lauren waits on the outside. Arizona Max is a modern security prison full to the brim with murderers, rapists, and robbers. The reason for this daring mission is simple; James needs to befriend Curtis Oxford, one of the inmates. Then he has to convince Curtis to come with him on his prison break. The agents hoped that this would cause his mother, Jane Oxford, a terrible criminal, and the antagonist of the novel, to reveal herself while trying to rescue her son. .
The novel is narrated in the third-person. The narrative structure is linear and easy to follow. The search for Jane oxford is trigged when she steals 30 military grade weapons from the British. James' and Dave's incarceration is the rising action; the climax is breaking out of jail with Curtis and the police trailing behind. The story is resolved eventually and the three agents return back to the Cherub campus. If you would like to find more about the plot you will have to read the book. Muchamore's writing style is simple and easy to follow making it a great book for teens.