• Age: 12 to 15
• Grade: 7 to 10
• Reading age: 12 to 15

Fifteen-year-old Mackenzie returns to Paris to attend the Christmas Eve wedding of her Dad's old friend, Rudee Daroo, and the love of his life, dancer Sashay D'or. Mac is told about the annual New Year's taxi road rally, this year hosted by the Marseille Marauders, the nastiest lot of drivers you've ever seen.

Partnered with hulking cabbie Blag Lebouef, Mac manages to convince her parents that the road rally is more like a carefree drive in the French countryside than the death-defying cutthroat rivalry it's always been. Negotiating brutal weather, cryptic signage, outright sabotage, random flocks of sheep, and zigzagging back roads, Mac and Blag might be the perfect combination of cunning and brute strength.

On the road, she makes the startling discovery that the clues the drivers have been given during the rally could lead to the discovery of some valuable missing artwork. Is that worth losing the rally over?

Christopher Ward, Canada's original MuchMusic VJ, wrote the worldwide No. 1 hit Black Velvet. His songs have been recorded by Diana Ross, The Backstreet Boys, and many others, and he's been seen as a judge on YTV's The Next Star. Ward is also the author of Dead Brilliant and Mac in the City of Light. He lives in Toronto.

Christopher Ward's profile page

Ward’s informed table-turning in terms of character and events gives this book an edge that works well.

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This zany volume about the spunky heroine and her off-beat friends celebrates individuality and adventure.

School Library Journal (US)

In this second saga of Mac and her zany new Parisian pals, readers get to revisit the colourful cast of characters from the first book, Mac in the City of Lights. Rudee, with his charming (and oftentimes baffling) "Rudeeisms", is as endearing as ever, and his odd assortment of cabmates are equally memorable. The Marseille Marauders are delightfully villainous, and their underhanded exploits to eliminate the competition inspire outrage at every turn.

Canadian Materials magazine