History Literature / RubyRedfort

''Ruby Redfort'' is a book series written by Lauren Child (''of WesternAnimation/CharlieAndLola'' fame), and follows the adventures of TeenSuperspy ActionGirl Ruby Redfort.

Books in the series:
* ''Look Into My Eyes''
* ''Take Your Last Breath''
* ''Catch Your Death''
* ''Feel the Fear''
* ''Pick Your Poison''
* ''Blink and You Die''

The idea for the novels originates from Child's book series ''Clarice Bean.'' In it, Clarice is obsessed with a [[ShowWithinAShow Book Within a Book]] Ruby Redfort, about a smart girl spy. According to Child, she got so many letters from fans asking for more about Ruby, she wrote some.

* OutnumberedSibling: Clancy is the only boy out of Ambassador Crew's five children. His four sisters are Minny, Lulu, Nancy, and Olive.

* RealityEnsues:
** Before Book 1, Carla Lopez, a desk agent at Spectrum, figures something out about the volume's villains. [[spoiler:She tries to get a piece of the action by investigating herself, but since she wasn't trained as a spy the Fool's Gold Gang sees her bumps her off.]]
** Often Ruby (accompanied occasionally by Clancy) will go face off with the villains by herself. While it generally works out well, it's often not great: [[spoiler:in Book 3, she is only able to free the wolf (and the wolf runs away forever), Lorelei and the Australian escape, the cyan scent is swiped by the latter, and Ruby almost dies in a forest fire. In Book 5, while she beats Lorelei in a fight, Lorelei and Babyface are able to evade Spectrum, which likely wouldn't have happened if backup had been there.]]

* WorldOfSnark: It appears to be that the majority of Twinford residents are slightly snarky.

* ChekhovsClassroom: In book One, one of Ruby's classes gives her information about the Jade Buddha that helps her figure out what [[spoiler:Lopez had discovered.]] It's a little justified considering that the Jade Buddha coming to Twinford is a significant event for the town, so it makes sense that it came up in class. The chemical makeup of the jade comign up might be a little of a stretch.

* AdaptationalWimp: While still a interesting guy, Clancy Crew isn't as cool as he is in the books Clarice Bean reads. Here, Clancy is often kidnapped and scared, and far from unflappable: he even flaps his arms when excited, worried, oragitated.

* AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Olive bothers Clancy a lot, and even takes Ruby's not-mints after explicitly being told not to. She makes Ruby happy to be an older child.

* AnnoyingLittleSibling: Olive bothers Clancy a lot, and even takes Ruby's not-mints after explicitly being told not to. She makes Ruby happy to be an older child.

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Quite often, chapters of Ruby-centric action will be intercut with sometimes seemingly unrelated scenes set elsewhere. These scenes tend to have some impact on the story as a whole, and usually are about what the villains are/were doing, though the first time reader won't know who the characters are yet.

* ColourCodedForYourConvenience: Spectrum is a multicolored building, and the departments are organized by an associated color. For example, Ruby is able to guess at where a science lab is using a color. LB and her room are always in white. Bradley Baker's files, being a ray of sunlight according to Froghorn, are colored golden yellow. There might be some synesthesia involved, it's implied that Froghorn, who organizes the files, is a synesthete.

* EmbarrassingFirstName, EmbarrassingMiddleName, EmbarrassingLastName: LB's got the whole set: [[spoiler:'''Loveday Byrd Uggerlimb.]]

* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Bradley Baker and Buzz]], in book six.
** And before that, [[spoiler:Baby Face Marshall]] in book five.
** Valerie "Nine Lives" Capaldi loses her last life at the end of the first book.

* TruthSerum: One appears in book 2. It is extracted from a octopus. Ruby is forced to take it, and ends up saying anything she thinks of.

* WorldOfSnark: This seems to be Twinford in general.

* MasterofDisguise: Lorelei von Leyden is ridiculously good at disguising herself as other people: [[spoiler:in Book 4, she successfully disguises herself as Nine Lives Capaldi, a dead jewel thief, and is even able to trick one of Ruby's closest friends in believing she is Ruby in Book 5 (admittedly through a camera).]]

** In the fifth book, he [[spoiler:gets kidnapped by the Count Von Viscount himself. He doesn't exactly have the best luck.]]
** The Count again finds him near the climax of the last book.