The children arrive hidden in the trunk of Count Olaf's car. A new turn of events - they know where Olaf is and it's them who are in disguise. 
 The good-evil, noble-villain theme expands. The children are the spies. In addition they meet and join the circus 'freaks' who they see put to the test - decent people in a hard place offered difficult choices - will they act like noble people or villains? The circus freaks are a test case, an example, perhaps an illustration of how Olaf's hench-people & perhaps Olaf himself descended by degrees into villainy. 
 We are tantalized with more mysteries and more possible solutions - we discover the secret that has allowed Olaf to find the children time and again... 
 And at the end the children face danger and hard choices themselves. 
 Continues with the familiar humour, word games etc. Also, Sunny continues to grow, expands her vocabulary, and starts to show an interest in cooking - which becomes her 'thing' in later books. 
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