Malice. (Conspiracy 365). Gabrielle Lord. Toronto, ON: Scholastic Canada, 2013. 175 pp., pbk., $7.99. ISBN 978-1-4431-2824-7. Grades 4-9 / Ages 9-14. Review by Mark Mueller. **� /4

excerpt:

I took the envelope and opened it, frowning because for a minute I thought it was empty. Then I saw a scrap of torn newspaper, which I lifted out carefully.... It looked like the top right corner of a very old newspaper. There were four words � two in thick black print, and another two, added like an afterthought, in scrawling handwriting.

Malice � Conspiracy 365 is the latest installment to the �Conspiracy 365" series by Gabrielle Lord. When Cal Ormond leaves for flying school, his girlfriend Winter Frey receives an old newspaper clipping in the mail with the headline �The Drowner� and �30 days� written beside it. As Winter and her friends, Boges and Ryan, attempt to figure out whether or not the note is a threat or a warning, they discover that there is a surveillance bug hidden in Winter�s study. They also discover that an important file from her parents� estate is missing. Winter and her friends use their investigative and deductive reasoning skills to locate the file at a private investigator�s office. After they retrieve the file, they investigate the deed to find out that it is for an old house called Perdita that is a part of Winter�s inheritance. When they set out to investigate the property, they soon discover that they are in for a lot more than they bargained for.

     This latest addition to the �Conspiracy 365" series is an interesting read; however, it is not as much fun or as complex as the first 12 books in the series. The narrative was also a lot more slow paced, and the mystery was easy to figure out. I still enjoyed Malice � but only because it was a part of the �Conspiracy 365" series and because I like the characters.

Recommended.

Mark Mueller is the Education Librarian at Tyndale University College in Toronto, ON.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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