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. **½ /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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