The Black Circle
Encyclopedia
The Black Circle is the fifth book in The 39 Clues
series and is written by Patrick Carman
. This book was released on August 11, 2009. Amy and Dan Cahill, the protagonists of the series, try to follow a Lucian secret. They also encounter the infamous Madrigals.
The Black Circle was selected as Al Roker
's book club pick.
After boarding their plane, Amy and Dan unscramble the words on the parchment by adding the underlined letters in their names and find out that information about the next clue is in the following Russian cities: Volgograd
, Moscow
, Yekaterinburg
, St. Petersburg and the following Siberian cities: Magadan
and Omsk
. The Clue seems to follow the murder of the last Russian Royal family, the Romanovs.
After arriving at Volgograd, Amy and Dan meet and work with the Holts, climbing the inside of The Motherland Calls
to discover a hint to the clue around Rasputin, Anastasia Romanov (who supposedly didn't die, being the only one of the royal family remaining), and Alexei Romanov. They check out the cities on the list they found by the eye of the statue, leading them to the place Rasputin died. During an attack by the Kabras, the Holts alert them of a location code which guides them to a Lucian base. There, they discover who the mysterious NRR is. Nataliya Ruslanovna Radova, the only daughter of Anastasia. They also find the clue in the Amber Room, located by Nataliya. In the Amber Room, they found fake Australian passports of their parents, meaning they went on the hunt for the Clues but never finished. They run into Irina and the man in black. Amy and Dan hide in a coffin while he lures Irina and two Lucian agents out of the church in an attempt to help them escape.
They safely make it out of the Church on the Blood, and with Nellie on her way, Dan calls Hamilton and gives him the clue, 1 gram of melted amber
. The book ends with the Holts ending their alliance with Amy and Dan when the Holts found out they tricked them.
The 39 Clues
The 39 Clues consists of two series of adventure books, The Clue Hunt and Cahills vs. Vespers, combining reading, online gaming, and card collecting...
series and is written by Patrick Carman
Patrick Carman
Patrick Carman is an American author of the The Land of Elyon series, the Atherton series, the Elliot's Park series, the Skeleton Creek Saga, and the fifth 39 Clues book. His books have been translated into approximately two dozen languages.-Biography:Patrick Carman was born on February 27, 1966,...
. This book was released on August 11, 2009. Amy and Dan Cahill, the protagonists of the series, try to follow a Lucian secret. They also encounter the infamous Madrigals.
The Black Circle was selected as Al Roker
Al Roker
Albert Lincoln "Al" Roker, Jr. is an American television meteorologist as well as an actor and book author. He is best known as being the weather anchor on NBC's Today. On Monday, July 20, 2009, he began co-hosting his new morning show, Wake Up with Al, on The Weather Channel, which airs weekdays...
's book club pick.
Plot summary
After the Madrigals attack the Ekaterina stronghold, Amy, Dan, and their au pair, Nellie, move to a different hotel and are given a mysterious telegram from a person known only as NRR. The telegram includes an airport locker number, and some of the letters in Dan and Amy's names are underlined. Nellie is still asleep, so they take her cell phone and leave her a note saying that they went to buy some doughnuts. But on the way to the Cairo International Airport, they are chased by Ian and Natalie Kabra, competitors in the race to find the 39 clues hidden around the world. However, they eventually lose the Kabras and find what they are looking for: the locker mentioned in the telegram. They find a glass paperweight with a key in the bottom, and it is holding down a piece of parchment with scrambled letters. They also find a box with disguises and two passports showing them with the disguises on, plus a Russian guide book with two tickets to Volgograd, Russia.After boarding their plane, Amy and Dan unscramble the words on the parchment by adding the underlined letters in their names and find out that information about the next clue is in the following Russian cities: Volgograd
Volgograd
Volgograd , formerly called Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River...
, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
, St. Petersburg and the following Siberian cities: Magadan
Magadan
Magadan is a port town on the Sea of Okhotsk and gateway to the Kolyma region. It is the administrative center of Magadan Oblast , in the Russian Far East. Founded in 1929 on the site of an earlier settlement from the 1920s, it was granted the status of town in 1939...
and Omsk
Omsk
-History:The wooden fort of Omsk was erected in 1716 to protect the expanding Russian frontier along the Ishim and the Irtysh rivers against the Kyrgyz nomads of the Steppes...
. The Clue seems to follow the murder of the last Russian Royal family, the Romanovs.
After arriving at Volgograd, Amy and Dan meet and work with the Holts, climbing the inside of The Motherland Calls
The Motherland Calls
The Motherland Calls, , also called Mother Motherland, Mother Motherland Is Calling, simply The Motherland, or The Mamayev Monument, is a statue in Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad. It was designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and structural engineer...
to discover a hint to the clue around Rasputin, Anastasia Romanov (who supposedly didn't die, being the only one of the royal family remaining), and Alexei Romanov. They check out the cities on the list they found by the eye of the statue, leading them to the place Rasputin died. During an attack by the Kabras, the Holts alert them of a location code which guides them to a Lucian base. There, they discover who the mysterious NRR is. Nataliya Ruslanovna Radova, the only daughter of Anastasia. They also find the clue in the Amber Room, located by Nataliya. In the Amber Room, they found fake Australian passports of their parents, meaning they went on the hunt for the Clues but never finished. They run into Irina and the man in black. Amy and Dan hide in a coffin while he lures Irina and two Lucian agents out of the church in an attempt to help them escape.
They safely make it out of the Church on the Blood, and with Nellie on her way, Dan calls Hamilton and gives him the clue, 1 gram of melted amber
Amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin , which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Amber is used as an ingredient in perfumes, as a healing agent in folk medicine, and as jewelry. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents...
. The book ends with the Holts ending their alliance with Amy and Dan when the Holts found out they tricked them.
Page Number Code
As with every book in the series, there is a secret code hidden somewhere in the page numbers. The code for this book is in the Cyriillic alphabet. When translated phoneticaly it says "Olivia had another". Olivia being the wife of the Gideon Cahill (Founder of Cahills). "had another" referring to Madeline Cahill, the founder of the Madrigals.External links
- Scholastic 39 Clues books page
- The Black Circle at the 39 Clues wiki.