Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #465 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-01
• Released on: 2009-08-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780545060455
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Patrick Carman is the author of The Land of Elyon books, which have spent over half a year on the New York Times bestseller list. He lives in Walla Walla, Washington.

Customer Reviews

Best in the series.
Out of all the five books, this is by far the best in the series. Carman brought the series back to where it should be, it had the feel of the first two books. Dan and Amy are in Russia gathering clues, and they have to make an alliance with a team they don't want to, but need to.

As the story unfolds we learn something about the character of Irina Spasky. I hope we learn more about her, and the hint that is dropped is explored more. I really like what Carman did with her. He really developed her and made her an interesting character. I hope we can learn more about her and her past.

I also like how Carman got away from Amy and Dan bickering all the time. In books 3 and 4, that was a major draw back for me. Dan and Amy are in the race for their lives, and they have to battle different members of the family tree, and they have to fight? For me, that never worked, and took away from the story. Glad to see that Carman didn't that in this book. It was such a pleasure to read.

Dan and Amy have to face something in this book that they never had to face in the past. They have a time limit. Amy and Dan get a mysterious card saying that they just have a set amount of hours to do what they need to, and if they don't, all will be lost.

I also loved how Carman kept the story in Russia, and let the reader in on some of the history and interesting facts about Russia, I felt that this aspect was missing from books 3 and 4. The reader gets drawn in and doesn't stop reading to the last page. This book has a lot of Russian history, and it was presented in such an interesting way.

One more thing I'll say that made The Black Circle such an interesting read..... while Dan and Amy solve puzzles and clues, they have a chance to learn more about their parents. At one point, one character tells them, "Make sure you want to know something. Once you know it, you can't unknow it."

That being said, this is a fantastic read! This is the first book I've read by Patrick Carmen and I may look up more books this author has written. This is fast paced and draws the reader in. I just hope that Carman gets to write more books in this series. Honestly, there wasn't any boring parts.

Kuddos to Patrick Carmen, great job done!

The Fabled Princess
Each book in THE 39 CLUES series just makes me wonder one thing: is the ending going to be a let-down, or is it going to be amazing? I keep trying to figure out what the end result -- what all the clues are going to create -- will be, but I'm stumped. Well, not exactly stumped. I have a few ideas, but I'm afraid that if I'm right... the ending might not live up to itself.

And with the newest installment, book 5, THE BLACK CIRCLE, things are still continuing to spin in some interesting directions. Lots of questions that have been lingering since the beginning keep doing just that: lingering. We're getting licks of answers, but nothing definite. And there are definitely a few new twists thrown into things this time. Is everyone really who they say they are? Can Dan and Amy really trust anyone?

THE BLACK CIRCLE sends the Cahill siblings off to Russia, where they chase down riddles left for them by someone only calling themselves "NRR." Is it a trap? Or is it really leading them to some of the biggest answers to their biggest questions?

The writing is pretty crisp here, and Patrick Carman definitely keeps things moving along nicely and in a similiar style to the previous books. The only thing I did notice was some of the cheesy humour employed by the other authors. And maybe part of that is the fact that things are getting a bit darker and more serious as the race for the clues goes on.

All in all, THE BLACK CIRCLE probably ranks 2nd or 3rd from what's come so far, and the entire series is definitely worth a good read.

best of the series, so far
After being quite disappointed with the previous book in the series, I think they did a great job with this installment. Instead of reviewing what happened in the previous installment, they just jumped right into the action and had a much stronger story. I'm quite excited for the next installment.