This is the first book in a 12 volume series. This tells the story of Cal whose father just passed away, but with his death has presented Cal a world where everyone is after him and he is not sure why. All he knows is that his dad died from some unknown virus and left him pictures and a letter about knowing something that would change their lives forever.
This is an interesting approach to book writing. A new book in the series is presented at the beginning of every month in 2010. I heard about this book from on of my colleagues at me school. She told me she read the books to her homeroom and they loved them. I bought this book a while back and it was in my massive TBR pile. As I continue to knock books off this pile I decided to read this one. I finished it in one day. I already have this book to my book talk when school resumes. I have a feeling this is a series that middle school students will love, but I doubt many know about it all. The books are actually hard to obtain and the author is from Australia. How about that? Another author from the land down under. I continue to find myself more into the writing from Australians authors without realizing it. This book held my interest and even though I know that there are 11 more books and Cal cannot die yet, I was still feeling great anticipation of what to expect next. Just when I thought, here we go with the same typical routine plot, the author would throw in a wrench to the storyline. I have just purchased the February and March book in the series and will continue to knock books off my TBR pile while I wait for these to arrive. I will make a prediction that this series will be huge in my school once the word spreads(Starting with me) and will be a nice alternative series after the Hunger Games trilogy comes to a close here in a few months.
From Booklist
As gimmicks go, it’s a good one: each month of 2010, one title in the 12-book Conspiracy 365 series will be released. The ticking clock (or calendar, in this case) is introduced immediately when a strange man accosts 15-year-old Callum Ormond on the street, shouting, “Get away! Hide and lay low until midnight December 31st of next year.” It’s good advice, because the following day, January 1st, includes a boat wreck, shark attack, and helicopter rescue—and that’s just for starters. Soon Callum is fleeing unknown assailants who are framing him for the attack of his little sister and uncle Rafe (a shady character himself). It all has to do with something called the Ormond Singularity and a group of sketches Callum’s father gave him before dying of a mysterious illness. This is the kind of stuff that stretches credibility with every page, but continual time updates (“12:00 a.m.,” “12:13 a.m.,” etc.) at least create a sense of continual motion. The conclusion offers no answers, just the requisite cliff-hanger. Grades 4-6. --Daniel Kraus
A blog with a good review of the novel is posted below
Relentless Pursuit of Cold Shivers
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