With the sixth book of The 39 Clues series, In Too Deep by Jude Watson, the series was moving into its second half. We were moving into more secrets, getting closer to discovering secrets such as the identity of Amy and Dan’s branch and what really happened the night Amy and Dan’s parents died.
Note: Little did we know, of course, that there would be a second and now a third arc.
In The 39 Clues, young Amy and Dan Cahill learn that their family contains a secret powerful enough to make the owner of it the most influential human in history. The secret is scattered across the world in the form of 39 clues, or chemical elements.
Of course, Amy and Dan aren’t the only ones looking for the clues. Their relatives will do anything to get the clues first. In fact, we meet the worst one for the first time in this book.
Although Jude Watson’s earlier addition to the series was mostly mediocre, this book is much better, mainly because of its well-crafted character development.
If you haven’t read The 39 Clues series yet, then I’d advise starting with the most recent book and then working your way backwards from the first book. You probably you won’t read all of them, but you’ll thoroughly enjoy the ones that you do.
If you’re familiar with the series, though, then read on.
Summary
At the end of the last book, Amy and Dan decide to head to Australia to meet with their dad’s cousin Shep. Their parents were very involved in the clue hunt, and Amy and Dan want to figure out what they discovered.
The trouble starts immediately, however, when someone steals Amy’s necklace. Grace, Amy’s late grandmother, gave her the necklace, and it is very important to her. She runs after the thief, only to fall into a trap set by Isabel Kabra.
Ian and Natalie, Isabel’s kids, were bad enough. They had tried to kill Amy and Dan more than once. But their mother? She is the leader of the Lucian branch, and probably the most evil person in the entire series.
Isabel tells Amy, however, that she can help Amy learn who killed her parents. She also tries to manipulate Amy by telling her how Ian has a crush on her. Amy knows that Isabel is trying to trick her, but the chance to learn about her parents is just so tempting.
In the meantime, they learn about Bob Troppo, an Ekat who was close to discovering all of the clues. Amy and Dan spend their time in Australia trying to track him down.
Amy is in a terrible emotional state throughout the book, having flashbacks about the night her parents died. Ian calls and informs Amy that her parents were murdered. Then Irina, an ex-KGB agent who is supposed to be working for Isabel, tells Amy that she shouldn’t trust Isabel because she is the one who murdered her parents. Isabel, however, says the same thing about Irina! Amy is totally confused. She tries to keep it away from Dan, however, because she doesn’t want to him to have to feel the pain, too.
Unfortunately, Amy allows Isabel to lure her into a boat and then threatens to murder her if she doesn’t share which clues she’s found. Amy is in a tough spot, but Hamilton Holt comes and saves her. Even though the Holts called off their alliance at the end of the last book, he obviously still feels like he owes her.
While following Bob Troppo’s footsteps, Amy and Dan are lead through the desert and discover a clue that their mom left. That leads them to a mine, but Isabel drops poisonous spiders and a venomous snake down the mineshaft. It is yet another very close call, although Amy and Dan are once again able to escape.
We are able to identify a lot more with Irina this book. In past books we thought she was just a ruthless killer, but here we learn that she has some heart. In fact, she makes a serious sacrifice to help the Cahill kids, to avenge for her own child dying at Isabel’s instructions.
We also grow more suspicious of Nellie, Amy and Dan’s au pair. Before they had just kind of trusted her, but now they suspect that she might be up to something. After all, what kind of au pair knows tons of languages, can fly planes, and can do all kinds of other crazy stuff?
Who will die at the hands of Isabel? Will Amy and Dan go, or will someone else pay the ultimate price for them? Will they find the clue?
Review
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The parts about the clue hunt weren’t super great or clear, and I don’t think I remember any historical information from the book at all (I’m not even sure if there was any). Either way, Jude Watson does a masterful job of dealing with the characters in this book.
As mentioned above, we get to see Amy grow more mature and deal with her trauma of the past. We see a softer side of Irina, Amy and Dan worrying about the only person they thought they could trust, and the first death of the clue hunt. While most of the books are mainly focused on action, this book is about understanding the characters better, something that is very important to the series.
Would I recommend it? Definitely. Writing this review, I almost feel like I want to read this book again. Just some of the emotions of the characters in it were fascinating. Clue hunters will love it.
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