The Medusa Plot: 11/06/13

The Medusa Plot by Gordon Korman is the first of the Cahills vs Vespers series which follows on the heals of the original 39 Clues series. Dan and Amy Cahill have settled into living in their grandmother's estate and are doing their best to repair the damage from the fire started at the beginning of the hunt for the 39 Clues.

They've returned to school and Amy has a boyfriend, Evan. The only thing that's changed is that they have a vast fortune to work with, and the aid of the other Cahill branches, should they need it.

All of that goes pear-shaped when key members of each branch of the Cahills are kidnapped by a group calling themselves the Vespers. The only way to get them back alive is for Dan and Amy to follow instructions via cellphone.

The first task on hand, steal Caravaggio's Medus from a museum that has a formidable security system. If anything, the first series demonstrated time and time again that Amy and Dan — and the other Cahill branches are excellent at getting their hands on the unattainable. Imagine, now, all of them (those not kidnapped) working together!

As a caper, it's a fun read. However, I'm finding the kidnapping plot hard to swallow. It's a ploy to get at the readers' heart strings, and one that just doesn't feel believable giving how skilled all of these kidnapped characters are. If the Vespers are really this powerful, they would have taken out all the Cahills and gotten their secret formula years ago.

Four stars

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