I looked out the window from my desk, trying to stop my mind from worrying. It was getting late and the house was breathlessly still. I was the only one awake, wasting my time trying to study. As if the strange message wasn’t enough to take my mind off my already overdue physics assignment, almost a week had gone by since anyone had last seen Ryan and I was finding it hard to concentrate.
Cal has received a strange message, indicating he has 90 days. But 90 days for what? He is sick of riddles. But his identical twin, Ryan, seems to be missing, and when Cal is asked to go undercover to investigate an island retreat for troubled teens, he realises it may also be an opportunity to find Ryan. Soon he is in once again in the thick of heart stopping adventures as he races the clock.
Missing is the first in a new trilogy, Black Ops featuring Cal Ormond and his friends from the Conspiracy 365 series. For mystery and adventure loving tweens, the book offers a fast paced adventure, with plenty of action and twists and turns. Spanning a month in time, the book takes Cal from home, to secondment to an covert surveillance group, and on to the island where he switches places with Ryan to try to unearth what is happening to missing teenagers – and what this might mean for the world beyond the island. The cliffhanger ending will leave them eager for the next instalment.
A knowledge of the earlier books is an advantage but readers new to the series will find plenty to engage them.
Missing , by Gabrielle Lord
Scholastic, 2013
ISBN 781742835181
Available from good bookstores or online.