Review: October & November by Gabrielle Lord

Conspiracy 365: October & November by Gabrielle Lord (October & November 2010, Hodder Children's Books, ISBN: 0340996539 & 0340996546 )

Review: Almost a year since I read and reviewed January, I'm now closing in on the final book. I've just read October and November (I find it hard to read just one!) and the answers that Cal Ormond and his friends Boges and Winter seek will soon be revealed.

To briefly recap - Australian author Gabrielle Lord has written a monthly series featuring 15/16 year-old Cal Ormond who has been accused of attempted murder and is on the run. He has to unravel the secret of the Ormond family and stay alive until the end of the year. Each book opens and ends with him getting himself into or out of a life-threatening situation. Most of his help comes from his best friend and technical wizard Boges and Winter, the ward of one of the bad guys also after the secret of the Ormonds which is supposed to make Cal rich according to his late father. Other individuals both helpful and not, reappear at intervals so it's quite a closed world of characters.

As before, narrated in a diary style with descending page numbers, there is plenty of tension in these two outings as the gang spy on several key players in the mystery including a shady lawyer and Winter's guardian, plus disrupt a wedding in grand style and in November gain some vital information from a very unexpected source.

I am enjoying this series and though it can be slightly frustrating that the gang find clues and lose them quite quickly, and more than once, I'm with the likeable Cal and friends to the bitter end.

October and November probably aren't the best place to start in this series so if you like an action-led story set in a different and (to me) exotic place do go back to January and begin.

I've also reviewed June and August.