A game of cat and mouse.
"Come alone, as your parents did, or don't come at all."
— Nataliya Ruslanova Radova
The Black Circle is the fifth book in the first series of The 39 Clues.
A strange telegram lures fourteen-year-old Amy Cahill and her younger brother, Dan, deep into Russia and away from the only trustworthy adult they know. Signed with the initials NRR, the telegram launches a race to uncover a treasure stolen by the Nazis and the truth about the murder of the last Russian royal family. All too soon, the treasure hunt starts to smell like a Lucian trap. But the bait might just be irresistible... what will Amy and Dan risk to find out what really happened on the night their parents died?
Tropes:
- Did Anastasia Survive?: It is revealed that Anastasia Romanov did survive the execution of her family, though she isn't alive by the time the book takes place. NRR is her daughter, though, and has inherited her family's hemophilia.
- Foreshadowing: When both the front cover and book codes are deciphered, they reveal two phrases that throw one's knowledge of the Cahill family into question.Remember Madeleine. (Front cover code)
Olivia had another. (Book code) - Little Girls Kick Shins: Amy (though hardly a little girl at age fourteen) to Ian.
