A deadly alliance.
"With a secret of this much power, jealousies were inevitable and no alliances would survive."
— Irina Spasky's thoughts
The Sword Thief is the third book in the first series of The 39 Clues.
There's only one rule in the race to find 39 Clues hidden around the world: trust no one. But when the hunt leads fourteen-year-old Amy Cahill and her younger brother, Dan, to Japan, their only chance to find the third Clue seems to lie with their unreliable uncle, Alistair Oh. Will they be foolish enough to make an alliance? With a Clue on the line, Amy and Dan might not have a choice. But in the Cahill family, trusting your relatives can get you killed...
Tropes:
- Enemy Mine: Amy and Dan are forced to team up with double-crosser Alistair Oh in order to get to Japan. Later on, another team-up occurs, but this time, with the aforementioned three people and the Kabra siblings.
- Faking the Dead: Alistair was revealed to have done this, effectively abandoning Amy and Dan.
- Literally Falling in Love: Ian falls on top of Amy while saving her life, and the two share a small kiss. However, the pseudo-Relationship Upgrade is short-lived, as he leaves her in a cave to die almost immediately afterward.
- Never Found the Body: What happened with Alistair. Dan and Amy were genuinely upset about his death, until they found his dirty gloves and realized he must have survived, then left without them.
- Rivals Team Up: The Cahills and the Kabras.
- Was It All a Lie?: Type 2. Amy Cahill wonders this after she and her brother make an alliance with Ian and Natalie Kabra, during which Ian flirts with her. The alliance ends with the Kabras making off with what Dan led them to believe was the clue, and in the meantime trapping the Cahills in a cave.
- Wham Shot: When Dan and Amy go back to Alistair's Korean mansion to retrieve their belongings, Dan finds white gloves caked with dirt and charcoal in Alistair's room, meaning he survived the cave-in and saved his own skin.
