Review: Decent Book, but not really necessary to the series
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 1, 2012
***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***The funeral of Grace Cahill has begun and relatives from all over the world have gathered.  But does the funeral include some uninvited guests?  And if so just how much danger are Grace's relatives actually in?While this story includes a very small amount of actually action in the last couple pages, for a 39 Clues novel its 30 pages of dry reading.  Most of the story is entering the thoughts of different clue hunt participants, understanding what they were thinking as they watched Grace Cahill being lowered into the ground.  The story has no educational value, little action and the only thing it adds to the set up is creating more of a connection for characters we'll meet in the Cahills vs. Vespers series.  On top of this things are just off in the story.  For one I could have sworn Dan had brown hair, now he's blond.  And I thought the fire was described as an accident initially not deliberate in the original series?Characterization wise this book seemed beyond off for the characters we've come to know so well throughout the series.  Jonah was self centered, but he wasn't a Lucian and his think patterns were always more laid back than what they're described as here.  Eisenhower always puts his family first and he showed a lot more respect for his son in the series than he shows here.  For a character who's never had respect, remembering to give it to his children would be important to him.  And thought Ian was close he wasn't right either.  Ian definitely had some feelings for Amy during the Clue Hunt, he's just ingrained never to put emotion before duty.  For that to occur there's no way he would think of her as basically ugly.  Ian's too shallow to change his mind about how people look.  I'll give you that at this point he doesn't respect Amy or Dan, but calling her mangy doesn't fit with the characterizations already established.  Not to mention I remember Ian and Natalie insulting Dan and Amy on the walkway in book one and we're still with Ian when that should have occurred in this novella, but it didn't. Astrid however, a character we're just meeting in the series, is well developed.  She can't be contradictory because before now she's never been more than a name and that name has only been mentioned in the Rapid Fire Series.  She gets mentioned in the Cahills vs Vespers series too, but not in too much detail.Overall if you have the time they story is worth reading just for the information given about Astrid Rosenbloom, who I can't help but picture as the chick on Fringe and since no physical description of her is given I guess I'm allowed to.  But if it doesn't fit into your schedule, this 39 Clues installment is skippable.