The Sword Thief is the third book in The 39 Clues series. It was written by Peter Lerangis and was published by Scholastic on March 3, 2009. The Sword Thief follows the first two books in the series, The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan and One False Note by Gordon Korman. The following book continues the plot in Beyond the Grave.
Plot
Ian and Natalie Kabra steal Amy and Dan Cahill's boarding pass in Venice airport, their au pair, Nellie Gomez, is already on the plane. Amy and Dan are then forced to team up with Alistair Oh, their uncle, and fly with him on his private plane to Tokyo, Japan. Together, they learn about Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the greatest warrior in the history of Japan, and the son of the first Tomas. The trio go to the Metropolitan Library. The Holts then kidnap Amy, Dan, and Alistair and threaten them into helping them find the next clue. The Holts then bring Amy and Dan underground to the train station, but when a train comes, the Holts run away, leaving Amy and Dan to be struck by the train. Alistair comes to their rescue and they all take cover in an unused storage room. In this room, they find a haiku, which tells them to use geometry to find Hideyoshi's treasursome geometrshapes, but are chased by the Yakuza and are once again nearly killed. They are rescued by Nellie, who has struck a deal, and is accompanied by, the Kabras. When the Kabras give Amy and Dan a small coin of importance to the search, the two Cahills agree to join forces with the Kabras. They decode another message in the shapes. The message tells them to go to Seoul, South Korea. It is shown various times that Amy falls for Ian. It is also implied that Ian may admire Amy. In Korea, everyone goes to Alistair's house. There, they look at old books about the Cahill family in a library. By reading one of them, Amy and Dan figure out the secret of the 39 Clues. They also figure out that they should go to a mountain called Bukhansan. On the mountain, they find an entrance, and open it with the coin they have. Inside, they find all of Hideyoshi's treasure, and the third clue, gold. The Kabras have a plan, and are unaware of Dan's plan. He discovers an anagram and says the next location is Lake Tash, Kyrgyzstan. The Kabras then betray them and block them inside the cave. Dan then tells Amy that he tricked the Kabras into thinking that Lake Tash was the next location, and the two figure out that it is actually an anagram for the words, Al Sakhet and Alkahest, the alchemical word for the philosopher's stone. Dan and Amy make it out using gunpowder but Alistair appears to be crushed under falling rocks. They also see Bae Oh talking about this with the infamous "man in black". Upon returning to Alistair's estate, Dan sees Alistair's gloves, and realizes that he might not be dead. They also figure out that the next clue is in Egypt. The book ends with Bae Oh, sitting his office. He pages his secretary but Alistair answers instead. Alistair threatens his uncle, and when Bae looks in his receiving room, no one is there.
Characters
Cahills: Amy Cahill, Dan Cahill, Saladin Cahill, Nellie Gomez, Alistair Oh Lucians: Ian Kabra, Natalie Kabra, Irina Spasky Holts: Reagan Holt, Hamilton Holt, Madison Holt, Eisenhower Holt, Mary-Todd Holt
