Book Review - Century Book One: The Ring of Fire by PD. Baccalario

Synopsis:  Every hundred years, four kids from four cities must save the world.

Rome, December 29.

A mix-up with their reservations forces Harvey from New York, Mistral from Paris, and Sheng from Shanghai to share a room with the hotel owner’s daughter, Elettra. The four kids discover an amazing coincidence—they all have birthdays on February 29, Leap Day. That night, a strange man gives them a briefcase and asks them to take care of it until he returns. Soon afterward, the man is murdered.

The kids open the briefcase. In it they find a series of clues that take them all over Rome, through dusty libraries and dark catacombs, in search of the elusive Ring of Fire, an ancient object so powerful that legend says even a Roman emperor couldn’t control it.

In the first book of the Century quartet, Italian author P. D. Baccalario begins a mystery that will take four cities and four extraordinary kids to solve.

First Line:  "The stars of Ursa Major are perfectly still in the sky."

Random Quote:  "The four kids head toward the oldest bridge in the city, which makes it way over the Tiber like a long, dark shadow.  When they reach it, Elettra says, "This bridge is called Ponte Quattro Capi.  It's named after a legend, naturally."

Review:  This is a cute mystery for kids aged 9 and up.  I especially liked the Roman setting and the kids are pretty believable as kids - all with distinct personalities.  There's a whole section of pictures and scrapbook items in the book that follows the kids' journey through Rome.  Others have said it is reminiscent of The DaVinci Code, but it feels like a good old-fashioned kids' mystery - like Encyclopedia Brown or Scooby Doo or Johnny Quest (the original, not the cleaned up remade ones).

Ponte Quattro Capi - Image via Wikipedia

Honestly, this reminded me of the Easter egg hunts my folks used to do for me starting with an egg that had a clue to lead me to the next egg, and so on.  Sadly, my Easter egg hunts never occurred in Rome.

I especially liked the sense in the book of Other Adult Things hovering in the background - you can sense these things are there, but since the story is from the perspective of kids you don't delve too far or expect much explanation.  This added to the reality of the kids' voices and I really liked it for that.

FTC Disclosure:  Advance reading copy from the publisher

Rating:  Green

Reading Challenges:  ARC Reading Challenge