The Viper's Nest

The Viper's Nest

The Book Cover
Author	Peter Lerangis
Language	English
Series	The 39 Clues
Genre	Children's novel Adventure novel
Publisher	Scholastic
Publication date	February 2, 2010
Publication place	United States United Kingdom Canada
Media type	Print (hardcover)
ISBN	978-0545060479
Preceded by	In Too Deep
Followed by	The Emperor's Code

The Viper's Nest is the seventh book in The 39 Clues series. It is written by Peter Lerangis and was released by Scholastic on February 2, 2010. The cover is colored brown and depicts a double headed snake and two spears. There is a code written along the spears on the inside front and back covers. It is an anagram, and you must combine the two sets of letters to solve it. Unscrambled, the code says "Madrigal Leader = Grace", which implies that Grace Cahill was the Madrigal leader, confirming that Amy and Dan are Madrigals. On pages 39-65, words written in Morse Code are used along the sides of the pages, quoting: 'There is a Madrigal watcher.'

Plot

Shocked by the death of Irina Spasky, Dan and Amy march into danger once again.For the first they begin to question how much they trust their au pair, Nellie, later they regain their trust. The storyline starts the morning after the fire that killed Irina Spasky. The two were shaken by whats' happened and they can't believe that Irina was on their side after all. But moment later, Nellie Gomez, their au pair, appeared signaling the arrival of police. It turns out that Isabel Kabra called the police and put the blame of Irina towards Alistair.

Meanwhile, after using again their code breaking abilities, Dan and Amy figured that the last words of Irina was actually a song. "I'm with you and you're with me and so we are all together" which points to their next destination: Pretoria, South Africa.

Upon arrival in South Africa, a mysterious man hands a postcard to the sibling which points to a connection to a famous person called Shaka. As they unravel the history of Shaka, they find out that he was a member of the Tomas branch. Following a line of clues, Shaka was then connected to Winston Churchill.

While visiting a library with a document coming from Churchill, they discover that the clue was hidden with the body of Shaka. They also find a tunnel in which it is said that Churchill hid when he was in Africa. They unlocked the message of the Churchill which pointed to a certain coordinate which turned out to be a Tomas Stronghold.After infiltrating the Tomas stronghold they soon discovered a box with diamond in it. At first they thought that was the clue, but Aloe turns out to be the clue (which was growing around the box)

When they were leaving South Africa, they were captured by the Kabras. They were about to kill Dan when suddenly the professor (which helped them at the Tomas Stronghold) saves them again. They escaped together with what Dan thought was the vial with green liquid that they thought was the lead to their second clue in the Maze of Bones.

They escape them by flying Grace Cahill's old plane. During the ride, Dan and Amy have a little quarrel, accidentally breaking the vial and some of the contents spill onto Dan's arm. It turns out to be a Kabra poison. To get the antidote, they fly towards Grace Cahill's home in Madagascar. In Grace's journal, they find a page that says ″I am feeling melancholy today, thinking about my dear A & H and missing them so. I cannot even bear to listen to my beloved di Lasso, because of the reminder...″ and on another page it says ″I have written Deng Xiaoping, who has agreed to grant to visit to A & H when he discovered that they, like him, are M."

This, along with a piece of music by di Lasso, leads Dan to realize that his and Amy's family branch is the Madrigals.