Australian crime novelist Gabrielle Lord has written a series for young adults that plays out in real time: 'Conspiracy 365' is a 12-part series, and each part is set in the month in which it is released. Gabrielle answers some questions about her intriguing new series.

What does 'Conspiracy 365' mean and what is it about?

'Conspiracy 365' is a thrilling suspense novel that that runs for a year – 365 days. The story arcs over one whole year in the life of Cal, with a book released each month and called after the month of its release, so that while the whole series is called ‘Conspiracy 365’, each monthly book is named January, February, March, April and so on ... each one ending in a thrilling cliff-hanger to make readers really hang out for next month’s book!

The novel begins as 15-year-old Callum Ormond, Cal for short, is accosted on New Year’s Eve by a sick and staggering stranger who warns him about something called ‘the Ormond Singularity’ – a secret to do with his family. His late father had uncovered some information about it while researching genealogies in Ireland. While promising amazing wealth to the person who can solve the mystery, the Ormond Singularity brings deadly consequences. The year will become increasingly more dangerous, Cal is warned. Almost immediately, bad things start to happen to him and his family.

Cal starts to realise that things are not as they seem – that people he thought he could trust are actually enemies. Cal’s ordinary life is plunged into a dark and menacing intrigue. His father’s death was not because of a brain disease.

Cal’s everyday world of school and weekly Air Cadets is blown apart. On the run and falsely accused of crimes against his uncle and his kid sister, Cal is forced to survive on the streets. Heavy criminals, who’ve also heard of the Ormond Singularity and the rumoured fortune connected to it, hunt Cal. His father has left a series of enigmatic sketches, drawn in desperation as his synapses crash due to the Unknown Viral Infection (UVI) that eventually destroyed his brain, cutting him off from normal communication channels. These are the only clues Cal has to the mystery of the Ormond Singularity. Not only does he have to survive life on the run and stay one jump ahead of the police and the two criminal gangs who are also after the secret of the Ormond Singularity, Cal must try to crack this huge family secret – before the Ormond Singularity runs out and whatever it promises fades into history. Cal must solve the mystery before midnight of December 31st – and survive to do it. 

Tell us about other characters in the series.

Cal’s best buddy is schoolmate Boges, a migrant kid and a real brain, a whiz at fixing discarded items such as old computers, and selling them on eBay or to his mates.  Boges is also a gifted inventor and some of the devices he’s created turn out to be very helpful to Cal.

Boges is able to keep Cal updated about what’s happening in Cal’s family – now that Cal is on the run. He helps Cal in the difficult deciphering of the mysterious sketches left by his father. It seems that Cal and Boges next need to track down the whereabouts of something known as the Ormond Riddle – an old manuscript containing a whimsical Medieval rhyme connected to the Ormond family and the Ormond Singularity. Solving this oddly worded riddle will help in the solution of the mystery of the Ormond Singularity.

Cal meets Winter Frey, an aloof girl who seems to be an ally but then often also seems to have a dangerous agenda of her own and Cal isn’t sure whether or not he can trust her. Winter, however, is a wordsmith who has the skills to help the two boys with unlocking some of the secrets hidden in the strange words of the Ormond Riddle,

Because he’s always just one jump ahead of the police who are trying to arrest him, or the criminals who are trying to stop him and get to the secret of the Ormond Singularity before him, Cal finds himself in very difficult circumstances, torn between the need to hide from his enemies and the need to risk getting out and investigating.  His friends are helpful – to a point – but Cal too often finds himself in deadly peril – I don’t want to give anything away – Cal is always under threat.

How much research did you need to do for the series?

The research for this book took me to Ireland – where Book 12, December of the series, has its climax and the final, awesome scenes where the last attempt on Cal’s life is made in the ruins of an ancient castle – just as the kids are about to finally get to the truth about the Ormond Singularity.

I spoke to the Keeper of Rare Books at Trinity College, Dublin, and travelled to several places where the Earls of Ormond lived in times gone by. This series is based partly on historical figures who lived in the 16th century and I needed to hunt down information about them to make my story more realistic and accurate. I also talked to a forensic pathologist about poisons, and a jet pilot for information about Rocket Assisted Take Off (RATO) for jet engines – Cal has to make a quick getaway in one of the books…

I talked to grave diggers – in Book One, January, Cal and Boges have to go to the Ormond Mausoleum at the cemetery to find some hidden information and I discovered that some mausoleums have extra underground chambers.

Which aspects of the series did you most enjoy writing?

I loved the challenge to write a fast-paced suspense story that runs for a whole year when normally, the action of a thriller runs over only a few days – weeks at the most.

I enjoyed creating great characters who are engaging and realistic and with whom readers can readily identify and creating the extraordinary predicaments for these characters to navigate; creating the great secret of the Ormond Singularity from hints I discovered in historical sources. I especially enjoyed composing the text of the Ormond riddle and designing the Ormond jewel – two items which feature very strongly in the story, and which between the two of them – and if read aright – contain the secret to the Ormond Singularity, both its danger and its hidden fortune.

I also enjoyed working with my musician nephew Greg to write the song I can’t do this alone for Cal’s blog which will be operational next year at www.teenfugitve.com so that readers can contact him via his message wall. If you want to know more about Conspiracy 365 head to the official website: www.conspiracy365.com.