The Black Box
A Cassandra Virus novel
by K.V. Johansen
ISBN: 9780986497407
Published February 2011
215pp • US$13.00 • CA$13.99 • UK£8.00

Something is cutting off Spohrville's communication with the outside world. The phones don't work. There's no radio, no TV -- no internet. Are eco-terrorists trying to shut down the Mars Relay satellite? That's what the government says, but Jordan and Helen and the sentient virtual supercomputer Cassandra don't believe a word of it. The town is overrun with "birdwatchers" who can't tell a hawk from a heron. Jordan's old enemy, Harvey Number Two of the spy agency Bureau 6, is sneaking around pretending to be a cop on holiday. And archaeologist Uncle William has dug up a very strange black rock while excavating an Acadian settlement. With no land-lines to the site of the dig and wireless communication impossible, Jordan and Helen have no back-up from Cassandra. They've taken on corrupt government agents and industrial spies before, but they've always had Cassandra behind them. It's the twenty-first century. The bad guys have night-vision goggles and interference triangulators. How did Jordan and Helen get stuck with a bunch of musket-toting War of 1812 historical re-enactors as their only allies?

Reviews of The Black Box

"...The scene in which the Spohrville Fencibles, in their authentic uniforms and singing songs from the War of 1812, manage to head off the team of Americans with excavators and trucks who are trying to steal the Black Box is quite brilliantly done... The descriptions of archaeologists at work are informative and interesting... Better-written than most best-selling kid-spy books, The Black Box will appeal to fans of adventure stories and to anyone who would love to have a benign sentient supercomputer at their beck and call." -CM Magazine

"There is something about K.V. Johansen's writing that grips me and pulls me in. ... I found myself thinking of the story and characters for days afterwards... Johansen has again constructed a cleverly woven tale, with no loose ends or inconsistencies. Her characters are interesting and true to life." -Resource Links Magazine

About the Author 
   
K.V. Johansen is the author of numerous books for children, adults, and young adults. For more see the author's website at www.pippin.ca