Thoughts before reading:
I've never read this one before, and it doesn't look familiar at all. For most of these mysteries, I'll be going in knowing nothing.
The basics:
Stacey and Claudia are hanging out together, looking at magazines and talking about boys. She has a crush on a new boy from school, Terry Hoyt, that she tells Claudia about. It turns out that he's a twin, and Mary Anne has a class with his sister, Tasha. Mrs. Hoyt also ends up calling the BSC for a sitter for her younger son, Georgie. Kristy takes the job, and she finds the family to be odd. Their dad is really strict, all three kids are shy and quiet, and they seem to have moved a lot, although Georgie won't talk about it. They've been in Stoneybrook for three weeks, yet nothing is unpacked. There's also a closet he tells her not to open. Then, after Georgie goes to bed, she decides to straighten up and finds a photo ID from a school in Oregon with Tasha's picture and the name Tina Harris.
Mallory mentions reading an article in the newspaper about counterfeiters operating around Stoneybrook. Not long after, Stacey and Charlotte are out on a special shopping day together while Charlotte's parents are at a wedding. Stacey uses a $10 bill to pay at Bellair's, and is informed that it's actually a fake. The police are called, and she has to go down to the station to give a statement, along with the store clerks. Stacey tells them she had no idea the bill wasn't real, and had gotten it from another store in the mall. Charlotte cries the whole time, thinking Stacey is getting arrested.
When Kristy hears about the incident at the mall, she calls an emergency club meeting: she's worried that word about Stacey trying to pass fake bills will hurt the club's reputation. (Poor Stacey! This is ridiculous! Plus, to make matters worse, Kristy brings up the missing ring situation from Mystery 1 again...) The BSC decides to try and solve the mystery themselves by staking out places that sell printing supplies, plus the mall, in case they see anyone spending "gobs of cash".
Terry Hoyt calls Stacey and asks her out, to which she eagerly agrees. They have a great first date, even though things get awkward when they run into Sam and his date, Kathy. Stacey can't help but be jealous, even though she's really liking Terry. She also notices throughout the evening that Terry doesn't like talking about himself much, and introduces himself using two different middle names at different points, like he's forgotten it.
Based on these few weird incidents involving the Hoyt family, Kristy thinks they're the counterfeiters. They do still stake out the printing stores, looking for proof, but the only weird thing they notice is that Mr. Fiske, their English teacher, comes into the stores a lot. The girls start to tail him, but they don't turn up anything else.
Stacey and Charlotte are out playing detective and staking out downtown Stoneybrook again when they see a man running like he's being chased. He drops a canvas bag, which they go over to investigate and find to be stuffed with fake money. Instead of calling the police (which even 8 year old Charlotte wants to do), Stacey calls Claudia. Together they decide to wait for him to return for his bag, then snap his picture. (Sigh. This is just not responsible babysitting!)
Jessi comes to take Charlotte back to her house, then Claudia, Mary Anne, Kristy, and Terry stay with Stacey nearby the bag. The guy does end up coming back, and the girls manage to get some pictures. Terry tells Stacey she can just give the pictures to his dad instead of the police, finally admitting his dad is in the Secret Service. The family came to Stoneybrook because of the counterfeiters. They move to wherever he has a case going on, using new names each time: his real one is David Hawthorne.
The counterfeiter turns out to be a guy with a tattoo on his earlobe that a few of the girls had seen during their stakeouts. He's arrested, and with the case closed the Hoyts are moving again. Stacey's sworn to secrecy about Mr. Hoyt's job.
Sam calls Stacey to congratulate her for her work on cracking the case. He also says he misses her, and she admits to missing him. They agree to keep dating, but also see other people.
Timeline:
School's in session again. The continuity in this section of books is even worse than usual, because I'm reading them in order (obviously) and in the regular series it's still been summer. During the spin-offs, it's during the school year. In the soon to be coming Chain Letter book, it's also still summer.
Misc. thoughts:
*Stacey's still talking about Mr. Ellenburg. Ick, I don't want to be reminded of that ordeal.
*Apparently Sam brought a rubber tarantula to the January Jamboree when he and Stacey went together, and Stacey had to beg him to get rid of it. There's over 200 of these books, and we still don't get to read about this?! C'mon now....
*Stacey says her and Sam have reached an understanding that they can date other people, because it's been too hard being at different schools. This is at least a better explanation than we got in #65, but I wish all of these things weren't happening behind the scenes. They leave out the most interesting things! I'm surprised they don't want to milk them for more books.
Also, I can understand the problem with being at two different schools. That must feel like a huge obstacle when you're too young to drive.
*I love that Stacey and Claudia were hanging out without babysitting. The friendship scenes are my favorites.
*You can tell the 90s are in full swing, because English class is now being called Language Arts. That's what my English classes in junior high were always called also.
*Kristy thinks she should be the first one to sit for any new client, which is definitely a new policy. There's also talk in here of having someone go along, for safety reasons, the first time they meet a new client. This was noticeably missing from the early books, and probably added due to backlash from parents.
*Charlie stares at Tasha Hoyt when he meets her, which was really gross. She's 13 and in 8th grade; he's 17 and in 12th. Seemed out of character to me.
*Sam's been seeing Kathy lately, another 10th grader.
*Kristy tells Stacey that Sam was also jealous when he saw her out with Terry.
*Claudia wants to get a tattoo of a peace sign on her earlobe. I can definitely picture her doing this in college.
*I remember being fascinated by the teacher's lounge, like the girls are in here.
*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles
* I found it unspeakably sad that Charlotte had more common sense than Stacey in here, and that Stacey was completely unconcerned with her babysitting responsibilities, to the degree that she's tailing criminals with a kid. How do these girls still get jobs? Do none of the kids ever tell their parents about these misadventures? This book sorely needed a scene where a parent explained to the BSC girls why they shouldn't have been getting involved in this. Instead, we have 25 more mysteries coming, and who knows how many dangerous criminals.
Books mentioned:
*To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
*The Rin Tin Tin series, by Various
My rating:
2 stars. Even with Mr. Hoyt reprimanding Stacey for not contacting the police, this was just too ridiculous, with way too much flawed logic. It was less irritating than Mystery 9, but still the most outrageous yet.
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