I couldn't find a very good picture of this one...most be one of the more obscure books.
Thoughts before reading:
I've never read this one, and I'm not particularly excited to now either. At least it's a California book though! That means we'll have some California stereotypes to discuss, and those are always hilarious.
The basics:
Dawn's been taking surfing lessons with Sunny, and there's a big competition coming up. Between this and a children's program they've been helping with, the girls have been spending a ton of time at the beach. They've noticed a twenty-something surfer guy named Thrash around a lot, and both girls are intrigued by him. Dawn has chatted with him a little too, about all the places he's surfed. He even has a nickname for her that means Princess in Hawaiian.
One day when the girls arrive at the beach, they hear that Thrash is missing, and maybe even dead. His board washed up on the shore all mangled, leading people to think a shark got him. Dawn can't stop wondering about what could have happened to him, and all day she hears the police and other surfers around talking about it. Later that night, she reads an article in the paper that mentions the possibility that his board was tampered with. She starts to worry that he could have been murdered.
Shortly after all this, Dawn and Sunny attend a beach party with the kids from the program. When the party's winding down, and the beach is growing dark and misty, everyone starts telling ghost stories. Then several of them spot someone out surfing, but the sight quickly vanishes. Dawn thinks it must be Thrash's ghost.
After that night, the story spreads around the beach, and as it grows, so do the supposed sightings. Dawn thinks this must confirm that Thrash was murdered, and now his ghost will haunt the beach until the murderer is caught. She's determined to solve the mystery of what happened herself. She begins by going to the police to discuss leads, but becomes angry that they don't seem to care what happened, just calling Thrash a drifter. (Unlike the Stoneybrook police, I guess they don't let teenagers solve their cases for them...) Next, she combs the beach, discovering Thrash's custom made wax.
Accidents have also been happening like crazy on the beach during this time, almost one a day. Even Sunny gets hurt surfing, and her mom asks her to take a break from it.
Dawn notices a new guy working at the concession stand, and he gives her the creeps. On closer look, she realizes it's Thrash, with a new buzz cut and all his piercings taken out, like he's in disguise. She tells only Sunny, since the police didn't care he was missing, and because she wants to figure out what he's up to. Dawn wastes no time in starting to spy on him, until she catches him tampering with a surf board belonging to a rival surfer, Gonzo, and confronts him. He tells her that Gonzo tried to off him, so he disguised himself and is hanging around to teach him a lesson, and win the surfing competition himself. She tells him tampering with a board isn't the solution, but that she'll help him. They end up agreeing to tell the police.
At the surfing competition, Thrash shows up with undercover cops dressed like surfers. They catch the rival surfer, Gonzo, who tampered with Thrash's board, and arrest him. He immediately confesses. Dawn wins third place in the beginners division, and Thrash wins best overall surfer. He thanks Dawn for her help, and gives her his snake ring to keep. He's leaving for Australia.
Back in Stoneybrook, the Arnold twins are now both into gymnastics, and Carolyn sprains her ankle practicing one day while Mary Anne is babysitting. After this incident, Marilyn refuses to leave her side, and insists on helping her sister with everything. Stacey ends up getting them to separate by having their respective friends invite them to different places at the same time, to do something only two people can enjoy.
Timeline:
It's winter
Misc. thoughts:
*In this book Dawn says Carol is young, despite all the others where she complained about her being old and acting too young.
*Dawn and the BSC girls are all writing to each other, and the chapters open with Dawn's letters.
*Dawn's in the We 💓 Kids Club now, and we get a run down of them AND the BSC in chapter two now. Some highlights of the new recap:
*Mrs. Winslow, Sunny's mom, is like a second mom to Dawn. She's also a potter.
*Sunny's real name is Sunshine Daydream. (Her parents were hippies.)
*Maggie's dad is in the movie biz, and she's rich.
*Her style is punk/vintage, and she has short styled hair with a long tail hanging down the back.
Often there's also a colored streak in it.
*Jill is quiet and serious. She lives with a divorced mom, an older sister, Liz, and 2 boxer dogs.
*I was disappointed that this book still had BSC babysitting chapters. At least have some from the California club instead.
*This book was a weird contrast to the seriousness of the last book. It also really reminded me of the Goosebumps book Ghost Beach for some reason. I think little me would have been spooked by this.
*Sunny thinks Dawn was madly in love with Thrash, and that's why she can't let go of what happened to him. I'm inclined to agree, since her obsession doesn't make much sense otherwise.
*Only Dawn would read a book of ghost stories on the beach, haha!
*How did no one but Dawn notice Thrash working at the concession stand? Give me a break. He's in plain sight, and working, which means he sees tons of people each day, and has to talk to them...
*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles.
California stereotypes:
*Tons of people are blond.
*Tons of people like to surf, and everyone goes to the beach constantly.
*Health food is really popular.
*Lots of people were hippies, and have hippy names.
*There's a lot of movie stars, or people somehow associated with them or the movie biz.
*People are mostly free spirits, laid back, and relaxed.
*Everyone tends to dress casually.
*The junior high has a tropical garden, complete with hummingbirds.
*Luaus are popular.
*Everything is more informal.
*The letters in here were a nice touch, and something a bit different.
Books mentioned:
*The Silver Chair, by C. S. Lewis
My rating:
3 stars. This was silly, but fun. It read like a Scooby Doo mystery, right down to the cops dressed like surfers, who get an instant confession. The plot was ridiculous, of course, but in a more fun way than most of the mysteries. It doesn't hurt that I know I would have loved this as a kid.
However, the side plot was terrible. It didn't go even vaguely with the main story. These mystery books would flow a lot better and achieve a better atmosphere if they skipped the babysitting chapters.
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