Thoughts before reading:
I've never read this one before, and not looking forward to it now. These mysteries are just terrible, I don't know if I can make it through the rest!
The basics:
It's February, which is Abby's least favorite month, because none of her favorite sports are in season. This has left her feeling restless, so when she notices the new job board at SMS, she decides a part-time job might help. (I'm surprised Kristy would allow this!) An ad for the Greenbrook Country Club catches her eye: they're hiring students to help out with painting, clean-up, decorating, and child care. It sounds perfect, and Abby's excited, but when she brings it up at the BSC meeting, Mary Anne says she's heard some bad things about the place. She can't remember exactly what though, and business has been slow lately, so they all decide to check it out.
The BSC all goes together to meet the club's owner, Nikki. (Alan, Cokie, and Cary are also going to be working with them.) She also has a 7 year old son, Stephen, that they will be helping out with. They ask her about the bad rumors surrounding the club, and Nikki explains that she just came into ownership. Under the previous owners, her parents, it was known for being elitist and discriminatory: only certain types of people could join. (Basically, white and rich.) She wants to fix it up and turn it into an open, welcoming place. Nikki also tells them a story about how, as a teenager, she was told to not bring a Jewish friend to the club. She hasn't even spoken to her father for ten years because she married a Korean man.
Abby and Mary Anne run into Sergeant Johnson at the club, where he's looking into an unofficial, personal case. He explains to them that his childhood best friend, David Follman, was a reporter who began an investigation into the club 30 years ago. It was called Dark Woods at the time. There were rumors about a secret society there, involved in blackmail and extortion. While investigating, David died in a car accident under mysterious circumstances. The last thing he ever said to Sergeant Johnson was, "watch where you step," which he thinks is a clue.
The girls ask Dawn's Granny and Pop-Pop about it, since they've lived in Stoneybrook for a long time. They mention that people thought the mayor at the time, Armstrong, was in the secret society, as was Nikki's father.
While working, some of the BSC girls notice a white limo driving around the club all the time, just circling. Stacey and Mary Anne see an old man eventually get out, who they figure out, via some old photos, is Nikki's father. Not long after, Kristy trips over some old carpet inside the club and discovers an old stain that's really mirror writing (really...?), "1954 DF". The weird things begin to pile up from there: Mr. Armstrong also shows up at the club one day to grumble about how the place actually meant something when they didn't just let anyone in, there's a weird maze in the back that the kids are told to stay away from, and there's a creepy caretaker who never speaks.
Stacey also finds a note from David that says the secret society exists, and to think penguins. They take the note seriously and start searching for clues, until Cary admits to writing it. He also admits he wrote the notes between Logan and Mary Anne before (in Super Mystery #2).
The girls figure out that the stain Kristy found is wine, and decide to look in the wine cellar for more clues. They then discover, in a bottle of 1954 wine, a golf tee that says, "open WW2 (DF)". Eventually they decipher it to mean the golf open during World War 2. Inside that trophy there's two keys and another note, "shelter favorite food (DF)". This one has them stumped, and they end up taking all the notes to Sergeant Johnson.
Abby comes up with a plan to send a fake letter to Armstrong, mentioning that David had the goods on him and about the keys in the trophy. (She's hoping he'll get spooked and incriminate himself.) The letter sends Armstrong right to the keys and the last note. When he reads it, he heads straight to the maze, and Abby and Sergeant Johnson follow. When they reach him inside it, he has Stephen, and Nikki's father is there pleading with him to let the boy go. Thankfully he does, and is promptly arrested.
Sergeant Johnson and the BSC then venture into a bomb shelter Armstrong had uncovered in the middle of the maze. In a can of Ovaltine (David's favorite food), they find a notebook full of copied blackmail notes and extortion records.
Nikki and her father also make amends.
The side plot in here is just about Mal helping Stephen make friends, because he's really shy. He tells her it's because he feels like he doesn't fit in anywhere, due to being biracial. (Pretty astute for a seven year old..) At this same time, the older Pike kids start a Kids Club in their neighborhood, but only allow certain kids to join. Stephen, Claire Pike, and Jenny Prezzioso end up making their own Kids Club, fully stocked with fancy equipment. They refuse to let the other kids join, since they weren't allowed to join their club. Kristy explains to them about including and excluding people, and the clubs end up merging.
Timeline:
It's still February.
Misc. thoughts:
*Abby's family moved to Stoneybrook because her mom got promoted, so she bought a bigger, nicer house for them.
*Anna's the older twin, by 8 minutes.
*It's crazy to me that SMS now has a job board. I already knew they didn't have labor laws, but jeez... it's a middle school!
*I thought Stoneybrook was getting less racist as we moved through the 90s, but I guess not. It's been awhile since the books tackled a race issue.
*Events of Super Mystery #2 are finally mentioned. Usually the really wacky plots are never brought up again, like they exist in some alternate timeline.
*Nikki's family just moved onto Mallory's street.
*First thing Kristy does is advertise the club to Nikki, haha. Big surprise.
*Alan tells Cokie she's not old enough to be a hostess... but why not? When has age stopped anyone in Stoneybrook from getting a job?
*They should have named this "Abby and the Mystery of Dark Woods". Way cooler sounding.
*Cary's reason for writing the notes between Logan and Mary Anne? "Complications make life interesting." I really hate this guy, he sounds like a smug asshole.
*At least there was less "allergy speak" in here.
*I like the scavenger hunt and following the clues aspect of this, but they came too late to redeem this snoozer of a book.
*Stoneybrook apparently has 3 World War 2 memorials? That seems like a lot for a small town.
*All I can say about this strange mystery and it's odd ending is, at least for once adults were included in the scheme to catch a criminal. That counts for something.
*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles.
*David's plan was awful... it left everything to total chance. Why would you leave the evidence of those criminal activities at the club at all? The whole thing made no sense.
*I appreciated the messages of inclusion in here at least, especially the way it was explained for kids using the two parallel storylines.
Books mentioned:
None
My rating:
1.5 stars. Boring, ridiculous, and made almost no sense.
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