Thoughts before reading:
Never read this one before, and it doesn't even look vaguely familiar. I definitely wasn't very into the mysteries as a kid, because by this point no remaining mysteries look like books I've even seen before, yet in the regular series there are still many favorites to come.
I like the cover on this one though, actually. The kids on here are way cuter than the usual BSC cover fare.
The basics:
Try to stick with me, this is another convoluted one...
Richard reads in the newspaper one morning that a big developer, Fowler, is trying to buy land in Stoneybrook that includes two private homes, Miller Park, a stream, and a historic mill. He wants to turn it all into an office complex. Apparently he's already ruined some other nice parts of town. Mary Anne's horrified, and the BSC wastes no time getting involved. They all write letters that end up in a few local papers, which gets some resistance in motion.
Meanwhile, the BSC has just acquired a new client, and they just so happen to live in one of those two homes! (Even the girls marvel at the coincidence, which I guess is a good thing? Even the writers knew it was too ridiculous to ignore!) The family is the Martinezes, and they have two children: Luke, 8, and Amalia, 3. Recently, they lost their regular sitter, and so they need afternoon sitters for awhile. They also just had a fire in their garage, cause unknown. Luke has been acting oddly since both events: unfriendly, refusing to be away from any of the sitters while they're in charge, sneaking and destroying mail.
One afternoon when Mary Anne's sitting for Luke and Amalia, she sees a figure outside the house, and someone writes "Don't tell" on the still-sooty garage window. Luke's terrified, more so than the situation really calls for. She goes outside for a closer look, but the writing is now gone. The owner of the other house, Mr. Fontecchio, is outside, and he rambles to Mary Anne about how much money he's making by selling out to Fowler, and how the Martinezes are crazy to refuse. She also runs into Cary Retlin, and his brothers, Steig and Benson, and notices that Cary has soot on his hands. Luke and Steig end up running off into the wooded area behind the homes, and while looking for them Mary Anne sees Fowler handing money to a teenage boy. They take off after, and the boy drops a brick with green paint on it as he goes. Mary Anne picks it up for a closer look, just as the Stoneybrook police arrive. (Thankfully, Cary is taking care of the kids, and Luke went back home on his own.)
Mary Anne is taken to the police station (a great image, haha!). Lucky for her, Sgt. Johnson is there to take her statement. The story even ends up in the newspaper, but without her name. Someone had vandalized the mill, seemingly right before she arrived in the area that evening.
When Kristy next sits for the Martinez kids, Steig and Benson come over to play with Luke. The boys set off bottle rockets, resulting in a lot of soot... which solves that part of the mystery, at least. The next afternoon, Jessi's there, and finds an empty tobacco packet in the Martinez yard, and she sees Fowler's car nearby.
The girls kick up their research efforts to figure out what's going on, and end up finding some old newspaper articles detailing how Fowler did a proposal for a big development project in another town, the way he's now trying to do in Stoneybrook. They also discover that he's from Stoneybrook, but changed his name for some reason, and he has a twin brother. (John and Samuel Wolfer are their real names.) Richard has a book called "Who's Who in Southern Conneticut", and in there she finds a Samuel Wolf who grew up in a small, rustic cabin... on the land that's now Miller's Park.
When Abby has her turn at the Martinez house, Mr. Fontecchio is roaming around the neighborhood smoking, and Luke seems scared of him. Abby also finds a notebook from Stoneybrook Day School, with hearts and "B. R." doodled inside. Amalia says "Allie" when she sees it. Looks like it must have belonged to her old babysitter, who was a high school girl.
Kristy and Mary Anne tag along on Stacey's next sitting job there so they can look for clues, under the guise of helping clean the Martinez garage. They discover that the garage door must have been closed during the fire, then opened later, because otherwise the soot on the ceiling would've been on the door instead.
From there, the girls ask about the green paint at the hardware store, and are told only the Robbins family has bought any of that shade recently. Shannon looks up Allie in her yearbook (she goes to the same school). They discover that she's a 10th grader, has a boyfriend named Beau Robbins, and he lives around the corner from the Martinezes. Things are finally starting to come together.
The girls decide to spy on Beau and Allie after school, and Mary Anne recognizes him right away as the boy who was in the woods with Fowler. Him and Allie are also both smoking. Mary Anne confronts them (in a scene so out of character it's laughable), and Beau confesses everything. He accidently caused the fire by smoking in the garage while Allie was babysitting. It was against the rules for her to have him over at all, and Luke knew everything, so Beau was threatening him to keep him quiet. Fowler had also seen him running away after the fire started, and blackmailed him to vandalize the mill and flood a neighbor's basement.
All of this is uncovered just in time, because Beau's supposed to meet Fowler at the cabin in Miller's Park that same night, an hour before the town council meeting to discuss the development project. Mary Anne immediately heads over to tell the Martinezes, and Luke shows everyone the plans he found at the mill and hid under his bed. They detail Fowler's long term plans for Stoneybrook, which include huge malls, highways, and industrial complexes.
Everything is turned over to Sgt. Johnson. Along with the BSC, he hides outside the cabin for the council meeting, and they make sure to invite Fowler, thinking the man Beau's been dealing with must be his twin brother, trying to sabotage his plans.
Sure enough, two "Fowlers" show up at the cabin, and everything else comes out. Samuel, Fowler's twin, was trying to stop his brother from destroying the town. Apparently the real Fowler hates it because their mother died there when they were kids.
Sam and Beau are arrested, and everyone else proceeds to the meeting. Luke shows the map to the council, causing Fowler to storm out. His proposal is denied, and Miller's Park, along with the sawmill, are designated as official historical landmarks.
The BSC receives a letter from the mayor, informing them that the area around the mill will be renamed Babysitters Walk. Fortunately, this turns out to be a prank, courtesy of Cary Retlin, and Kristy declares war on him for it.
Timeline:
Not really mentioned, so I'm assuming it's still spring.
Misc. thoughts:
*There's lots of Mary Anne and Sharon missing Dawn at the beginning of this book. It's also mentioned that Richard and Mary Anne now eat mostly vegetarian and don't miss meat. Since when..?
*When the BSC's letters protesting the development project are printed in the paper, Kristy's more excited about the free publicity for the club than anything else, haha. Not surprising...
*We, unfortunately, have to slog through actually reading tons of the letters to the editor, all of which are very similar.
*Is there a Logan/Mary Anne/Cary love triangle coming up? I'm sensing some build up in that direction, but I don't remember anything like that. Cary's really nice to Mary Anne in here, and he seems to show up around her a lot, and take special joy in tormenting her and Logan. I wonder if he plays a role in their eventual break-up.
*Kristy complains that Mary Anne being taken to the police station is terrible publicity for the BSC, haha. Some best friend!
*The girls use *69 to redial in here! I remember when this was an amazing new thing...
*Benson Retlin is 11, but he still acts like a kid. Usually that age is written way too mature in the BSC-verse, unless of course it's poor Tiffany Kilbourne.
*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles.
*I wonder what the girls would do if they ever caught a criminal or suspect who didn't immediately confess everything?
Books mentioned:
*The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, by Beatrix Potter
My rating:
2 stars. This wasn't the worst mystery out there, but it was still a ridiculous mess. Also, I just don't want to read them anymore! I'm really surprised that they came out with so many.
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