Thoughts before reading:
I've never read any of the super mysteries before this project. Honestly wish I could just skip this one though, because it looks/sounds terrible. It also sounds just like Beware Dawn, a book I really didn't like.
The basics:
Kristy's family is going to Shadow Lake for a long weekend, and she's allowed to invite some friends (like always). Stacey, Claudia, and Abby all say yes, and get permission to go. Before the trip, Kristy and Abby witness a burglar coming out of the house next door to the Rodowsky's, and the burglar gets a clear view of them as well. The girls give official statements to the Stoneybrook police, who promise to keep them posted on any developments in the case. (Because of all this, they are late to the BSC meeting, so Stacey sits in Kristy's director chair and pretends to give orders, LOL.)
From there, things only get stranger for the members of the BSC. Mary Anne finds a weird note in her locker that says "stop crying". Kristy hears someone outside her house that same night. She calls the police, who find that someone threw a rock through the living room window, and wrote a note that says "you're next" on the front door in spray paint. Mary Anne then sees someone standing in her yard, also that same night. Next, someone starts a fire at Claudia's by soaking rags in gasoline, then setting them on fire in a trash can set up outside the back door.
After all of this, the girls are understandably scared, thinking over possible suspects and wondering why the burglary at the Rodowsky's was never in the newspaper. They all start getting phone calls too, both to the BSC and separately. The caller never says anything, and the individual calls always come when the target is home alone. Kristy decides to call the police again, to check on the status of the original burglary case. They tell her that the homeowner, Mr. Seger, claimed he broke the window himself while gardening, so the case was dismissed.
Becca tells Jessi that she has seen a man with a blue tattoo lurking around Stoneybrook. The story reminds Stacey of the counterfeiter they helped catch, who also had a distinctive tattoo. She wants to look up their notes about him, but there's no index or anything in the club notebook... which gives Kristy the idea to have a separate mystery notebook, to keep track of all their cases. (If they need a whole notebook for their detective work, that's a very bad sign for where the series has gone!)
The girls head to the library to research Mr. Seger. While there, Abby finds a photocopy of a picture of Kristy, Mary Anne, Stacey, Claudia, and Dawn in the recycling bin. Kristy recalls that it's the picture of them that ran in the newspaper after they helped solve the dognapping case (mystery #7). (I must admit, this is really creepy.) Feeling even more spooked, the BSC begins to stakeout Mr. Seger's house. They learn he has a son in high school named Noah, and owns his own business, Seger Associates.
Mary Anne finds another note in her locker: "why do you do the things you do?". (She thinks the notes are from Logan, because of the handwriting, but she doesn't try to clear the matter up by asking him.) She even finds a "you're next" note on Tigger's collar. Then Stacey almost gets run over by a car with a Business Bureau sticker, just like the one Mr. Seger has.
After arriving at Shadow Lake, Abby notices some strangely tense people around the lodge: a rude man with an eyepatch, a grumpy woman. Not long after, the girls start skiing, and a blizzard hits. Stacey gets stuck on a ski lift alone. A snow blower gets inexplicably turned on, causing Kristy to almost get hurt. Abby also saves Claudia from a dangerous closed trail: someone had moved the sign marking it as off limits.
Jessi and Mallory stay in Stoneybrook to babysit the Pike kids while their parents are adding insulation to the house (the insulation is mentioned SO much in here too). They discover that the man Becca was seeing around a lot works at Pizza Express.
Also back in Stoneybrook, Mary Anne is babysitting at the Rodowsky's and sees Noah and a friend pry open a window to enter the Seger house. She calls the police, who arrive just as Mr. and Mrs. Rodowsky are getting home. It turns out Noah and his friends were staging break-ins to take things from his house to sell, because he owes some serious money to someone. They aren't the BSC stalkers though... when asks, Noah scoffs that he would never mess with a bunch of kids.
Now that they know the break-in had nothing to do with the threats, Mary Anne, Mal, and Jessi look at the Stoneybrook business listings again. This time they see Karl Tate on them: the man responsible for the stolen dogs. Some further research reveals he's been released from jail already. Mary Anne calls Shadow Lake to warn the others, but the phone line cuts out.
Mary Anne, Logan, and Shannon then get trapped inside the Tate house after Astrid chases a cat inside. (They were out walking her to look around the neighborhood for clues.) Mary Anne and Logan finally talk and learn that they both received weird notes, supposedly from the other. They make up, right before Mrs. Tate comes home and finds them. She knows who they are right away, and warns them about her son.
Meanwhile, things are getting even worse for the Shadow Lake group. Elizabeth and Watson try to go into town for help and get caught in the storm, leaving the kids alone (of course). Claudia's things get trashed, Stacey's insulin goes missing, and Kristy's skis are broken. The chimney is then blocked off, filling the house with smoke, and forcing the girls, along with Sam and Charlie, to leave the house and try to make it to the lodge. During all this, Claudia notices the caretaker, Woodie, looks a lot like a young Karl Tate. No one takes her seriously though.
On the way to the lodge, Karl Tate himself lunges out of nowhere at the group, shouting wildly. Abby clocks him in the head with a piece of ice, then suddenly the grumpy woman from the lodge appears. She's actually a cop, and has been after him for violating parole. He's promptly arrested. Relieved that their ordeal is over, the kids rush towards the lodge, but before they arrive, Woodie appears and grabs Stacey, dragging her over to the partially frozen lake. He proclaims that he is in fact Karl Tate's son, and he hates the BSC for sending his dad to prison, which forced the family into poverty.
Stacey manages to break free when Kristy throws her flare at Woodie. While he's caught off guard, Stacey elbows him in the stomach, and he falls back into the lake with a mad scream. *Cue horror movie music*
Timeline:
Not only is it still the holiday season, but we are now back to right after Thanksgiving! What is with the timeline all of a sudden? It's even worse than normal. The books keep backtracking without mentioning each other's events at all.
Misc. thoughts:
*The mystery notebook concept officially puts the series "off the rails" in my eyes. I've heard it said that this happens around #60, but I think things were still pretty tame then. For me it happened around #74 or mystery #9, officially. This was the most outrageous book yet though, hands down.
*I'd never heard of a GUND bear before this. Looks like it's just a company that makes a wide range of teddy bears, but they are awfully cute...
*Sam still asks Kristy about Stacey all the time!
*Watson has stuck with his lifestyle changes, so there's a nice little bit of continuity.
*Abby keeps bragging about her skiing prowess, which annoys Claudia, because she's always been the best one of the group.
*Stacey's thinking about how her and Sam's romance started at Shadow Lake, and how he just broke up with his girlfriend recently, and wondering if something might happen between them on this trip! I knew they still liked each other! It's just a matter of bad timing. I so wish they had had something in this book though... it would have made it a lot better. At least they do some good flirting once they arrive at Shadow Lake.
*When Mary Anne sees a strange figure in her yard, she doesn't tell her dad because she's worried he'll make new, stricter rules. Weird priorities! That would be the last thing on my mind in that situation.
*There is a funny moment in here: the girls are scared to take new clients, in the light of the stalking incidents. Kristy uses this to get Abby, pretending a new client called, who lives on Elm Street, and Abby's the only one who's free to take the job. It's a nice bit of revenge after all Abby's lame jokes, and she does get spooked.
*Mary Anne thinks it's funny that Kristy expects them to be involved in solving a lot more cases (hence the mystery notebook). Well, sadly Mary Anne, there are still around 15 mysteries to come...
*Pogs and slammers! Wow, we are really in the thick of my 90s childhood now! I was obsessed with these around this same time, one of my first non-bookish passions. I had SO many of them, and used to go to the Swap Meet for new additions almost every weekend.
*The Spiers have a phone answering service? Wouldn't an answering machine be cheaper? Was this a common thing? I've never even heard of it before.
*What kind of relationship do Mary Anne and Logan have, when they can't even ask each other if the other is leaving them creepy notes?? This is a very bad sign.
*The most ridiculous part of this ridiculous story? In the face of threats, arson, vandalism, and probable stalking, not a single member of the BSC tells their parents anything. They are all terrified, but no one says a word to anyone outside the club. It makes no sense.
*Kristy's worried about Watson having a heart attack, and is trying to protect him! This doesn't explain why no other adults are told, but awe, how far we've come!
*Is it weird that this whole book read like an episode of Pretty Little Liars to me? I think it was the ski lift scenario that really did it for me, haha.
*BSC drinking game! Take a shot every time someone calls the police during a mystery. Pace yourself!
*Sam tells Stacey he still cares about her, but as a best friend that's a girl, not a girlfriend... and he likes to flirt with her as practice for future girlfriends. Yeah, Sam, keep telling yourself that...
*Ghostwritten by Nola Thacker.
*We never find out who actually did write the notes to Mary Anne and Logan. They weren't part of the stalking and threats that Woodie was responsible for.
Books mentioned:
None
My rating:
2 stars. I don't even know what to say about this one... at least they tried for some continuity, I guess? This would have been way worse if it was a new criminal situation, but it was still completely crazy, and disturbing for a BSC book. I didn't even know growing up that there were BSC books like this. It was a lot more like the Sweet Valley High Chillers I read when I was a little older than anything like the BSC of my childhood, which consisted mainly of plots about friendship, babysitting, and the woes of junior high.
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