Thoughts before reading:
This series has been a real let down for me, and this sounds like another mediocre entry.
The basics:
Kristy and Abby have just gotten into debating (a perfect hobby for them!), and they are going to a conference in DC for 4 days. Shortly after arriving, Kristy sees Terry Hoyt, who briefly lived in Stoneybrook. He's going by the name David Hawthorne, and insists he's not who Kristy thinks he is. (Terry Hoyt was only in Mystery #10 previously, where he dated Stacey and she learned about his family.)
The girls are rooming together with a girl named Melissa (the annoying girl from #97 who latched onto Claudia). Melissa's dating a boy named Lucas, who she met at summer camp. As luck would have it, Lucas is friends with David Hawthorne. Due to this, Kristy sees David frequently but it quickly becomes clear that he's avoiding her for some reason.
For her first debate, Kristy is (predictably) on a team with David. Their topic is pro: cats are better pets than dogs. Her team ends up winning.
Since Stacey briefly dated "David" when he was in Stoneybrook, Kristy calls her to ask about him. Stacey sounds strange during the call, and doesn't provide much information, but Kristy doesn't think much of it.
Later that night, she decides to meet up with her team to practice. On the way, she runs into David. He tells her she needs to leave immediately because he's being followed, so of course she does the opposite and stays with him. Sure enough, a man in dark glasses turns up behind them repeatedly, no matter which direction they go. He ends up cornering them and trying to grab David, while saying his father is going to pay. Kristy finally runs for help, but when they return, David and the man are both nowhere to be found. Everyone runs outside, just in time to see the man trying to push David into a car. The man pushes David down when he sees them coming and flees alone.
David tells Kristy not to tell the police about what the man said, about making his father pay. He then admits to her that he was in fact Terry Hoyt, and that his dad is in the Secret Service.
After this incident, Mr. Hawthorne has two SS agents follow Kristy and David everywhere they go. He also has them look through photos to identify the kidnapper. They find a match with a man named Lance Dibdin, a computer hacker, caught by Mr. Hawthorne, and later freed on a technicality.
Kristy and Abby both make it to the finals in their debates. (They also bicker this entire book, just because they're assigned opposite ends of the debate topic.)
During one day of the trip, Kristy takes a smaller group trip to a museum. When she returns to the hotel, she finds out David went missing two hours before. Not much later, however, she spots him in the lobby. Turns out, he just gave his agent the slip because he was tired of being followed. After this, his father sticks around to personally watch him.
At the debate finals, Kristy and Abby end up actually assigned to debate against each other. Predictably, they end up fighting much more than debating. After, Kristy spots Lance Dibdin in the audience. Chaos quickly follows, but Dibdin is caught and arrested.
Kristy's debate team wins first place. Mr. Hawthorne takes her and Abby to the white house, where he apparently works now.
Timeline:
Sometime in the spring, March or April.
Misc. thoughts:
*Why does this book even exist? We already know about Terry Hoyt and his father's job from Stacey's POV, and now we have to go through it again just because Kristy doesn't know? Then add to that this terribly ridiculous kidnapping revenge scheme, and this book reads like one of the absolute worst of the mystery books.
*Lucas and Melissa drive Kristy insane the whole trip by being lovey-dovey, as well as with their constant PDA.
*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles.
*Kristy and Abby were both so annoying and immature in here, that it only made this terrible plot even worse. They're too old to fight just because they're assigned opposite sides of a topic, especially since Kristy was assigned to a position she doesn't even believe in! She likes dogs much better than cats in reality. More unlikeable, ridiculous behavior.
*I hate to say it, but this entire series seems like a blatant cash grab to me by this point. They clearly had no ideas for it whatsoever, so the only reason to even try it would have been for the money.
Books mentioned:
None
My rating:
0 stars. I absolutely HATED this book. It was so boring, painfully dumb, there was zero plot, recycled storylines that weren't interesting the first time... this whole thing was a bad flashback to the mystery series, which I had happily left behind.
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