This is one of the Whitman books I've had since I was 15 so I've read it a number of times. The last time I read it was quite a few years ago but I recall finding it a little disappointing. I couldn't help comparing it to Donna Parker Mystery at Arawak which it did not stand up next to.
This book is written by Barlow Meyers* who was mainly an author of westerns. She wrote all three books in the Janet Lennon series and one of the Annette books. Her writing style was vastly different from other typical Whitman authors, such as Doris Schroeder who wrote a large number of books for Whitman. Meyers' books always feature more dangerous villains and involve death by murder as a completely possible outcome for the heroine.
*I was always under the assumption that Barlow Meyers was a man but I've seen them be referred to as a woman by others and, of course, Barlow Meyers could be a pseudonym. To be honest I am simply not sure if it was a man or woman.
Fourteen year old Janet Lennon has gotten a last minute invitation to be a counselor at Camp Winhaven. She has to arrive at the isolated mountain camp that night. On the drive there she is passed by a blonde woman driving at a frantic speed and later a man driving even faster. A police officer is chasing the man who ends up crashing down an embankment but emerges unharmed.
When Janet arrives at the camp she meets the blonde woman, Mrs. Denton, and is later told by the camp director, Miss Malloy, that the Dentons are going through a divorce and custody battle of their daughter, Marcy. Marcy is being hidden away at the camp as Mrs. Denton fears her husband will kidnap the child.
Janet awakens in Cabin Eight the next morning and introduces herself to the girls, who had all been asleep when she arrived the night before. Jo Ellen, a defiant trouble maker, immediately demands to know why Janet is "pretending to be the television star Janet Lennon". Jo Ellen challenges Janets authority by trying to leave for breakfast early and later by refusing to maker her bed. Janet does not let either of these slide; she makes Jo Ellen stay in the cabin, missing her fun camp activities, until she finally agrees to make her bed an hour later.
Miss Malloy approves of Janet's actions when they're related to her later in a meeting. At this time she also tells Janet that Marcy is listed in the files under an alias and that no visitors are to be allowed to see her except her mother.
Janet and her girls go for a hike later and stop to watch a construction crew who is working on the only mountain road into camp. One of the workers, whom the girls name Bluebeard, seems to stare at them angrily. Once at their hiking destination the girls play hide and seek during which two girls go missing. One girl, Karen, is found among some squirrels and birds who she has attracted with her skillful animal calls. The other girl, Jo Ellen, is not found so the girls head back to camp to gather a search party. However they quickly find her lounging on her bed laughing at Janet.
Later in the day Janet is ask to do office duty while Mrs. Malloy goes into town. During this time Marcy's father comes in asking to see her. Janet feigns confusion and says no Marcy is at the camp. Mr. Denton goes through the files and is leaving after not finding her name listed when he spots her sweater, a hand knitted custom sweater Mrs. Denton had made Marcy. He leaves without saying anything.
Later that night the camp has a sing along and Janet is asked to perform. This puts an end to Jo Ellen's claims that Janet is "pretending" to be the famous singer Janet Lennon.
Janet wants to help the girls overcome their problems by the end of camp so she decides to teach the overgrown and clumsy Mary Ruth gracefulness by learning to swim, assigns the repressed and nervous Susan as kickball goalie to teach her self confidence, and has the small town Karen teach the other girls bird calls to...make her fit in more with the rich girls, I guess? That one isn't quite clear.
Strange things also start happening in Janet's cabin such as a mysterious someone attempting to stealthily open the locked door late at night and the cabin key disappearing.
One evening Janet returns from the counselors meeting to find all the girls asleep, except Marcy. Marcy's bed is empty and her blanket is missing. Janet looks around for her but upon not finding her reports it to Miss Malloy. The camp staff all being looking and when she doesn't turn up they begin to fear she's been kidnapped. They try to call the police but find the telephone lines not working. When they try to drive to the police station they find the mountain road blocked by the unfinished work of the construction crew.
Janet and Martha, another counselor, stop to tie the cut telephone wires together and as they're finishing Janet notices a car parked in the brush. She makes a quick search and decides to pull all the wires out from under the hood in case it's the kidnappers getaway car.
They head back to camp and the police soon arrive as well as Mrs. Denton and later Mr. Denton. A huge search takes place over the next day but little is found due to the vast surrounding wilderness. On the second day Janet suggests that Mr. Bideloe, the elderly janitor who favors Marcy, lead a search party as he has bragged before about spending his youth on the mountain and knowing it "like the back of his hand". Unfortunately nothing turns up.
Janet awakes in the middle of the night feeling famished as she's been too worried to eat her meals. She decides to go grab something from the snack shelf in the kitchen and once inside the dark room she hears a person stirring. She is attack and goes unconscious.
When she awakes a few minutes later she finds two things in her hand which she had seemingly grabbed during her attack; a piece of Mr. Bideloe's shirt and a candy wrapper from some candy he had grabbed that morning.
Janet feels she can not go to the sheriff with her discovery because the kidnapper is currently trapped on the mountain with Marcy and she feels any indication that the law is closing in would result in Marcy's death.
She awakes early the next morning and remarks to Mr. Bideloe that she will be sneaking off to look for Marcy in a cave she had discovered while playing hide-and-seek with the girls. On her way out of camp she runs into Karen and instructs her to watch to see if anyone follows her out of camp and then report it to the sheriff immediately.
Once she gets to the cave she hears running down the trail towards her and, knowing someone is in the cave keeping watch over Marcy, she starts screaming like crazy. The sheriff had previously told her in an off comment that a screaming women is a criminals worst nightmare because it will bring any man in the vicinity running. So Janet screams and screams even after a man jumps out of the cave to silence her.
Soon more running feet are heard on the trail and all of Janet campers appear. They jump on top of the man who appeared from the cave and sit on him until the sheriff and his men arrive behind the girls. Bideloe, Bluebeard, and another man are all arrested and Marcy is rescued.
The final pages include Mr. Denton providing scholarships to the camp, Susan winning the kickball game, Mary Ruth placing in a swimming competition, and Janet making a promise to return the next year.
- Janet doesn't think anything of how the janitor goes on about how pretty the little girls are and points out which ones are prettier than the others. Man, this was creepy.
- I was surprised to see how much it's mentioned that the kidnappers could have already killed Marcy. That's a pretty dark thing for a children's book.
- I think it's important it mentions that "a screaming woman is a criminals biggest problem". I remember my father teaching me this as a child and I think its a great piece of helpful information young children could have learned.
- I like the idea of Marcy's sweater. When I read this book before I had pictured it with every single row a different color but now I think it probably had larger stripes. I've been planning for several years to knit a sweater based off it.
This book is alright and there's definitely something that feels different about it. I originally planned on getting rid of it after this reading but now I'm not sure.
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