As I had mentioned in a previous review, my only knowledge of Annette was these books. They're based on a tv show segment called Annette but I had not seen it. I decided to give the show a watch before beginning this book and I have to say I'm confused. In these books Annette is a gorgeous, sophisticated teenager who lives with her modern aunt and uncle in Hollywood. However in the tv show she's just a child, a small town country girl who moves into an old Victorian home with her old fashioned, intellectual aunt and uncle that don't know what to do with a child.
I don't understand how the plot changed so much. Why not base these books simply on a fictionalized Annette Funicello like the Celebrity Authorized Editions?
Anyways after my first and only reading of this book I considered it my second favorite next to Sierra Summer. As I just reread Sierra Summer and found it a little lackluster I'm curious what I'll think of this one.
As the book begins Annette is ready to set off to Pine Flat, Arizona, the hometown of her best friend Lisa Kerry. Traveling alongside Annette and Lisa are Jinx and his Aunt Tish, an artist who wants to paint the Arizona desert and is also doubling as the teenagers chaperone on the long drive.
On the trip Lisa becomes worried something is not right at home when she runs across Swift Rider, a man who had been hired by Lisa's father to head up the renovation of the towns old stagecoach station. Swift Rider informs Lisa there are no workers left on the project but doesn't explain why.
Once they arrive at Pine Flat Lisa and Annette rush to the stage station to speak with her father. He leads them to the back of the station where the burned remains of a connected barn and cottage are. The cottage had been home to Charley, one of Mr. Kerry's workers, and his wife Maria who cooks for the Kerry's. The barn had held all the furniture that was to be used in the station once it was converted into an Inn and included antiques and one-of-a-kind items crafted by the local Navajos. Mr. Kerry says the fire was deliberate and it has become clear someone does not want the Inn to open.
The evening Mr. Kerry is visited by a stranger named John Iverson who is interested in buying the station. He claims his great-grandfather was the first agent to work at the station and he wants to turn it into a home and settle there for sentimental reasons. He only offers to pay half the price that Mr. Kerry bought it for but as the Kerry's are in a tough financial situation, Lon Kerry is considering it. Annette gets a bad vibe from Iverson and rightfully so as we soon find out he is in cahoots with an old bank robber named Shay. Shay and John Iverson's father had taken part in an old bank robbery in Tuscan and then faked their deaths in a mine explosion. The older Mr. Iverson had stashed the $50,000 in a hidden tunnel somewhere in the station before going to prison for a different bank robbery. Right before passing away he told his son and Shay about the tunnel and now the two men are on a search for it. Their plan is to acquire the station with a fake check, find the loot, and then disappear.
Annette doesn't want the Kerry's to lose the station so she comes up with a plan of quickly turning it into an antique shop to sell the huge collection of family antiques sitting unwanted in the Kerry's attic which would fund the renovation work. Everyone thinks it's a great idea and all of Lisa's friends come to help get the stations main room cleaned and painted. While there Annette is informed of a surprise birthday party being thrown for Lisa the next day. Everyone is going to head to the old mine, the one Shay used to fake his death which just so happens to be where he's currently hiding, for what they are pretending is just a picnic.
Annette suggests to Jinx that he head up there early and hunt around the mine for a special geode to give as a birthday gift to Lisa who he has a huge crush on. The whole gang arrives and are waiting for Mrs. Kerry to show up with the birthday cake before they announce to Lisa that's the picnic is actually her birthday party when John Iverson suddenly shows up. He pulls out a fancy cake and Lisa make a big fuss over him being the only one who knew it was her birthday. Annette is pretty annoyed with Iverson ruining their party, making moves on Lisa, and at Lisa for indulging in the advances of this shady character. To make matters worse Iverson presents Lisa with a big fancy store bought crystal right as Jinx is about to give her some Topaz he'd spent half the day finding. He abandons his present and disappears to look for something even better which ends up being a big piece of silver ore. He gives it to her that evening but thinking he's given her a big rock as a cruel joke she hurled it at the sidewalk and it's not until her father finds it the next morning and asks what the heck a big piece of silver ore is doing in their yard does Lisa find out the truth.
Mr. Kerry is excited about the ore as he assumes Jinx must have found a claim. Unfortunately Jinx had taken off for the city the night before to have some posters printed for the antique store so they can not ask him.
Iverson overheard all this and heads out to the mine where, with Shays help, he searches all around for any silver or claim notice. They don't find any but they do find out that Jinx had purchased the ore from a local prospector and that it had come from far away. Iverson immediately thinks up a plan to get Lon Kerry in legal trouble. Taking some other silver ore the prospector had they stage it over by the mine and lure Mr. Kerry to the site. Seeing the ore he immediately makes two claims, one for him and one for Jinx, then rushes into town to register them. He tries to offer Iverson 25% of the claim for free but Iverson insists on paying $1,000 for it, with a fake check of course.
Meanwhile no one has heard from Jinx for days and are beginning to worry. Annette finally gets word of him one evening when a nurse calls on his behalf to relay a request to come pick him up from the city hospital where he had been taken after crashing his car.
Annette picks him up the next morning and on the way home she explains about the silver claim. Jinx tells her he had bought the ore from the prospector who had said it came from Colorado but Annette is still convinced Mr. Kerry found a real silver mine. Back in town tourist and claim hunters have arrived by the barrel-full and Jinx has become a local celebrity. Despite his new local fame he still has to confess to his aunt that he crashed his car but when he heads to her hotel room he is intercepted by a gun-wielding Iverson.
Iverson has already been to the sheriff to make his accusations against Mr. Kerry and Jinx. He says the two staged finding a fake silver claim and tricked him into paying $1,000 for part. He forges a false statement from the prospector saying Jinx and Lon had purchased a full bag of ore with the intent of staging a claim finding and he uses Jinx's "disappearance" as proof of his guilt. He says he'll have the 2 taken to court and put in jail unless Mr. Kerry pays him $1,000 and signs a statement confessing to the fraud, knowing full well that Mr. Kerry will refuse. Then he can suggest a compromise of Mr. Kerry handing over the station.
Iverson takes possession of the station the next morning which forces Charlie and Maria out of the cottage. They plan to spend the night at the Kerry's before moving onto the Navajo reservation. When they show up at the house their little daughter, Teresa, is crying and tells Annette she forgot her doll in the cottage and Iverson wouldn't let her back in to get it. Enraged Annette stomps down to the station with Teresa planning to demand the doll. When Iverson doesn't seem to be around the 2 girls sneak up to the cottage and Annette helps Teresa climb through her bedroom window. Soon Teresa has to hide in the closet when Iverson comes in holding an ax and starts pulling up the floor boards. He finds the tunnel entrance under the floor and emerges with a barrel containing the bank robbery money. When he leaves to get a suitcase to carry the money in Annette jumps in the window, stuffs some money into Teresa's pocket and tells her to take it to the sheriff and have him come immediately. Annette then hides in the closet and watched as Iverson starts packing the money into a suitcase. Shay soon appears and accuses his partner of attempting to double cross him. A fight breaks out but is broken up by the sheriff who shows up and arrests both of the criminals. The truth comes out, Jinx is rescued from a shack near the mine, and he, Annette, and Teresa become local hero's. The end.
- The illustrations in this book leave a lot to be desired, the faces look grotesque. The cover however is beautiful.
- The Navajos speech is written just awfully. It's not just that they don't speak proper English but its written in short sentences and third person like Asian dialogue was written at the time. So it's a racist stereotype but also the wrong racist stereotype.
- When Annette meets Lisa's father he says he didn't expect Annette to be so pretty since Lisa had told him Annette was smart. Yikes.
- If John Iverson is going to be using a fake check to acquire the station then why does he not offer Mr. Kerry a larger amount to entice him to sell faster.
- When Iverson offers Mr. Kerry $1,000 for a share in the mining claim Kerry remarks that he's been friends with some people in town his whole life and none of them would give him $1,000. This is so weird. Why would he expect people to give him money just because they're friends?
- Lisa and Jinx sometimes call Annette 'Nette and I think that's so cute.
- I think Mr. Kerry is an idiot and I'd be so embarrassed to have a father like him. Poor Lisa.
- Something about this book really reminded me of Robin Kane.
So did this book live up to my memory of it? Ehh, not really. The part I like most is how Annette and Teresa sneak into the house and thwart the bad guy. I really like that it was Teresa and not Lisa that was there for it. But there's not really anything else I really liked or that I think stands out. I mean it wasn't bad, it's just wasn't great either.
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