2023 Nostalgia Re-readathon | SVH #104: Love and Death in London

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Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield are looking for trouble. Working as summer interns assigned the Scotland Yard beat for the London Journal, they're bored with all the petty cases they've been given. When a series of grisly murders breaks out, they decide to do some sleuthing on their own.

Elizabeth and Jessica discover that the murder victims look as if they've been attacked by a wild animal. Who - or what? - could have committed such a beastly crime? The detectives are baffled, but the twins, led by Like, the quiet boy who is quickly finding a place in Elizabeth's heart, have their own suspicions. Will they find the murderer, before he - or it - finds them?

The first stop on this year's Halloween nostalgia re-readathon is the first book in the SVH "Horror" miniseries. As per the back cover blurb, Liz and Jess are off for a one-month internship at the (supposedly) prestigious London Journal newspaper. They are on their own, living at the Housing for International Students (HIS) youth hostel which is more like a boardinghouse than a hostel, but whatever. They have a gaggle of fellow teens hanging around, most of them studying at university. For their Sweet Valley sendoff party, Lila screened An American Werewolf in Paris for some reason. Jessica loved it, but Liz found it scary as hell. Even though the twins are traveling in the summer, all the talk is about how dank and foggy and cold London is.

When the twins arrive, the big story is the missing Princess Eliana, the younger daughter of the Queen. She's apparently vanished into thin air and nobody knows where she could be, so of course the red-tops are having a field day with the speculation. Sign #1 that perhaps the Journal isn't such a staid newspaper is that they, too, are in on all the tabloid fun, so much so that the speculation about the missing princess is pushing actual news to the back of the paper, or out of it entirely.

There are basically 4 stories going on, all at once:

(1) The twins are somehow shuffled onto the Journal's crime desk, even though they are foreign students completing a (likely unpaid) one-month internship. They are sent to a few "small" crime scenes, where they encounter Sergeant Bumpo, who is apparently a Scotland Yard detective but is written as more of a put-upon constable. Bumpo serves as comedy relief, just in case it wasn't obvious by his name. Liz and Jess blow Bumpo off pretty quickly and go to a murder scene, where they spy their boss, Lucy Friday, examining a savagely murdered corpse, the defining characteristic of which is that he had his throat ripped out. The twins are grossed out, Lucy is raring to go, and there are two other guys on the scene.

Lucy is told that she can't write a story on the murdered man, so she quits her post and leaves the office. The twins eventually track her down (after doing some research in the Journal's back articles, and she's surprised and impressed that they've linked a similar murder to hers. (I mean, how common is it for victims to have their throats ripped out?) The twins decide to investigate on their own, but it's obvious that the police are *not* baffled, back cover blurb. They just aren't sharing even nuance of their investigations with nosy teenagers or tabloid reporters, which makes perfect sense to me.

(2) The HIS peanut gallery includes Emily, David, Gabriello (LOL), Portia, and Lina. We get to know these characters a little bit, and it turns out that at least two of them are playing parts. Portia isn't the stuck up witch she appears to be, and Lina outright confesses to Liz that she's the missing Princess. She wanted to get out of her gilded cage and see the real world, which to her means serving at soup kitchens and homeless shelters. She dyed her hair and put on glasses and voila, nobody recognizes her. David is hankering after her with a hopeless crush, and Lina/Eliana doesn't want to get close to him because ZOMG what will happen when he finds out who she really is?!

(3) Elizabeth is shocked when, who should she find at HIS but Rene Glize, the snotty French boy she felt sparks with during a past spring break trip? Rene is working at the embassy and apparently has no free time. So, here's the first of Liz's two suitors, showing up extremely early in the novel. The second one appears on Day 2: Luke Shephard is a quiet Byronic manboy who also works at the Journal, blowing off his actual work to write poetry instead. Swoon! Luke is kinda obsessed with werewolves, and Liz finds this strangely assuring, somehow? Her heart's all aflutter about Luke and she blows off a dinner invitation from Rene, so he's insufferable AND huffy.

Todd? Who's Todd? He actually calls Liz at one point and she spends the entire time feeling guilty for having warm fuzzies for Lord Byron Luke. You've known him less than a week, Liz, come on!

(4) Jessica, meanwhile, lands herself a real-live Lord on her second day in town. She's swept off her feat by Lord Robert Pembroke Jr, and he seems equally smitten. He invites the twins (and Liz brings along Luke) for a weekend at his country estate. There, the twins see the two men from the murder scene, who turn out to be Lord Robert Senior (who owns the Journal) and the police chief. Their spidey senses are tingling and they decide to poke around and see if they can find any evidence of a cover-up.

As is common, Liz takes an immediate dislike to Robert (both senior and junior) and thinks the worst of him because he's so posh. She much prefers quiet Luke, who is actually pretty darn creepy, pretty darn quick. He has a strange interaction with Lord Robert Senior (hmm, is he a cuckoo in the nest?) and he gives Liz a werewolf pendant to wear to protect her. From what, you may ask? Well, it just so happens that someone is murdered at Pembroke Manor - a young blond girl, in Jessica's bed! HORRORS!

What will happen next?! Will Eliana reveal herself to the other HIS kids? Will Rene ever get a chance to speak with Liz? Will Luke start baying at the moon? And who died in Jessica's bed, because we all know damn well it wasn't Jessica! And does this mean there is a murderer stalking Pembroke Manor?