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2023 Nostalgia Re-readathon | SVH #105: A Date with a Werewolf
Is Jessica Wakefield in love with a werewolf? Her identical twin, Elizabeth, can't shake the feeling that Jessica's new boyfriend, Lord Robert Pembroke, is not what he seems. Could he be the vicious killer the twins have been pursuing on assignment for the London Journal? Luke, Elizabeth's English love, confirms her suspicions that Jessica is in terrible jeopardy.
Meanwhile Elizabeth's friend Lina Smith is in danger of losing the only boy she's ever loved. David knows that Lina is hiding something from him, and Lina's sure that when he discovers her secret, he'll never speak to her again. Desperate, Lina turns to Elizabeth. Can Elizabeth salvage Lina's relationship and save Jessica from a wolfman, too?
As another reviewer says, this is Liz Wakefield's world, we're just visitors in it. Liz dominates most of the book, so let's get the two minor subplots out of the way:
(1) Portia Albert, one of the HIS peanut gallery, is struggling with the idea of inviting her famous actor father to see her in perform in her play, a part she attained with an alias. Eventually she does work up the guts to invite him to see her perform, and of course he loves it and immediately walks back all the horrid things he's ever said to her about being an actress. Happy ending!
(2) The rumors of the missing princess are getting out of control, up to and including 72-point headlines that she's been murdered. This is the final straw for a lot of people, including Eliana herself. David, her erstwhile Liverpool beau, discovers the truth about her by comparing her picture in the paper to the girl herself, and then declares that he doesn't care and loves her anyway, blah blah blah. They work out a whole big press conference to announce that he's "discovered" her and thus is eligible for the £1m reward, which he is going to use to set up a clinic for the London homeless and put himself through medical school, with full backing from the royal family. Happy ending!
(3) Elizabeth has fallen completely under the sway of Lord Byron manboy creep Luke and is convinced that the person who killed the doctor, nurse, and poodle in the previous novel - and Joy Singleton, the blond found in Jessica's bed at Pembroke Manor - is, in fact, a werewolf. She also suspects that the killer is Jessica's boyfriend Lord Robert Pembroke Jr, mostly because Luke convinces her that the only person who could've killed all of these people (and dog) is one of the Pembrokes. It's really obvious and really stupid how much sway Luke holds over Liz's "investigation," and of course she tells him everything because she is a smug asshole/blithering idiot.
Liz discovers that Lord Pembroke shares Luke's obsession with werewolves and werewolf hunting, but she considers Pembroke's obsession creepy while Luke's is somehow understandable? Yeah, okay. She also overhears Lord Pembroke considering the evidence that points in Robert Jr's direction, and that convinces her that Jessica is in mortal danger. She literally runs around London like a chicken with her head cut off, trying to find Jessica to warn her about Robert.
Jessica, meanwhile, is heartbroken that Robert has broken a date and left town (the country?) without telling her why, so she's maxing out her parents' emergency credit card at Herrod's on a retail therapy shopping spree. She's attacked in the subway, however, by something big and hairy and growling. When Liz hears this, she's more convinced than ever that Robert Jr is dangerous and the werewolf killer.
Liz and Jess have a big falling out at the beginning of the book when Liz accuses Robert of being the killer, based on her own irrational hatred of him. Jessica tells Liz that Robert is the first boy she's cared about since Sam's death and why can't Liz be happy for her? (JUSTICE FOR SAM!) Liz also references the Greatest Miniseries of All Time(TM) when she alludes to being on trial for manslaughter. Honestly, this was the high point of the novel.
The "evidence" against Robert is so obviously planted to frame him that it's hard to believe anyone takes it seriously. The police investigation that's described is more akin to a bad American farce than an English/Scotland Yard investigation, and the adults in the room - Lord Pembroke, Andrew Thatcher the "chief of police," Lucy Friday, Tony Frank, and others at the newspaper - act very blithely about the entire situation. Even as a teenager I would've been looking side eye at all of this because it makes not a damn bit of sense. If the ghostwriter has even touched a Golden Age detective novel, I'd be in shock. (The secret key to the "wolf lair" at Pembroke Manor is a copy of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which - WHAT??)
This book is downright awful. Beyond so-bad-its-good, this has circled back into how in the hell did this get published?? territory. Even by mid-90s YA standards, this is absolute dross. It's thrown together in such a terrible, slapdash way that even the tenuous link with reality is gone. It's very obvious that the ghosties didn't bother to do the bare minimum of research into, well, anything. It actively made me angry to plow through this <200 page book. If it wasn't for the nostalgia re-readathon, I would've quit after about 15 pages.
no subject
I spent so much of this book wondering if it had an entirely different ghosty than the previous one for one reason or another. Sam getting mentioned as well as the manslaughter thing (I do love that nary an eyelash was batted at the reveal that Elizabeth had a hand in her sister's boyfriend's death) when not a peep previously! Rene getting more than two seconds of screentime! Lady Pembroke's mink, which had been returned to her on page 119 of the previous book and yes I looked it up and yes, it's mentioned again right at the end of the book when everyone arrives at the country home, is suddenly still fucking missing because Liz needs to interrogate Robert's family. God, that one ticked me off.
Now, back to cackling about the lack of mentioning James and how blasé Robert Jr was about his father going on and on about him being under suspicion as a werewolf. There's a decided difference between knowing your parent has a strange belief and then having it turned on you.
I shall now hush because I'm not gonna spoil anything more than I already have.
no subject
No worries! I didn't remember much about this arc, either, except what I put in my first GR status. I certainly don't remember it being so badly written. There's something about SV and ghosties trying to write mid- to late-season canon horror that just backfires spectacularly. I believe we had similar issues with the horror mini series around SVT #100.
I do love that nary an eyelash was batted at the reveal that Elizabeth had a hand in her sister's boyfriend's death)
LOL seriously. If only she'd admitted that to Rene, he would've had an even better idea of how nutty she's become since their first meeting in the SE! As it is, he managed to temporarily talk her down from the werewolf crazy, until she watched another movie and then BAM, suddenly it was real again!
God, that one ticked me off.
I was already so irrationally angry that it didn't even phase me. Liz pulling the twin switch was so cringey. I had to laugh when Robert Sr was like, "keep your twin away from me, she's so nosy and awful!" right to Liz's face. HA!
how blasé Robert Jr was about his father going on and on about him being under suspicion as a werewolf. There's a decided difference between knowing your parent has a strange belief and then having it turned on you.
I read it as Robert Jr being 1000% sure his dad was being nutty and paranoid and that he wasn't going to let it phase him, at least not to daddy's face.
no subject
Depending on when she made this confession to Rene, it would've either been yet another "phew!" moment OR he'd have chalked it up to poor tragic Elizabeth, so in need of someone to keep her out of harm's way. But that whole werewolf thing, dude.
I do love how pissed the fuck off Liz gets when Jessica pulls a twin switch in a similar fashion (basically fucking up whatever relationship, romantic or otherwise, Liz has with the person on the other end of the switch) but doesn't seem at all bothered by the deception when it's in the name of Research! And Robert Sr. being so blatant with his dislike of Liz to her face should definitely be added to the list of cackles.
Now I'm pondering whether Sr. has gone off on werewolf hunts before. Has he tried to drag Jr. with him? Humoring his father is likely the case but still odd.
The ostriches were a ruse!