![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
2025 Nostalgia Re-readathon | BSC Super Mystery #3: Baby-sitters' Fright Night
On a school trip to study history in spooky Salem, Massachusetts, Kristy, Abby, Mallory, Stacey, and Mary Anne find a mystery instead: a famous diamond, the Witch's Eye, is stolen from a local museum. The Baby-sitters set out to investigate, but someone seems determined to stop them. Stacey's room is ransacked. Abby is followed. And then Kristy disappears!
Abby's sure the BSC is cursed. And all the Baby-sitters agree: Whther or not the danger is supernatural, it's definitely real. Will they find Kristy, and the thief, before it's too late?
We wrap up this year's nostalgia re-readathon with another BSC Super Mystery, but unlike last year's book, I have no real recollection of this one. I'm sure I've read it before, even though it's post-#100 in the regular series and thus, after I stopped reading the series originally. I still have a hard time with considering the Abby years as real BSC canon, because so much is different, 10 years and 100 books in. We're fast approaching the one-note personality trait stage, for one thing. And, well, it just isn't the same without Dawn.
This novel is bookended by chapters narrated by Abby, but since it wasn't written by Peter Lerangis, she's not completely annoying. She sets up the story for us: part of the BSC is going on a four-day-weekend school trip to Salem, where they will complete special history projects about a subject of their choosing. We don't really hear much about this, or really why the whole club isn't going, but alas, it doesn't matter. Claudia, Jessi, Shannon, and Logan are holding the fort in Stoneybrook over the Halloween weekend while the others are off taking various tours around Salem and scrounging up ideas for their projects.
Shit happens fast when, on the second day the SMS group arrives in Salem, the massive yellow diamond nicknamed the Witch's Eye is stolen from a museum near the inn where the school is staying. Mary Anne and Stacey were actually at the museum when the theft occurred, and are quickly hurried off the premises. The girls quickly switch into detective mode when Abby finds a discarded custodian uniform in the bushes, and Mary Anne has a frightening encounter with a long black wig. Mallory, who has met one of her favorite authors at the inn, is frantic that they must have the BSC Mystery Notebook in order to record all of their clues in order to solve the mystery of the theft. I never could figure out why they couldn't just use loose-leaf notebook paper or scratch pads or whatever they had on hand, but no, Mal actually called her house and spoke to Jessi, who was baby-sitting at the time, and asked her to send the BSC Mystery Notebook with one of the spouses of the chaperones who was coming up for the weekend. Mal was just obsessed with having this notebook, and the group spends a lot of time discussing their ideas during their meals in the dining room, which of course attracts attention.
Anyway - on the day of the theft, Abby, Mary Anne, and Stacey are stopped for questioning by the police. Abby wanders into the inn's gift shop and finds herself enchanted with
Kristy is inexplicably brooding the entire trip, and she falls prey to some of Alan Gray's more immature practical jokes. It's not until she follows a false clue back to the now-closed museum that she realizes there's more to Alan's jokes than him just being a dumb idiot: no, Cary Retlin has been egging Alan on and has apparently set a trap for her and Alan at the museum. Cary is one of my least favorite characters, so I hate it when he pops up in any major role in the later BSC books. But, Kristy gets her revenge on Cary by teaming up with Alan to turn the tables and scare the shit out of him, so at least he got his comeuppance.
While Kristy is missing after trailing this clue, the other girls are caught at the inn in a massive thunderstorm that knocks the power out, and the thief makes one last desperate grab for the diamond. Abby saves the day with some especially vicious soccer fouls after they all realize that the diamond had been hidden in the pumpkin Abby bought way back at the beginning of the story. The diamond has a weird green glow to it when its discovered, and its enough of a distraction for the authorities to rush in after the BSC and grab the criminals. Turns out its Mal's favorite author, who had become obsessed with the diamond and its perceived curse, and wanted it bad enough to steal it when the owner wouldn't sell. Why she wanted a cursed diamond is beyond me, but there you go.
The SMS group is also experiencing some bullying, led by Cary and Cokie, who seem to be influenced by the whole Salem witchcraft hysteria. The chaperones are apparently oblivious, but the BSCers stand up not only for Kristy, but also for a sixth-grader named Eileen, who is Mal's roommate and apparently "a social klutz," whatever that means. Reading this bit of storyline makes the foreshadowing of Mal's own eventual decision to leave Stoneybook due to bullying seem eerily prescient.
Meanwhile, back in Stoneybook, the BSC decides to put together a Halloween parade for their sitting charges, which the adults think is a fantastic idea! Also, Jordan Pike is acting like he has magical powers and taking credit for both the good and the bad things that befall his siblings. His head gets too big for his body at the parade and he's humiliated into confessing that he was just playing pretend to his siblings. This was a bizarre little subplot, but the Halloween parade was a cute idea, and we have a whole chapter of Rodowsky shenanigans to enjoy on top of that. Yay!
The main mystery was pretty dumb, but the subplot was cute and I'm always here for Cary Retlin getting a taste of his own medicine. Late series BSC books will never be my favorites, but I think this was a great way to end our re-readathon this year. I'm already looking forward to next year! :)