#26 Hostage!
Since sundancekid just did a review of "Kidnapped" I thought it was appropriate to do a review of another mystery SVH.
Sweet Valley High #26, Hostage! or, Girls Who've Read Too Many Whodunnits.
This book is even more unrealistic than most. IRL Elizabeth and Jessica would never have gotten through this alive. Even "Famous Five" are more realistic, despite the kids being even younger.
The A Plot: SVH books are short, so we need to cut to the chase right away. Elizabeth is convinced that something fishy is up and that Regina Morrow is in danger. She learns from the Morrows' delivery guy that Regina is back to Sweet Valley from Switzerland, and calls Bruce (who's apparently turned into the model boyfriend when he met Regina - go figure) to hear how long she'll be back. Great is her surprise when she discovers that Bruce knows nothing about it, and when Bruce calls Regina and is told by her 'aunt' (both Regina's parents are only childs), she KNOWS Something is wrong.
Having 'just' been kidnapped herself, her immediate thought is "OMG!Hostage!" and since we know the title of the book, we know she's right.
Jessica tries to be the voice of reason and convince Liz that Regina just doesn't want to see Bruce, but Liz will hear nothing of it, and takes it upon herself to drive over to the Morrows' estate and see for herself. Once there she's told by Regina's 'aunt', Claire, that Regina isn't home, but Claire is immediately proven wrong, as Regina walks into the hall, looking helpless and forlorn.
Liz is sent away by Claire, but now she's convinced she's right. She tries to convince Jessica, and then calls the police, who scolds her for making a crank call. I don't know who's more mock-worthy here - Liz for calling the police on so flimsy a basis, or the police for not looking into it more than they do.
Somehow the officer's reaction is what Jess needed to get on Liz' side, so together they contact Bruce and try to come up with a plan. Their first action is to have Bruce play the part of the delivery boy and deliver a package to Claire containing a magazine with a hidden message for Regina. They fix on a fashion magazine as being least likely to get intercepted by Claire, because, in the words of Jess: "from the way you've described Claire Davis, she won't be interested in fashion or beauty."
Regina gets the letter and manages to get a reply back to the three detectives. She IS held hostage, because Claire's boyfriend, Philip, wants a powerful chip that Mr. Morrow has invented. But they can't call the police as her parents will be killed if they do - giving Liz a huge guilt-trip that she called them at all.
This is where everything starts to happen really fast and the faster things happen, the more unrealistic they get. Regina's brother is called, and remembers that their father has an old enemy as he got a colleague arrested for embezzling. He even remembers that the name of this colleague is Philip and that he got out of prison a year ago and lives nearby!! Liz and Jess finds his address, and as luck will have it, he has a gorgeous son just Jess' age! By using her charms she's able to discover that Philip does indeed have the Morrows' held hostage, and they're hidden in his house where Jess sees them!!
Regina heard Claire mention "Money is heaven", and after some monkey-play done by Jess they realize that Claire didn't say "Money is heaven" but "Monday at seven"! So now they have a deadline.
Instead of going to the police now that they have evidence, the now four detectives are convinced that they can do a better job of rescuing all three Morrows without getting anybody killed, and come up with a master plan of foiling both Claire and Philip that almost gets them all killed, but fortunately Philip's son is so taken with Jess that he jumps his dad and makes him drop the gun, and obviously Bruce's porche is much faster than Philip's jeep. The Morrows call the cops from Bruce's car phone and - phew - all's well that ends well.
The Morrows are so relieved to be back safe and sound, and have Regina back with them as well, that they decide to throw a party the following Friday. Here Lila makes her first appearance of the entire book, and we're told that Ken Matthews has fallen in the clutches of Suzanna who's trying to make him drop football.
The B Plot: Doesn't exist. In fact, we hardly hear of ANY people other than the ones mentioned above. There are small mentionings here and there of Ken failing English and that he'll be forced to quit football if he does, because they don't want stupid jocks at SVH. There are only about 5 sentences devoted to this in the entire book though, except for the last page-and-a-half introduction to the next book: Lovestruck
Sweet Valley High #26, Hostage! or, Girls Who've Read Too Many Whodunnits.
This book is even more unrealistic than most. IRL Elizabeth and Jessica would never have gotten through this alive. Even "Famous Five" are more realistic, despite the kids being even younger.
The A Plot: SVH books are short, so we need to cut to the chase right away. Elizabeth is convinced that something fishy is up and that Regina Morrow is in danger. She learns from the Morrows' delivery guy that Regina is back to Sweet Valley from Switzerland, and calls Bruce (who's apparently turned into the model boyfriend when he met Regina - go figure) to hear how long she'll be back. Great is her surprise when she discovers that Bruce knows nothing about it, and when Bruce calls Regina and is told by her 'aunt' (both Regina's parents are only childs), she KNOWS Something is wrong.
Having 'just' been kidnapped herself, her immediate thought is "OMG!Hostage!" and since we know the title of the book, we know she's right.
Jessica tries to be the voice of reason and convince Liz that Regina just doesn't want to see Bruce, but Liz will hear nothing of it, and takes it upon herself to drive over to the Morrows' estate and see for herself. Once there she's told by Regina's 'aunt', Claire, that Regina isn't home, but Claire is immediately proven wrong, as Regina walks into the hall, looking helpless and forlorn.
Liz is sent away by Claire, but now she's convinced she's right. She tries to convince Jessica, and then calls the police, who scolds her for making a crank call. I don't know who's more mock-worthy here - Liz for calling the police on so flimsy a basis, or the police for not looking into it more than they do.
Somehow the officer's reaction is what Jess needed to get on Liz' side, so together they contact Bruce and try to come up with a plan. Their first action is to have Bruce play the part of the delivery boy and deliver a package to Claire containing a magazine with a hidden message for Regina. They fix on a fashion magazine as being least likely to get intercepted by Claire, because, in the words of Jess: "from the way you've described Claire Davis, she won't be interested in fashion or beauty."
Regina gets the letter and manages to get a reply back to the three detectives. She IS held hostage, because Claire's boyfriend, Philip, wants a powerful chip that Mr. Morrow has invented. But they can't call the police as her parents will be killed if they do - giving Liz a huge guilt-trip that she called them at all.
This is where everything starts to happen really fast and the faster things happen, the more unrealistic they get. Regina's brother is called, and remembers that their father has an old enemy as he got a colleague arrested for embezzling. He even remembers that the name of this colleague is Philip and that he got out of prison a year ago and lives nearby!! Liz and Jess finds his address, and as luck will have it, he has a gorgeous son just Jess' age! By using her charms she's able to discover that Philip does indeed have the Morrows' held hostage, and they're hidden in his house where Jess sees them!!
Regina heard Claire mention "Money is heaven", and after some monkey-play done by Jess they realize that Claire didn't say "Money is heaven" but "Monday at seven"! So now they have a deadline.
Instead of going to the police now that they have evidence, the now four detectives are convinced that they can do a better job of rescuing all three Morrows without getting anybody killed, and come up with a master plan of foiling both Claire and Philip that almost gets them all killed, but fortunately Philip's son is so taken with Jess that he jumps his dad and makes him drop the gun, and obviously Bruce's porche is much faster than Philip's jeep. The Morrows call the cops from Bruce's car phone and - phew - all's well that ends well.
The Morrows are so relieved to be back safe and sound, and have Regina back with them as well, that they decide to throw a party the following Friday. Here Lila makes her first appearance of the entire book, and we're told that Ken Matthews has fallen in the clutches of Suzanna who's trying to make him drop football.
The B Plot: Doesn't exist. In fact, we hardly hear of ANY people other than the ones mentioned above. There are small mentionings here and there of Ken failing English and that he'll be forced to quit football if he does, because they don't want stupid jocks at SVH. There are only about 5 sentences devoted to this in the entire book though, except for the last page-and-a-half introduction to the next book: Lovestruck