Twisted Summer

Twisted Summer by Willo Davis Roberts, (Atheneum, 1996.) This is a YA mystery, but I I would have liked it best in fifth or sixth grade. (I liked it a lot as a 34 year old, but kept wishing I could hand it to my fifth grade self, who would have loooooved it.) It is probably YA because a young person has been killed.

Cici's extended family doesn't talk much, but they meet each summer at Crystal Lake. That's where her grandmother and stepgrandfather, the Judge, live.

Cici's family missed last summer at the lake. Now, she is looking forward to seeing her cousins and the other lake kids--especially Jack, the Judge's cook's son. Cici is a big kid now, and hopefully Jack will see it that way.

When they arrive, Cici is shocked to learn that last summer a teenager named Zoe was murdered. Jack's brother Brody is now serving time in prison for the crime! The cook, Lina, has quit because the Judge wouldn't stand up for her son.

Cici doesn't believe Brody killed Zoe, a flirt who annoyed everybody. (Not that that's grounds for killing someone, which Cici acknowledges.) She begins to investigate by casually talking about the crime to families staying at the lake. She makes a list of possible suspects--including her own family. For one reason or other (I guess because she's always swimming and can't take the list with her,) she leaves it lying around the house, putting her own life at risk.

This is a real page turner and Cici's relationship with Jack--who is a sweetheart--is intriguing. He likes her...but still sees her as a little kid in some ways. (He's a couple years older.)

It was also interesting for me to see what constitutes as a YA versus a juvenile mystery. In all the juvenile mysteries I've read so far, the murder victim was elderly--that may be a coincidence, but the victim certainly wasn't a young person. Zoe was not only young, but there was also some talk of whether she had flirted with someone who turned out to be a killer. That's pretty grownup subject matter. Other than that, this book seemed young. There was no swearing, and Cici was a young 15--especially in Jack's eyes.

The verdict: page turner with a loveable heroine.
How the parents got out of the picture: Kids have free rein at Crystal Lake, and eventually, Cici's parents go home, leaving her under the care of her relatives.