Girl in the Shadows
Girl in the Shadows (A Windswept Novel)by Miriam LynchWindswept titles were kept in the section of my elementary school library that you had to be in grades 5 and 6 to read. I think I was reading them in grade 4 though and I could also get them from my town's public library (back when libraries here actually had a decent selection of English titles). These books are a combination of mystery, suspense and romance for teens - think R.L. Stine's Fear Street only with more romance. I know I had read a bunch of them and even owned a few that I kept in the bottom right drawer of my dresser, where I kept all my favourite books and comics. I wish I could remember the title of the one book that has stayed with me in my memory all this time, but I can't. So, I have made it my mission to try and collect all 20-something Windswept titles until I find the one I am looking for.This one certainly wasn't it.I don't remember if I read this one prior to today or not, but I don't think I would have liked it. I didn't particularly care for it this time around.It says something about a book when you can't even recall the main character's name once you've finished the story. I had to look at the book while writing this to remind myself. Amanda. Her name was Amanda and she should be somewhere in her early 20s if the math is right because she was 16 or so when "the accident" happened and that is constantly referred to as "eight years ago". So, Amanda and two other former friends who used to summer at this old French lady's home (somehow she was a Grandmother to all of them, only their families were not related, I still don't get that part) are all back "eight years later" for the reading of her will and the splitting up of her estate.Eight years ago (did you get that?) Ellen - then 10, now 18 - was pushed off the dock into the water by Carla, a nasty, spoiled brat and the favourite of Grandmama (she was French you know). After that accident - eight years ago - Carla went missing, never to be heard from again and Ellen stopped talking. Completely.Now Amanda, Ellen and Ellen's older brother, Rich, or Rick, or Roger or something are back at the house waiting for the will to be read and they are suspiciously there 5 days before the actual date of the reading. Oh, dear! How could that have happened? And Amanda keeps seeing Grandmama wandering the halls at night and smelling her perfume, which is odd because she's been dead a year! And where is the mysterious music coming from that only Amanda hears at night?Meanwhile, Amanda has also discovered that she might just have feeling for Rick-Rich-Roger that she thought was just a childhood crush - wait for it! - eight years ago!Is Grandmama still alive? Is she a ghost? Who is trying to kill Amanda? Does Rick-Rich-Roger have feelings for her? Where does he keep running off to all mysteriously? Will Ellen ever talk again? And just how much money will they be getting from this inheritance?And of course it's one of those stories where no matter how sane and responsible the person is who tries to confide in someone about the crazy stuff she's seeing, no one believes her and the cops don't believe the stories and all that jazz.I wasn't expecting FANTASTIC! from this 120 page book written in 1982, but I do recall the stories I read to be a little bit better written than this one was. I know I was an anxious and paranoid child, but even I don't think I would have been all that freaked out by Girl in the Shadows.Also? There was NO girl in the shadows at all. The title seemed a little off from the story.My only actual place to get these books has been Bookmooch.com, sadly pretty much NO ONE ships to Canada so I gave up and only got 4 of the titles I wanted. Sigh. I guess I'll scour used bookshops that I might wander into outside of my province (so I can find English books).Windswept series (thanks to Cliquey Pizza for this awesome list!)
- Don’t Walk Alone – Mary Bringle
- Someone Is Out There – Carole Standish
- Girl in the Shadows – Miriam Lynch **
- The House of Three Sisters – Virginia Nielsen **
- Yesterday’s Girl – Madeleine Sunshine
- The Snow’s Secret – Carole Standish
- The Red Room – Kaye Dobkin
- The Silvery Past – Candice F. Ransom **
- Dreams and Memories – Lavinia Harris
- The Ghost of Graydon Place – Dorothy Francis
- A Forgotten Girl – Elisabeth Ogilvie
- The Silent Witness – Meredith Hill
- The Empty Attic – Jean Francis Webb
- Murder by Moonlight – Dorothy Woolfolk **
- The Girl Cried Murder – Dorothy Woolfolk
- House of Fear – Willo Davis Roberts
- Mirror, Mirror – Virginia Nielson
- The Missing Sunrise – Joan Oppenheimer
- Dark Magic – Miriam Lynch
- Mysterious Summer – Marion Schultz
- Phantom Light – Susan Dix
- The Lost Holiday – Elizabeth Olsen
- A Date with Danger – Edward Hunsberger
- The Burned Letter – Conrad Nowels
- The Secret – Carol Beach York
- The Castle Murder – Vivian Schurfranz
- Mystery Cruise – Carole Standish
- The Disappearing Teacher – Conrad Nowels
- Weekend of Fear – Virginia Nielson
- Secret of the Dark – Barbara Steiner
- The Accident – Jesse Osburn
- The Hidden Room – Jennifer Sarasin
- The Warning – Dorothy Brenner Francis
** denotes books I own