BSC #35: Stacey and the Mystery of Stoneybrook

Tagline: Can Stacey solve the haunted house mystery?

Unlike Claudia and Dawn, Stacey's never been much for mysteries and ghost stories. But when she and Charlotte Johanssen hear terrible noises coming out of the old Hennessey place, Stacey thinks the Baby-sitters definitely have a mystery on their hands.

Mallory claims the house once made her have a horrible nightmare. And Kristy discovers taht it was built on top of a graveyard!

Does Stoneybrook have a real, live haunted house? The Baby-sitters are going to find out - no matter how scary it may be!

Stacey's on her way home from another trip to NYC. She admits that while she has a lot of fun with her dad, it's tiring to go visit him. He crams so much stuff into a weekend, and Stacey admits that she's been more tired than usual. When she gets home, she pretty much just passes out, and spends all of Monday running late and feeling behind.

When Stacey gets to the meeting, she can't wait to tell her friends about her weekend in NYC. However, everyone's quickly distracted by neighbourhood news: some developer is tearing down one of the oldest houses in town to develop a series of condos. Stacey can't really figure out what the big deal is, but she's soon distracted by a phone call from Dr Johanssen: she and Mr Johanssen have to leave town for a week to help her father mend from hip surgery, and she was wondering if either Jessi or her would be able to house Charlotte. Jessi's family is headed to New Jersey for the weekend, so it's down to Stacey and Mrs McGill.

Stacey is thrilled. She's always wanted a little sister, and she loves Charlotte like one. She spends the rest of the week getting the guest room all set for Charlotte. Stacey expects it to be a lot of fun, Charlotte's more homesick and worried about her grandfather. Stacey decides to distract her by taking a walk past the old house that's about to be torn down. Even though it's only 4 pm, the workers have all left, leaving the place abandoned and spooky. While they're there, Stacey sees a face in one of the bedroom windows, while Charlotte hears some strange noises. When they both see a swarm of flies come out of the house, they decide to hightail it out of there.

Shortly after, while Kristy's baby-sitting for her siblings, she decides to check out Watson's old library to see if she can find any information about the house. In one of the books, she finds an old map of Stoneybrook, and all signs point to the fact that the old house was built on top of an ancient burial ground. The next day, she heads to Stacey's place with the books for her and Charlotte and Stacey to peruse.

Claudia takes the Perkins girls to the library for story hour. While the girls are busy, Claudia starts looking into the archives, trying to find out who owns the house. Eventually she comes up with a name, and through checking the phonebook, she discovers that the owner is actually still alive and living in Stoneybrook, albeit at the old folks' home. Claudia shares this news at the Club meeting, and it's decided that Stacey, Kristy, Claudia and Charlotte will go visit Mr Ronald Hennessy.

Before they go though, Stacey and Charlotte visit the house yet again. There, Stacey swears she sees a fire, but before she can put it out, it's gone. That night, she and Charlotte have horrible dreams, and the rest of the girls share their own stories of strange encounters at the house. Stacey is now convinced more than ever that the house is haunted.

Their fears are not assuaged by their visit to Mr Hennessy. Although initially surprised at so many visitors, Mr Hennessy soon opens up with stories from his lifetime of weird things happening at the house. Stacey and Kristy aren't too sure what to believe, but it does jive with what they'd heard and seen.

The next day, the house is torn down. Charlie and Sam Thomas stop to talk to some workers, and soon solve the mystery: one of the workers had stayed late the day Stacey saw the face in the window. The weird noises was from wind blowing through exposed pipes. The swarm of flies was really a swarm of hornets, their nest having been disturbed at the deconstruction. However, nothing can explain the fire Stacey thought she saw. In fact, after the house is torn down, Stacey swears she sees the ruins on fire, but no one else reacts! Determined to get to the bottom of things, Stacey quickly heads back to visit Mr Hennessy.

Sadly, it turns out that Mr Hennessy had passed away since their visit. He left her a note though, admitting to having made up all those stories. He hadn't had visitors in such a long time, and knew his life was drawing to a close. He just wanted to have a bit of fun and got so much joy and pleasure out of seeing the girls hang on to his every word. However, that still doesn't explain the fire Stacey saw. Stacey decides that it's probably best to keep that to herself, and the Club considers the mystery solved.

There really isn't a subplot in this one. Like I said, Stacey and her mom are looking after Charlotte for the week, and Charlotte's really homesick and worried about her grandpa. At least, that's all the McGills think it is at first. Eventually, Charlotte comes down with a fever and it's discovered that she has tonsillitis! She has take penicillin for a few days and miss a day of school, but soon she bounces back. She's still horribly homesick though, and while the mystery of the house helps to take her mind off of it, it also scares the shit out of her, so really she's a bit of a mess throughout the book.

Random Thoughts:

• Apparently this one was originally going to be called Stacey and the New Kids on the Block. It was advertised as that in the back of my copy of SS #3 and a few others. Does anyone know the story behind this? I know that it was originally going to be about foster kids. And then #33 was going to be this. Anyone know why they changed it?
• This is our first book to be ghostwritten by Ellen Miles
• I love that this mystery house is on Elm Street. Do they ever mention Stacey living on Elm Street again? Fuck, I wish I still had my copy of  The Complete Guide to the Baby-sitters Club haha
• There are a lot of continuity moments in this book:
• Stacey is surprised at how much Charlotte cries when her parents leave her. After all, she had spent two weeks away from them at summer camp, and had survived.
• Stacey mentions her massive crush on Scott from Sea City
• Stacey also mentions how big of a help Charlotte was on solving the mystery at her house
• Stacey mentions that even though her mom didn't work before, since the divorce happened, she wanted a job. Wanted? More like, needed, right?? I mean, I know Mr McGill is paying child support, but I should hope that whatever he is paying is not enough for Mrs McGill and Stacey to live comfortably in a house together without any additional income. Mr McGill should not be obligated to support Mrs McGill
• Stacey mentions having her diabetes being harder to control than usual, but she seems alright otherwise.
• Claudia takes the Perkin girls to the library for story hour, while she reads up on old Stoneybrook. At the story hour, one of the books they read is The Little House. Stacey makes such a big deal out of this book that I knew it had to be real. Turns out it's a bit of a critique on urban sprawl, which is essentially what is happening to the old house in Stoneybrook.
• Why would the Johanssens ask the girls if they could watch Charlotte? Why wouldn't they just call up either Mr and Mrs Ramsey, or Mrs McGill, and asked the adults first? Haha oh well
• I feel like we don't hear about Jessi's family in New Jersey nearly often enough, considering Jessi says that they were really close before they moved. I also find it curious that the next regular book in the series is the one where Aunt Cecelia comes to join the family.
• If I know anything about contractors, it's that they start at like, 7am, but then leave at like, 3pm haha