Kehret, Peg. Deadly Stranger. NY: Troll Communications, 1989. 178 pages. (Mystery)
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a victim of a kidnapping? Peg Kehret’s Deadly Stranger is the story about the kidnapping of a twelve year old girl, Shannon. The setting is at Franklin High, and Katie just moved from Mill Valley High to Franklin because her dad got a job out in the town of Franklin. She’s the new kid in school, and she met Shannon on her first day. They had lots in common and became friends immediately. On the second day of school they were going to go shopping at the mall. They had just finished making their plans at the corner before going home to change their clothes. Shannon walked home and found that there was a kidnapper in her house. The guy was crazy and called her “Angie.” Katie didn’t know what was happening, and she came to pick up Shannon. The man told Katie he was Shannon’s brother, and Shannon was at a piano lesson, but she really wasn’t. Katie went home and kept calling Shannon, but no one would pick up. The next day when Katie went to school, she found out that Shannon wasn’t there and the teacher announced that Shannon was missing. When Katie walked home from school, she was hit by a car coming out of nowhere. Katie was rushed to the hospital and had a broken leg. She gave the police a description of the car that ran her over. Meanwhile, Shannon was being kept in an old rundown barn outside of town. She was yelling at her kidnapper that she wasn’t “Angie,” but the man wouldn’t listen. He kept saying he wanted to kill Katie because she didn’t die when he ran her over.
To find out the ending of this mystery, you’ll have to read the book. I don’t want to give the details of the story away. I enjoyed this book because I like to read mysteries to see if I can figure out the ending. I can’t connect this idea to my life because I haven’t ever had it happen to me. My parents make sure that I am smart and I don’t get myself in trouble, and I can’t walk home by myself. If I were Shannon, I would try to escape and not go along with what he was telling her to do.
I would recommend this story to kids who enjoy mysteries. This is a thriller and when I read it, I felt like I was in Shannon’s shoes. I wouldn’t recommend the way Shannon followed her kidnapper’s demands. This book is a little different than some of Peg Kehret’s other books, such as Escaping the Giant Wave, because it’s not about an earthquake or a tsunami. But this book is like another book she wrote, The Stranger Next Door because there was a kidnapping in that one, too.
Reviewed by: Brine66
