“I could have been a world class skier, a world class business man, and you took it away from me.”

19. Mystery of the Scowling Boy – Phyllis A. Whitney

Jan and Mike have gone to visit their grandparents for Christmas break and it seems their grandparents live in an area of Pennsylvania that retired sculptors really love. Their grandpa is/was a sculptor (he has issues with his hands now) and so is their neighbor down in the valley who is bedridden and happens to have a very famous granddaughter.

Jan is trying to figure out if her talent is being an actress, she really wants it, and everyone else in the family is super talented, so when she figures out a famous actress is just next door, she wants to get advice. Unfortunately, said actress’ son is the “scowling boy” of the title (Steven) and seems to have a talent for being off-putting and negative about his mother. He’s mad at her for all the reasons. And she seems a little dismayed about the phone. Jan quickly deduces that she’s getting some kind of weird phone calls, but this family is all about not talking about things in front of Jan and Mike. Sensible, but it also just tells them something more interesting is going on.

Anyway, they spend a lot of time skiing the Devil’s Drop and hiking around and trying to be friends with Steven. Then their grandmother has to go to the hospital and they end up staying in the very house of Steven so he can whine more about his mom being “fake” and they can hear noises coming from the room of scary looking sculptures and see the actress after she’s gotten another frightening phone call. Of course, being in the house and interacting more with the weirdness surrounding the family just makes it real clear that something needs sorting out and it will take Jan’s talents to do it.

 

Duncan was also talented enough to sort out a scowler. Or Pickles.

 

Mysterious and upsetting phone calls about a sordid past in the chill of winter? Duncan never gets those.
Threadless
Redbubble