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Sweet Valley High Super Thrillers #1
Double Jeopardy
Hot pursuit ...
When twin sisters Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield land internships at The Sweet Valley News, they think they'll be reporting the news - but they end up making headlines when Jessica becomes an eyewitness to murder.
Then Adam Maitland, a friend of the twins' brother, Steven, is charged with the murder. And Elizabeth has evidence that could convict him!
Jessica knows Adam is innocent--she saw the murderer--and she sets out to prove it. The problem is, he saw her, too. Can the twins find the killer before he finds them? Or will Jessica and Elizabeth be caught in a deadly case of mistaken identity?
When twin sisters Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield land internships at The Sweet Valley News, they think they'll be reporting the news - but they end up making headlines when Jessica becomes an eyewitness to murder.
Then Adam Maitland, a friend of the twins' brother, Steven, is charged with the murder. And Elizabeth has evidence that could convict him!
Jessica knows Adam is innocent--she saw the murderer--and she sets out to prove it. The problem is, he saw her, too. Can the twins find the killer before he finds them? Or will Jessica and Elizabeth be caught in a deadly case of mistaken identity?
Library Binding
First published January 1, 1987
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About the author
Francine Pascal
1,139 books1,843 followersFrancine Paula Pascal was an American author best known for her Sweet Valley series of young adult novels. Sweet Valley High, the backbone of the collection, was made into a television series, which led to several spin-offs, including The Unicorn Club and Sweet Valley University. Although most of these books were published in the 1980s and 1990s, they remained so popular that several titles were re-released decades later.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
August 19, 2022
The Sweet Valley High books may not be in vogue today, but I remember them from back in their heyday as the in books to be seen reading. I can see why these appealed to pre-teen and teen girls with their wavering self-esteem as right from the start young teens are snared by descriptions of often sought-after physical attributes and attractive qualities that at the time were the quintessential model of the ideal. Such talk made our own beautiful features and qualities seem plain, awkward, and boring; we didn't have an important internship, a fancy car, or the model-like beauty the twins had.
I remember reading a few of these books when I was younger, but I never really got into them. I always thought it was because they were always checked out at the library, but after reading this one I think the smarter reason is because of the insufferable Jessica. She was front and center and it was quite taxing to read about her selfish behavior. I am certain Elizabeth was always the twin I liked best. After the dubious start, the story settled into a decently suspenseful read despite the lack of potential suspects. The key moments of fear and suspense were well-drawn. I won't be reading any more of these, but this was an enjoyable visit with a book from my pre-teen days. 3.5 stars rounded up.
I remember reading a few of these books when I was younger, but I never really got into them. I always thought it was because they were always checked out at the library, but after reading this one I think the smarter reason is because of the insufferable Jessica. She was front and center and it was quite taxing to read about her selfish behavior. I am certain Elizabeth was always the twin I liked best. After the dubious start, the story settled into a decently suspenseful read despite the lack of potential suspects. The key moments of fear and suspense were well-drawn. I won't be reading any more of these, but this was an enjoyable visit with a book from my pre-teen days. 3.5 stars rounded up.
November 6, 2021
Jessica turns into a veritable Nancy Drew in this Super Chiller, and I AM HERE FOR IT!
Jess bears witness to a murder in the dark and deserted parking lot when she gets out of her internship late at Sweet Valley News, but - dun dun dun!! - the killer has seen her too!! 💀💀
The wrong dude is pinned for the crime, the twins' brother's friend, Adam, who discovers his rich-ass (and very dead) girlfriend in his trunk....OH and then the police find the rope used to strangle her tucked conveniently in Adam's glove compartment. But ADAM IS INNOCENT, DAMMIT!!
So it's up to Jessica and SVN staff writer Seth (her new love interest of the week that she's trying to impress) to figure out who the real killer is, before HE finds HER. Refreshing to see Jessica use her brain for more than just scheming to get a dude...oh wait. 🤣🤣🤣
There's a pretty thrilling showdown at the end where Jessica comes to the rescue of Elizabeth, and bashes the killer's head in with a lead pipe. Pretty ballsy, Jess!! 💪
4 out 5 whacks to the head for this one. Jessica nabs the killer, guilt-trips Seth into taking her out for a celebratory dinner AND forcing him to make her the heroine in his next book, and becomes a crime-solving Sweet Valley hero. The end!
Jess bears witness to a murder in the dark and deserted parking lot when she gets out of her internship late at Sweet Valley News, but - dun dun dun!! - the killer has seen her too!! 💀💀
The wrong dude is pinned for the crime, the twins' brother's friend, Adam, who discovers his rich-ass (and very dead) girlfriend in his trunk....OH and then the police find the rope used to strangle her tucked conveniently in Adam's glove compartment. But ADAM IS INNOCENT, DAMMIT!!
So it's up to Jessica and SVN staff writer Seth (her new love interest of the week that she's trying to impress) to figure out who the real killer is, before HE finds HER. Refreshing to see Jessica use her brain for more than just scheming to get a dude...oh wait. 🤣🤣🤣
There's a pretty thrilling showdown at the end where Jessica comes to the rescue of Elizabeth, and bashes the killer's head in with a lead pipe. Pretty ballsy, Jess!! 💪
4 out 5 whacks to the head for this one. Jessica nabs the killer, guilt-trips Seth into taking her out for a celebratory dinner AND forcing him to make her the heroine in his next book, and becomes a crime-solving Sweet Valley hero. The end!
July 1, 2022
Jess's meddling gets a man sent to jail, ah Sweet Valley.
As a witness to murder (and the man is pretty brazen about just carrying a dead body around a parking garage,) Jessica needs to figure out who is after her and Elizabeth, and quick! We get a random friend of Steven's introduced as red herring, and of course, Jessica is obsessed with setting him up with Elizabeth for the summer, hence the meddling, hence the almost convicted of manslaughter.
The most unbelievable part of this book is the idea that Jessica would agree to intern at a newspaper office for the summer—I don't buy it. Even with a cute reporter/mystery writer for her to obsess over, I'm absolutely certain she would have nothing to do with this and would have scammed her way out of it.
As a witness to murder (and the man is pretty brazen about just carrying a dead body around a parking garage,) Jessica needs to figure out who is after her and Elizabeth, and quick! We get a random friend of Steven's introduced as red herring, and of course, Jessica is obsessed with setting him up with Elizabeth for the summer, hence the meddling, hence the almost convicted of manslaughter.
The most unbelievable part of this book is the idea that Jessica would agree to intern at a newspaper office for the summer—I don't buy it. Even with a cute reporter/mystery writer for her to obsess over, I'm absolutely certain she would have nothing to do with this and would have scammed her way out of it.
October 20, 2016
Synopsis: So the Wakefield twins have internships at the Sweet Valley News. Because high-schoolers go on internships all the time. 16-year-olds are barely allowed to work. I digress (already). Normally this is something Jessica would split all her ends about, but because the totally hunky (and age-inappropriate) Seth Miller works there, Jessica couldn't be more thrilled. Oh, and he's a crime novelist. Frankly, this seems more up Liz's alley, but she's infatuated with Jeffrey at the moment.
Speaking of that, Jessica doesn't think Liz should be tied down at such a young age (if you need reminding, the twins are still 16). For once, she's not wrong. Steven's friend-in-law (get it? Maybe not) Adam Maitland is coming to stay with the Wakefields for a bit. Since Jess doesn't want Liz anywhere near Seth, she thinks Adam is the perfect solution to her problem. You might suspect that Liz will end up cheating on Jeffrey, but she seems to reserve her cheating for Todd. She has no interest in Adam (Jeffrey is off being Jeffrey or something) but Jessica has a plan to fix that. She writes a love letter from "Adam" and puts it under Liz's pillow to find. Here's the rub: Adam is in love with his girlfriend, Laurie Hamilton, even though her family doesn't want him with her. In the letter "Adam" renounces his love for Laurie and claims to love Liz instead. He says he might do something drastic if he can't have her right then. Obviously this whole thing comes into play later.
Meanwhile Jessica concocts more shenanigans and lies at work. She can't actually get Seth to fall in love with her personality (because she doesn't have one), so she relies on feeding him sources that aren't real. She almost gets him fired when one of her leads is discovered by their boss, Mr. Robb, to be bad, but all she can do is feel sorry for herself that she has been demoted. Seth starts out great, because he's possibly the only guy in all of California to not immediately fall for Jessica upon first glance.
So, basically, in between making up false crime stories Jessica actually witnesses a real crime. She is in the parking garage after a late night at work one night when she sees a blond-haired man carrying a bundle in his arms. It seems like maybe she's just seeing things again - until an arm flops out. Jessica is absolutely petrified, not yet used to murder in her daily life, this being the first Super Thriller and all, and she jumps in the Fiat and guns it out of there. Just before she leaves, though, she glimpses the man's face and is positive he saw her too. Trying to convince the Wakefield family takes work, though, because they all know how much she has been lying recently. But when they see how shaken Jessica is they decide to believe her. I suppose they often forget that she's also a superb actress.
Pretty soon after that Liz finds the note from "Adam" under her pillow. At this point they have learned that Laurie Hamilton, Adam's girlfriend, has been killed. It turns out that Adam's car was in the lot that night too because he was working late. The body is found in the trunk of his car. Adam immediately comes under fire, and then dumb-ass Liz gives the "love letter" to her father. She later can tell that the language is stilted, but apparently on first reading she is too dumb to realize it's her sister's voice.
When Jessica realizes what has become of the letter she confesses to her father, the police, and Seth, but, conveniently, does not confess to Liz. And she only confesses to Seth to tell him he's following the wrong story and that she has the real scoop for him. Because of the killer noticing the Fiat as Jessica left the crime scene, the twins have been forbidden to drive it for the time being. Jessica breaks that rule and her family acts like having to ground her is the worst punishment possible. Probably because no punishment works on Jessica anyway. Jessica is able to identify the man who murdered Laurie at the police station.
Jessica and Seth team up with Adam to find out what they can about who in his past might want to harm him. From this they learn about Tom Winslow, a jealous guy in Adam's past. He was spurned by Laurie for Adam, and he's the only person Adam can think that might wish to harm him.
Shit goes down at the company office party. Liz can't start Steven's car and so she takes the Fiat. Jessica is taken to the party by the police once she identifies the killer. Once there she sees the white Trans Am, the car the killer was driving, in the parking garage. She frantically heads upstairs to tell Seth. But she interrupts Seth talking to... Thomas Winslow. Turns out that Tom is a friend of Mr. Robb's. Seth, of course, doesn't realize he is talking to the killer. Jessica instantly recognizes him and is terrified. She explains her fear to Seth, who heads off to a payphone to call the cops. He tells Jessica to stay with Tom and not let him leave, which she is very reluctant to do. Seth is gone so long that I started to believe he was in cahoots with Tom. I mean, for fuck's sake. Go tell someone else in the building if a simple 911 call is going to take you that long.
In the meanwhile Jessica is attempting to stall Tom, who has started flirting with her (gross!). He finally escapes down to the garage... right when Liz pulls up in the Fiat. He didn't recognize Jessica as the girl he saw the day he killed Laurie, but seeing Liz in the Fiat immediately triggers him. When the man won't let her pull in to park and Liz sees the Trans Am, she quickly realizes what is happening. Seth is useless and still at the payphone. He's probably jacking off in the bathroom. Tom forces Liz out of the car and bashes her head with the weapon he is holding. Jessica comes down in time to see Liz slumped over the car. She approaches Tom from behind with a tire iron and bashes him in the skull. He's only temporarily unconscious, though. Liz and Jess start to limp away, but he stops them and has an epic reaction to there being two of them (see quotes below). Jessica whispers to Liz to make a run for it when she tells her to. Liz isn't sure she can make it to the stairwell, but on Jessica's signal she makes a run for it and sets off the fire alarms. Seth FINALLY reemerges with help and Jessica pats herself on the back throughout the last thirty pages for catching a murderer.
Despite knowing that Seth isn't all that in to her and that Liz wants to write a story for the Sweet Valley News, Jess spins everything in her favor. She tells Liz about the letter when she finally has to but acts so wounded, as usual, when her sister "won't let it go." She tells Mr. Robb that Seth should be the one covering the Tom Winslow case, and that SHE (who is not a writer, mind you) should be the one to help him write it. Mr. Robb agrees even though Jessica was lying to him about sources about a week prior to all of these events. The cherry on top, of course, is that she manipulates Seth into going out with her. First she says he almost missed his opportunity to confess his feelings to her when she was almost murdered by Winslow. Then she hints very strongly that he must feel awful for not believing her about Tom in the beginning (EVEN THOUGH SHE LIED TO HIM ABOUT FAKE CASES MULTIPLE TIMES). THEN she gets pissy when Seth's Winslow piece comes out and her name isn't on the byline. She gets a whole section devoted to her (why?), but that's not enough. For Jessica Wakefield, it never is.
Alternate Title: "Pretty Size 4 Liar"
Tagline: There isn't one on my copy of the book. And I have the super-old copy.
On a Scale of 1-10, How Annoying is Elizabeth? : 4. Manageable, but still annoying.
On a Scale of 1-10, How Sociopathic is Jessica?: I mean, her lies put her at a 7 in the beginning. But then she is caught up with an actual murderer, so it reduces it to a respectable 5.5.
The Big Deal: Internships at Sweet Valley News (though I'm not sure what high school does internships, but okay)
Cover: Good or Bad?: I love this cover and the shocked look on the twins' faces. I think they are meant to be in the parking garage? I am quite pissed at the title, though, because Double Jeopardy is quite clearly not referring to twins.
Quotes from the Book:
Liz: He seems a little old, don't you think?
Jessica: He's only twenty-two.
(This is a SIX YEAR age difference, mind you, as Jessica is still only sixteen).
"Jessica was opening the carton of yogurt she had brought with her from home for lunch."
(I mean, how big is this carton? It is small? A pint? A quart? How is this her only lunch?!)
Jessica: You're... you mean you're not proud of the way I took all the blame in there?
Seth: Who else should've taken it? It was your fault, wasn't it?
(Lol. Thank God Seth has some sense in him... at least at first.)
"I've been with this department for twenty-five years, and we've never had a murder here before."
(Um, that's about to change. Drastically.)
"The Wakefields reserved grounding for the most reprehensible behavior or the most dire emergencies."
(No wonder one twin is codependent and the other is a sociopath).
Elizabeth: Well, I guess that leaves the good old Sweet Valley Taxi Service.
(Who the fuck talks like this? If a 16-year-old's car didn't start, they would say FUCK! and then find a solution).
"'God knows why there're two of you, but I'll get you both,' he said menacingly."
(Sweet Valley's reaction to twins is hysterical. In every book outsiders just cannot fathom the concept of twins. It literally is a phenomenon only God would know about).
Sergeant Wilson: Frankly, we're expecting him to plead insanity.
(Because that always works).
Moral of the Story: If you solve an actual murder, you can get the local crime novelist to fall madly in love with you.
What Ghost are we dealing with?: No ghosts here!
Any psychopaths?: Yep. Tom Winslow.
Is there a dance?: Not in this one, but I'm guessing that's only because it was a Super Thriller and there wasn't time for a school dance. There was an office party though!
Final Rating: Two stars. All-in-all the book was still just so-so.
Speaking of that, Jessica doesn't think Liz should be tied down at such a young age (if you need reminding, the twins are still 16). For once, she's not wrong. Steven's friend-in-law (get it? Maybe not) Adam Maitland is coming to stay with the Wakefields for a bit. Since Jess doesn't want Liz anywhere near Seth, she thinks Adam is the perfect solution to her problem. You might suspect that Liz will end up cheating on Jeffrey, but she seems to reserve her cheating for Todd. She has no interest in Adam (Jeffrey is off being Jeffrey or something) but Jessica has a plan to fix that. She writes a love letter from "Adam" and puts it under Liz's pillow to find. Here's the rub: Adam is in love with his girlfriend, Laurie Hamilton, even though her family doesn't want him with her. In the letter "Adam" renounces his love for Laurie and claims to love Liz instead. He says he might do something drastic if he can't have her right then. Obviously this whole thing comes into play later.
Meanwhile Jessica concocts more shenanigans and lies at work. She can't actually get Seth to fall in love with her personality (because she doesn't have one), so she relies on feeding him sources that aren't real. She almost gets him fired when one of her leads is discovered by their boss, Mr. Robb, to be bad, but all she can do is feel sorry for herself that she has been demoted. Seth starts out great, because he's possibly the only guy in all of California to not immediately fall for Jessica upon first glance.
So, basically, in between making up false crime stories Jessica actually witnesses a real crime. She is in the parking garage after a late night at work one night when she sees a blond-haired man carrying a bundle in his arms. It seems like maybe she's just seeing things again - until an arm flops out. Jessica is absolutely petrified, not yet used to murder in her daily life, this being the first Super Thriller and all, and she jumps in the Fiat and guns it out of there. Just before she leaves, though, she glimpses the man's face and is positive he saw her too. Trying to convince the Wakefield family takes work, though, because they all know how much she has been lying recently. But when they see how shaken Jessica is they decide to believe her. I suppose they often forget that she's also a superb actress.
Pretty soon after that Liz finds the note from "Adam" under her pillow. At this point they have learned that Laurie Hamilton, Adam's girlfriend, has been killed. It turns out that Adam's car was in the lot that night too because he was working late. The body is found in the trunk of his car. Adam immediately comes under fire, and then dumb-ass Liz gives the "love letter" to her father. She later can tell that the language is stilted, but apparently on first reading she is too dumb to realize it's her sister's voice.
When Jessica realizes what has become of the letter she confesses to her father, the police, and Seth, but, conveniently, does not confess to Liz. And she only confesses to Seth to tell him he's following the wrong story and that she has the real scoop for him. Because of the killer noticing the Fiat as Jessica left the crime scene, the twins have been forbidden to drive it for the time being. Jessica breaks that rule and her family acts like having to ground her is the worst punishment possible. Probably because no punishment works on Jessica anyway. Jessica is able to identify the man who murdered Laurie at the police station.
Jessica and Seth team up with Adam to find out what they can about who in his past might want to harm him. From this they learn about Tom Winslow, a jealous guy in Adam's past. He was spurned by Laurie for Adam, and he's the only person Adam can think that might wish to harm him.
Shit goes down at the company office party. Liz can't start Steven's car and so she takes the Fiat. Jessica is taken to the party by the police once she identifies the killer. Once there she sees the white Trans Am, the car the killer was driving, in the parking garage. She frantically heads upstairs to tell Seth. But she interrupts Seth talking to... Thomas Winslow. Turns out that Tom is a friend of Mr. Robb's. Seth, of course, doesn't realize he is talking to the killer. Jessica instantly recognizes him and is terrified. She explains her fear to Seth, who heads off to a payphone to call the cops. He tells Jessica to stay with Tom and not let him leave, which she is very reluctant to do. Seth is gone so long that I started to believe he was in cahoots with Tom. I mean, for fuck's sake. Go tell someone else in the building if a simple 911 call is going to take you that long.
In the meanwhile Jessica is attempting to stall Tom, who has started flirting with her (gross!). He finally escapes down to the garage... right when Liz pulls up in the Fiat. He didn't recognize Jessica as the girl he saw the day he killed Laurie, but seeing Liz in the Fiat immediately triggers him. When the man won't let her pull in to park and Liz sees the Trans Am, she quickly realizes what is happening. Seth is useless and still at the payphone. He's probably jacking off in the bathroom. Tom forces Liz out of the car and bashes her head with the weapon he is holding. Jessica comes down in time to see Liz slumped over the car. She approaches Tom from behind with a tire iron and bashes him in the skull. He's only temporarily unconscious, though. Liz and Jess start to limp away, but he stops them and has an epic reaction to there being two of them (see quotes below). Jessica whispers to Liz to make a run for it when she tells her to. Liz isn't sure she can make it to the stairwell, but on Jessica's signal she makes a run for it and sets off the fire alarms. Seth FINALLY reemerges with help and Jessica pats herself on the back throughout the last thirty pages for catching a murderer.
Despite knowing that Seth isn't all that in to her and that Liz wants to write a story for the Sweet Valley News, Jess spins everything in her favor. She tells Liz about the letter when she finally has to but acts so wounded, as usual, when her sister "won't let it go." She tells Mr. Robb that Seth should be the one covering the Tom Winslow case, and that SHE (who is not a writer, mind you) should be the one to help him write it. Mr. Robb agrees even though Jessica was lying to him about sources about a week prior to all of these events. The cherry on top, of course, is that she manipulates Seth into going out with her. First she says he almost missed his opportunity to confess his feelings to her when she was almost murdered by Winslow. Then she hints very strongly that he must feel awful for not believing her about Tom in the beginning (EVEN THOUGH SHE LIED TO HIM ABOUT FAKE CASES MULTIPLE TIMES). THEN she gets pissy when Seth's Winslow piece comes out and her name isn't on the byline. She gets a whole section devoted to her (why?), but that's not enough. For Jessica Wakefield, it never is.
Alternate Title: "Pretty Size 4 Liar"
Tagline: There isn't one on my copy of the book. And I have the super-old copy.
On a Scale of 1-10, How Annoying is Elizabeth? : 4. Manageable, but still annoying.
On a Scale of 1-10, How Sociopathic is Jessica?: I mean, her lies put her at a 7 in the beginning. But then she is caught up with an actual murderer, so it reduces it to a respectable 5.5.
The Big Deal: Internships at Sweet Valley News (though I'm not sure what high school does internships, but okay)
Cover: Good or Bad?: I love this cover and the shocked look on the twins' faces. I think they are meant to be in the parking garage? I am quite pissed at the title, though, because Double Jeopardy is quite clearly not referring to twins.
Quotes from the Book:
Liz: He seems a little old, don't you think?
Jessica: He's only twenty-two.
(This is a SIX YEAR age difference, mind you, as Jessica is still only sixteen).
"Jessica was opening the carton of yogurt she had brought with her from home for lunch."
(I mean, how big is this carton? It is small? A pint? A quart? How is this her only lunch?!)
Jessica: You're... you mean you're not proud of the way I took all the blame in there?
Seth: Who else should've taken it? It was your fault, wasn't it?
(Lol. Thank God Seth has some sense in him... at least at first.)
"I've been with this department for twenty-five years, and we've never had a murder here before."
(Um, that's about to change. Drastically.)
"The Wakefields reserved grounding for the most reprehensible behavior or the most dire emergencies."
(No wonder one twin is codependent and the other is a sociopath).
Elizabeth: Well, I guess that leaves the good old Sweet Valley Taxi Service.
(Who the fuck talks like this? If a 16-year-old's car didn't start, they would say FUCK! and then find a solution).
"'God knows why there're two of you, but I'll get you both,' he said menacingly."
(Sweet Valley's reaction to twins is hysterical. In every book outsiders just cannot fathom the concept of twins. It literally is a phenomenon only God would know about).
Sergeant Wilson: Frankly, we're expecting him to plead insanity.
(Because that always works).
Moral of the Story: If you solve an actual murder, you can get the local crime novelist to fall madly in love with you.
What Ghost are we dealing with?: No ghosts here!
Any psychopaths?: Yep. Tom Winslow.
Is there a dance?: Not in this one, but I'm guessing that's only because it was a Super Thriller and there wasn't time for a school dance. There was an office party though!
Final Rating: Two stars. All-in-all the book was still just so-so.
April 9, 2021
Good fun, very silly 🙂
December 7, 2021
Sometimes you just need to spend some time with the Wakefields and their ridiculous problems.
2.5 stars
2.5 stars
October 4, 2020
The first Super Thriller with the cover art that shows everyone what the Wakefiled Twins blow-up dolls would look like if the series ever went a different direction someday was a crazy ridiculous action story about how during the twins' 3rd or 4th summer of being 16 years old, they were interns at the local paper. Elizabeth, of course, is excited about the job itself, and hopes to get a story with a byline by the end of the summer. Jessica is ok with the job because there is a hottie 22 year old reporter/author she seems to think she can get to date her. In typical Jessica style, she decides since her jailbait flirting alone wasn't cutting it, that she'd just make shit up- lie her ass off- spin total tales accusing people of major crimes and try to convince an actual news reporter that they're facts. That should work, right? In parallel plot, Steven's friend Adam is staying with the Wakefields for the summer while the guys both do their own internships at law firms. And then shit just hits the fan everywhere- Adam's heiress girlfriend is murdered and the Wakefield family winds up at the center of the case. Plus twin mistaken identity stuff, excruciatingly bad dialogue, and Liz in the Jeffrey French era. It was fun. Am looking forward to reading these.
April 23, 2019
"Jessica’s heart was hammering wildly. She felt as if she was going to faint. It looked as though he was carrying a body."
Sweet Valley High turns super dark as they enter the thriller zone.
This was actually pretty good for something that was really cheesy. I mean, I know that’s the point but I wasn’t expecting much. It actually had a lot more into it than a lot of others written around the same time.
Just beware of the tall, blonde, and handsome.
Sweet Valley High turns super dark as they enter the thriller zone.
This was actually pretty good for something that was really cheesy. I mean, I know that’s the point but I wasn’t expecting much. It actually had a lot more into it than a lot of others written around the same time.
Just beware of the tall, blonde, and handsome.
March 27, 2017
Jessica's sociopathic tendencies are out of control here, but it's still a fun book anyway.
I had to laugh when the police chief said there hadn't been a murder in Sweet Valley in 25 years, though. Just you wait, sir, just you wait.
I had to laugh when the police chief said there hadn't been a murder in Sweet Valley in 25 years, though. Just you wait, sir, just you wait.
Read
November 4, 2008In case you ever needed to know, this is the first of the SVH Thrillers. If you don't particularly like Jessica-centric books, you should avoid this one. Liz exists mostly to get things wrong and for a case of mistaken identity.
Anyway. It's summer and the twins are working at the Sweet Valley News, which makes sense for Liz, but not really for Jessica. You'd think they'd give that job to someone who might actually want it, which Jessica obviously doesn't. That is until Seth appears and Jessica falls head over heels for him.
Seth's a mystery writer and so Jessica decides the best way to get his attention is to help him find real mysteries. Only she can't be bothered to actually find them. She'll just invent them, they'll go rushing off to investigate, and somewhere between her lying to him and the story unravelling, Seth is supposed to fall in love with her.
Instead he nearly loses her job and she's sent down to the one intern gig that no one else wants. After her first day in her new gig, Jessica leaves work extremely late. She sees a blond guy carrying something heavy and wrapped in a green blanket. When an arm dangles from the bundle, Jessica realizes that someone has been murdered. The killer gets as good a look at the Fiat as she does at his Trans Am and she speeds home.
Me? I'd have gone to the police station myself. No one's home at the Wakefield house, so she calls Seth who tries to blow her off. He realizes she's seriously freaked out and comes to her rescue.
After a bit of running around, the Wakefields realize that their houseguest for the summer, Adam, is being held at the jail for murdering his fiancee, Laurie, and Jessica witnessed the killer dumping the body in Adam's car.
Since the cops believe Adam is an incredibly stupid criminal, the race is on for Jessica to find the killer before he finds her... or her twin.
If you ignore the fact that the big showdown probably wouldn't have happened if Ned and Alice Wakefield could have just stayed home with their kids, or driven them to their office party, the book isn't half bad. Jessica gets most of her stupidity out of the way in the first couple of chapters and then spends the rest of the book trying to help someone else. There are worse ways to spend a couple of hours.
Anyway. It's summer and the twins are working at the Sweet Valley News, which makes sense for Liz, but not really for Jessica. You'd think they'd give that job to someone who might actually want it, which Jessica obviously doesn't. That is until Seth appears and Jessica falls head over heels for him.
Seth's a mystery writer and so Jessica decides the best way to get his attention is to help him find real mysteries. Only she can't be bothered to actually find them. She'll just invent them, they'll go rushing off to investigate, and somewhere between her lying to him and the story unravelling, Seth is supposed to fall in love with her.
Instead he nearly loses her job and she's sent down to the one intern gig that no one else wants. After her first day in her new gig, Jessica leaves work extremely late. She sees a blond guy carrying something heavy and wrapped in a green blanket. When an arm dangles from the bundle, Jessica realizes that someone has been murdered. The killer gets as good a look at the Fiat as she does at his Trans Am and she speeds home.
Me? I'd have gone to the police station myself. No one's home at the Wakefield house, so she calls Seth who tries to blow her off. He realizes she's seriously freaked out and comes to her rescue.
After a bit of running around, the Wakefields realize that their houseguest for the summer, Adam, is being held at the jail for murdering his fiancee, Laurie, and Jessica witnessed the killer dumping the body in Adam's car.
Since the cops believe Adam is an incredibly stupid criminal, the race is on for Jessica to find the killer before he finds her... or her twin.
If you ignore the fact that the big showdown probably wouldn't have happened if Ned and Alice Wakefield could have just stayed home with their kids, or driven them to their office party, the book isn't half bad. Jessica gets most of her stupidity out of the way in the first couple of chapters and then spends the rest of the book trying to help someone else. There are worse ways to spend a couple of hours.
October 24, 2010
The Super Thrillers always made me happy. I never wanted them to end and I always looked forward to them.
April 20, 2021
Class SVH drama coupled with a murder mystery? Yes please.
April 10, 2021
Competently written but a bit play by the numbers. The killer is revealed early on and it’s just a matter of time or pages before he’s caught. I kept waiting for a big twist and there was none. Also the author doesn’t understand the meaning of double jeopardy. It was probably supposed to be some twin pun but that was a lost opportunity as well. And Jessica didn’t get her name on the byline for the article she worked on. 80s sexism whoa!
Read
September 2, 2019I REMEMBER THIS SVH MYSTERY WHERE ELIZABETH SAW SOME DUDE PUTTING A DEAD WOMAN IN THE BACK OF HIS CAR, AND NOW I WANT TO READ IT AGAIN BECAUSE IHNI HOW IT ENDED. LOL PROBABLY JESSICA ACTUALLY KILLED THE LADY AND GOT A DUDE TO TAKE THE BLAME, AND ELIZABETH IS LIKE "OH JESSICA" AND THAT'S THE END OF IT.
LOL IT TURNS OUT IT WAS JESSICA WHO WAS THE EYEWITNESS. CONVENIENT!
LOL IT TURNS OUT IT WAS JESSICA WHO WAS THE EYEWITNESS. CONVENIENT!
November 25, 2022
I’m on a roll with my walk down memory lane - Liz, Jess, the whole gang! So nostalgic… and this mystery (and the previous one I just wrapped up) really make you realize how neither of these stories would’ve panned out with as much drama if they simply had the internet and cell phones. Wild.
October 31, 2017
Dull. mostly skimmed through the last half of the book.
Want to read
January 20, 2022its nicee
November 9, 2023
4.5 stars. Jessica really outdoes herself in this thing with all her adorably ridiculous scheming. Which is, believe it or not, even more adorably ridiculous than normal <3
November 17, 2024
this book is insaneeee.
was not expecting this plot at all.
rip laurie.
was not expecting this plot at all.
rip laurie.
May 2, 2013
Even though I didn't read Sweet Valley, I think I thought this might be a "first book" that would interest me (but it was only "Super Thriller #1," not an actual beginning of a series, so I was in the dark about a lot of stuff). I also didn't like murder mysteries or thrillers. So I honestly have little idea why I even tried to read this. Anyway, there's a complex plot that involves murder, misplaced blame, and Jessica Wakefield being a horrible conniving person in an attempt to seem interesting to a guy she has a crush on. Seriously, in these books I guess it's helpful for plots if you have a character who's always causing problems by being an empty sack of a person with zero morality and selfishness levels off the charts. She lies about arson and writes a fake love letter all in an attempt to get a hot guy who's a mystery writer to pay attention to her and spend time with her. They're both unbelievable tools (and I mean "unbelievable" in both a literal and a figurative way). And for the sake of forcing drama, the teen twins who are the protagonists in this story are frequently put in contrived situations where they are alone in dangerous places (and deliberately stranded by responsible adults who should know better). And a murderer gets defeated through a silly "oops I mistook one twin for the other" set of shenanigans, with some ridiculousness involving one of the twins actually knocking the bad guy out with a tire iron. At least actual police are involved in this one when MURDER HAPPENS, but there is far too much silliness with being concerned about how they're getting to PARTIES when, you know, they're in the middle of FIGURING OUT AN UNSOLVED MURDER. This is part of why I tend to dislike mysteries unless they're more than just mysteries; many mystery writers don't allow characters to drive the story so everything just reads like they're puppets having their strings pulled to go to the next unlikely interaction that lets the plot move along. It was poorly executed and I found the characters' reactions inauthentic and stilted.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 17, 2014
Jessica REALLY wants the hot mystery writer to notice her, and she thinks she has a chance when she and her twin sister Elizabeth get the internship they wanted, but then Jessica witnesses a murder and everything changes, with the wrong guy landing in jail. When too many close calls suggest the murderer is after Jessica (and Elizabeth too, since they look alike), the Wakefields have to use what he doesn't know against him to catch the real killer.
My pet peeves were hit one after the other in this book. Jessica is her usual pathetically superficial self, which is the cause of many of the ridiculous situations in the book. (Jessica, why are you worried about the office party when someone's trying to kill you? Don't go out alone! And after bad things happen when you do, don't do it again! Too bad she can't hear me, because she didn't listen.) Jessica also performs several morally bankrupt tasks because she thinks the hot guy will notice her. It's terrifying. They're also regularly abandoned or find themselves alone for no good reason--because the plot insisted--and suddenly, mortal danger. And of course the twin switches. It's not a book in this series without a twin impersonation or two.
My pet peeves were hit one after the other in this book. Jessica is her usual pathetically superficial self, which is the cause of many of the ridiculous situations in the book. (Jessica, why are you worried about the office party when someone's trying to kill you? Don't go out alone! And after bad things happen when you do, don't do it again! Too bad she can't hear me, because she didn't listen.) Jessica also performs several morally bankrupt tasks because she thinks the hot guy will notice her. It's terrifying. They're also regularly abandoned or find themselves alone for no good reason--because the plot insisted--and suddenly, mortal danger. And of course the twin switches. It's not a book in this series without a twin impersonation or two.
July 14, 2008
This was my first and probably last SVH, but it was a mystery, so I might have the wrong impression about the series. There was lots of "long blond hair swaying" language, but this one had a murder. So that's why I'm giving it three instead of two stars, since I like murder.
Erm, reading about it.
Erm, reading about it.
January 7, 2016
Another adventure with the Wakefield twins. This time they are helping to prove their brother's friend is not the murderer the police think he is. I enjoyed this one a lot but I did figure out who the killer was pretty early on.
Read
July 28, 2011forgoooooooot
February 18, 2014
dEn bra bok
June 21, 2013
I remember the cover just not the story.
July 17, 2013
2.5 stars.
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