No Place to Hide

Sweet Valley High Super Thrillers #3

by Francine Pascal (Creator)

Secret lives . . .

When Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield invite Nicholas Morrow on a picnic to help cure his blues, their plan has unexpected results. Nicholas falls in love with Barbara, a beautiful girl who involves the twins in their most dangerous mystery yet.

Barbara tells Nicholas they must hide their relationship from the uncle she's visiting. Hearing the fear in her voice, Nicholas decides to tell the twins, and they start investigating. The more they find out, the more desperate Barbara's situation seems.

Then Jessica and Elizabeth are threatened by an anonymous caller. Now they face a terrible choice either give up their search and leave Barbara in deadly trouble, or save Barbara's life and risk their lives and Nicholas's!

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Mystery, Teen, Contemporary, Thriller

217 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Francine 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.

Reviews

[Grace Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one holds a soft spot in my heart, as this was my last SVH childhood copy I had purchased back in the day, at the school book fair 🥺💖

So this is SVH's 1st foray into Gothic-ey Thriller, complete with spooky old mansion by the cliffs, some dramatic family saga, and maaaybe a ghost girl 👻👻

It's kind of a convoluted and busy plot and ending, involving local dirty politicians! A renown but mysterious painter from the past! MURDER! REVENGE! Mistaken identity! But meanwhile, all I can think about is poor hunky Nicholas Morrow!! (He is a total HUNK, just LOOK at the cover of SVH #14 Deceptions 😍) I mean first in SVH #14 he falls for Elizabeth who is already goin steady with boring Todd Wilkins and thus gets rejected. Then in SVH #40 his beloved little sister Regina dies from trying cocaine for the first time (seriously the reason why I never imbibed 😅😅) and NOW he falls for some weird girl in a weird house by the cliffs whom he's only just met, and they are just not fated to be together (Trying not to be spoilery here, so that's all I will say 😅)

3 out of 5 furtive late at night visits to the mysterious girl in the old house by the cliffs. No she isn't allowed to go out. No she can't accept phone calls. No she can't escape the clutches of her creepy Uncle. Get out now if you know what's best for you, Nicholas! How much heartbreak can you take! 💔😭

[Christie Maliyackel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sadly, this is my last SVH book for a while (at least until my next trip home!). These stories, man oh man, so wild. You’d think that the parents would make their sixteen year old twins quit their internship at the newspaper if they keep getting riled into one life threatening situation after another, but here we are. Again, so nostalgic (my pages are even yellowed, so I feel like I’m handling a very fragile piece of historic memorabilia 😂), so 5+ stars yet again for the Wakefields (and, in this instance, Nicholas Morrow).

[Pastel Paperback · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the least thrilling of the thrillers series. A slog to get through.

Great cover though.

[Stay Fetters · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The past is always alive in the present. Live for the present.”

It’s only been a few weeks since the summer began and these Wakefield twins have already lived a lifetime. You would think people would stay out of their way but noooooo. Things get crazier and crazier when those two are around.

This wasn’t as thrilling as the first two but it totally read like a Scooby-Doo episode. I’m still going to finish out this series because they are absolutely entertaining.

[Jenn N · Rating 3 out of 5]

The real mystery here is how Nicholas fell in love with Barbara without ever having a conversation lasting more than 2 minutes.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was pretty ridiculous. The Wakefield twins play matchmaker to Nicholas Morrow, dragging him along on their work picnic with their new newspaper friends, and while there, he happens upon a beautiful girl dressed in old fashioned clothes outside of a mysterious old mansion. Is she real? Is she a ghost? The twins somehow become mixed up in Nicholas' doomed love affair with this girl, who is staying with her "Uncle John" while her parents are on an archaelogical dig in Greece somewhere. And because its the 80s- no email or satellite phones or whatever. At any rate, when she arrived to stay with this uncle, she realized something shady was going on, but figured she'd just lay low and make the best of it till her parents could rescue her after the summer. She didn't count on nosy Wakefields and the apparent love of her life finding her and trying to rescue her before that. Her uncle goes nuts, and there's some random political intrigue speckled in to the ridiculous rest of the backstory, but there are some solidly suspenseful moments if readers can get over how stupid the whole premise is. 1.5 stars rounded up. Not a favorite. Need a break fro the Super Thrillers.

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for just about any of the early super thrillers, but this one is one I always forget until I re-read it. In retrospect this probably says many bad things about the plot, but I like to think of it as a plus. It's like always having a new SV book to read.

Poor Nicholas Morrow just can't catch a break. He falls for Liz before she's seriously cheating on her boyfriend at every turn, and even when she's between boyfriends he still can't get any love. Then they kill his sister (to whom he was always a little overly attached) and basically only bring him out for the next fifteen books to point out how sad and heartbroken the boy is.

THEN he finally gets a love interest and she's being held prisoner by her psychotic "uncle" and... yeah. That never turns out well. Boy cannot catch a break.

[Nadia Hana Hana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this when i was about 8 years old, and it actually what makes me interested in reading more mystery and thriller books. Surely, the book is interesting and fun, with the reader's fascination with the character they wouldn't be able to put the book down once they picked it up. It is an easy read, but it does help me to develop more interest in reading in general and in the genre as well. Some scenes in the book involving the twins are funny and fun, even childish ( i love Jessica for this most of the funny scenes ), while Elizabeth is the more gentle, mature one. I still keep the book to this day - it is absolutely entertaining.

[Kerran Olson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love these books. So predictable, so trashy, so cliche- but so much fun. Sweet Valley books are definitely my 'guilty pleasure' kind of reads, and the thrillers are always especially entertaining. The 'twists' in this one were so easy to pick, and all of the storylines conveniently merged together. Nicholas was pretty annoying as a key character in this one, he was so moody to start with and then just pined after Barbara like a puppy. But it wouldn't be sweet valley without a good deal of cheesy romance, and the plot moved quickly and wasn't too outlandish (by the series standards)

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to love reading the Sweet Valley High books when I was a kid, so it was fun to read a throwback book. As an adult, though, it is a little hard to read about how selfish and ridiculous Jessica is. She was always that way, but it must not have annoyed me as much as a kid. The twins and their friend, Nicholas, do a lot of crazy, unwise things in this book. You would think they would have told some adults what was going on, but hey, this is a book for kids. It was an interesting little mystery that wasn't too hard to figure out, but again, it was still fun to read a throwback book.

[kylajaclyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was so boring I couldn’t finish it any sooner. I can’t even recap it because it wasn’t even mildly interesting until the end. It was also pretty confusing and it wasn’t about the twins... just about some girl they will never talk about ever again. Blah.

[Mandy Robichaud · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 whole stars just for the amazing nostalgia trip ❤️

[Felicia Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

VERY GOOD!

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too fun to revisit one of my favorite childhood series!!

[Melyssah Colerangle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book to analyze the craft of writing and even though it’s over 30 years old it’s so well written and structurally sound.

[Rebecca Whelan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sweet valley high was better when I was a teenager. Found it in a box of my children’s books and was reading to see if it was worth keeping for my daughter.

[Reading with Cats · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely ridiculous in the best possible way.

[Jodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just simply love these books. They make me happy. Pure unadulterated bliss. Superthrillers were where the action was. The only thing better than a sweet valley book was a superthriller, or a superstar!!!

[Michelle Cordero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in fifth grade and I have been hooked on the mystery/suspense/thriller genre since. Such great memories. Pascal does a great job in keeping the mystery theme at an understandable level for her target audience of readers.

[Sheila Read · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember the cover just not the story.

[Forever Young Adult]

Graded By: Erin

Read the drinking game and review here.

[Lizzie the Book Hoarder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicholas and Elizabeth befriend Barbara, whose life may be in danger from her demanding uncle.

While I figured out some of the twists early on I had a fun time reading this book.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was bonkers!!

[T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this a ton at like 10. So sue me.

[Angela E · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book ids nice and the book is really mysterious and keeps you wondering.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The SVH Super Editions & these mysteries were always my faves!