SOLVED. YA late 70s/80s Wealthy Boarding School Boy Kidnapped with 4 other teens. [s]

[John]

Opening: Boy going to see a bluegrass concert on a Saturday and no one else from his boarding school is interested in going. It's raining at the bus stop and he's joined by four other local kids. A van offers them a ride and they all hop in. It's a kidnapping of the prep school kid who's from a very wealthy family. The others are told they are just victims of circumstances. The book follows their exploits as they try to escape/survive come to an understanding about their backgrounds.

Some details (spoilers): Think it was set in New England, man and woman kidnappers, forest fire lookout tower was where they were stashed for a time, the townie girl who is kidnapped is Jewish, a weaker boy (wears glasses?) is severely injured and left for dead, the kidnapping ends violently aftermath includes boy going to look up the girl.

Pretty sure this would have published before 1982 as I think it was from a scholastic book order.

[Tab]

The Solid Gold Kid

Your description was excellent. So many of the things you mentioned were in the Kirkus review:


...The central character is superrich Derek Chapman, and very early on he is kidnapped from near his prep school along with four relatively poor townies who just happen to be waiting at the same bus stop. The kidnappers, a man and a woman, are brutal and increasingly desperate, (view spoiler)[and the five teenagers--one black, two female--alternately bear up, bicker, scheme, despair, and even neck (if that's what you call it when your hands are tied behind your back) as they are beaten, imprisoned, shot at and shifted from a speeding van to an isolated cabin to a burning boathouse to a (hide spoiler)]remote water tower...

[John]

Jackpot- I knew the title was something about value but I'd been using lottery ticket. How did my Google search miss this? I used many of the same plot key words? Does Kirkus tag it's pages with a donotindex? I have about four other books from the same era I'm looking for- potential books for indie kids movie rights. Please, do you have tips you can share?

And thank you so much.

[Tab]

I use the online book database Novelist Plus. Some libraries allow patrons to access it from home.

[John]

Thank you ever so much! Hopefully I can pay it forward on this forum.

Tab wrote: "I use the online book database Novelist Plus. Some libraries allow patrons to access it from home."