SOLVED. Mystery book for Kids that mentioned cocaine. Read in 1990s.

[Adina]

As a child in the 1990s, I read a mystery novel where the main character is looking for a missing teenager. The scene that sticks in my mind is the main character finding a rolled up dollar bill under the floorboards, and a friend of the missing teenager saying something about him having "girl problems/girl trouble." It's later revealed that "girl problems/girl trouble" is slang for cocaine. I assume the book was written between 1970-1990. I'm not sure if the main character was a young girl or boy. I can't even remember if the missing teenager is an older brother or just a random teen. The cover was probably the stereotypical silhouette of a house and a kid with a flashlight.

[Rainbowheart]

What Eric Knew?

“Old enough to have a girl,” Danny said with a sad laugh, “and old enough to have girl trouble.”

“Danny kept talking about his ‘girl,’ but we knew from Ricky that he didn’t have a girlfriend,” Sebastian said. ‘Well, David found out that ‘girl’ is one of the nicknames for cocaine.”

[Adina]

Thanks so much! The title and cover don't look familiar at all, but that has to be the book. How many mystery books for kids could there be that mention cocaine and use the slang girl trouble?

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Adina. There's at least one other cover for What Eric Knew (book 1 of the Sebastian Barth series) by James Howe - Rainbowheart's find.

[Rainbowheart]

Awesome, glad it was the right one!