I’m attempting to find two YA novels (may be part of a longer series) featuring best friends Kim (tall, thin, blonde) & Alexa (name may not be exact; small, brunette), 13-15yo, amateur detectives. One book features them at riding camp, investigating twin sisters who may be planning to kill male counselor who impregnated one sister. In one scene, they hike through a cave with stalactites and stalagmites. The other book features a mysterious death at a neighbor’s house where college/20-smtg friends of neighbor’s child(ren) are staying; they are involved in drugs and may have faked friend’s death by drowning him/her in swimming pool. I seem to recall the author had a woman’s name. The last I saw these books was in my secondary school library in the late 1980s/early 1990s. I would guess they were published in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Any help appreciated!
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
I haven’t read them myself so I’m not sure, but Kim Adrich mysteries?
http://www.librarything.com/series/Kim+Aldrich
No but thanks anyway! The two books I’m thinking about weren’t a mass market series of that sort, but rather more “literary YA”. And I’m not sure there were more than two published. The girl protagonists/best friends weren’t “official” detectives in the Nancy Drew mold but rather more like young adult versions of Harriet the Spy (the “mysteries” they solved were a good deal more sinister, featuring (see my original query) drugs and sex and murder. I wonder if I should even call them YA. In any case, I’m still on the hunt! And one last thing: I believe I was mistaken about the brunette protagonist’s name — I think it was maybe Allegra. And I believe the summer camp book had a reference to loons in the title, but not to be confused with the Loon Lake mystery series.
Maybe Barbara Corcoran’s mystery series? I don’t know if there was a collective title for the series, but some of the titles were August, Die She Must – You’re Camp Allegra Dead — The Body in the Potting Shed — and Mystery on Ice.
YES! Thank you so much for the excellent detective work! May I ask how you went about locating them, or did you already know them? In any case, I am grateful. Now off to try to find copies of the complete series…
LOL! I had read them, so I didn’t have to search too hard.
I thought it was Barbara Corcoran’s books when I was reading your original post, but as soon as you mentioned “Allegra” in the reply to the other commenter, I knew it had to be the same series. I don’t remember ever seeing that name before reading it in these books!