I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan

Julie, the cheerleader; Ray, her boyfriend; Helen, the TV Golden Girl; Barry the star quarterback are coming home late one night from a party, driving too fast, when a 10 year old boy on a bike appears in front of them. They hit him, but don't stop to help him. They call the police, but the boy died enroute to the hospital. They make a pact not to tell anyone what happened, but it affects all of their lives. One year later, Julie receives a letter - I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. Ray gets a copy of the newspaper clipping about the accident. Helen receives a picture of a boy on a bike and Barry, who was driving, is shot. Who is sending the messages and who knows about the accident? Should they go to the police and tell them what happened? Are all of their lives in danger?

This is a very good mystery, but it is really dated. It was originally written in 1973. One of the main characters has just returned from the Viet Nam war. The phrases used by the teenagers are dated. A comment is made about TV - if you don't have one, there's one in the lobby. The phone is out at one of the houses - no cell phones, of course. I just wonder if there are enough out of date things in the story that it would not be of interest to today's teens.

Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

Simon Glass is the typical nerd of the senior class of a high school in Houston. When popular Rob decides to transform him into the coolest kid in school (as a display of his power), his power trip gets out of hand. Characters in the novel have one-paragraph quotes (told five years later) at the beginning of every chapter, and through these, we learn that Simon will die, and Young Steward, our narrator, will be involved and jailed. Rob, Young, the athletic Coop, and flirtatious Bobster (try keeping those names straight) are each involved in Simon's transformation, pushing him to be class favorite and allowing him to manipulate student computer records to make them look good. After the "Favorites dance" results are manipulated by Simon as a trick on THEM, Rob flips out, taking a baseball bat to Simon, killing him, on the last page of the book. I didn't like this book, hard to put my finger on why...Rob was just a little too much of a caricature, the boys seemed TOO mature for high school.

Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard

After a freezing blizzard, Sheriff Nathan Shellenberger and his sons Rex and Pat find the body of a young girl frozen to death in their pasture. It's a girl that Rex and Pat both know as well as their friend Mitch. They hide her identity and she becomes known as the Virgin of Small Plains, the name of the town in Kansas where they live. The town develops a legend about her - that she can cure illnesses and grant wishes. Years later, some of the members of the community decide they want to find out who the girl really was and what happened to her. When they start stirring up old memories, other deaths begin to occur. Who was the Virgin of Small Plains and what really happened to her. Good adult mystery by a Kansas author.