Something dark is afoot in Sanera, California, and four teens decide to solve the mystery. Let’s Split Up by Bill Wood features sensible Amber Grayson, quirky Jonesy with a high IQ, the track star Cameron who keeps the mood light, and a newcomer to town—the perceptive Buffy Allen who may be just a bit too interested in the case. These four sleuths are pressed into service after the deaths of football player Bradley Campbell and cheerleader Shelley Jones, who appear to have fallen victim to the Carrington Ghoul.
Although the ghoul and the haunted Carrington Manor are urban legends, the eerily similar deaths between that of the teens and that of Robert Carrington, the manor’s previous owner, make the teens suspicious. The circumstances form the plot of Wood’s book: “Murders, haunted house, group of teens thinking they’re smart enough to solve the mystery themselves, a bumbling sheriff, credulous public, the manipulative reporter? All the clichés are there” (262).
Readers who appreciate a good horror story will likely find pleasure in this novel’s Friday the 13th vibe. Wood supplies just the right number of false trails to give the novel a bit of intensity as the reader attempts to solve the mystery.
- Donna