Baby-sitters' Fright Night is the third book in the Baby-Sitters Club Super Mystery series.
Back Cover Summary[]
On a school trip to study history in spooky Salem, Massachusetts, Kristy, Abby, Mallory, Stacey, and Mary Anne find a mystery instead: a famous diamond, the Witch's Eye, is stolen from a local museum. The Baby-sitters set out to investigate, but someone seems determined to stop them. Stacey's room is ransacked. Abby is followed. And then Kristy disappears!
Abby's sure the BSC is cursed. And all the Baby-sitters agree: Whether or not the danger is supernatural, it's definitely real. Will they find Kristy, and the thief, before it's too late?
Chapter Narrators[]
- Abby Stevenson (Prologue, 1, 7, 11, 21, Epilogue)
- Kristy Thomas (2, 9, 15, 19, 23)
- Mary Anne Spier (3, 6, 16, 22)
- Mallory Pike (4, 12, 18)
- Stacey McGill (5, 14, 20)
- Jessi Ramsey (8)
- Claudia Kishi (10)
- Logan Bruno (13)
- Shannon Kilbourne (17)
Summary[]
Over Halloween, Abby, Stacey, Kristy, Mary Anne, and Mallory go to Salem, Massachusetts for a school debate trip for history class. The rest of the members are making an Halloween parade for their babysitting charges. The trip is part history-project research, part excuse to do a lot of shopping (or at least that’s how Stacey sees it). Alan Gray, Cokie Mason, Grace Blume, and Cary Retlin are also on the trip and being varying levels of annoying to the babysitters. Cokie and Grace are mean to a sixth-grader named Eileen who rooms with Mallory and is supposedly descended from a witch.
A local museum is displaying a big diamond called the Witch’s Eye is allegedly cursed. It’s stolen while some of the students are at the museum. Mary Anne finds a wig that the girls guess was worn by the thief, and Stacey finds a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper. The girls think the person who stole the diamond is staying at the same inn as the students. At the same time, Abby buys a little ceramic pumpkin in a gift shop and starts taking it everywhere with her, calling it her pet pumpkin.
The investigation begins and Mallory gets obsessed with documenting everything in the club’s mystery notebook. The notebook is back in Stoneybrook, but she has Jessi and Shannon send it to her. There are a few suspects, including Mrs. Moorehouse, who owns the diamond but may not have insurance; Martha Kempner, a writer who’s in Salem to write about the diamond; Sean Knowles, whose reason for being in Salem isn’t exactly clear; and Harvey Hapgood, who tried to buy the diamond before it was stolen.
In between working on their projects and investigating the mystery, the girls do some sightseeing and various Halloween activities. They also try to avoid Alan and Cary, who are bugging Kristy. Cokie gets nastier to Eileen, and Mallory winds up sticking up for her and tearing into Cokie, which gets her to back off.
Everyone goes to a Halloween parade, where Abby’s fanny pack is stolen, and she’s ticked but mostly just happy that her pumpkin wasn’t in it. Abby and Stacey’s room is broken into, as the thief took Abby’s room key, but nothing is stolen. Then Stacey realizes that the numbers she saw earlier are probably a safe combination, so she thinks the person who stole the Witch’s Eye stashed it in a safe.
Kristy thinks she’s uncovered a clue leading her to the museum, which is closed while the police investigate the diamond theft. She winds up locked inside and runs into Alan, who’s been torturing her the whole trip. But he has a clue, too, and they realize Cary set them both up. They arrange to scare him, and the three seem to call a truce.
While Kristy’s gone, there’s a storm and the electricity in the inn goes out. The other girls decide to snoop around in the suspects’ rooms and safes, but they don’t find anything. They do, however, see Mrs. Moorehouse and realize how frail she is, leading them to believe she didn’t steal the diamond since she wouldn’t have been able to make a clean getaway. The girls remember seeing Martha wear high heels for most of the trip, except for the day of the theft, when she wore sneakers. This means she may have been planning to move stealthily. The girls also use the combination Stacey found to open Martha’s safe, another strike against Martha.
It’s all dark and creepy in the inn, and the girls are freaked out when they run into Sean, since they still don’t know what he’s up to. He reveals that he’s an insurance agent and has been in Salem to keep an eye on the diamond. Abby gets separated from them and runs into Martha, who grabs the pumpkin and breaks it, revealing the Witch’s Eye inside. It turns out she bought the pumpkin at one gift shop, put the diamond inside, and accidentally dropped it in another gift shop, where Abby bought it. She’s also been working with Harvey to get her hands on it.
Abby holds Martha off until the police arrive. Then they have cake with Mrs. Moorehouse, who tells them that she thought she didn’t have insurance because Harvey called her pretending to be from the insurance company and told her they couldn’t insure the diamond anymore.
Subplot[]
Claudia, Jessi, Logan, and Shannon are organizing a Halloween parade back in Stoneybrook.
Characters[]
Kids
- Jordan, Adam, Byron, Vanessa, Nicky, Margo, and Claire Pike
- Andrew and Karen Brewer, David Michael Thomas, and Emily Michelle Brewer
- Linny and Hannie Papadakis
- Archie, Shea, and Jackie Rodowsky
- Becca and Squirt Ramsey
Pre-Teens
Teenagers
Adults
- Coach Wu, Ms. Garcia, Mr. Blake, Mrs. Bernhardt - chaperones on the trip
- Mrs. Blake, Mr. Wu - adults also on the school trip
- Martha Kempner
- Agatha Moorehouse - woman who owns the Witch's Eye
- Ms. Furusawa - Ms. Moorehouse's nurse
- Officer Saxon - Salem police officer
- Unnamed tour guides
- Mr. Hewson - owner of the inn
- Officer Frizell - Salem police offier
- Unnamed tour guides
- Mr. Rodowsky
- Sean Knowles - suspect of the BSCs who turned out to be an insurance agent
Locations[]
- Kishi House
- Salem, MA
- Pike House
- Brewer/Thomas House
- Rodowsky House
Pop Culture and Real Life References[]
- The House of the Seven Gables, The Scarlet Letter, the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (books)
- Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie
- MTV
- The Crucible
- Hope Diamond
- Lone Ranger (tv series)
Continuity and Inconsistencies[]
Continuity
- On page 3, Abby mentions the mystery from Baby-sitters Beware and by Kristy on page 90.
- On page 48 the television ban from Abby's Lucky Thirteen and the show the kids write is brought up.
- It's mentioned that the Pike don't always need a second baby-sitter when the triplets are there, this first started in Dawn and Too Many Sitters.
- The Lowell Family is referenced on page 76.
Inconsistencies
- Karen wants to particpate in a Halloween parade on page 109, except her school hosts a Halloween parade every year.
- On page 159 Kristy says that she's joining Mr. Baker's group, there is no Mr. Baker going on this trip. It should be Mr. Blake.
Trivia[]
- Abby writes the prologue of this book.
- Job's lined up but not see include: Shannon for the Hobarts.
- Stacey is also good in her economics class.
- Jordan Pike pretends he has a spell book and uses magic on his siblings.
- Mary Anne's insult about Cokie is "well calling her human is insulting humankind."
- Abby gets a plastic pumpkin as a pet.
- Kristy gets dressed up in corduroys, an oxford shirt, and a sweater vest for a night at the theater.
- The BSC participates in the adult parade while in Salem.
- Abby calls wearing high heels torture.
- The kids Halloween costumes include: Emily Michelle as a bunny, Karen as a jack-in-the-box, the Rodowsky boys as monsters, Becca as a princess, Squirt as the king of the kitchen, Jordan as Merlin,
- Watson temporarily has his street closed down for the BSC's parade.
- Kristy and Alan team up to scare Cary.