MANHATTAN IS MISSING

Mr. Cape's prized Siamese, Manhattan, is gone but nothing is missing to make this a hugely entertaining rescue mission. Manhattan came with the New York apartment Peter's English family has sublet, and if she vanishes, so will Mr. Clarke's $1500 deposit. But Future D. A. Hugh, from downstairs, quickly marshals the kids in the building--including his testy sister Sarah and Peter's younger brother Benjie -- and sets them to posting notices and combing the neighborhood. Another lost Siamese surfaces, and considerable sympathy, but the first solid lead is a ransom note: Manhattan will be returned for $200 delivered on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum the following day Hugh deduces that the catnapper is a kid, and lays a trap with Benjie in dark glasses as decoy. A scramble in Central Park ensues, and then the pursuers close in on an abandoned building where excitement steps up.... A real cliffdweller's cliffhanger, and a feat for Britisher Mr. Hildick (Louie's Lot, etc.) who's caught the current idiom (""Police brutality"" taunts a bystander to the officer who's trying to dislodge Manhattan from a tree with his nightstick) and the stance of kids on both sides of the Atlantic (the same: conspiracy against parents). For anyone who appreciates a regal cat, active kids, a stiff mystery, and some very funny by-play -- which must cover just about everyone.