GERTIE MCMICHAELS AND THE ODD BODY MYSTERY

We've been spared the predecessor, called Gertie McMichaels Finds Blood and Gore and Much, Much More, but here the madcap high schooler, hoping to become a summer reporter on the local Gazette, gets herself, her mother and brother, and her black friend Kathy kidnapped to a matriarchal island near Hawaii (its matriarchal nature is much discussed but never figures in what happens there) by a creepy looking prince who has taken a fancy to Kathy. There's a pearl theft, an assassination, some odd rites, and the natives get scarier and the plot sillier until Gertie (who's had a few lessons) flies her party to safety and ends up being the first Gazette reporter to hit the international wire services. Fortunately even drug stores don't stock much of this trash any more--especially at $6.50.