MYSTERY AT SAN SOUCI

by Jim Hausman ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 10, 1978

Even before the Hausmans--USAF colonel, wife, and seven children--move into their rented house at Sans Souci, a hawk-like M. Birrot tries to sublet, hinting at vague dangers if they don't comply. On moving day a red-bearded delivery man mutters similar warnings (threats?) and an old woman in black spies through the hedges. These three continue to pop up, separately and together, as the Hausmans are harassed by midnight prowlers, GO HOME YANKS, ransacked house, burning shed, and in young Jim's case a beating by a red-bereted youth gang that seems to be working for Redbeard. Then there is likable Pierre who helps the Hausmans get settled--but what side is he on? The Hausman children do some counter-spying in woods, shacks, and riverside, and it's all puzzles, clues, close calls, and frights until Jim and two others are trapped by Redbeard and rescued by the ambivalent Pierre. Then it's all the unraveling--a far-fetched, unintegrated explanation involving Pierre, his mother, a post-Free French ""Movement"" of crooks, and the Movement treasury-cum-incriminating papers which had been the object of the sinister search. Plotty--and why drag the family name through all this?

Pub Date: March 10, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1978

Categories: FICTION