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Book prompts scavenger hunt

Terri Schlichenmeyer

Where do you keep your journal?

Wait. Don’t tell me. Your journal is private. When too many thoughts are jumbling around in your brain, it’s nice to have a place to sort them all out on paper, knowing that nobody will read them.

But what if you found someone else’s diary? Would you read it before you returned it? You will if you have “Cathy’s Book: If Found Call (650) 266-8233” by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman. You won’t be able to put Cathy’s journal down.



It had to have been a spider bite. Cathy doesn’t do drugs (even though her mother accuses her of it), but there’s a small bruise that looks suspiciously like a needle mark on the inner part of her arm and Cathy has no idea where it came from. It wasn’t there when she went to Victor’s house. She fell asleep on Victor’s sofa and the next morning, there it was: a small bruise-like hole.

And what’s with Victor, anyhow? He broke up with Cathy just days ago, for no apparent reason. It happened right after she fell asleep on his sofa. So, what … falling asleep in someone’s living room is a crime?

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Victor was always a little odd, though. He knew a lot about World War I and he was a pilot with his own plane, even though he was just 20-something. Yeah, he was kind of old to be going out with someone in high-school, but Cathy knew Victor liked her, even though he never even kissed her.

Still, there’s something going on. Something strange. Remembering that Victor lived in his uncle’s house in a swanky San Francisco neighborhood, Cathy decides to find out why her ex-BF broke up with her. She drives to the house, where it’s way too easy to break in.

In the house’s office, Cathy finds an old picture of a man who was a dead-ringer for Victor. She finds an old wedding invitation, letters, newspaper clippings, and an appointment book that indicate Victor might’ve been cheating on Cathy with a woman named Carla. The papers lead Cathy to Chinatown, where she finds Victor and confronts him. But when he disappears into a crowd and Carla turns up with three bullet holes in her belly, Cathy knows she’s in way over her head.

I wish adult novels were this much fun to read.

“Cathy’s Book” is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. This book, “written” to Emma, Cathy’s best friend, is like one big clue for you to figure out. All the “evidence” Cathy found in Victor’s house is included in a side pocket of the book. You can log on to the websites, Google the people, locations and corporations, and call the phone numbers to find out where she’s been. Even if you don’t want to follow along electronically, the story itself is one you can’t stop reading.

IM your friends, read “Cathy’s Book” and get involved. You’ll want to put away your own journal for a couple of days when you get this excellent book.


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