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Nobody's There
Furious at her father for breaking up their family, Abbie Thompson acted without thinking and got arrested for malicious mischief. Now the judge has assigned her to volunteer in a program that matches teens with the elderly.
But Abbie doesn’t get just any elderly person. She gets Edna a cranky, difficult woman who’s a member of the town’s crime prevention group. In fact, Mrs. Merkel is too active a member, and after she brags that she’s onto something big, she’s attacked and ends up hospitalized. Suddenly the private investigator game is real, and only Abbie — with the help of Mrs. Merkel’s indecipherable notebook — can figure out who did it. But will Abbie get to the assailant before the assailant gets to her?
But Abbie doesn’t get just any elderly person. She gets Edna a cranky, difficult woman who’s a member of the town’s crime prevention group. In fact, Mrs. Merkel is too active a member, and after she brags that she’s onto something big, she’s attacked and ends up hospitalized. Suddenly the private investigator game is real, and only Abbie — with the help of Mrs. Merkel’s indecipherable notebook — can figure out who did it. But will Abbie get to the assailant before the assailant gets to her?
208 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
12 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
About the author
Joan Lowery Nixon
188 books484 followersAuthor of more than one hundred books, Joan Lowery Nixon is the only writer to have won four Edgar Allan Poe Awards for Juvenile Mysteries (and been nominated several other times) from the Mystery Writers of America. Creating contemporary teenage characters who have both a personal problem and a mystery to solve, Nixon captured the attention of legions of teenage readers since the publication of her first YA novel more than twenty years ago. In addition to mystery/suspense novels, she wrote nonfiction and fiction for children and middle graders, as well as several short stories. Nixon was the first person to write novels for teens about the orphan trains of the nineteenth century. She followed those with historical novels about Ellis Island and, more recently for younger readers, Colonial Williamsburg. Joan Lowery Nixon died on June 28, 2003—a great loss for all of us.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 5, 2025
eh not what i expected 🤷♀️
September 30, 2020
I thought it was a rally good book I definitely enjoyed reading it.
August 18, 2022
I didn't start off liking this book, but by the end, I really enjoyed it. It was a really good fast paced mystery. I also really felt terrible that Abby's dad was such a jerk.
October 27, 2023
Quick and fun read
December 25, 2024
A great memory-maker.
It was the first book anyone ever read me, it was the first book I ever shared with anyone. A great and entertaining read 👏🏼
It was the first book anyone ever read me, it was the first book I ever shared with anyone. A great and entertaining read 👏🏼
January 4, 2024
I know I stated that I had two more of these to go but this one kind of broke me. I do own one more of these - but it sounds so awful I have no desire to read it. There are actually possibly two other suspense books that Nixon wrote after that one that sound even less like her usual writing that I didn't bother to pick them up used. But this one kind of feels like I need to stop -- the experiment hasn't been fun for a while, and this was the most tedious, lukewarm experience of reading middle grade fiction.
The above summary kind of tells you all of it. A young woman named Abbie (who is supposed to be 17 but acts like she's 12) is having family issues. We're in Texas again, and this time daddy is a big douche, walking out on the family for a younger woman. Mom is understandably emotional - but kind of useless in the way so many of these mothers are in these gooks. It's hilarious that Abbie's bad behavior is throwing rocks -- because she had to be a delinquent but not do something so bad that she'd be labeled a 'bad girl'.
She starts hanging out with a stereotypical mean old woman (is Mrs. Merkel supposed to be a take on Miss Marple? Possibly but she is so irritatingly annoying). The thing is - there's no real mystery here. Abbie and Mrs Merkle fight for a majority of this book, Abbie wines about her family issues, and they kind of dance around crime issues until Merkle gets knocked on the head about 2/3rds of the way through.
We then go on a red herring chase after her nephew until there's a twist ending in that -- it's someone we've barely seen in the novel and it's all over some valuable trinkets Mrs. Merkle has.
It's just bad. It's just so bad. There's no personality to it. The novel takes way too long to set up its story, spends way too much time on Abbie's family drama, there's zero suspense in it at all, and zero mystery as nothing is really solved except in the last chapter or so.
I get that Nixon was nearing her death at this time, and she really was out of her heyday of writing campy 70s and 80s suspense thrillers. But it's kind of a shame these books go out so weakly. They were never the epitome of good writing - but they were at least fun. And they stopped being fun, well, around the time I stopped buying them. Maybe young me understood more than she knew.
I have to add - since I'm always watching for Nixon tropes - the insertion of a love interest here is so hilarious. There's this guy named Nick who keeps asking Abbie out. And it feels so obligatory. Abbie keeps thinking about how she should say yes, and at the end - she does agree to go to prom! But it's so forced. Almost like a mandate that there should be some sort of romance in the novel, even though it's so completely half baked and Abbie is just so not interested. I think one of the funniest aspect of all these novels is the reluctance to really have a romance in them.
Overall, this book just isn't great. There's nothing interesting going on here, and it's a shame that it's merely a shadow of the types of books Nixon used to write.
Rating : 2 stars.
The above summary kind of tells you all of it. A young woman named Abbie (who is supposed to be 17 but acts like she's 12) is having family issues. We're in Texas again, and this time daddy is a big douche, walking out on the family for a younger woman. Mom is understandably emotional - but kind of useless in the way so many of these mothers are in these gooks. It's hilarious that Abbie's bad behavior is throwing rocks -- because she had to be a delinquent but not do something so bad that she'd be labeled a 'bad girl'.
She starts hanging out with a stereotypical mean old woman (is Mrs. Merkel supposed to be a take on Miss Marple? Possibly but she is so irritatingly annoying). The thing is - there's no real mystery here. Abbie and Mrs Merkle fight for a majority of this book, Abbie wines about her family issues, and they kind of dance around crime issues until Merkle gets knocked on the head about 2/3rds of the way through.
We then go on a red herring chase after her nephew until there's a twist ending in that -- it's someone we've barely seen in the novel and it's all over some valuable trinkets Mrs. Merkle has.
It's just bad. It's just so bad. There's no personality to it. The novel takes way too long to set up its story, spends way too much time on Abbie's family drama, there's zero suspense in it at all, and zero mystery as nothing is really solved except in the last chapter or so.
I get that Nixon was nearing her death at this time, and she really was out of her heyday of writing campy 70s and 80s suspense thrillers. But it's kind of a shame these books go out so weakly. They were never the epitome of good writing - but they were at least fun. And they stopped being fun, well, around the time I stopped buying them. Maybe young me understood more than she knew.
I have to add - since I'm always watching for Nixon tropes - the insertion of a love interest here is so hilarious. There's this guy named Nick who keeps asking Abbie out. And it feels so obligatory. Abbie keeps thinking about how she should say yes, and at the end - she does agree to go to prom! But it's so forced. Almost like a mandate that there should be some sort of romance in the novel, even though it's so completely half baked and Abbie is just so not interested. I think one of the funniest aspect of all these novels is the reluctance to really have a romance in them.
Overall, this book just isn't great. There's nothing interesting going on here, and it's a shame that it's merely a shadow of the types of books Nixon used to write.
Rating : 2 stars.
June 24, 2015
Nobody's There employs a cute, close-to-home mystery that many teens today could relate to: in a fit of rage over his abandonment, Abbie breaks a window at her father's new home. After her arrest, the judge offers her a volunteer opportunity in which teens assist the elderly. Many teens today have divorced parents, and those who don't know someone whose parents have split, so Abbie's anger and frustration rings very true.
The characters develop in the first half of the book; then, in the second half, their development halts as the pace of the plot picks up. Abbie goes from hating her father to accepting that he's left very quickly, and the transition between the two is weak and a bit forced. That being said, I could see younger readers enjoying this book more; I read it as an adult and the characterization was too weak and abrupt for me to thoroughly enjoy it. I'd recommend this book for kids/teens whose parents have just gotten divorced or are planning on splitting up, perhaps as a guide for what not to do; it could be a good topic of discussion, especially if the parents are worried how their child will take it.
The characters develop in the first half of the book; then, in the second half, their development halts as the pace of the plot picks up. Abbie goes from hating her father to accepting that he's left very quickly, and the transition between the two is weak and a bit forced. That being said, I could see younger readers enjoying this book more; I read it as an adult and the characterization was too weak and abrupt for me to thoroughly enjoy it. I'd recommend this book for kids/teens whose parents have just gotten divorced or are planning on splitting up, perhaps as a guide for what not to do; it could be a good topic of discussion, especially if the parents are worried how their child will take it.
March 9, 2011
Joan Lowery Nixon's always adept at creating suspense, but in this book she took more shortcuts with characters and believability than I could accept. The policewoman's willingness to treat a teenager like a colleague, the ridiculous excess of the crabby old lady's crabbiness, and the emotional turn-around of the main character in the matter of an unmotivated page or two were all too implausible for this reader.
January 6, 2011
This is one my favorite book ever! I really love Joan Lowery Nixon's books. I absolutely do. Read it. This books shows that ELDERLY ladies are not the fluffy, nice kind of type. They can be as tough as a stubborn mule. Just read it, and you might have a few laughs. ☺
May 23, 2013
Nobody's There started out interesting and then petered out. I didn't feel that I really got to know the characters. The plot was okay, but I thought the suspect was obvious from the beginning.
July 27, 2011
A cute little mystery. What I really liked was that I could actually relate to Abbie and her problems with her father. This book would best be suited for a 7th or 8th grade class.
July 25, 2014
It was actually quite good! The ending was sweet. I think I covered everything else in my last update.
January 15, 2015
I really enjoyed this book. It has a great mystery and a story people will feel for. I would recommend it.
May 16, 2013
Hands down ako dito! Mrs. Merkel you'll be missed. =(
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews