The Strange Echo

A Kay Tracey Mystery #2

by Frances K. Judd

"Turn back! Danger ahead!" The thundering voice, detached from any visible person, transfixes Kay Tracey as the warning fills the sky with a sinister echo. When the eerie reverberations die, the teen-age detective and her chums, Betty and Wilma Worth, look at one another in horror.

What is the source of the spine-chilling threat that suddenly casts a shadow of fear on the gay outing? Similar weird occurrences have struck panic into other vacationists at Lost Lake, and could cause the resort to be abandoned, with great loss to friends of Kay. From the beginning of her stay at the Worths' cottage, Kay is determined to pierce the veil of mystery that envelops the community. For one thing, she has made up her mind to assist kindly, gentle, old Mr. Nelson in his quest for a long-lost family fortune in Faraway Valley. Then, there is beautiful Hilda Arno, whose strange plight also has touched Kay's heart. The young woman is depending on the girl detective for help.

Although Betty and Wilma are fearful, Kay feels she must dare the challenge of this nerve-tingling mystery. But little does she dream of the terrifying web of danger that lies ahead, waiting to engulf her if she should make one false step.

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

A pseudonym used by several authors: Elizabeth Mildred Duffield Ward (Kay Tracey series #1-2), Mildred A. Wirt Benson (Kay Tracey series #3-12, 14), Edna Stratemeyer Squier (Kay Tracey series #13), and Anna Perot Rose Wright (Kay Tracey series #15-18).

Series:
* A Kay Tracey Mystery

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, copyright 1934, is book #2 in the Kay Tracey Mystery series for girls. It's fun to revisit Kay. The book has plenty of action, and although it's someone dated with the "scientific instruments", I'm sure that in the 1930s it was like reading Science Fiction. Exciting.

Kay visits the resort of Lost Lake where many years before nearby Sunrise Mountain had experienced an avalanche that buried the town. Many people had buried their fortunes there and presumably, it was still somewhere underground. The realtors are losing money because people are scared away from Lost Lake by the odd thunder and lightning with no rain and the booming voices from the clouds. Of course Kay solves the mystery while barely surviving a powerful vacuum, at the climax of the story, that is drawing her toward a building at a high speed.

[K.L.]

Enjoyed this. The girls are spending the holidays at Lost Lake when Mr Nelson tells them about a treasure his family lost during the civil war. Weird things are happening, scaring the vacationers away from Lost Lake. A scientist friend of Bills has also had some inventions stolen. The crooks are trying to uncover the treasure for themselves and are using the inventions to scare people away from the area. Weird things in this book include a man made tornado, and a machine that creates a vaccum that nearly sucks Bill and Tracy into a cabin.