Margaret Sutton (1903–2001)

The Vanishing Shadow is the first in the Judy Bolton series of mysteries.

Judy Bolton, a fifteen-year-old high school student, is spending what promises to be a boring summer at her grandparents' farm in rural Pennsylvania. However, mystery & adventure are lurking just around the corner when Judy is kidnapped after overhearing a vicious argument between a couple of workmen that reveals an ominous secret is somehow centered around the newly constructed dam looming over the nearby town of show more Roulsville. Judy undertakes to uncover the mystery while simultaneously struggling to find a way to attend the town’s spelling bee/hootenanny in spite of the machinations of her obnoxious brother and her passive- aggressive grandmother.

This is a tepid, although not unentertaining, debut for a teenage sleuth mystery series. The core mystery is quite menacing & sinister, but it unfolds in a setting of blackberry picking, roadsters, quaint general stores, & village dances that is utterly charming.

In spite of her spelling bee prowess, Judy is rather a stupid character. Her commitment to keeping a promise made to her kidnappers under duress is nothing short of ludicrous. It is also a dangerous message to send to young readers. No crime victim is under any obligation to keep promises made to perpetrators, and it is just asinine for Judy Bolton to think otherwise.

Judy’s older brother Horace is a very hard pill to swallow, too. He is a quasi-hypochondriac/sissified coward who uses his ‘weakness’ to manipulate people, particularly his family. The ending in which Horace saves the day & is lauded as a hero is so wild and farfetched it is almost hysterical. And Horace pompously simpers and whines through it all. He really does grate on the nerves.

And the whole concept of the tyrannical granny who bakes pies in her spare time was just bizarre.

Overall, the book was rather disappointing, but it did have a few glimmers of promise sprinkled here and there.

I definitely would be willing to read further installments in the series with the hope that Judy matures and behaves less like a vacuous dope. show less

When Judy's cousin Roxy asks her to inspect some ocean-front property, part of which has been left to Roxy in her stepmother's will, Judy is only too glad to do it. It will be fun, she thinks, to go Sunday with Irene, Flo, and Pauline on the boat over to Fire Island, off the Long Island shore, and see how a resort looks in November. Even when they reach the apparently deserted, windswept island with its boarded-up cottages and incessant pounding surf, the girls are still in high spirits. The show more make their way to "The Sand Castle," the cottage Irene and her husband had occupied the previous summer; and Judy is delighted with the tower room, whose windows look out upon the vast expanse of ocean.

But soon it seems as if some subtle evil force is at work, hidden in the gathering fog, threatening the apprehensive girls. They are horrified to learn that there will be no boat to take them back to the mainland until the following Sunday! Thoroughly uneasy now, Judy nevertheless refuses to believe that the mysterious woman in black, whom she glimpses momentarily, is the ghost of the woman who used to come back to the island to dig for her jewels, lost in the worst of the big hurricanes.

How Judy, by keeping her head and using courage and common sense, protects her friends from harm and solves the mystery, makes a lively and spine-chilling story. show less

Disappointed that it was less mystery, and more like a Sweet Valley High book (minus the romance) where a high school girl named Judy Bolton is trying to fit in in a new school of upper-crust girls. This is not the kind of story I expected. I'm headed back to the comforts of Nancy Drew mysteries!

Judy is thrilled when she learns that her old friend, Dora Scott, is returning to Farringdon. The girls plan a huge welcoming party for Scottie at the railroad station, but Judy realizes that their plans were a mistake when she sees Scottie's reaction. Scottie is tired and impatient and has her little sister Carol in tow.

Carol is a very unusual child who is unresponsive to all sound except music and whistling. Scottie expects Judy to help her find a way to help Carol. Judy is uncertain how show more to proceed and feels that Scottie expects too much of her.

Judy also has two other mysteries to solve. Something mysterious is happening at the Chinese laundry in Farringdon, and objects keep disappearing from the houses on Grove Street. How Judy solves Carol's problem and how it relates to the other mysterious happenings makes for a thrilling story. show less