Spellbound ¦ Chain Letter

Whodunnits or rather whosedoingits. There's a veneer of sophistication about these two, almost grown-up, horror books, junior Stephen King with Enid Blyton's device of the marginal adults. These kids can play at being adults - the American setting seems to allow supplies of money and cars to keep the illusion going - and there's much reference to sexuality and 'making it'. Spellbound is about a nice English girl who's really a vulture and there are some violent deaths and a good bit of twisting of plot. Chain Letter sticks to something like normality. The gang of kids share a guilty secret which the writer of the chain letter seems to know as she forces them to commit more and more serious task or be punished. Excitement of plot with a few damands on logic and thought.