Duncan - Summer of Fear

Copyright 1976 by Lois Duncan
Author Q&A 2011 Hachette Book Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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First eBook Edition: April 2011
First published in hardcover in September 1976 by Little, Brown and Company

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

ISBN: 978-0-316-17564-7

There are a lot of smart authors, and a lot of authors who write reasonably well. Lois Duncan is smart, writes darn good books and is one of the most entertaining authors in America.

Walter Dean Myers, Printz awardwinning author of Monster
and Dope Sick

She knows what you did last summer. And she knows how to find that secret evil in her characters hearts, evil she turns into throat-clutching suspense in book after book. Does anyone write scarier books than Lois Duncan? I dont think so.

R. L. Stine, author of Goosebumps and Fear Street

I couldnt be more pleased that Lois Duncans books will now reach a new generation of readers.

Judy Blume, author of Forever and Tiger Eyes

Lois Duncan has always been one of my biggest inspirations. I gobbled up her novels in my teens, often reading them again and again and scaring myself over and over. Shes a master of suspense, so prepare to be dazzled and spooked!

Sara Shepard, author of the Pretty Little Liars series

Lois Duncans books kept me up many a late night reading under the covers with a flashlight!

Wendy Mass, author of A Mango-Shaped Space, Leap Day and Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall

Lois Duncan is the patron saint of all things awesome.

Jenny Han, author of The Summer I Turned Pretty series

Duncan is one of the smartest, funniest and most terrifying writers arounda writer that a generation of girls LOVED to tatters, while learning to never read her books without another friend to scream with handy.

Lizzie Skurnick, author of Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading

In middle school and high school, I loved Lois Duncans novels. I still do. I particularly remember Killing Mr. Griffin, which took my breath away. I couldnt quite believe a writer could DO that. I feel extremely grateful to Lois Duncan for taking unprecedented risks, challenging preconceptions and changing the young adult field forever.

Erica S. Perl, author of Vintage Veronica

Haunting and suspensefulDuncans writing captures everything fun about reading!

Suzanne Young, author of The Naughty List series and A Need So Beautiful

Killing Mr. Griffin taught me a lot about writing. Thrilling stuff. It was one of the most requested and enjoyed books I taught with my students. I think its influenced most of my writing since.

Gail Giles, author of Right Behind You and Shattering Glass

If ever a writers work should be brought before each new generation of young readers, it is that of Lois Duncan. The grace with which she has led her lifea life that included a tragedy that would have brought most of us to our kneesis reflected in her writing, particularly (from my point of view) in I Know What You Did Last Summer. Her stories, like Lois herself, are ageless.

Chris Crutcher, author of Angry Management, Deadline and Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Lois Duncans thrillers have a timeless quality about them. They are good stories, very well told, that also happen to illuminate both the heroic and dark parts of growing up.

Marc Talbert, author of Dead Birds Singing, A Sunburned Prayer and Heart of a Jaguar

DONT LOOK BEHIND YOU

DOWN A DARK HALL

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER

KILLING MR. GRIFFIN

STRANGER WITH MY FACE

For Louise

Its summer. Summeragain.

I go out this morning to get the paper and although its still early, barely eight oclock, the sun is warm on my hair and on the back of my neck, promising the heat of the coming day.

I pick up the paper, roll off the rubber band and begin leafing through, standing there in the front yard with the thin rays of the sun on my back and the dew on the grass already drying beneath my feet.

I find it at last on page seven of section C. Usually, if I look long enough, its therea story that fits. Sometimes its only a few lines, one of those filler items they use when the big stories arent long enough to reach the bottom of the page. Other times its a real article with a photograph, like it is today.

A familyparents, their teenage daughter and an unidentified girlfriendare missing, believed lost in the San Andres Mountains west of Alamogordo. They went for a weeklong camping trip and now, ten days later, they havent returned. Theres a picture of the familythe couple, handsome, outdoorsy-looking people about the age of my own parents, and the pretty, laughing daughter. It evidently was taken just before a hike, because theyre all wearing backpacks, and theres a camper in the background. Did the girlfriend who accompanied them take the picture? That only makes sense since shes not in the photo.

We found the camera at a picnic area at the foot of the mountain, a state trooper is quoted as saying. We believe the family may have been camping there. However, there is no sign of the camper, a truck or of any of their other belongings. Its very strange.

It seems strange to me that the girlfriend is unidentified. Why hasnt her own family reported her missing? Maybe she has no family, nowhere she belongs? Where did she come from and how does she fit into the lives of these beautiful people? Is she with them now, sharing their ordeal, or is she somewhere else, alone, thinking back on them and smiling a little as she drives a camper along the highway? Why wasnt she in the picture?

Standing here on the lawn, I look at the photograph and read the article. I read it again. So often, when I pick up the paper on sweet summer mornings, I find an article such as this one, and I cant help asking myself... who is this person? Could it be... ? Is it... ?

Its been four years now since that summer. Its still with me. Maybe it always will be. Thinking back, I can even place the beginning of it all, the very day. It was June second. School was just out and spring just over and the real summer hadnt yet started.

On that June morning I lay in bed, watching the sun slant between the slats in the venetian blind, feeling lazy and a little guilty because the rest of the family were up and downstairs already. I could hear them and I could smell the coffee. The odor of frying bacon drifted up the stairwell and seeped through the crack under the bedroom door.