The Lone Footprint (Kay Tracey Mystery Stories, Book 15)

iv, 209 pp. Two fleeing figures scramble up the lonely hillside and disappear from Kay's view behind a rock ledge. Breathless, she climbs after them, determined to question them about the strange happenings at Owl's Hole, a summer resort. Suddenly a boulder comes crashing down the slope directly at Kay. She dodges quickly, the massive rock missing her by inches. By the time she has recovered and reached the ledge, the fugitives have accomplished a getaway! For a while, Kay's only clue is a single footprint. Whose is it, and why is he plaguing the innocent residents of Owl's Hole? Kay's clever detective work, with the aid of her two friends, Betty and Wilma Worth, carries her through one dangerous adventure after another. Jealous Ethel Eaton adds to the dilemma, nearly spoiling a perfect trap. Kay's search for the phantom troublemaker takes her to an unexpected solution, one that involves a missing member of her own family! "The Kay Tracey Mysteries were published under the name Frances K. Judd, a house pseudonym of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book packager. The series was conceived as a response to the popularity of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories and likewise features a teenage girl detective. While the original entries in the series lasted only from 1934 to 1942, the books were updated, revised, and have been re-issed numerous times, most recently by Bantam Books in the 1980s, and have been translated into Swedish and French. Many critics see Kay Tracey as markedly inferior to Nancy Drew, but some find the series to be significant as one of a number of series that provided girls with a feminist role model prior to third-wave feminism."