Richie Tankersley Cusick The Locker, Someone at the Door, and The Drifter

In The Locker, Marlee and her family have moved to a new town, and Marlee begins attending her new school.  The first time Marlee opens her locker, she has a terrible experience that she knows is real.  Marlee learns that her locker belonged to a girl who disappeared, and Marlee realizes that the other students are keeping secrets from her.

The beginning of the story drags at times.  The second half of the book is much more suspenseful.  I overall enjoyed the story.

In Someone at the Door, Hannah and Meg are stranded alone in their isolated home during a blizzard.  Two strangers arrive needing help, and Hannah suspects that one of them is a dangerous murderer who escaped from prison.  Meg trusts the men, but Hannah is certain that they are up to no good.

The second half of the book is very suspenseful and very scary.  The reader is kept guessing, although the cover art spoils one part of the plot. However, I found that it didn't bother me and actually creeped me out as I neared that part of the story and waited for that part to play out.

In The Drifter, Carolyn and her mother have recently moved into their new home, Glanton House.  Almost right after their arrival, a man arrives wanting to live with them and help them fix up the house.  Carolyn's mother agrees, much to Carolyn's horror.  And events steadily deteriorate into a scary situation.

It's incredible that Carolyn's mother lets a strange man move in when she knows nothing about him. Of course, this is done to set up the story, but it's ridiculous.

This was the first Cusick book where I noticed that the characters "mumbled" over and over.  In some cases, mumbling made no sense.  Yelling would have been better.

I found most of the book to be a bit too slow.  The last one-third of the book is the best part.

This is a decent book and nothing more.  I would never read it again.

My Cusick journey went downhill from this point on.  I tried reading Silent Stalker and had to skim most of it.  The characters tease each other so much that the story is boring.  They also "mumbled" a lot.  Argh!

I then tried reading The Mall and Help Wanted which have lots of teasing, stupidity, and mumbling.  I couldn't read them.  I hadn't read all of my Cusick books, but I had to take a break and read something else.  I don't know if I will get back to the rest or not.

I have created a Facebook group for enthusiasts of vintage teen books such as the ones reviewed in this post.  Please follow this link to join.