Books like The Curse of the Ruby Necklace

My mother pulled this out of her garage the other day, along with some dust, coloring books, Japanese children's books, and two other Sweet Valley Twins books (my other two favorites--holiday ones!). My sister and I screamed, jumped up and down, and agreed that this was the highlight of our months. Do you know how much I loooooved this book when I was a kid? It was probably my favorite Super Chiller of the Sweet Valley Twins series (and I loved that Carnival Ghost one too). How does it hold up? Um, still kind of amazing. Laughable and ludicrous, but still kind of amazing. I read half of it during a lunch break (with my entire body kind of hovering over it so nobody could see it and ask questions) and avoided life after work so I could finish it. Jessica and Elizabeth are so innocent as sixth graders, as you would expect, but it's still kind of nice when you think about the crap Jessica does in high school and beyond and how almost overwhelmingly disgustingly sweet and good Elizabeth becomes. They're nearly normal in middle school. Sure, Elizabeth is a goody-goody, but she's a kid, things are so black-and-white then. And Jessica is just kind of fun and full of spirit, a bit shallow, but also something that's okay when you're a kid. Anyway, the twins land a role in a movie that's being filmed in Sweet Valley (of course--I could never figure out how this small town always had so much going on, and then when they gained an entire university when it was time for the twins to go to college, that was ridiculous). At the same time, Jessica discovers a barnacled-over ruby necklace at the beach that they assume is just costume jewelry. I won't give it away, but it leads to them solving a mystery that the movie's based on. There are nightmares and ghosts and even a cousin drops in that I don't think we've heard about before or after named Robin (I might have to reread the entire series to check on that. I love when random family drop in on the Wakefields, like their Grandmommy in Sweet Valley Confidential, but more on that later). The "mystery" isn't so much of a mystery, but maybe that's just because I'm so much older, wiser, and fancier now (*breathes on and wipes down monocle*).