Dark Secrets 2 returns its readers to Elizabeth Chandler’s Wisteria in an omnibus edition of No Time to Die and The Deep End of Fear. Wisteria is certainly one of the most dangerous towns for adolescent girls (and the boys with a crush on them) in all of the U.S., and these stories place their heroines in mortal peril while never forgetting that they are, after all, teen-aged girls.

Once again, a girl has returned to Wisteria to try and figure out a mystery from her past. In No Time to Die it is Jenny, who recently lost her sister in what seemed to be a random attack. Liza was everything Jenny isn’t: outgoing, theatrical, and a favourite of the guys around her. Jenny is drawn to Wisteria, and to the drama camp Liza attended, to search for answers and the peace that comes from understanding. She is not the only person with an ulterior motive at the camp, and soon finds herself the victim of pranks designed to taunt the campers with the circumstances of Liza’s death and place Jenny in danger. Why did Liza go wandering out after midnight? What really happened that night? The suspense is cleverly built, and Chandler never loses sight of the realities of a teen-aged girl; she may be looking for her sister’s murderer, but she can still start falling for a cute boy and battle with her own vulnerability.

The Deep End of Fear has a slightly different feel, and its heroine’s past is more complicated than Jenny’s. Here, it is Kate, lovely daughter of a famous painter, who is looking for answers. Kate has also returned to Wisteria, ostensibly to tutor and nanny a lonely young boy, but she is investigating a death from her past, the drowning of a childhood playmate, and the continuing mysteries in her own life. Kate quickly realizes that Adrian is not merely a lonely little boy, but also the victim of the jealousy and machinations of the rest of his family, and that both of them are in mortal danger. Chandler doesn’t insist that her heroines work alone, and Kate has friends (and the requisite cute boy) to help her in her search for the truth, and this support helps keep the danger from becoming overwhelming for the reader.

Both of these books, and the stories in Chandler’s earlier omnibus Dark Secrets 1, are well plotted suspense stories. The teen-aged romances and supportive friends keep the tone light and allow the characters a few moments of respite from the dangers they face. Chandler’s stories are quick, tense, and fun, and the little town of Wisteria, with its hints of the strange and eerie and its hidden dangers, is always worth a visit.

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