SUMMER CAMP MYSTERIES

I was not a big summer camp fan. I hated bugs and outdoorsy stuff -- the woods, the camp fire, the ghost stories, the mean girls. When I was young, my Dad would spend his 'summer vacation' as a camp doctor, thus affording my sister and me the 'pleasure' of 2-4 weeks at overnight summer camp. My sister loved it; I hated it. But when I was 13, I went to the best summer camp ever (my father was not camp doctor): The New Hope Academy of the Performing Arts at Ramblerny. Oh my. Great fun with like minds and talented peers. This was not a common overnight camp at the time. Ramblerny was an Arts Camp, a summer camp for the performing arts -- no counselors, little or no supervision, no sports, no bells, or taps. Rather, there were drama workshops, music classes, dance practices, play-writing. Case in Point: The large cracked swimming pool became an amphitheater! Ramblerny summer camp was a world to itself, as, most summer camps seem to be, but this one opened a new world for me. I cherished the amount of freedom, but I also learned a lot about various arts: Drama: I will never forget the well-known actors who came down from NYC to teach and encourage us 'misfits' ("Breathe through your diaphragm"), Art: famous artists who worked with us on various projects such as set design, as if we were peers; world famous playwrights who critiqued our work (gently). Wowza. And to date myself, this was a very long time ago, and way before the hippie era.

As I was writing this memory, I thought I should do some fact checking. Memory, as we all know, can be faulty. Thanks, Internet, for this copy of the Ramblerny brochure. I wasn't too wrong..I didn't, though, remember ANY sports element. (I did find a further mention that teens could choose their own sports, if they wanted, at any time, with equipment found around the property! Yes! Be sure and check out the Policy statement re: rules. And, who knew that so much later in my life, after a multitude of careers and years of academic study, I would come full circle and establish a theatre company and write and produce plays? Back to my roots, as a 13 year old girl at Ramblerny!

But back to crime fiction. Since I had had a taste of the traditional summer camp, the kind that most of my friends attended for the entire summer (usually for 2 months!!!), I understand why summer camp would be the perfect place to set a mystery. I do realize I missed out on life-long friends who built memories as they reunited every summer. Traditional summer camp had its merits, but not for me at that time. Remember, there were no computer camps (there were no computers!), no French camps (that I knew of), no CSI or Science Summer Camps. O.K. there were scout and religious overnight camps. but again, not for me. 

So in regards to mystery fiction, there are so many ways to commit crimes at summer camp, and some to those crimes never got reported and festered for years leading way to the unsolved crimes later in life. Summer camp was clearly not all S'mores and the Lake. I've separated out the YA and children's crime fiction from the adult summer camp mysteries on my Summer Camp List, but there really is a cross-over between YA and adult.

So while you're packing the kids up for camp, throw a few of these books into their trunk! They'll thank you for it. Or better still, ask them to write a mystery about their camp experience for you in their spare camp time!

Summer Camp Mysteries:

The Camp by Nancy Bush

Summer Camp Culprit by C.K. Fyfe

The Counselors by Jessica Goodman
You Will Pay by Lisa Jackson

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson
The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka

Camp So-and-So by Mary McCoy

The Wild One by Colleen McKeegan
I'll Never Tell by Catherine McKenzie

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

Don't Lie to Me by Willow Rose

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

YA & Children's Books:

The Summer Camp Mysteries (Cam Jansen Mysteries) by David A. Adler

The Meadow-Brook Girls Under Canvas by Janet Aldridge

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

The Summer Camp Science Mysteries by Lynda Beauregard, Der-shing Helmer

Code Name Cassandra by Jenny Carroll (Meg Cabot)

The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan

Mystery at Camp Windingo by Lisa Eisenberg

The High School Boys in Summer Camp by H. Irving Hancock

The Girls from Hush Cabin by Marie Hoy-Kenny

Dig Two Graves by Gretchen McNeil

Detective Camp by Ron Roy (Scholastic)

Primal Animals by Julia Lynn Rubin

Lights Out by RL Stine

The Summer Camp Mystery (The Boxcar Children) by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Scatter: Her Summer at Girls Camp by Leslie Warren

Camp Creepy by Kiersten White

Short Stories:

"Evil Little Girl" by Barb Goffman in Don't Get Mad, Get Even 

As always, let me know any titles I'm missing or if you have any favorites.