User:FlaviusFerry/Party Line (book)

Party Line is the first novel written by A. Bates, published by Scholastic Corporation under their Point Horror imprint in 1989. It appeared in the "Buy List" in the Kliatt Young Adult Paperback Guide in September 1992. Party Line was followed by her best-selling novel Final Exam.

Plot
Mark likes calling the local teen talk line even though he’s grounded from it. He listens to conversations and learns a lot about the mysterious subject of girls. But girls are disappearing in his town and Mark is certain they are the same ones he’s heard calling the Party Line. The problem is, no one believes him. The police think he’s making a big deal with very little to go on.

Mark decides to investigate on his own. There is someone he hears all the time on the Line, someone who tries to get personal information from the girls who call in, who tries to convince them to meet him in person. Could that be the person who is kidnapping girls? How would he find out?

Mark sets a plan in motion, but it looks like he might get caught in his own trap. Phoning the Party Line could turn out to be deadly.

Translations

 * French translation by Nicole Ferron under the title Qui est à l'appareil ?, 1990.
 * Finnish translation by Eeva Heikkinen under the name Kohtalokas kontaktilinja, 1991.
 * Norwegian translation by Semic/Nordisk Forlag.

Editions

 * ISBN 0-590-44238-4 (English, paperback, 1989)
 * ISBN 2-7625-1317-0 (French, paperback)
 * ISBN 978-1-939483-11-9 (eBook, 2012)