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Backlotbanshee

The ClueFinders: The Mystery of the Backlot Banshee is a short chapter book first printed in March 2004. It is authored by Ellen Weiss and Mel Friedman. It is one of two ClueFinders books released by Learning Company Books, the other being The ClueFinders: The Mystery of Microsneezia.

The book contains several illustrations with interactive puzzles that the reader can solve to learn clues about the story. The book seems to be mainly aimed at 3rd and 4th graders, as it contains an advert for The ClueFinders 3rd Grade Adventures: Mystery of Mathra and The ClueFinders 4th Grade Adventures: Puzzle of the Pyramid in some of its last pages.

Plot[]

While the ClueFinders are vacationing in Los Angeles, Leslie spots a newspaper article about the production of a Hollywood film called The Doomsday Worm. The film is based on an autobiographical account of detective Perry Boston's capture of the genius computer hacker Morris Nogudnik. Movie star Jason Torch has been cast as Perry Boston, and shooting for the film is set to start as soon as a stunt double is found for Jason Torch. The stunt double must be skilled at skateboarding, and the article lists the time, date and location for the tryouts. Leslie excitedly shows the article to the other ClueFinders, and Joni exclaims that Perry Boston is her favorite detective, and that he even served as an inspiration for her and Santiago when they started the ClueFinders Club. Owen thinks he could qualify to be Jason Torch's stunt double, and Joni realizes that if Owen auditioned, it would give the ClueFinders a chance to see inside the studio and maybe even meet Jason Torch and Perry Boston.

On Friday morning, the ClueFinders all show up at Boffo Pictures studio early for the auditions, where they encounter a large crowd of people already waiting to be let inside the studio. The director and producer for the film, Wilton Thumbling, arrives right at eleven o' clock sharp, and leads all of the onlookers inside the studio to the movie set. There, his assistant Atilla provides the auditionees with jet-powered skateboards. Each auditionee must complete one lap on a roadway around the set on one of the jetboards, and the top three fastest finishers move on to an obstacle course afterwards. Owen makes it into the three final qualifiers. Wilton Thumbling tells them that they must chase after the stunt man playing Morris Nogudnik as he bounces down the road on a pogo stick until he reaches a gigantic video screen displaying a crossword puzzle, at which point they must catch him. Any mistakes made on the obstacle course will result in an automatic disqualification. Leslie asks Joni how the real Perry Boston apprehended Morris Nogudnik, and Joni explains that Morris Nogudnik was a word-game fanatic who could never stand to see words misspelled or crossword puzzles unsolved. This gave Perry Boston the idea to set up a crossword puzzle to appear on a video screen, and when Nogudnik stopped to solve it, Perry Boston seized the opportunity to arrest him.

The other two qualifiers try the obstacle course before Owen does, and each of them wipe out on different parts of it. When Owen starts skating through the obstacle course, he skillfully avoids every danger and distraction. As the crossword puzzle appears across the Jumbotron video screen and the stunt man takes his position, Owen skates towards him and prepares to catch him. Just then, a banshee appears on the video screen, which startles the stunt man and causes him to lose his grip on his pogo stick. Owen catches the stunt double and saves him from getting injured. On the screen, the banshee shrieks that the movie is doomed and all must leave the studio. Then an explosion occurs from the computer control room overhead, raining sparks down on the cast and crew below.

Joni, Leslie, and Santiago quickly rush up to the computer control room to help out. Joni reaches the room first and tosses a fire extinguisher to the computer operator so he can put the fire out. Then the ClueFinders look for a way to turn off the power in the room to prevent the short-circuiting wires from causing any more damage. Leslie also grabs the documents and disks from the room to salvage them. After firefighters arrive and put out the rest of the fire, Wilton Thumbling congratulates the ClueFinders on their quick thinking. Then Joni asks him if Owen got the part, which Wilton Thumbling confirms. As the ClueFinders cheer, the computer operator, Mr. Binckley, wonders if they could investigate the strange scenario which occurred earlier. Mr. Binckley claims that the Jumbotron must have been sabotaged to make the banshee appear on the screen, and he says that since the studio would rather avoid bad publicity by calling in the police, the ClueFinders could do some quiet sleuthing for them. The ClueFinders agree, under the condition that they can be allowed to go anywhere and question anyone who might be related to the case. Wilton Thumbling accepts their proposal and gives them a master key to all of the rooms in Boffo Pictures.

The ClueFinders start to explore Boffo Pictures, passing through various studios and coming across all kinds of actors and sets. As they approach a gate, they suddenly encounter a man dressed up in a space alien costume. The unknown costumed person says that he's read all about the ClueFinders and knows all about them, and then asks them what brought them to Boffo Pictures. Joni insists that they're too busy for questions, but the strange costumed man doesn't budge. Joni then fakes right before quickly dodging left and getting around him, and during his confusion, Leslie, Santiago, and LapTrap rush by him. Once they are out of earshot of the costumed man, Joni and Santiago both agree that he was creepy, and Leslie expresses sincere doubt that he was a ClueFinders fan. However, much to their shock, Owen remained behind to talk to the stranger, who took out a notepad to jot down what Owen was saying. As the other ClueFinders rush back to confront the costumed man, he runs away towards a brick building. Owen catches up to him first, but the alien appears to go straight through a brick wall, leaving the ClueFinders stunned. Joni turns to Owen and asks what he told the stranger, and Owen sheepishly admits that he revealed almost everything about the audition.

The next day, the ClueFinders discuss how the Banshee came to appear, as well as how the alien managed to travel through a brick wall. Santiago thinks that it may be a hologram, but to his knowledge, no one has made a hologram that can move and act like the alien. Leslie, trying to think of a solution, wishes they could see a replay of what happened when the banshee appeared. Santiago then remembers that he recorded footage of Owen's skateboarding take, including the Banshee's appearance. After they play back the footage, Joni notices the Banshee creating a shadow past the Jumbotron, revealing two things:

  1. The Banshee was appearing in front of the screen, not on the screen itself, meaning that it was also a hologram.
  2. Whoever is responsible is some sort of genius to create these realistic holograms, and does not want this movie made.

Back on the set, Jason Torch is preparing for his next scene, where he's wearing a helmet that's supposed to be sending waves of commercials to Boston's head. Unfortunately, the helmet instead forces Torch to say lines by the Banshee, who appears a moment later, scaring everyone and then disappearing. Almost immediately after, a man emerges from the shadows from the set: Perry Boston.

Joni extends her hand to shake Boston's, but Boston's right hand is in a sling. According to him, he broke it due to an accident in his pencil eraser factory. Boston decides to talk with the ClueFinders during their lunch & offers his thoughts on the case, believing that Thumbling himself is behind the banshee incident, for two reasons: the movie is far over budget, and Thumbling has a new 3D hologram projector on the studio lot, which he tests on weekends. If the movie fails, then Thumbling will get a high insurance payout, and the hologram projector could be promoted, bringing more movies to Boffo Pictures & Thumbling.

After Boston leaves, the ClueFinders start making plans for the weekend, before they go back to Boffo Pictures on Monday. While Joni discusses the plan, LapTrap wonders what his role is. Just then, a woman passes by, and believes LapTrap is perfect for a role. The woman reveals herself to be a Sci-Fi movie director named Lulu Randango, and offers him a movie audition on Wednesday.

During the weekend, Leslie goes to the library, while LapTrap practiced for his audition with Owen. Meanwhile, Santiago finishes building an invention, and shows to Joni: a photonic blocker. If it works, it will block light-waves that create holograms. Leslie comes back and confirms the news about the budget, and that Thumbling is preparing to show the projector soon. However, Joni believes there's more than meets the eye about the projector.

On Monday, while Owen was with the cast and crew, Joni & Leslie were with Boston, viewing Jason Torch rehearsing with Vince DeGrotto, the actor playing Morris Nogudnik. While watching them rehearse, Boston believes that DeGrotto shouldn't have been cast for Nogudnik, while the girls disagree, and believe his previous role, a clumsy dentist on a sitcom, more than proves it. Just then, Joni gets a call from Santiago, who found the building with the projector. However, the projector seems to only be built for black & white cartoons, far from the complex & colorful alien they met earlier. Disappointed, Joni tells Santiago to come back to the studio. However, on his way there, he finds the alien snooping in Thumbling's office. The alien tries to run away, but Santiago uses his photonic blocker, preventing the alien from running through solid walls. The alien then runs away, with Santiago giving chase, leading them to the set of a TV Quiz Show being recorded. As Santiago looks for him, he hears the crowd of the Quiz show screaming, and sees the alien forcing a contestant to solve the word puzzle. Santiago uses his device and causes the alien to disappear, while also realizing who the alien really is: Nogudnik, who couldn't stand to see unsolved word puzzles.

After regrouping, the ClueFinders confirm Santiago's suspicions: Nogudnik was reported to have escaped prison last month, leaving behind a walking, talking, hologram of himself to fool the guards. Now that they know was responsible, the ClueFinders needed to figure out how to find him. Santiago realizes that Nogudnik's holographic projector must be housed somewhere at Boffo studios, since that's the only place they saw his alien & banshee. However, Santiago's device could only work if he was within range of the projector, and he was able to use it in two different locations, allowing them to narrow the search of Boffo Studios to a small zone. Leslie suggests they should talk to Perry Boston, who might have an idea. However, Joni believes that they can't trust him. She shows a picture of Perry Boston signing autographs, but he is doing it with his left hand, while the Perry Boston they met claimed his right hand was injured, and couldn't sign anything.

The next day, Santiago hooks up LapTrap to the display systems at Boffo Studios, before heading to meet Thumbling, Boston, and the others at the Boffo Studios cafeteria. Thumbling offers to buy everyone breakfast, and tells them to select from the cafeteria's menu display. As they all look at the display, Boston shields his eyes, seeing that the menu is missing several letters from the words. Boston demands them to fix the menu, but Thumbling decides to test the ClueFinders theory, and find that Boston is, a hologram being controlled by Nogudnik. Boston's hologram gets replaced by one of Nogudnik. Joni demands Nogudnik to tell them where the real Perry Boston is, but he only tells them that he has Boston as a prisoner in his hideout.

Santiago gets rid of the hologram, and tells LapTrap to execute Phase II: turning all electronic signs at Boffo Studios into word puzzles. The four split up to look for Nogudnik in the zone they identified earlier. Owen spots him in an Egyptian costume, using a marker to fix the signs near a studio building for an Egyptian mummy film, and calls the others to his location. After entering the building, they find that there are dozens of people in costume. Joni deduces that Nogudnik would try to shield his eyes from any potential signs-turned puzzles. However, almost everyone is shielding their eyes due to the bright lights, so LapTrap dims the lights in the room. They spot Nogudnik, and chase after him towards a pyramid on a stage, with a door built into one side. Nogudnik reaches the door, and is about to jump through and escape, when he falters for a moment, allowing Owen to catch him. When asked why he paused, Nogudnik points at some hieroglyphs on the pyramid, saying that they're misspelled.

Shortly after Nogudnik was arrested, the ClueFinders were able to find his hideout, where the real Perry Boston was tied up, as well as Nogudnik's hologram machine.

The next day, the ClueFinders and the real Perry Boston went with LapTrap for his audition at Lulu Randango's movie. However, he found out that he wasn't the only robot called for the audition. After his screen test Lulu confers with her assistant and tells LapTrap he's not a good fit for her movie. LapTrap comes back to the ClueFinders, disappointed, while they try to console him.

Perry Boston decides to cheer him up by writing a message - using his left hand - on LapTrap's touchscreen: "To my dear friend LapTrap and his friends, the ClueFinders: Words cannot express how much I owe you. When it comes to solving mysteries no one is better than you five."



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