Camp Seneca has turned into the camp from hell by the time 17-year-old Jerry Muller returns as a junior counselor.
On his previous visits, it had been a normal summer experience for teens and pre-teens, but atmosphere and personnel have changed this year. In addition, Jerry’s shy nine-year-old stepbrother has accompanied him, and Jerry is still on crutches as he recovers from a broken leg.
What once was a disciplined but good-natured summer outing has turned into something menacing and malevolent.
Jerry senses the dark side when he learns that Win, the popular wife of the camp director, Woody Wentworth, will be late arriving. Then something worse appears in the form of Buck Silverstone, the new director of the camp’s Indian program. Silverstone, who claims that he is a full-blooded Seneca warrior, also goes by the name Redclaw.
From first encounter, Jerry is suspicious of Silverstone/ Redclaw. Nor does he like the new programs set up to frighten and challenge campers. Jerry thinks that many of the campers, especially his stepbrother, Peter, are too young for frightening experiences designed by the creepy Redclaw.
The time is the 1950s. Eisenhower is president, Sen. Joe McCarthy has launched his witch-hunt for communists, and the civil rights movement is in its infancy.
Jerry takes his concerns to Woody and Win but receives no sympathy.
Camp Seneca is loaded with hazards. Two females make advances on Jerry, and one of them is the camp director’s wife. Two of the older campers are showing homosexual tendencies. And always the mysterious Redclaw lurks while dreaming up the so-called character- building experiences, ranging from pyrotechnics and the release of rattlesnakes to the staging of boxing matches among campers young and old.
The “mad cook” of the title is a local legend, but one that reflects the shadow of evil falling across the camp.
This is no Scout camp, or 4-H camp or church camp. Compared to the casual behavior of the adults, Jerry comes off as the one mature individual at camp.
Suddenly Jerry wants out of Seneca. He fears for Peter’s safety and his own well-being. But he cannot appeal to his mother, an alcoholic, or to his father and stepmother, who are traveling in Europe, and his one attempt to reach the stepmother comes to a clanking halt.
In some ways Jerry has no home. He has graduated from high school and will enter Swarthmore College that fall. His relationship with both sets of parents is strained. He has no money except his camp wages, to be paid at the end of summer.
Lehmann-Haupt tells his tale at a leisurely pace until the final chapters, where suspense grows to a heart-stopping climax. That’s when Jerry realizes he must take things into his own hands and rescue the innocent Peter.
Much of the story is told in dialogue. When Lehmann-Haupt delves into descriptive prose, it is moody and reflective. In a canoe on Lake Pymatuning, Jerry observes that: “The air was still, the horizon a splash of orange, the water a sheet of gold foil charred at the edges by the shadows of the shore.”
Formerly senior daily book reviewer for The New York Times, Lehmann-Haupt is the author of “A Crooked Man,” a novel, and “Me and DiMaggio,” a baseball memoir. His wife is writer Natalie Robins, and they live in New York.
Florence Gilkeson may be reached at florence@thepilot.com.
