Footsteps In The Treetops — Bennett Cole

Murdered! Yes, murdered! Her body left lying on the Wildwood Trail. In Radnor, a small Virginia mountain town, twelve-year-old Marvin McKenzie and his Junior Commando gang attempt to lead normal lives on the homefront as WWII rages on. But their peace is fractured when one of the gang finds the body on the Wildwood Trail, the kids' favorite haunt. When the older brother of one of the gang's members is erroneously charged with the murder, the Commandos resolve to try to “crack the case.” But the intrusion in Marvin's life caused by an “older” (fourteen) precocious neighborhood girl, her alcoholic father and her terminally ill and demented grandmother, coupled with various Commando escapades, temporarily sidetrack Marvin and his cohorts. They nevertheless persist in their sleuthing, and in a spine-tingling conclusion as the murderer chases Marvin through the Wildwood forest at night, he falls through space and…