It was first published on May 21, 2007 through Clarion Books and follows a young girl who tries to investigate a torn photograph but gets wrapped up in a larger mystery.

Thirteen-year-old Ali O'Dywer is thrilled at the prospect of spending the summer at a lakehouse in Maine as babysitter for her aunt Dulcie's adorable daughter Emma, rather than staying home with her own moody, sickly mother Claire.

Both Ali and Dulcie are concerned when Emma begins to act more and more like her new "friend" by throwing tantrums, sneaking off without supervision, and being unusually stubborn and disobedient.

Sissy becomes ever more intrusive and vicious, barging into the cottage uninvited and terrifying Emma with ghost stories about a girl named Teresa who drowned in the lake years before.

Finally Dulcie confesses the truth: Teresa was a bratty little girl who used to bully Ali's mother Claire when they visited the lake as children.

When the newspaper comes to take photographs for the article, Emma says what Sissy told her, and the resulting story revives enough interest in the case that the state police send divers to search the lake.

While bringing flowers to Sissy's grave with Ali, Emma finds the doll she was promised, now fully restored and beautiful, and takes it home.

[3] Kliatt also gave Deep and Dark and Dangerous a positive rating, commenting that the book's foreshadowing "is a bit heavy-handed" but overall writing that it "provides just the right amount of shiver for this age group without scarring them for life.