The spooky tale of a lost girl. The ghost of her frantic mother. The best friend's betrayal. Mystery, intrigue, and duplicity threaten to unseat Alma at horseback riding camp.

When Alma discovers a date etched into the side of her bunk bed one night, Lexi, the daughter of the camp owners, shares the chilling story of the mysterious disappearance and death of the young girl who once lived on the farm, and the tragic spiral of the girl’s mother, who searches for the daughter she loved. The date in Alma’s bunkbed? It was the dead girl’s birthday. It is Alma’s birthday too.

Alma and her best friend Adriana are transfixed by Lexi’s story, almost as much as Adriana is captivated by Lexi’s perfect skin and fancy clothes—oh, and kissing boys. Alma doesn’t understand why Adriana suddenly wants to talk about kissing boys more than she wants to talk about horses—especially the sensitive, complicated, beautiful Blue, whom Alma has been given to ride at camp. When Alma also finds her birthday carved into a tree, she gets scared. Is the dead girl’s ghost haunting her? Is the dead mother stalking her? Or is Lexi just playing a cruel joke, doing whatever she can to come between Alma and her best friend Adriana?

The Girl in the Cave is a gripping middle-grade novel about coming of age, friendship, horses, and betrayal—and it all starts with the date 2010-9-10.