Gentlehands

"I wonder what that summer would have been like if I'd never met Skye Pennington."

Gentlehands is a novel by M. E. Kerr.

Boy meets girl. Girl is rich. Boy isn't. This seems like it might be the only problem in the budding romance between Buddy Boyle and Skye Pennington. To impress a rich girl like Skye, Buddy takes her to meet his grandfather who is estranged from his family. Buddy and his grandfather begin to get closer over the summer. At the same time a journalist staying with the Penningtons is looking for Gentlehands, a sadistic SS officer who escaped being tried for war crimes. Could Buddy's grandfather be Gentlehands?


 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Buddy's younger brother, Streaker. Becomes a darker version of this when he smashes their older neighbor's windows
 * Canine Companion: Grandfather's dog Mignon, until
 * Disappeared Dad: The main reason why Mrs. Boyle doesn't talk to her father.
 * Intrepid Reporter
 * Masquerade Ball: The Penningtons have a modern-day one.
 * Those Wacky Nazis: could be considered the "cultured one" and  collects stamps.
 * Uptown Girl