With this book I got an education in all things Scottish, including haggis and kilts and castles, and a rousing mystery story in the tradition of my childhood heroines Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. Not a bad deal at all.

Lucas and Kari (both girls, age about fifteen) are off to Scotland in this second book of a series. In the first book, which I haven’t read, genius Lucas and intuitive Kari solve the mystery of a forged painting, The Mystery of the Third Lucretia. In Rescuing Seneca Crane, the girls meet Seneca, a gifted concert pianist their age who’s wishing for a more normal life. Seneca, also a girl, is caught up in her own desire to be really good at what she does but also in her (stage) mother’s ambitions and dreams on her behalf. Then Seneca gets kidnapped, and the adventure begins.

As I indicated this book reminded me of the set of thirty plus Nancy Drew mysteries that used to sit on the shelf in my bedroom when I was twelve years old and of my beloved Trixie Belden mysteries that still amuse and entertain my children. There’s nothing terribly deep or disturbing or philosophically challenging about Rescuing Seneca Crane, just good clean fun. I liked it.

What’s your favorite children’s or young adult mystery series?

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One or more of these books is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own.