Shelf Control #133: The Secret at Lone Tree Cottage by Carolyn Keene

Wednesday, the 31st of March, and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what its about, why you want to read it, when you got it, and such. If you participate, don’t forget to link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks as well!

Today my pick is a nice old children’s mystery, The Secret at Lone Cottage by Carolyn Keene. Written under the Carolyn Keene pseudonym, this one isn’t one of the Nancy Drew mysteries but instead one featuring the Dana Girls. Also published by the Stratemeyer syndicate, this series featured twins Louise and Jean Dana who also solve mysteries but unlike Nancy Drew, they attend a fictional school, Starhurst. This volume, number 2 in the series, was written by Leslie McFarlane.

The mysteries the two girls solve (also unlike Nancy’s) have a connection with the school. In this one, their favourite teacher Miss Tisdale vanishes one afternoon. On a search for clues, the twins find her car abandoned with the key still in the ignition. They learn that Miss Tisdale has been supporting her widowed twin sister (disowned by their parents), Mrs Brixton. The latter is being threatened by her husband’s partner and this is the person they suspect is responsible for the kidnapping. The police must be kept away for the shock of Miss Tisdale’s disappearance will be too much for her frail father. So the Danas bring in their uncle Ned, and the three solve things on their own.

I’d read some (in fact many) of the Dana Girls books as a child and enjoyed them a fair bit. These days, I find I enjoy picking up titles in especially the old Nancy Drew series (which I also used to read a lot of) for a quick diverting read, and am hoping that this one will prove the same. From the description, the mystery sounds like it will be fun. I remember the girls but not much about their uncle so it will be interesting to see what role he plays in the investigation, and how they track down their teacher. Since I don’t remember much about the series, I also am interested to see how the mysteries played out in the school setting.

Have you read this one or others in the series? Which one/s and how did you find them? Which mystery books that you enjoyed as a child do you also enjoy revisiting now? Looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations!

Cover image and description from Goodreads (here)

Lisa’s pick today is a rather interesting non-fiction title about four courageous women in the civil war, Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott (here)