By the Light of the Study Lamp

Dana Girls Mystery #1

by Carolyn Keene, Ferdinand E. Warren (Illustrator)

Jean and Louise Dana are given a valuable study lamp by their Uncle Ned. The girls plan to place it in their study room at Starhurst when they return for their sophomore year. But before the girls leave, the lamp is stolen! After the sisters return to Starhurst, they discover the lamp in a secondhand shop and buy it back. Unwittingly, the girls make an enemy of their classmate, Lettie Briggs, not only because the girl had planned to buy the lamp but because the Danas' room is the one Lettie wanted to have at Starhurst.

The Danas are overjoyed when they discover that their friend Evelyn Starr has returned to Starhurst. Evelyn's family once owned Starhurst, but Evelyn and her brother now have very little money, and Evelyn is unsure that she can pay for the tuition. The Danas hope that they can find a way to help Evelyn stay at Starhurst, little realizing that the solution to Evelyn's problem is held within the antique study lamp.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Classics, Juvenile

215 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Carolyn Keene is a writer pen name that was used by many different people- both men and women- over the years. The company that was the creator of the Nancy Drew series, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, hired a variety of writers. For Nancy Drew, the writers used the pseudonym Carolyn Keene to assure anonymity of the creator.

Edna and Harriet Stratemeyer inherited the company from their father Edward Stratemeyer. Edna contributed 10 plot outlines before passing the reins to her sister Harriet. It was Mildred Benson (aka: Mildred A. Wirt), who breathed such a feisty spirit into Nancy's character. Mildred wrote 23 of the original 30 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories®, including the first three. It was her characterization that helped make Nancy an instant hit. The Stratemeyer Syndicate's devotion to the series over the years under the reins of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams helped to keep the series alive and on store shelves for each succeeding generation of girls and boys. In 1959, Harriet, along with several writers, began a 25-year project to revise the earlier Carolyn Keene novels. The Nancy Drew books were condensed, racial stereotypes were removed, and the language was updated. In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.

Other writers of Nancy Drew volumes include Harriet herself, she wrote most of the series after Mildred quit writing for the Syndicate and in 1959 began a revision of the first 34 texts. The role of the writer of "Carolyn Keene" passed temporarily to Walter Karig who wrote three novels during the Great Depression. Also contributing to Nancy Drew's prolific existence were Leslie McFarlane, James Duncan Lawrence, Nancy Axelrod, Priscilla Doll, Charles Strong, Alma Sasse, Wilhelmina Rankin, George Waller Jr., and Margaret Scherf.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though Thomas Wolfe was right---"you can't go home again," it was still fun to re-discover the Dana Girls. This is the first book in the series of mysteries I read as a (very) young girl. Perhaps the most amusing part of this book (which was originally published in 1934)was the amusing and intrepid behaviour of the young heroines.

They raced after bad guys; borrowed brand new cars from virtual strangers (these are high school sophomores doing this) and decide they'd first try to solve a robbery themselves rather than report it to the police. Innocent times, for sure.

These are companion books to the famous Nancy Drew mysteries which have recently been published again in their original language. It is kind of fun to read about the girls in their roadster, carrying their torch to see in the dark. The dark side of these sweet books is that (when judged by today's standard of political correct language) they sterotype anyone who is not an upper-middle-class WASP and I'd forgotten how common that kind of thinking was.

[Jessaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't remember much about this story Because I read it when I was in high school. It was my favorite book by Caroline king... And When I read it around 15 years ago, I still found it to be the best of her books. This was the 1st in this series, and Mildred wort was the writer. But she did not like this series and quit. I could tell by the other books in this series, the few that I had read, that She didn't like writing them because they were so boring. But that is only thinking back on it.

[Sara the Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This arrived as a most unexpected but very welcome Christmas gift and I gobbled it down in approximately four seconds.

The Dana Girls mysteries were one of many, many attempts to cash in on the runaway success of Nancy Drew and, like Nancy's adventures, were not the work of Carolyn Keene but rather a stable of authors over the years. Louise and Jean Dana may not have enjoyed quite the level of success that Nancy has but the series did continue for quite a long time, lasting from the early 30's well into the 70's.

This is the first book in the series. The reader is kind of just dropped into the world of the Dana sisters who live in extremely white, rich, and pristine Oak Falls and despite the fact that they're orphans who live with a maiden aunt and a sea captain uncle they attend the Starhurst School for Girls with a bunch of other white, rich, and pristine young ladies.

The mystery begins when the girls are given a lamp by their uncle. They are delighted, as any teenage girl of good breeding would be, by this treasure but they barely have time to enjoy it before it stolen not ten minutes after they receive it. The girls manage to trail the thief to the "bad part of town" where they find themselves in a dirty, dirty second hand store. Unfortunately because the thief is A. male and B. they are without actual proof he took anything they can't do anything about it.

The girls have a lot of vanilla adventures searching for the lamp, evading the evil machinations of a jealous schoolmate and avoiding the duplicitous second hand store owner when they're not busy frolicking around their school with their chums.

I still have no earthly idea why I am so drawn to these books. It definitely has something to do with how much I love getting a sense of history through the fiction that was read by young people back in the day. There's something horrifyingly fascinating about the insidious and often flagrant racism and classism that runs rampant through the stories. Its not just things like a "mammy" cook who works at Starhurst and speaks in a barely intelligible "yessah" dialect that I do not think has ever actually existed there's other subtler stuff too that just makes my eyes bug out. There's the way that poverty and ethnicity is effortlessly linked to stupidity and laziness and this bizarre version of "honor" in this world where a well bred girl who's fallen on hard times just can't bring herself to "serve at table" at the school because ladies don't lower themselves to do things like...work.

And its all just out there like its the most normal thing in the world. Its almost like the lack of emphasis, the nonchalance with which the racism and xenophobia is dished out makes it that much more appalling.

I think about these books a lot when I hear someone talk about how there's no such thing as systemic racism or lament how we're trying to "rewrite history" when we want to tell other stories besides the white christian ones.

Now if you'll excuse me I can't wait to see what the Outdoor Girls get up to in The Outdoor Girls in Army Service; or, Doing Their Bit for the Soldier Boys

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this series so long ago, that it is difficult to remember details. All I remember now is that I liked the Dana Girls better than Nancy Drew, although I don't remember why. It may have been the whole boarding school scene that appealed to me.

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a couple of Dana Girls mysteries when I was young (and those books are packed in a box somewhere)--but I really couldn't tell you a thing about them, unlike the Nancy Drew books I read. So when I saw a few titles on one of our antique mall expeditions, I decided to get them and give the girls another try. By the Light of the Study Lamp (1934) was one of the books I picked up--a good place to start since it's the first of the series.

In their first adventure, Louise and Jean receive a surprise present from their Uncle Ned--a beautiful antique study lamp that they plan to use when they return to Starhurst (their boarding school). But not long after they open the present, the lamp is stolen from their home. The girls are disappointed and arrive at Starhurst in a subdued mood, but are heartened when Mrs. Crandall, the head of the school tell them that they have been assigned the second-floor study room that they had requested the previous term. Their good fortune earns them an enemy in Lettie Briggs, a spoiled rich girl who had set her sights on that very room. Later, they cross her again when they spy a lamp that looks like their stolen present in a local antique shop and buy it. [Lettie had been in the shop earlier, wanted the lamp, but thought the price too high.]

It winds up that their lamp...and their study room...is the center of an old mystery. Their friend Evelyn Starr used to live at Starhurst--when her family was wealthy and owned the property. But misfortune struck, the family jewels were lost, and Evelyn's brother can barely afford to send his sister to the school in their old home. There are clues to be found in the study and the Danas are led through a maze of crooked shopkeepers, crafty gypsies, and a suspicious handyman before they solve the mystery and come to the aid of their friend.

The Dana Girls are obviously molded in the pattern of Nancy Drew (though they are orphans and don't have a wealthy father to provide all their needs). The mystery is very like those solved by Nancy and the girls show the same resourcefulness and independence. This is a fun, simple mystery from a simpler time. I will say that I don't particularly care for the "mean girls" story line--where Lettie is set up as their rival and enemy. I just don't think that particular angle works well and it definitely is unnecessary. If this remains a prominent story element, then I'm not sure how many Dana Girls I will pick up (and read) in the future.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I must say I wasn't a fan of the Dana Girls, the crime solving sister sleuths who were stop #2 on my tour of 1930s girls' mystery series. While I appreciate formulaic fiction with the best of them and find it very cool that there was formula fiction in the 1930 featuring girls doing something other than cooking or sewing or preparing to be Mrs. June Cleaver in another decade or two, I found it hard (okay, impossible) to look past the incredible sense of entitlement that Jean and Louise displayed. In the opening chapters the girls seemed less horrified that someone broke into their home and robbed them than they did that someone had the nerve to take their special present, and this feeling of just a bit off of the normal emotional response continued throughout (the scene where the police officer arrests them on suspicion of grand theft auto was particularly grating, especially since the girls had in fact stolen the car from the man who originally stole the car from its owner and offered no defense of themselves other than their status as students as at the nearby boarding school). The hated Lettie, the girls' arch nemesis at boarding school, felt uncomfortably similar to Jean and Louise themselves (although unfortunately cursed with larger feet than our heroines), and all the way throughout the novel both girls were constantly obsessed with material objects first and human safety second (pick up the shiny watch on the ground or make sure the battered woman lying next to it is okay? Why, pick up the watch, of course! The battered woman probably stole it in the first place.).

I was also disappointed at how little this novel read like a 1930s boarding school story. While the primary action takes place at school and the girls enjoy the lack of parental involvement/supervision occasioned by the location, the rest of the formula was entirely wrong. No challenging home situations, no threat of poverty, no outsider-looking-in status, no effort to fit in, no ultimate acceptance due to hard work and kindness; instead, all we had were rich, spoiled girls who were assured of their place in the world and that rules were made for everyone but them.

[Nattie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This series seems comparable to Nancy Drew in a number of ways. I've only read the first entry so I can't say that they are for sure.

It's a simple fast-paced read, nothing too thrilling or overly exciting. The violence in this book was more in line with the violence in the 1980's/1990's Nancy Drew series, and so was the recklessness of the Dana girls.

Obviously since this was a Carolyn Keene book written prior to the 1970's, some racially insensitive material was bound to occur. All I will say on that is, lawsy I is tied of dat. I'se be jes' about the happies' woman in dis world if all colored folk don't talk like dis in deese books. I gwine now.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Synopsis:
By the Light of the Study Lamp is the first book in the Dana Girls Mystery Stories. It was published in 1934 and was "written by" Carolyn Keene which was a pseudonym used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The series was written by a few ghostwriters and this particular title was written by Leslie McFarlane. The Dana girls are two sisters in their teens who live with their Uncle Ned and Aunt Harriet because they are orphaned. At the beginning of the novel they receive an antique lamp from their Uncle for them to use for studying while at school. Within ten minutes of opening the gift it is stolen from their home. When they return to the Starrhurst Academy boarding school for girls, they rediscover their lamp in a local secondhand shop. They must find out the mystery behind the lamp and the thieves who want it so badly. Also, they must discover what this mystery has to do with their friend Evelyn Starr and her brother Franklin who were once wealthy and now face potential poverty.

Storyline:
I ended up quite liking the story in By the Light of the Study Lamp. I thought it wasn’t going to be too interesting, but it actually was and I was pretty hooked. It felt quite nostalgic to me as I had grown up absolutely loving the Nancy Drew Books. I know this isn’t a Nancy Drew book and was different, but it had a similar feel to it. I felt like this book had a bit more action to it than some of the Nancy Drew books as well. It was interesting because at some point in Nancy Drew publishing history they went back and revised some of the earlier novels. I think they modernized a few things and cut out some bits that no longer seemed appropriate. These versions lasted and were the ones I grew up reading. With the Dana Girls however, this version I read was not revised. This means that it felt very much of it’s time and that there were also some somewhat shocking moments that were definitely not PC by today’s standards.

Setting:
By the Light of the Study Lamp is partly set when the Dana girls are at their country home in a town called Oak Falls and partly when they go back to Starrhurst boarding school in a town called Penfield. I liked the settings and they seemed cozy and reminiscent of Nancy Drew settings.

Characters:
The characters were pretty good in By the Light of the Study Lamp. The sisters are pretty good characters and I liked their family and friends etc. None of the characters are too fleshed out, but that’s to be expected. There were a couple characters whose description was not PC, especially that of the cook at Starrhurst Academy whose depiction was quite shocking. An interesting observation I made was that there were lots of sibling relationships depicted in this book. The Dana girls are of course sisters, their Aunt and Uncle are siblings, their friends they help are siblings and the thieves they encounter are siblings. I don’t know why that was, but it was interesting.

Did I Like It?:
Yes I did! I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would. My brother got me this book and the second one in the series ( which I’m looking forward to reading now!) as a Christmas present for nostalgic reasons because of my love for Nancy Drew growing up and his love for the Hardy Boys. It did feel quite nostalgic and yet I liked the different characters and dynamic. I used to love the juvenile mystery series that were so popular back in the day and still have a special place in my heart for them now as well.

Do I Recommend It?:
I do, if it seems like something you would like. If you didn’t grow up reading some of the vintage mystery series such as Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, Bobbsey Twins etc. you might not find this as interesting. If you are a fan of that sort of thing though, I’m sure you would find enjoyment in this book. If you’re looking to read this book, I’m pretty sure they’ve been out of print for awhile so you may have to look for it used.

[Suzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean and Louise are due back at their school for the beginning of their sophomore year. As a surprise, their uncle Ned Dana, buys the girls a lamp that is then quickly stolen. The girls manage to track down the would-be thief but without evidence are forced to concede he may not be the criminal they're looking for. Back at school, the girls encounter Lettie Briggs. A spoiled, rich girl that has it out for the Dana sisters. On top of that, the girls are also trying to help their friend, Evelyn Starr search for her missing brother.

Phew! A lot going on. The Dana Girls are a force to be reckoned with. They're impetuous. Act now, think later type of girls. And I was completely okay with that. At times, their behavior bordered on insolence. But honestly, after reading so many Nancy Drew's, it was a breath of fresh air to see two girls act this way. These girls give zero cares. Zero. All they want, is to catch the criminals and help their friend.

This book is also set at an all-girls boarding school. So the girls have to work around the school rules to accomplish their detective endeavors. And they have to deal with the aforementioned, Lettie Briggs. This girl. She's snooty and eager to get the Dana girls in trouble. Never works out for her. The Dana girls always get her back though. Always.

Did I enjoy this book? Surprisingly, yes. Like in Nancy Drew, the Dana girls have a suspect early on. It's all about gathering evidence against them.There were a few times where I had to suspend belief because some of the action in the book was over the top. I figured out the ending early on, too. But it was an entertaining read :)

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the old versions! Much better! And interesting... the terms they used back then!!!

[CLM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the Dana Girls attend boarding school, this is primarily a mystery series, and I always preferred Jean and Louise to Nancy Drew.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved this series of books that I read back in junior high. They are from the same syndicate that wrote the Nancy Drew books and the Hardy Boys, but I much preferred the Dana Girls.

[Emily V · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! This is an amazing sort and adventure with the Dana Girls. This series is very similar to Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries so if you enjoy reading those types of mysteries you would love this series. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves mysteries!

[Josiah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing book! As I’ve said in other reviews, the Dana Girls are just as good as Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books. If you get a chance to get a Dana Girls book, grab it because they are all amazing! 5 stars...

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first book in the Dana Girls series. Louise and Jean are sisters. Louise has dark hair and is serious, whereas Jean is boyish and outgoing. They are orphans and live in Oak Falls with their Uncle Ned. They attend the Starhurst School for Girls in Penfield, and are sophomores.

Cora Appel is an incredibly clumsy and basically useless maid. Aunt Harriet is in charge of the house.

The story starts with their Uncle Ned sending the girls a present of a lamp. It's only a matter of minutes before the lamp is stolen, though, and this leads us through a tail of crooked shopkeepers, a gypsy-like female thief, police involvement and skulking. Lots and lots of skulking.

At the school the girls have their own counterparts. Lettie Briggs is their main nemesis. She's ultra-snooty and is no where near as smart as she thinks she is. Lettie has one follower, Ina Mason, who's very shy and basically as unsure of herself as Lettie is sure of herself.

Another girl that plays a role is Evelyn Starr. Her family fell on hard times and had to sell the house that the school is now located in. She has a brother that is doing his best, but financially she may not be able to stay at the school.

There's a good bit of humor in the books when one of Lettie's plans to get even with the Dana girls goes awry, and most of the time her plans do just that. There's also a lot of tension, though, what with the skulking and thieving and, yes, rescuing guys that fall into the river and nearly drown.

It's a really enjoyable first book in the series.

[Kavita · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun girls' series and one must not expect too much from this genre. I enjoyed the old fashioned lifestyle and the sort of detection methods without the help of computers, smartphones or Internet. It is a sort of nostalgia for days gone by, a sort of fascination for a simpler time. From that aspect, I really enjoyed this book. I was, however, hoping more of boarding school action, but there was absolutely nothing. It was rather pointless to set this book in a boarding school and absolutely nothing to show for it.

The Dana Girls were once as popular as Nancy Drew but they are not easily available today. This is the first book in the series, and starts off with the two girls receiving a gift from their Uncle Ned just before they go off to Starhurst for another year. The characters were simple and one-dimensional and frankly, not much time was given to drawing up the characters. The mystery was quite a cheesy one and ended with a treasure found, thus rescuing a pair of upper-class siblings to retain their rightful place.

I think this is worth a read if you are looking for something old-fashioned but I definitely prefer Nancy Drew for teenage detective stuff and there really is no beating Enid Blyton for boarding school stories.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book out of a Free Library with the intent of comparing my impressions as an adult reader to the impressions I had as a pre-adolescent. First, I was surprised to learn that author Carolyn Keene was not a real person. A number of women wrote the Nancy Drew books and The Dana Girls books under that name. Second, my adult reading of "By the Light of the Study Lamp" was most notable for finding blatant racism: the dark, swarthy gypsy brother and sister are the bad guys. As a pre-adolescent in homogeneous W. St. Paul, racism was not yet on my radar. Written in 1934, the book portrays a simpler era. The two bold young heroines attend an exclusive boarding school with its own small society and drama. As a young reader, I was fascinated by the heroines' lives (their parents are deceased, they live with their doting aunt and uncle, they are independent and intrepid) and riveted by their unlikely adventures. The plot of this book moved along with one unlikely coincidence after another, amusing me as an adult reader. I recall quiet afternoons reading Carolyn Keene books with my best childhood friends, Gretchen and Barb. Re-reading "Study Lamp" I re-visited those days.

[Whitney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here’s something else interesting about the Dana Girls. It seems like throughout their decades of publication, the industry never went in to update style/slang/mannerisms, between this first book in the 1930s, until the last books were done in the 70s.

In contrast, the more popular Nancy books got republished, especially the first half dozen, because syndicated novels for young ladies really changed their angles between the 1930s-1950s. They went backwards! 1930s Nancy Drew was speeding around in a roadster and dodging bullets. 1950s Nancy was planning menus and wearing little matchy outfits.

Big sigh.

And I should note for all these, it’s impossible to ignore the xenophobia and classism and colonialism viewpoints. Also internalized misogyny.

The main comfort of all these formula books is that I can read about big ridiculous adventures, girls and women are the main characters, every problem is solved by the end of the book, the bad guys are incompetent and are dealt justice. These are qualities often missing from the real world! I want something nice to read at bedtime. 🌑🌒🌙💫✨💜💙

[Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

So fun, via this book, to take a time trip to--1934.

Also notable, is the fact that this is the first of the Dana Girls' mysteries. Here we learn that these orphan sisters are being raised by their sea captain uncle, Ned. Supposedly Ned is not that rich, but he can afford to send the girls to boarding school for high school. Also, the girls think nothing of spending $50 (in 2017 money, that would be more than $900) on a study lamp.

Here in this little mystery for young girls, the ground work was being laid for the girl power of today. Not only do these young women, on their own, track down dangerous thieves, drive a seriously injured person to a hospital when no ambulance is available and solve crimes before the police--but no damsels in distress needing rescue are they. They do the rescuing, thank you very much. The book has barely started when they have rescued an unconscious man from dangerous rapids and driven him to safety.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughts about book.
Like the Nancy Drew series, I found this book to be both engaging and delightful. I enjoyed this as a child and I still remember it years later. It is the tale of two sisters(Louise and Jean Dana)who are orphans. They are currently attending a boarding school. The girls receive a beautiful, valuable lamp from their seafaring Uncle Ned Dana. However, the sisters not long after they received the gift find that has been stolen. The sisters pursue the thief but to no avail. They soon encounter a interesting gypsy woman, a girl named Evelyn Starr and a mystery that concerns treasure and a missing person. I recommend this book to those who like Nancy Drew or History Mystery. It is a fun read.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was cute enough and Jean and Louise are definitely interesting and intelligent and nicely capable which is something you expect from a "Carolyn Keene" branded book. The plot was also pretty jaunty. However, it lacked the smoothness and intelligence of the Drew books. I don't know which ghost-writer did these but it certainly wasn't the ghost-writer used for the Drew books. Mildred Wirt Benson would never have let such sloppy foreshadowing go into print! Things such as "she did not think much of this episode but, if she had, future events would not have been a surprise" is just clunky writing and a sort of strange patronizing nonsense.

[Chris Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never had the chance to read this series when I was young. I remember it being advertised in my Nancy Drew books. Parts of the book are dated but it makes for a fun read that takes you back to an earlier time when girls always wore skirts or dresses, even to slide down banisters to sneak out and chase criminals.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

These older versions are always best, however though the Dana girls were quite good, I dont think I could put them above Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. I'll still recommend these books to anyone who wants a good old fashioned mystery!!

[K.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean and Louise try to uncover the secret of a friends misery at Starhurst school, all the while trying to find out who is after the new study lamp they have recently been given. Love these original 1930's Dana Girls!

[Susan Laine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first series I collected as a young girl. I liked it better than the Nancy Drew series, which I also enjoyed.

[Bryce Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure if I liked this book better than the Nancy Drew books or not but overall if you are a fan of Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys you will love this book.

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Its very good

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1st mystery in the Dana Girls series by Carolyn Keene.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just felt very formulaic, nowhere near the standards of the Nancy Drew series. How many people can fall and hit their heads? Apparently 3...

[Momschooled · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is similar to Nancy Drew, though not as suspenseful or as well written. The scrapes the Dana girls get into are more childish than Nancy Drew. They don't get captured like Nancy usually did, there is no manly boyfriend who comes to the rescue in the nick of time, and there is a constant catty school bully who messes things up. There are the usual uncanny coincidences that are in all the mystery books of the time period. However, the lack of good editing makes parts of the book unintentionally comical. The girls run out of gas and therefore can't start the car so they coast downhill into town and reach the gas station after being pursued by the "bad guy". Their school nemesis happens to stop by the town police station on a school day and overhear part of a conversation the Dana girls are in and starts salacious rumours back at school. There are also characters introduced at a party at the beginning of the book who are never mentioned again since they don't attend the school the Dana girls attend.

The book series would have been better without the frustrating household servants. The Dana girls have a black housekeeper who is intolerably stupid, clumsy and superstitious. The dialogue the servant has seems unnaturally drawling.

I would not recommend this book series. If you're looking for a mindless mystery series, I would recommend Bobbsey Twins or Happy Hollisters for elementary aged children. For teens or pre-teens I would recommend Nancy Drew.