Review: Penny Parker does it again
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 19, 2014
Mildred A. Wirt, the author of the first several dozen Nancy Drew books under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, penned another series a decade, this one featuring a younger, more puckish version of Nancy Drew in the form of Penny Parker. In The Vanishing Houseboat, Wirt came up with an excellent sequel to her first Penny Parker novel,Tale of the Witch Doll.Penny and her pal, Louise Sidell, give a ride to a down-on-her-luck former classmate, Laura Blair, who is applying for a maid's position in the town of White Fall. Perceptive Penny realizes something is very wrong with the employers, the Comstocks, a couple who are running what amounts to a bed and breakfast. Penny also finds a family who have lost their riverboat to thieves. As you'd expect, the two tales of woe end up being interrelated, but that doesn't make this short novel any less clever or compelling. The mystery proves even better than that in the first novel.These Penny Parker novels are like popcorn; you just can't stop yourself at just one or two. I can't wait to launch into the third novel, Danger at the Drawbridge. All of the 17 Penny Parker titles are available for free in the Kindle format, or you can splurge and get novels No. 3 through 17 in one Kindle volume,The Penny Parker Megapack: 15 Complete Novels, for 99 cents.