Weirdly, my local library only has Mystery books for Maryellen and Melody, so unfortunately I'm not familiar with their main stories/themes other than broad decade strokes. Maryellen seems to want to star in something- maybe because she's a middle child? There were a lot of references to 1950s pop culture (various shows, Nancy Drew, etc.)

The mystery of what happened to the neighborhood dogs was alright- some red herrings, but big enough to not just be a one-house mystery situation. These kids seem to go an awful lot of places on their bikes (and maybe that's part of the 1950s charm for the Maryellen books?) especially in the Florida summer heat! Am curious about how her main books go. ( )