Teenaged twin sisters Christine and Susan Pratt are spending Christmas in Vermont with their grandparents. The quaint, snowy, picturesque location has the girls all full of holiday spirit. But they find out the local children's hospital may be forced to shut down because someone has been embezzling the hospital's funds. It sounds like a case for the sisters to solve in The Candy Cane Caper by author Cynthia Blair.

This is the sixth book in the Pratt Twins series and the fourth one for me. I picked it up because 1) I've enjoyed the other books I've read in the series so far, 2) I stay on the lookout for wholesome YA fiction that isn't dark, since I wouldn't say it's the easiest to find, and 3) I stay on the lookout for Christmas reads that aren't romances, since holiday romances are easy enough for me to hear about without looking out for them.

Another fun read in the series, with the added bonus of being ultra Christmassy. Yes, as I expected, the style is old-fashioned (which I like) and pretty corny, with too many exclamation points and such. The mystery is a simple, obvious kind of case, and unlike the sisters' Banana Split, Hot Fudge, and Marshmallow schemes I've read before, the Candy Cane's "caper" doesn't begin until more than halfway through the book.

Still, it's one of the Pratt twins' more serious adventures. Plus, I appreciate how Chris and Sooz are consistently such proactive girls. They think, they plan, and they take action. They're not teenagers only dealing with what they're going through because something happens; they make stuff happen.

The going's been good, so I plan on reading at least one more book in this thirteen-book series. ( )