And so it ends–at least the original 19 books written by Gertrude Chandler Warner, which is where I’ll be stopping for the time being.

And it’s a rather strange story. Benny gets it in his head that he absolutely needs a summer job–so he ropes Henry into going with him… and the both of them end up working at the same place? With a mystery in the works to boot? Sure. It works.

The mystery this time around was a reverse shoplifter and mysterious woman hanging around–who was much less mysterious if you’re expecting it, but my children at least were surprised. And it was worth reading at least to see the idea that sometimes people don’t like them because of their family name. When it’s not entirely uncommon to have Grandfather buy their way into or out of a mystery, it was something worth seeing.

It was kind of a bummer to barely get any of Violet and Jessie, but so it goes. I do wonder if Warner knew this would be her last one. So it goes.

Onwards to a new series for the children! Perhaps one day we’ll return and try some of the later Boxcar Children mysteries.