Those Meddling Kids

When I was a kid, the only time you could watch cartoons was on Saturday morning. My sister and I would wake up before our parents, grab some Oreo cookies and milk, and head downstairs to watch our favorite cartoons. One of my favorites was Scooby Doo (the original- there was no Scrappy then.) I may have even hid behind the chair during the scary parts. I'm not sure because I have a terrible memory, but that's what I choose to remember.

You can imagine my excitement when I saw the recently published (July 2017) Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero at my library. If you've ever watched Scooby Doo, you know the oft repeated line "and I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids." What?! (I exclaimed right there in the library) A story about the grown-up mystery gang? I hugged the book to my chest.

That night before bed, I turned to my husband and said "I am so excited to read to this book." Then I cracked open the spine and dug in. <Cue the needle scratching across the record> If there is one thing I've learned in life it is you need to keep your expectations low.

First let me say this book is not about the Mystery Van gang. Cantero's characters are not Shaggy, Thelma, Fred, nor Daphne. There is a dog, but his name is Tim. Instead we meet Andy (Andrea)-recently escaped from jail, Nate- soon to be broken out of a mental asylum, Kerri- a down and out bartender, and Peter- dead movie star. They once made up the Blyton Summer Detective Club when they were kids and they're returning to the scene of their last presumed-solved mystery in a small town in Oregon.

Cantero stays far enough away from the cast of Scooby Doo to not have to pay any royalties and close enough to keep the cartoon just within sight.  After I got over my disappointment in the changes to the cast, I was able to enjoy the winks and nods to the show. For instance, the town of Blyton is in the Zoinks River Valley.

The novel has the pacing of a cartoon- which is fast, and I was quickly drawn in. There are some funny lines shot between the scarred twenty-somethings and I was interested enough in them as characters to want to know if they were going to be able to move on in life. The usual man-in-a-mask cause of the mystery is thrown out in this novel to bring in real monsters and diabolical evil and I'll admit I got a little anxious reading those parts, but then I hid behind a chair to watch Scooby Doo.

All in all, the book was not was I was expecting, but I enjoyed it. There are lots of cloaked references to pop-culture spookiness, face-paced dialogue, and a mystery that kept me guessing. Read it, but keep your expectations low.