Honey Bunch: Her First Little Mystery is my second favorite among the Honey Bunch books I have. Unless she wrote some of the later books, this is the last Honey Bunch book ghostwritten by Josephine Lawrence. The main mystery concerns a basket of the Mortons' laundry that's taken from their yard while Mrs. Morton is dealing with a mess Norman Clark made (magic act, Mr. Morton's hat, 3 eggs -- need I say more?).

Honey Bunch sees a young policeman, Peter Noble, and tries to explain what happened. Officer Noble is nice and likes to make jokes. He does take the theft seriously. (Honey Bunch is quite upset that her prettiest dress, a gift from her Aunt Carol, is among the missing.)

Officer Noble tells a couple of interesting stories about employees falsely accused of theft (I sure hope the person who bit into the cookie with the diamond ring in it didn't break a tooth). He also mentions a theft his family suffered when he was a child -- his great-grandmother's trunk full of valuables. It's never been found, but it is the reason he became a policeman instead of a doctor as his family wanted. He also tells Honey Bunch that she could be a police woman when she's older.

Mr. & Mrs. Morton are away for most of the book, leaving Mrs. Miller to look after Honey Bunch. Mrs. Miller is injured in an accident involving Lady Clare the cat. Doctors made house calls in those days so Mrs. Miller doesn't have to leave to be seen.

Honey Bunch and two of her friends, Ida Camp and Grace Winters, take care of the house and Mrs. Miller when they aren't trying to find the missing clothes basket. They form a Detective Club for this. Norman is huffy because he's not allowed to be the lead detective on the case. Still, Norman does something foolish that yields an interesting find: a very nice string of pearl beads and a letter.

Norman goes missing after an incident involving a public fountain. His mother is frantic, but Honey Bunch figures out the truth.

Honey Bunch, Ida, and Grace are tracing another clue and become very tired. The steps they decide to sit on belong to the very church where Officer Noble's sister, Ruth, is going to be married. The girls meet her and her fiance because they've come to talk to the rector. They like Ruth so much that they want to give her a nice wedding present.

Both mysteries get solved in the end. There's an unfortunate family met during the sleuthing, but DR. Wood, Officer Noble, and the Mortons are taking care of that problem. (I have to admit that my eyebrows went up a bit in the scene where no one can find a juice squeezer so Officer Noble cuts some oranges in half to be eaten with spoons. Why not just peel the oranges and eat the segments???)

By the way, Norman doesn't get into all of the trouble in this one. Klutzy cousin Stub comes visiting. Even those eggs and Mr. Morton's hat don't come close to what Stub does.

This is a charming little mystery for fans of children's series from the first half of the 20th century. ( )