The Cassandra Best Series

The Cassandra Best series consists of the following books.

1.  Ticket to Danger, 1990
2.  Race Against Time, 1990
3.  Mystery in Hollywood, 1990
4.  Treasure Beach, 1990

The series was published by Grosset and Dunlap and written under the pseudonym of Jennifer Austin.  The books were published in glossy hardcover editions.

Cassandra Best Jones, known as Cassie to her family, is 18 years old.  Cassie's alter ego, Cassandra, is a detective.

In Cassandra Best #1, Ticket to Danger, Cassie's British pen pal, Alex, has sent her a plane ticket.  Cassie is nervous, because Alex thinks Cassie is wealthy.  Cassie is not wealthy and lives an ordinary life.  Cassie sets her worries aside as soon as she arrives at Alex's estate.  Alex is missing!  Cassie gets to play the role of Cassandra Best as she searches for her missing friend.

Near the end of the story Cassie tries to communicate telepathically with Alex.

This book has a good story idea that is lacking.  I enjoyed the first part just fine, then I started to get bored.  The text needs more description, something to make it more interesting.

In Cassandra Best #2, Race Against Time, Alex sends Cassie a ticket to the Kentucky Derby.  Cassie gets to investigate another mystery when the horse favored to win the race goes missing.

On page 18, Mr. Felsingham tells Cassie that he can always sense when something is wrong in the stable, even when he is in the house.  This is a second instance of telepathy in this series.  I sense a trend.

I enjoyed this book a little more than the first book.

In Cassandra Best #3, Mystery in Hollywood, Cassie investigates a mystery on the set of a horror movie.

On page 111, Cassie is captive in a room that is "pitch dark."  Cassie can't see a thing.  The problem is that a fire is burning inside the same room.  A fire causes light, but the room is "pitch dark."  This bothered me.

Like all "sabotage on a movie set" books, I had trouble getting into the story.

In Cassandra Best #4, Treasure Beach, Cassie and Alex visit a tropical island where a crew searches for sunken treasure.  One of the diving ships disappears, and Cassie suspects sabotage.

On page 6, Cassie believes that she might have developed a psychic connection with Alex.

Parts of this story bored me.

The problem with the Cassandra Best series is that the books were written with minimal description and minimal emotion.  They mostly lack everything that makes a story good.  The stories come across as not much more than a basic outline with text added.  I assume that the books were not written by a very skilled writer or else the author was paid practically nothing.  I did enjoy some parts of the books, but overall, this is a fairly bland series.