River Acres Riddle and Charlemonte Crest by Augusta Seaman

The River Acres Riddle: A Book of Mysteries contains three short stories by Augusta Seaman.

In "The River Acres Riddle," Dorita and Marietta find a piece of paper tacked to a fence post near their house.  The piece of paper has a coded message written on it.  The girls are unable to decipher the message, but in the meantime, they notice several strange events.  Someone keeps prowling in the immediate area of their home, and the girls learn about a car accident that happened the night the paper was tacked to the post.  Sensing that all of the events are intertwined, the girls continue working on the code.

This story is okay but nothing special.  I was never very interested in it.

In "Cat's Cradle," Shirley Anne and her family live on a ranch near San Antonio.  Shirley Anne finds an injured Mexican near the ranch, and the Parsons nurse him back to health.  During Pablo's recovery, he and Shirley Anne become good friends.  Shirley Anne teaches him to play cat's cradle.

One day, Pablo tells Shirley to memorize the statement, "It is magic to skip the first and take every fifth!"  Pablo insists that the message will save her someday in a time of great need.  And so it does.

This is a very short story, but it is very good.

In "The Hexagonal Chest," Leslie finds a hexagonal chest on the beach and hides it until she can open it.  Meanwhile, Leslie's aunt disappears, and strangers are spotted in the area.  When Leslie finally gets back to the chest, it has vanished!

This story is in first person, which is unusual for Seaman's stories.

Mammy speaks in dialect, and she has pretty long speeches.  I found the dialect obnoxious and began skipping it.  It's too much trouble to have to sound out all the dialect in order to figure out what is being said.

Aside from the annoying dialect, this is a very good story.

In The Charlemonte Crest: A Modern Mystery in Colorful Haiti, Molly and Helen become good friends.  Helen shows Molly an ornate candlestick that is a family heirloom.  Molly accidentally drops the candlestick, and the bottom slides open.  The girls discover a packet of letters that leads them into a mystery.

This is one of the first books by Augusta Seaman that I read.  I enjoyed it but found some of the historical content to be a bit much.  I wanted to read the book again for this review, but I did not make it very far.  I did not feel like reading all of the historical content again.

This is a good story, but it is rather didactic.