TACK into Danger by Marvin Miller and Nancy K. Robinson, 1983.

This book is part of the TACK mystery series, which is very much like the Encyclopedia Brown series, although it’s not as well known and doesn’t have as many books. In fact, my copy references Encyclopedia Brown on the back: “Move over Encyclopedia Brown … make way for the TACK Team!”

The books in the series are collections of short mysteries that readers are invited to solve along with the characters before looking at the answers. TACK is an acronym for the names of the main characters. They’re kind of a mystery-solving club of neighborhood kids, although they say that they don’t really have a clubhouse or regular meetings. They just help out members of their community by solving problems whenever they can.

T = Toria – Her full name is Victoria Gardner, but she doesn’t like being called Vicky. She is the one who narrates the stories. She wants to be a newspaper reporter when she grows up, and she considers the journals she keeps of the group’s cases to be good writing practice.

A = Abby – Her full name is Abby Pinkwater. Abby and Toria were best friends before she moved away. Now, Abby is considered their “Agent-on-Remote” because the others still consider her part of the group, and she still comes back to visit and becomes involved with their mysteries, even though she no longer lives close.

C = Chuck – Chuck is the best speller at school, and his participation in a spelling bee is part of one of the stories.

K = Will – His full name is Will Roberts, and he’s the leader of the group, although he leads in a very informal way. Will’s initial is the odd one out. They use ‘K’ in place of his initial both because it makes their acronym easier to pronounce and because ‘K’ stands for “SWITCH” in telegraph language, and they think that’s an appropriate code name for him “because of the way his mind can switch all over the place.”

Overall, I like the characters in the stories, and I think they’re well-written. They would be of interest to people who like Encyclopedia Brown and similar types of Solve-It-Yourself style mysteries.

Stories in the Book:

The Comic Book Caper

Toria and Will are on their way to Will’s father’s hardware story, where they’re supposed to be helping out, when Toria’s sister Holly says that she wants a comic book. Toria takes Holly to buy one so she’ll be entertained while the older kids are helping at the store. While Holly is looking for a comic to buy, Toria overhears a couple of rough sailors talking about someone they’re waiting to meet. They don’t know what the man they’re waiting for looks like, but there’s a code word that he’s supposed to use. Unfortunately, the code word turns out to be the name of the comic Holly wants to buy, and the men start following Holly, thinking that she might be some kind of courier. Toria is afraid of what the men might do to Holly because her comic contains a secret message relating to a boat that’s recently been stolen.

Spelldown!

Chuck is taking part in the county spelling bee, but the bad news is that so is a kid from Monrose, and the Monrose kids are known to be cheaters. The meanest kid at Monrose (and that’s saying something) is Red Jamieson, and he’s made it known that he’s going to do something terrible to Chuck if he doesn’t let the Monrose student win the spelling bee. Will tells Chuck not to worry about that because he’ll come up with a plan to distract Red so he won’t have time to come after him. One thing that Red can never refuse is a chance to bet on something. After the spelling bee, Will offers Red the chance to hit him while the two of them are standing very close together, but only on the condition that he pick the spot where they’ll stand.

The Great Blueberry Pie Robbery

Will and Cyrus are spending the day with Toria’s family. They were going to have a cookout, but they have to change their plans because it rains. Instead, they decide to spend their time inside, reading. However, Cyrus brings Toria’s mother some blueberries, which she makes into a pie. Everyone is looking forward to having the pie after dinner, but when dinner ends, they discover that someone has eaten all of the filling out of the pie. Toria’s mother demands to know who the guilty party is, and this time, Toria is the one who comes up with the solution.

TACK into Danger

Abby comes to visit her friends for the summer, and they tell her about the cases they’ve recently solved, especially the one about the boat theft. As their reward for catching the thieves, they’ve been getting free sailing lessons from the boat owner, Johnny, and Abby gets to join them. However, while they’re out sailing, someone else driving their motorboat recklessly breaks a sign and rocks their boat. The boom swings over and hits Johnny in the face, breaking his nose. The kids need to get Johnny to the Coast Guard station, but how will they figure out which way to go with the sign broken?

Zoo TACT-tics

Will’s aunt takes the kids to the zoo along with her young son, Nicholas. While they’re at the zoo, they spot a dog who has somehow found his way into the polar bear enclosure. Fortunately, the polar bear is asleep, but can they get the dog out without waking the bear?

E-Z Parties, Inc.

Holly’s birthday is coming up, and Toria’s mother is overwhelmed with playing for it. Every year, it seems like Holly’s birthday part is difficult: kids fighting and crying, Holly not wanting to invite certain girls to the party, Holly wanting to buy a wedding cake she saw in a store window, etc. Toria’s mother wishes someone else could handle all the fuss, so she hires Toria and Will to do it. They manage to pull off the party without the kids getting into any fights, although it gets tricky when trying to divide a piece of cake between a set of twins in a way that satisfies each of them.

Halloween Shadows

Toria isn’t happy that her mother made her a haystack costume for Halloween because it feels clumsy and it’s difficult to see out of. As soon as she and Will are finished taking their younger siblings trick-or-treating, she makes herself a ghost costume for when she and Will are going to meet Chuck for more trick-or-treating by themselves. However, while she’s waiting for the boys, she sees someone in a skeleton costume like Will’s with someone dressed like a ghost and follows them into the graveyard, where they climb a tree and just look down at her creepily. At first, Toria thinks the boys are playing a trick on her, but then Will shows up, proving that the kid in the tree wearing a skeleton costume isn’t him. It’s just a coincidence that there are two sets of kids wearing similar costumes. However, some angry adults come along because a kid in a skeleton costume and a kid in a ghost costume just played some nasty tricks at their houses. When the adults see that there are two sets of kids who look alike, can Toria and Will prove to them that the pranksters are the other kids?