Eleven-year-old Bernie Magruder and his family live in the Bessledorf Hotel in the small town of Middleburg, Indiana because his father is the hotel manager. Strange things often happen in Middleburg, and Bernie has to solve mysteries with the help of his friends, Georgene Riley and Wallace “Weasel” Boyd, sometimes to save his father’s job at the hotel or clear family members of suspicion. The mysteries are humorous and slightly spooky.

Before they came to Middleburg, Bernie’s father, Theodore, had several other jobs in various fields, including auctioneer and vacuum cleaner salesman, so the family has traveled around the country. The Bessledorf Hotel has been the most stable home that the four Bessledorf kids have ever had, and Bernie likes living in Middleburg. Bernie’s mother, Alma, writes romance novels in her spare time. The oldest of the Magruder siblings, 10-year-old Delores, gets a job at a parachute factory during the course of the series. Bernie’s 19-year-old brother Joseph attends a veterinary college and sometimes brings home animals. The family has a Great Dane named Mixed Blessing, two cats called Lewis and Clark, and a parrot named Salt Water. The youngest child in the family is Bernie’s younger brother, Lester, who is nine years old.

The series is by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The titles of the books were changed in later reprintings, emphasizing Bernie’s name instead of the Bessledorf name.

Books in the Series:

The Mad Gasser of Bessledorf Street (aka Bernie Magruder and the Case of the Big Stink) (1983)

Somebody is releasing smelly gas all around town. Who is doing it and why?

The Bodies in the Bessledorf Hotel (aka Bernie Magruder and the Disappearing Bodies) (1986)

Dead bodies have been appearing at the Bessledorf Hotel, but when the police are called, they suddenly disappear. What is going on?

Bernie and the Bessledorf Ghost (aka Bernie Magruder and the Haunted Hotel) (1990)

The Bessledorf Hotel is haunted, and if Bernie can’t figure out what the ghost wants and get it to stop its antics, his father might get fired!

The Face in the Bessledorf Funeral Parlor (aka Bernie Magruder and the Drive-Thru Funeral Parlor) (1993)

The town’s funeral parlor has put in a new drive-thru window for viewings, making funerals an oddly public attraction. However, the town is soon preoccupied when the VP of the Higgins Roofing Company apparently steal’s the company’s pension fund and disappears. Bernie discovers a connection between the theft and the funeral parlor.

The Bomb in the Bessledorf Bus Depot (aka Bernie Magruder and the Bus Station Blow Up) (1996)

Somebody set off a bomb in the town’s bus depot, and Bernie’s sister and brother are the primary suspects!

The Treasure of Bessledorf Hill (aka Bernie Magruder and the Pirate’s Treasure) (1997)

People in town are searching for a pirate’s treasure that is supposedly buried near the hotel.

Peril in the Bessledorf Parachute Factory (aka Bernie Magruder and the Parachute Peril) (1999)

Bernie’s sister gets a job making parachutes, but when she’s asked to do a stunt using one of the parachutes, Bernie suspects that something is wrong.

Bernie Magruder and the Bats in the Belfry (2003)

A wealthy eccentric leaves a bequest so that the town’s belfry will ring a special chime every hour, all day, every day, so that her husband will always think of her. Unfortunately, the rest of the town can hear these chimes constantly, too, driving them all crazy. On top of that, someone has been leaving notices around town about a dangerous “Indiana Aztec bat” whose bite can supposedly kill people. Who is hanging up these notices about an apparently non-existent bat, and does it have anything to do with the bells that are driving everybody batty?