You know, I handwave a lot of stuff away about these books. (Well, not really, but I've come to accept that Benny will always be obnoxious, that these kids are nosy and spoilt, and that Grandfather is really quite a disturbing figure.) But why, why, why does everyone around them have to be so stupid? Apart from Carter, of course, but he's on retainer so he doesn't count. It's like the whole world is full of incompetents and they barely muddle along with life until the Aldens come along to set them straight. And yeah, this is a function of juvenile mysteries - I grew up on Trixie Belden - but still. Anyway, in this volume the family go off on a whim to a small fishing village, with the stated intention of poking round until they find something to investigate. And, quite coincidentally, the village is full of people being cheated by a smuggler and children being deprived of education... despite the fact that a rich old writer owns the schoolhouse and has donated a town library and helps schools all over the country. But that writer is a woman, and in this series that means situational incompetence, so the kids of the village can't read, and their parents aren't lifting a finger to teach them.

The stupid, it burns.