Book Review - Daphne & Velma: The Vanishing Girl by Josephine Ruby

It's the classic girl detectives like you've never seen them before!

Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley have a terrifying new mystery to solve - and this time, the culprit is far more frightening than any man in a mask....

Popular Daphne Blake and über-nerd Velma Dinkley are not friends. They aren’t enemies either, but they don't have any reason to speak to each other, and that’s how they prefer it. The two girls grew up together—they’d been best friends since pre-K—but when they hit middle school, Daphne dropped Velma and never looked back.

These days, Daphne’s deep in the popular crowd, daughter of the richest family in town, while Velma’s an outsider, hiding from the world behind her thick glasses. When they run into each other in the halls of Crystal Cove High, they look the other way.

But then Daphne's best friend, Marcy—who happens to be Velma’s cousin—goes missing. A century ago, there was a wave of disappearances in Crystal Cove, and many local people believe that supernatural forces were behind it. Now the whole town believes those same forces are back . . . and up to no good.

Daphne and Velma may be the only ones who can solve the mystery and save Marcy—if they can trust each other enough to try. Especially since the truth might be stranger—and scarier—than either girl can imagine.

An easy read with the story shown through Daphne and Velma's perspectives. A fun mystery to try and solve. It was nice to get to revisit the gang again, although Scooby, Shaggy and Fred were not big characters at all. I liked that this was a female focus and had the underlying current of trying to get back what they once had. The character development was delved into deeply and I appreciated that. I give this book 4 stars.

Thanks to Scholastic Australia for providing me a copy of this book for my independent and honest review.