There’s big news in the town of Crystal Cove: A TV show based on the town’s mysterious past is filming in the Haunted Village. Many of the hottest teen TV stars are on set.

Daphne is excited; she’s been hired as a writer’s assistant on the show. Meanwhile, Velma is less than thrilled about all the Hollywood types milling around her parents’ property.

But before the shoot begins, Daphne’s mom – a producer on the show – starts receiving threatening letters. Next, the sabotage begins. And then, when the showrunner reveals that he’s discovered a long-buried secret about the town’s past, sabotage turns to theft, then to arson, and eventually to murder.

Daphne and Velma know that digging up the past can be dangerous . . . especially when some families in town have profited from the past for so long. Can they uncover who’s behind all this murder and mayhem . . . and discover what secret from the past they’re protecting?

It’s been a long time waiting for this book to come out, and it did not disappoint! 

Now that Daphne and Velma’s friendship is solid again, they’re an unstoppable sleuthing duo and are ready to solve the next mystery that hits Crystal Cove – finding out who is trying to sabotage the TV series being shot there and why. As always, it’s fun to try to solve the mystery while reading, but unfortunately, I was wrong. To be fair, there’s a number of shady characters in this, so it literally could have been anyone.

As in the first two books, I love the relationship between Daphne and Velma. Now that they’re back to being best friends, they banter like nothing ever changed between them. In fact, they barely mention the time when they weren’t friends, which shows that they’ve moved past it. I also love how they care not only for each other, but their families and friends as well. Especially since some of the mystery revolves around Shaggy’s family, the girls are concerned for his mental health and well-being.

The stakes are raised in this mystery, as the person out to sabotage this doesn’t are who gets hurt. So Daphne and Velma have to hurry to solve the mystery before anyone get does get seriously injured, or worse. And when the stakes are raised, you know the book is going to be good.

I enjoyed this book just as much as the first two, and I really wish this wasn’t the last one. Especially since there’s a mystery about Crystal Cove itself that doesn’t get solved, and the way the book ends feels sort of like a cliffhanger/lead to another book. From the author’s social media, this is the last one, so I’m not expecting another book.

In any case, I recommend the Daphne and Velma series to all Scooby-Doo fans!

Rating: 4.5/5 stars