The Bobbsey Twins and the Mystery at Snow Lodge

The Bobbsey Twins and the Mystery at Snow Lodge was published in 1913, originally titled simply The Bobbsey Twins at Snow Lodge in some editions. The family spends a winter holiday at a lakeside lodge belonging to a family friend, surrounded by deep snow and the kind of outdoor activities that the season makes possible: ice skating, sledding, snowshoeing, ice fishing. The setting is rendered with the same patient detail the series brings to all of its venues.

The central mystery involves a series of small disturbances at the lodge: missing food from the pantry, footprints in the snow leading toward the lodge but no one visible. Bert eventually traces the disturbances to a hungry stray dog rather than anything sinister, but not before Flossie and Freddie have managed to convince themselves the lodge is haunted. The book is one of the more atmospheric early Bobbsey entries because of the winter isolation. A solid representative of the series.