Ellen Raskin's four novels for young adults do not contain the same characters, but they are all puzzle-mysteries.

The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon.(I Mean Noel) concerns the search by Mrs. Carillon and her friends for her husband, Leon (sometimes Noel) Carillon, to whom she was married at the age of five.

Mrs. Carillon uses the letters that Leon sent her once a year from boarding school as clues to his probable interests and likely locations—which is why she conducts the search by eating in Chinese restaurants and watching cowboy movies.

The Tattooed Potato & Other Clues, like Figgs & Phantoms, is based on one of Raskin's personal interests. Figgs is written around an interest in book collecting and book loving; The Tattooed Potato is about painting. The setting is her own house in Greenwich Village, which, in the novel, is occupied by a painter who...