Cordelia Underwood, by Van Reid

Totally fun. And just a little bewildering.

This book reminded me a lot of Pickwick Papers: a club of bungling bachelors, who ought to be men of the world but instead are hopeless innocents, marauding the countryside. Only it's late 19th century Maine and there are bears and politicians and lady parachutists and Captain Kidd's lost treasure to enliven things. And a sometimes intertwining plot with a young heroine and her peculiar inheritance from her sailor uncle.

There were a lot of characters, and a lot of plot threads, not all of which were tied up neatly. (Really, hardly any of them. But there seem to be quite a few more books in the series, hurrah!) Although I found it confusing at times, mostly it was just part of the effusive fun of the book.