Cantero's Meddling Kids is an obvious but decidedly off brand take on Scooby-Doo. He uses the familiar dynamic of four kids and a dog who fight crime as a foundation for a whole new story. The group spent their childhood summers in Blyton Hills, a sleepy mining town, catching elaborate and incompetent criminals. It was always a man in a ridiculous monster mask. Until it wasn't.
Here the similarities to Scooby-Doo end.
In the summer of 1977, the kids got in over their heads. They managed to pull a mask off another criminal and send him to jail, but they've suffered severe psychological repercussions from that last fateful case. Now it’s 1990 and the kids are all grown up.
Kerri (Velma), got a degree in biology before her anxieties got to her. Now she bartends and is plagued by constant nightmares of that night.
Andy is our Daphne, who joined the air force before ending up in and subsequently breaking out of jail.
Pete (Fred) seemed to be the most successful. He grew up to become a movie star. But a nasty addiction led to his early death. His ghost now haunts Nate (our Shaggy) who resides in an asylum, reading horror novels and pondering their last summer together.
And of course the puppy, Tim, is a vital character who supports his humans even though he does not talk.
After years of being haunted by the sleepy lake monster case, Andy pulls the group back together, with hopes that closing the case may fix their broken lives. So three kids, a ghost, and a dog cram into a car and head back to Blyton Hills.
Though the dialogue in this novel can get a little awkward, the story is enjoyable. Relying heavily on nostalgia to hook readers, Meddling Kids quickly diverges from its kid's cartoon origins and dives into heavier problems. It's a comedy and horror blend, like Cthulhu thrown into your childhood cartoon, with snarky characters battling both mental illness and real monsters.
I generally do not read horror, and this mix of comedy and horror is new for me. I wasn't sure how I would feel about it, but the resemblance to Scooby-Doo was an effective hook for an overall positive read.