Cam Jansen and her best friend Eric Shelton accompany Cam's father and forgetful Aunt Molly to a comedy competition at a local club in this thirty-fourth and (thus far) final entry in David A. Adler's series of beginning chapter-books devoted to their mystery-solving adventures. When the valuable silver plate being offered as a prize for the winner of The Joke House competition goes missing, Cam and Eric kick into gear to find it...

Cam Jansen and the Joke House Mystery was a bit of a disappointment for me, and made for a rather weak ending to the numbered books in this series. There are also two Super Specials - Cam Jansen and the Summer Camp Mysteries and Cam Jansen and the Sports Day Mysteries - which stand outside of the numbered volumes, and which I have yet to read, so this isn't the end of my Cam Jansen project, but it is still the conclusion of the series (to date), being published subsequently to both of the specials. Given that this is so, it's unfortunate that it doesn't live up to the earlier volumes in the series, which I remember fondly from my own childhood. The comedy element here fell flat for me - I wasn't even slightly amused by any of the jokes told or performed, during the course of the comedy competition - and the solution to the mystery (both the culprit and his motive) was immediately apparent. I also wasn't sure how I felt about the fact that Cam and Eric were allowed to run all around the club, going into employee-only spaces, even when told not to by the owner, and rifling through another guest's bag, because they consider him a suspect. I like to think I'm not a pearl-clutcher, but if I were out at a restaurant or club, and discovered a kid underneath my table, going through my purse or bag, there would be questions to answer. All in all, a weak entry in the series, and not one I particularly recommend, save to determined Cam Jansen fans suffering (as I do) from a case of completism. ( )