I enjoy reading this series...find the stories charming albeit terribly predictable with all the convenient coincidences cropping up at just the right moment. This particular story was set abroad which was an added bit of fun for us. ( )

The Winking Ruby Mystery was my first Dana Girls book, given to me when I was 11. My parents didn't have much money, so new mystery books were for birthdays, Easter, and Christmas. This time I was allowed to go to the store with them and choose the title I wanted. I'd been reading Nancy Drew for two or three years, but it was the cover that made me choose this book. I haven't read it in decades, but I just checked and I had still remembered the final secret.

It was the illustration from chapter xviii (18) of this book that the publisher used as the illustration on the back cover of the 1962-1968 printings of the series.