solved by automatons sign me up, gleeps! Between this and the Three
Investigators, I seem to be on a vintage fiction kick and it's not even July!, I'm not sure if my mom read this as a young girl or just happened to have a copy, but it's one of several 's paperbacks I grew up with and loved.
It actually inspired me, at the age of twelve or so, to write a very similar story young girl with a father who owns an antique store, . . maybe I should get on that, Anyway, it's a fun little romp that, for a mystery novel, actually isn't too farfetched and includes a nice focus on the friendship of Nina and Muffin, Automatons, away! Man, automatons are creepy, A favorite from my childhood, The "Friends" are antique dolls, And they're in danger!
When two customers appear in her father's antique shop, each trying to buy Henri and Henriette, a pair of Swiss mechanical dolls, Nina Martin scents a mystery.
Then the hint of hidden treasure and a secret message send Nina and her friend Muffin off on a treasure hunt in New York City, .