When you live in the northeast, wicked winter weather is pretty common,
but every once in a while a storm will come along that throws even the
most seasoned residents for a loop. Such a storm is what sets the stage
for most of the plot in Julie Campbell's Trixie Belden and the Mystery Off Glen Road,
the fifth book in the series. Thirteen-year-old Trixie, her older
brothers Mart and Brian, her best friend Honey Wheeler, Honey’s adopted
brother Jim and their neighbor Di Lynch have just put the finishing
touches on the hut that is to serve as headquarters for their club, the
Bob-Whites of the Glen. It’s perfect – and then an icy wind sends a tree
crashing into it, and if they don’t make some expensive repairs
quickly, all of their hard work will be ruined.
It’s a rule of
the club that its members are only allowed to contribute money that they
have earned themselves to any club projects. This is a nice way to
ensure that everyone pitches in and feels like an equally valued part of
the group, even though the Beldens have considerably less money than
the Wheelers and the Lynches. Nonetheless, in an extreme emergency
situation, I would think that the club members might all agree that a
loan from a wealthy parent would not be out of order. Instead, honorable
Brian, the only one with any earned money to his name, insists upon
using the fifty dollars that he saved up to buy a neighbor’s jalopy in
order to renovate the clubhouse. As a result, Trixie hatches a
complicated scheme that will allow him to get the car after all.
For
the most part, it’s not so much a mystery as a project, a race against
time to see if the boys can finish the clubhouse repairs before the
weather turns nasty again and if Trixie can continue to fool her family
into thinking that she has a raging crush on Honey’s cousin. The act is
so absurd that it’s a wonder anybody takes her seriously, but it is
entertaining to see Trixie attempting to convince everyone of her
infatuation. Her reason for doing so is clever, albeit convoluted. The
bit of mystery comes in with the temporary job that Trixie and Honey get
patrolling the Wheeler grounds. Trixie is sure there’s a poacher
loitering on the Wheeler property. But is there?
You have to
suspend your disbelief a bit with this installment, as the plot often
hinges on characters acting in unnatural ways. Then again, most of it
doesn’t feel too far removed from the character traits established in
earlier books. Trixie is determined and secretive. Honey is usually
willing to go along with Trixie’s schemes. The Bob-Whites are
hard-working and honorable. Trixie’s parents tend to roll with the
punches. Some of that seems a little too exaggerated here, but that
didn’t stop me from getting sucked into the story.
After the
thrilling climax of the fourth book, this one fizzles a bit, but I
didn’t mind all that much, since I figure maybe Trixie, who has a
tendency to jump to conclusions, ought to be off-base now and then.
Mysteries don’t always come along just because they would make things
more interesting. Then again, this is a mystery series, so readers as
well as Trixie may have some disappointment to contend with.
In
the second book, I found Honey’s cousin Ben entertaining and hoped he
would show up again, but this time, he annoyed me, except in connection
with Trixie’s six-year-old brother Bobby. Meanwhile, Di, only officially
introduced a book earlier, spends most of her time “off-screen”; her
only real contribution is to keep Ben, a practical joker, occupied and,
hence, out of everyone’s hair. Though Mart and Trixie have some nice
moments in this installment, he irritated me a bit too, mostly because
of his obsession with calling Trixie and, to a lesser extent, Honey
“squaws”. He must use the term a couple dozen times throughout the book,
and though he’s just teasing, there’s definitely a derogatory tone to
it, and reading it today, it strikes me as culturally insensitive.
Speaking
of culture, one thing I found interesting about this volume was the
number of literary allusions. I’ve been paying attention to see which
books, stories and poems were considered worthy of referencing back in
the middle of the century, so I enjoyed hearing the teens talk about Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, Romeo and Juliet and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, among others. Maybe they’ve all got books on the brain now that they’re back in school.
I’d
like to think that there are contemporary kids who sit around making
allusions to Trixie Belden books. If they do, though, I suspect that The Mystery Off Glen Road
might not be one that gets referenced all that often. It’s an enjoyable
read, but compared to its predecessors, something seems just a little
“off”.
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