I’ve reached the midpoint in my consumption of the Trixie Belden teen
detective series, which has dominated my reading list since January. My
latest was The Mystery of the Missing Heiress, the sixteenth book
and the tenth written by a ghost-writer under the name Kathryn Kenny.
This particular writer was also responsible for the seventh book, which
of all the ones I’ve read thus far was the hardest for me to get into. I
eventually succeeded, and while there are some great moments in that
book, I much prefer this one, as it seems she settled into a more
comfortable rhythm with the characters.
This volume brings
exciting news for Jim Frayne, who thought that the last of his blood
relatives died with the great-uncle who left him his fortune. When a
factory construction project kicks up a search for the rightful owner of
a local marsh, the co-president of the Bob-Whites of the Glen finds out
that he has a cousin he never knew existed, and his fellow club members
– Trixie, her brothers Mart and Brian, her best friend Honey and their
friends Dan and Di – can’t wait to meet her. When Juliana arrives,
however, her erratic and sometimes downright rude behavior confuses and
disappoints them.
Meanwhile, a young woman who loses her memory
after being the victim of a hit-and-run occupies much of the Bob-Whites’
time, especially after she temporarily moves into Crabapple Farm, the
cozy Belden residence. Why is Juliana acting so strangely? What is the
true identity of the girl they call Janie? Who is the strange man Trixie
has seen skulking about? It’s all so mysterious…
Trixie is a
super sleuth, but she is a little slow to catch on in this book. My
guess is that most readers figure out at least part of the mystery
before she does. Nonetheless, that didn’t bother me all that much. I was
more annoyed by the peculiar premise and uneven characterization in Mysterious Code.
Here, the established characters all seem more or less right. Bobby,
the youngest Belden, and Mart, the second-oldest, lack the distinctive
speech patterns they have in many of the other books, but otherwise the
personalities seem pretty intact. This book also marks the return of
several characters from the seventh, most notably Mrs. Vanderpoel, a
cheerful Dutch widow, and Spider, a helpful young cop, and I enjoyed
them even more this time around.
Other traits I noticed with
this author before come to light again. We spend a lot of time in
Trixie’s head, sometimes reading several paragraphs of her thoughts in
italics. The added perspective is nice but often unnecessary. Similarly,
the author seems to spend a lot of time on exposition and often repeats
herself. For instance, more than once, she refers to Brian as a future
doctor, seemingly for purely explanatory purposes. That gets a bit
redundant. On the other hand, I like the continued prominence of Reddy.
This author must have been a dog person because the Beldens’ Irish
Setter has a major part to play in both the seventh and sixteenth books.
While we don’t spend as much time with Juliana as one would
initially guess, Janie becomes almost like an eighth Bob-White here, and
her sweet disposition makes her plight the most engaging part of the
book for me despite the fact that I had a pretty good guess as to where
she might belong early on. I also enjoyed the fact that this is the only
book in the series thus far to involve my home state of Pennsylvania.
Granted, we don’t actually spend any time there, but a family vacation
in the Poconos is mentioned several times. Now if they’d just opted for
the Appalachians in Little Pine Valley, the sense of familiarity would
have been overwhelming.
Missing Heiress is not among the
most mysterious books in the Trixie Belden series. To my amusement, it
does include the classic line that concludes nearly every Scooby-Doo
villain’s confession: “And I would’ve gotten away with it, too…”
However, the real appeal of this book lies elsewhere. While the enigmas –
and Trixie’s sleuthing skills – are a bit weak, it is an enjoyable read
that demonstrates the Bob-Whites’ commitment to teamwork and helping
others and introduces a truly lovable new character who I look forward
to encountering again.
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