Regan Takes Center Stage in Trixie Belden and the Black Jacket Mystery

It’s been more than a decade since I first read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but I remember well the sense of intrigue when I realized that Rubeus Hagrid, my favorite character in the Potterverse, had a deep, dark secret. Would it get him into trouble? Would it change my opinion of him? I had comparable concerns when I read Trixie Belden and the Black Jacket Mystery, the eighth book in the Trixie Belden series. Groomsman Bill Regan, whose relationship with the young gumshoes at the heart of the series reminds me a fair bit of Hagrid’s relationship with Harry, Ron and Hermione, steps out of the sidelines and into the spotlight here as he comes under Trixie’s scrutiny. Because I love Regan so much, I found this installment one of the most engrossing yet, especially since, after a bumpy seventh book, the characters all feel like themselves again.

This is the second book in the series written by “Kathryn Kenny,” a catch-all pseudonym for a number of ghostwriters who took the series over from original author Julie Campbell. If I hadn’t known that Campbell didn’t write this one, I’m not sure I would’ve picked up on the difference; this author does a great job of approximating her style. One scene that struck me as a little atypical was a conversation that Mr. and Mrs. Belden share, entirely out of earshot of Trixie or anyone else in the Bob-Whites, the exclusive club of which she is a part. It didn’t bother me, though; I thought it was rather nice to catch a glimpse of them in this private moment as spouses and parents.

All of the characterization here felt refreshingly right. I especially loved the change in Honey Wheeler, Trixie’s best friend and close neighbor, from volume seven. In that book, the author focuses almost entirely on Honey’s timidity and exaggerates it to a galling degree. Here, the emphasis is instead on the empathy and consideration that make her such an endearing character. As a houseguest, she deftly juggles the affections of Trixie’s three brothers, studious 16-year-old Brian, smart-alecky 14-year-old Mart and rambunctious 6-year-old Bobby. Meanwhile, despite his rude behavior to her, she persists in encouraging Trixie not to write off their surly new schoolmate Dan too quickly.

The trouble begins in this book when Trixie overhears part of a conversation between Regan and her parents. This aspect of the story made me chuckle a bit, since she steadfastly avoids eavesdropping on their chat but immediately becomes obsessed with figuring out what they were talking about. Given her burning curiosity, I found it a little hard to believe that she would be able to resist listening in and wonder if it might have made more sense for her to merely get home a few minutes later and come upon the end of the conversation when she walked in the door. Then again, it’s a mark of her respect for Regan that she thinks he is entitled to his privacy. Mostly.

What’s up with Regan? Trixie can’t figure it out, and it’s eating her. It’s not like him to be in such a state of agitation. Regan has a bigger role here than in any of the previous books, as does sage groundskeeper Mr. Maypenny. Both of them are tangled up in the matter of Dan Mangan, who not only is new to school but is working for the graying Mr. Maypenny. A tough talker who skulks about in a black jacket, he’s a loner with a Rebel Without a Cause vibe about him. When strange things – missing objects, mysterious injuries – begin to happen on the Wheeler grounds, he seems like the obvious culprit. But could there be more to the story?

This is an engrossing book that introduces a major new character and delves more deeply into the background of another. While Diana Lynch, the pretty nouveau riche girl who is a friend to Trixie and Honey, scarcely appears in the book at all – her only contributions are to furnish costumes for a winter show the Bob-Whites put on and to make eyes at Dan when he first shows up at school – the others have plenty to do. I especially like the way that Dan’s rough-and-tumble history moves Honey’s adopted brother Jim, who spent a short time living on the run and understands too well the pain of being unmoored.

For the second time in the series, this book finds the Bob-Whites working together for a noble cause, in this case replenishing the school library of their Mexican pen pals. Part of the plot involves the preparations for this outdoor event. Another recurring plot element is Bobby getting himself into some sort of potentially dangerous mischief, and his predicament in this book is truly harrowing and one of the most exciting action sequences in the series thus far. These story threads, in addition to the questions surrounding the behavior of Regan, Dan and Mr. Maypenny, make this eighth book a real page-turner and a promising indication that Campbell’s characters could thrive again under the pen of the right writer.