The Bob-Whites See Red in The Mystery of the Memorial Day Fire

The other day, a hefty box of books arrived on my doorstep. Its contents: 25 Trixie Belden books. While not every book I have yet to read is among them, I can go back to reading in order, and it will be a while before I might have to skip one again. While I waited for the spoils from my eBay victory to arrive, however, I read the last book in my library system: The Mystery of the Memorial Day Fire, the 35th book in the series and the 29th written by a ghost writer under the name Kathryn Kenny.

This book opens with 14-year-old Trixie, her brothers Mart and Brian, her best friend Honey Wheeler, Honey’s adopted brother Jim and their neighbors Di Lynch and Dan Mangan eagerly awaiting the titular parade. While they wait, they make the acquaintance of Jane Dix-Strauss, a rather pushy reporter who snaps a photo of the septet, collectively known as the Bob-Whites of the Glen. Jane’s brusque manner irritates Trixie, while the others are just tickled at the prospect of a group photo, which apparently nobody has ever bothered to take before, though I must say that as much time as they spend together, you would think someone would have thought to do that before. At any rate, photos and reporters are soon driven from their minds when a nearby building explodes. They all make it home safely, but who could have caused such a thing to happen?

This is one of the last books in the series, so I wasn’t too surprised to see that, like the 33rd book, it contains references to a previous mystery. In this case, I couldn’t tell which book it was right off the bat, but they spend so much time discussing the backstory of a supporting character that I figured they must be rehashing a previous plot. A little sleuthing of my own led me to discover that Nick Roberts, the boy whose father is both prime victim and suspect in this case, was introduced in The Mystery Off Old Telegraph Road. So prominent is his role here that it seems this book could be considered a direct sequel, and it makes sense that both were reportedly written by the same ghost writer.

As with many books in the series, this one has the Bob-Whites putting their energy into a charitable project, though in this case, they too stand to benefit. To help boost the morale of Nick’s father, whom they believe to be innocent, and increase his business while he figures out his next move in the wake of his store’s destruction, they sell custom t-shirts and caps for his company, taking a commission from the sales to build up their sadly depleted club fund so they can repair their winter-battered clubhouse. At one point, Mart goes through the treasurer’s report, and considering that each of the Bob-Whites earns money weekly and that the group often receives bonuses related to the solving of mysteries, it doesn’t seem as though they spent nearly enough to be so bankrupt. One also wonders why they waited until late May to think about fixing the clubhouse up, though I suppose they may have just preferred to have school out of the way so they could devote several hours a day to the cause.

Once the mystery gets cooking, it’s pretty engaging, with more mysterious happenings, some false trails and a rather clever, if overly convenient, clue. It’s always nice to see the Bob-Whites working together for a good cause, and they’re all fairly integral to the process. While Trixie and Honey are the ones most intimately involved on the mystery end of things, the others have a role there as well. It’s also fun to see Trixie really stirred up about something, and she gets a great line that resonates with a starry-eyed dreamer like me.  On the other hand, while the characters mostly seem themselves in the later part of the novel, there are moments that seem off, like Honey going into hysterics over a cancelled t-shirt order or Trixie saying that there hadn’t been an arson in Sleepyside in recent memory when several books set in the Bob-Whites’ hometown incorporate the intentional starting of a fire.

Mostly, though, it’s the beginning that bugs me, and that’s because the Bob-Whites, but especially Brian and Mart, come across as so self-righteous. When the building explodes, they high-tail it home, but a majority of the spectators gathered for the parade remain where they are long enough to become an obstruction to the fire department. The Bob-Whites spend several pages railing against the crowd for their rudeness and stupidity, and while I agree that getting out of the way was the right call, not everyone can think so clearly in a crisis, and it isn’t as though the Bob-Whites pulled out a bullhorn and shared their wisdom with the rest of the community. Moreover, it’s a natural impulse to want to know what is going on. I appreciated the little speech Trixie’s dad gives defending those in the crowd, though it doesn’t quite put a stop to the griping. While I understand their malaise over the fact that further damages might have been prevented if the crowd had dispersed immediately, it doesn’t seem very fair to keep talking as though every person wandering around in confusion had malicious intent.

Once the book progresses past the immediate aftermath of the incident and the Bob-Whites stop seeing red, it becomes a much more pleasant read. There’s enough fire to stir up trouble in this book; we really don’t need the Bob-Whites on the verge of spontaneous combustion.