Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Good characters, old and new, and a fun mystery
Cons: Molinson suspecting Mart doesn’t ring true for me.
The Bottom Line:
Vandal hits the school
Trixie must clear her brother
Some flaws but still fun
Mart the Midnight Marauder?
I’ve got to admit, the title of this book introduced me to a
new word. Even though I was a teen the
first time I read The Mystery of the Midnight Marauder, I don’t think I’d ever heard the word before. It’s just not a word used in common speech. I have, of course, heard it used in
historical contexts. So even though I
sat down that first time not knowing what exactly would be happening, I quite
enjoyed the book. That hasn’t changed on
my latest reread.
And yes, here comes my standard Trixie Belden introduction
post. If you know this, feel free to
skip to the next paragraph. But if you
are new to Trixie, this was a series for kids like the Hardy Boys or Nancy
Drew. Trixie and her two older brothers
and their friends in the area just outside of Sleeyside, New York, formed a
club, the Bob-Whites of the Glen, to help each other and those in need. Along the way, fourteen-year-old Trixie kept
stumbling upon mysteries that she proved to be quite good as solving.
When Trixie wakes up that Saturday morning in March, she is
only worried about Reddy, the Belden family dog. He’s missing, and she feels like it is
something more than him off chasing rabbits.
But then her brother Mart starts acting funny. And when she and the Bob-Whites arrive at
school to help with some cleanup, they find it’s been attacked by someone
calling himself the Midnight Marauder.
The biggest shock comes when Trixie learns that Mart is
Sergeant Molinson’s prime suspect. With
the town quickly turning against teens in general because of this and other vandalism
in town, Trixie’s going to have to act fact to clear her brother and find the
real culprit. But who might it be?
The thing that drew me to this series about the time I was
growing tired of the Hardys and Nancy was the very real characters. Trixie had flaws as well as strengths and she
jumped to wrong conclusions on her way to solving the mystery at hand. The same is true of the rest of the rather
large cast of regular characters. While
the best of the character development took place in the earliest books in the
series, this book gets the characters right and their strengths and weaknesses
are on great display here. And that
includes Di and Dan, two Bob-Whites who sometimes are sidelined for entire
books. They aren’t in every scene, but
they are involved quite heavily. Because
of the large cast of regular characters, you might be a bit lost if you jumped
in here, but if you back up to the beginning of the series, you’ll quickly get
filled in on everyone. The new
characters aren’t quite as well developed, but you can see the potential in
some of them to be great characters if they had shown up again later in the
series. And they are certainly memorable
The mystery? It’s a
little obvious despite the writer’s attempts to hide the clues, although I don’t
think I guessed it as a kid. Still,
rereading it knowing the solution, it is fun to see how the author planted what
we needed to know so we could reach a satisfying conclusion.
The one thing that bothers me about this book is Sergeant
Molinson. Now, as a character, he’s
usually gruff with Trixie and her friends since they are sticking their nose
into police business and getting in serious trouble as a result. However, this is book thirty in the series
and roughly the thirteenth time Trixie’s caught a villain in their town. Would Molinson really suspect Mart of being
the marauder? I find that extremely hard
to swallow and I always have. Yes, it’s
supposed to give Trixie a motive to investigate and a get us invested further
in the story. But really? Heck, there was one book where Molinson asked
Trixie and her friends for help. That
doesn’t sound like someone who would turn around and think Mart was vandalizing
the school and their favorite hangout.
Okay, rant over.
Because, despite that flaw, I absolutely love this
book. When this series is at its best,
it provides fun moments and good mysteries, and that’s what we get in The Mystery of the Midnight Marauder.
Missed Trixie? Here's a list of the Trixie Belden Mysteries in order.
This review is part of this week's Marvelous Middle Grade Monday.
I *LOVE* mysteries! Personally, I read a ton of these books, but I've never heard of this one before. Thanks for the review! :-)
ReplyDelete~Cindy
Being a later book in the series, it might have slipped by you. Hope you enjoy.
DeleteI do remember this series but was so busy reading other works (Yes, Hardy Boys), I never opened gave it a look. Thanks for resurrecting Trixie Belden. It's time I gave it a try.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely time you gave her a try. They are fun no matter your age.
DeleteI do love a mystery. Honestly, I never read these as a kid. I read every Nancy Drew book and some of the Hardy boys, but never got to these. Maybe I will check one out. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteI know lots of people who were the same way and read Nancy and the Hardys but not these. It's never too late to give them a try.
DeleteFrankly, I did not find Sargent Mollison's suspicion of Mart to be phony, but I did think that he should not have suspected Honey and Trixie when he found them in the department store. I do think that Mart should have just confided in the Sargent that he was Miss Lonelyheart. Surely, the policeman would have kept it secret, and after confirming it with the school, he would no longer have suspected Mart
ReplyDeleteThis is Mart. With as much as Mollison has interacted with the Bob-Whites over the course of the series, there was no way that Mollison would have thought Mart was capable of what was happening.
DeleteToo true. But you haven't read the Three Investigators series. Unlike this series with the main author doing the first half dozen, and then random "ghost" authors, that series has the main author doing the first dozen before he died, and then the same 3 or so authors do the rest of the series (and are credited for their individual books). The neighbourhood policeman in this series is Chief Reynolds. He is written as quite friendly to our trio by EVERY author except one-M V Carey. Since these books alternated authors, it was QUITE the whiplash in her books when the police chief is suddenly sarcastic, rude and antagonistic to our teenage sluths!
DeleteBy the way, I wanted to tell you that I plan to do a weekly youtube book review of books I read as a child. Including the Three Investigators