A Children's Classic Mystery!

So at the beginning of the year, 5 Minutes for Books announced that they were going to be hosting a Children's Classic Mystery challenge for the first half of the year.  And I thought to myself, "Great, a chance to reread some Trixie Belden (which I hadn't done in years) and maybe some Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and Encyclopedia Brown...."

Here it is the last month of the challenge, and I finally have a book I've read.

Just last week, I reread The Mystery of the Missing Heiress, the sixteenth book in the Trixie Belden mystery series.  I was actually a little surprised at just how long I've let it go between reading books in this series.  I mean, I love these characters.  They were some of my best friends in high school.  And they have introduced me to some of my best friends now thanks to the two message boards for the series I am part of (links on the right under Where to Find Me if you are a fan and want to join.)  It's been four years.

And I love the characters still.  It was actually smiling at most of their interactions.  It was great to be in the presence of the Bob-Whites again.

However, I've got to admit, I've never really liked this book.  See, I read the next book in the series first when I was originally reading these books, and it actually includes some of the characters introduced here, a rarity at this point in the series.  So I knew the broad strokes of the plot before I started reading it.  The plot just seems obvious to me as a result.  I'm not sure if it is because I already knew the outcome or if the way the book was written helps give it away.  I just want to yell at the characters, "This is happening because of X, Y, and Z!  Can't you see it?!!!"

So no, this isn't the best book in the series.  But I didn't mind rereading it because I got to spend time with old friends.  I can't let it go this long again before I reread another Trixie Belden book.