This is book 19 from the Judy Bolton series and is set at Christmas time.
Since Applewood have republished The Judy Bolton Series recently and these are available through the book depository it makes choosing which Judy Bolton book to read easier as I am no longer limited by what I can find on ebay at a reasonable price. For Christmas 2012 I decided I wanted to read a Christmas based story so I chose Judy Bolton and The Secret of the Musical Tree.
The story is set shortly before Christmas and Judy and Peter are married. Peter is an FBI Agent. They have a young girl living with them called Roberta.
Judy goes Christmas shopping to prepare for the upcoming festive Christmas lunch where she is having family over including her cousin Roxy Zoller.
Whilst shopping Judy is mistaken for her cousin Roxy. She is told by a Store Clerk of a present she bought the day before and she was told by a friend of Roxy's that Roxy and her father were in a plane accident. The friend that talks to Judy about this is trying to find Roxy to talk to her about a missing emerald.
Judy in talking to Roxy learns that something is wrong and her first big clue comes in the form of the present that Roxy sent which says to open before December 23rd.
Roxy and Judy change places and we learn that Roxy was being held captive by crooks trying to find out where the missing emerald is.
The mystery had is ups and downs. That said I did actually continue to read it with interest to the very end.
Some things did bother me. Judy decides to sneak around the house in Roxy's high heels instead of choosing her rubber soled shoes. This seriously leaves you wondering why Judy would make such a stupid mistake. Secondly just as soon as Judy takes Roxy's place she decides to try and escape the place though I thought she was suppose to be there because they had threatened to hurt Roxy's father if Roxy tried to escape so Judy and Roxy traded places. Also what cousins are identical? I think someone in that family has some explaining to do, you can't get close to identical out of cousins. Anyway in the end all is right for Christmas day which is just what you want in a Christmas mystery.
