The Secret of the Musical Tree - Margaret Sutton

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.

Trixie Belden The Sasquatch Mystery

This is probably the hardest Trixie Belden book I have found to get interested in. In fact for the first 10 chapters I didn't like it. I thought that Trixie's cousins, Cap, Knut and Hallie held too much of the story and Trixie almost came across as a loner, an outside looking on the events rather than being the focal point of them that she usually is. Jim I felt suffered even worse as I can't remember him doing anyhting of use for the first 10 chapters and seemed like a tag along friend of the Belden Boys.

As for Miss Trask tell me what kind a chaperon watches one of the kids in her care disappear after getting in a fight with a Sasquatch in front of her eyes and decides that its okay for the kids to stay there and also doesn't seem too bothered that the police aren't taking the disappearance seriously and just waiting for the kid to show up.

Okay one last vent then I will get up to the good bits I promise. And as for a Sasquatch Mystery anyway who came up with that as a lame theme? Someone who had spent their time watching 70s shows like the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman who eventually went the Big Foot root when running short of ideas right?

Now if you can hold out for the stupidity of the first 10 chapters to be over then you do get to a good story (funnily when they drop the Sasquatch scenario and concentrate on people villains.)

Though why does poor Di have to suffer so much? The author mustn't like her as poor Di seems to be cast as "dumb" in this book. Which is one better than poor Dan who despite the cast of thousands still can't get a spot on this camping trip even though he is suppose to have a thing for Hallie Belden. Damn the 70's series that doesn't allow for romance in their books.

The treasure in the Tower: The Hardy Boys Series

I listened to the Audio book version as I have taken up listening audio books whilst at the gym.

This is the first book in The Hardy Boys Series and a well developed start to the series. The books are written under a psydonum name of which was a part of the Stratmeyers group. The author of the first Hardy Boys book stated that he made a conscious decision to spend time developing The Hardy Boy characters during writing this book. This was not always done by authors as the writers did not receive royalties for the book sales only a one off payment. This situation often encouraged writers to stick strictly to the outline they were given by Stratemeyser and churn out the book as quickly as possible in order to receive their payment and start on the next book outline they were sent.

Frank and Joe Hardy were developed as popular boys who played baseball and dated girls at their high school (with the boys having favorite dates.) Joe comes across as more impulsive and excitable than Frank. The boys had a sound family life with their father having the exciting work of working as a detective.The story evolves with Frank and Joe working on the same case as their father in order to help a school friend and collect a substantial financial reward. I enjoyed this story, a great start to a great series.