Book 55, 2024

Trixie Belden and the Mystery Off Old Telegraph Road by Kathryn Kenny

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I managed to knock back The Mystery Off Old Telegraph Road yesterday. It's the 20th installment in the "Trixie Belden" series of young adult mysteries, starring intrepid teenage sleuth, Trixie.

When the high school holds an art fair to raise money for the art department, Trixie is dismayed to see how few entries there are. She learns that the art department is vastly underfunded. In an effort to help, Trixie enlists the Bob-Whites to hold a bikeathon to raise money. Things are going well, until menacing phone calls threaten to derail the bikeathon. Trixie can't help but wonder if it's connected to her friend Honey's dastardly cousin, Ben, or to the charred piece of a forged Deutsche mark she finds near the abandoned house on Old Telegraph Road. Although her friends and family warn her to leave well enough alone, Trixie can't help but stick her nose into things, endangering not only the bikeathon, but herself as well.

The story was enjoyable enough. Not my favorite Trixie Belden book, nor my least favorite. The tension introduced between Trixie and Honey was new. Usually these books include plenty of Trixie and her friends just being kids, but this one focused mainly on the mystery and Trixie's investigation.

Favorite line: "We don't dare fight anymore. It's too dangerous!"

'Holding breath' line: It was only then that she realized she'd been holding her breath.

Fun enough story, but just average for a Trixie Belden book; thus, it gets an average score of three.