From the back of the book - "THe folding doors at this end of the gallery had been pushed back as far as they would go. Trixie grabbed one of the brass handles to steady herself and something big and black and horrible with skinny, wiggly legs sprang at her. It dropped on her outstreached hand, then slithered to the floor at her feet..."
So, book 4 introduces Di Lynch, who's been friends with Trixie since kindergarten but since her father struck it rich and became a millionaire Di had become distant from all her old friends. Sweet little Honey sees this when school starts up for the Bob-Whites again and quickly invites Di to come stay with her overnight to help pull her out of the funk she's in. It's not long before all of the Bob-Whites have embraced the beautiful Di as one of their own and she becomes a Bob-White too, jacket and all.
But Di's only problem isn't that she's suddenly rich and doesn't know how to deal with it it's that her mother's long-lost brother, Monty has suddenly appeared and he seems to be doing all he can to make Di's life a living hell. He encourages her mother to buy clothes for Di he knows she hates, tries to ruin her halloween party and then, when he finds out Trixie suspects he's an impostor and not really Di's Uncle Monty at all, he tries to drive a wedge in their friendship. It isn't long before Di realises she's been tricked, Trixie is her true friend and Uncle Monty IS an impostor! But they have no way to prove it :(
Meanwhile, the Bob-Whites have been working hard to restore the gatehouse (from book 3) so they can use it as a club house. Unfortunately one of the Wheeler's maids sees the work they've done and asks the Wheelers if she and the chauffeur can move into it when they are married and Mr Wheeler says yes because he was not aware the kids were working on it and wanted it. It looks like the Bob-Whites are going to be out of a clubhouse!
Needless to say to get the evidence they need about Uncle Monty, Trixie takes it upon herself and unintentionally put herself in danger and Uncle Monty ends up kidnapping her in the Lynch's red trailer (the Robin from book 2) after Mr Lynch sees what he's doing to his daughters life and gives Monty the trailer and $50,000 to get out of their lives. Luckily Mart believes Trixie when she claims Uncle Monty's an impostor and has his own plan to gather the evidence needed and is hiding in the trailer when Trixie is kidnapped. Together they manage to catch the attention of "Spider" Webster, a local police officer, and "Uncle Monty" is arrested and the truth comes out.
As a reward Di's father decides to give the Bob-Whites (well, Mart and Trixie anyway) the red trailer. THe Bob-Whites decide they can't accept such a big reward but decide that they could give it to Celia (the maid) and that way they can keep the clubhouse! Yay, everything works out in the end.
Oh and the police discover that Fake Uncle Monty knew so much about the Lynch's because he'd met the REAL Uncle Monty in Arizona and Mrs Lynch finally gets in contact with her real brother :) And because it's all thanks to the Bob-Whites, Real Uncle Monty invites them out to Arizona to his dude ranch during the christmas holidays, thus setting things up for book 6 - The Mystery in Arizona. But before that we've got book 5 coming up :)
Di Lynch. Hmmmm... What is there to say about Di? Well, she's apparently very beautiful and has blue-black hair and violet eyes, and this is apparently because Elizabeth Tailor was such a prominent actress at the time (1954 was the first publication) that Di was modelled after her in looks. At first glance Di seems to be suffering from a variety of problems, low self esteem, some kind of bi-polar maybe? But really I think she's just a very nervous and insecure young girl who isn't really the sharpest tool in the shed either. Despite her problems and the fact she's a bit gullible, Di is a sweetheart and fits in well with the other Bob-Whites. There seems to be no glimmer here of the feelings i remember being between Di and Mart but maybe because it's too soon. Maybe Mart having such an active role in the climax is an indication that he wanted to be part of this one especially.
Also, at one point Trixie tries to use portraits of Mrs Lynch's parents to prove that Fake Monty couldn't be their son if they both had blue eyes and his are brown. I remember this helped me know a bit more about recessive genes and things before we did them in school :)
Next up - The Mystery Off Glen Road! Which is when I think Mr Maypenny, the gamekeeper is introduced :)
BTW - Here is the cover for the "ugly" version (as collectors tend to call this set of hard covers). This is the cover I remember having my first read through all those years ago. You can see Trixie is wearing her red Bob-White jacket. In earlier publications these seem to be nice, almost formal jackets by todays standards but I remember thinking of them rather like sports jackets or more like letterman jackets (is that the word I'm thinking of, "letterman"?). Anyway, just wanted to include it because it brings back memories.
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