From the back of the book - "Trixie, feeling very wide awake, wandered over to peer out of the window which opened onto the west patio. It was as bright as day out there, except for one shadowy corner. And then she heard, rather than saw, that somebody was hovering outside in the shadows. A soft sighing sound rose and became a sob. Somebody was out there..."
So, maybe this book should be called "The Mystery of Where's the Mystery?"
So, Di's Uncle Monty (the real one, not the fake from book 4) has asked the Bob-Whites to come spend Christmas at his dude ranch in Arizona but they'll have to skip a week of school and fly out with Mr Lynch on his way to a business trip. Most of the Bob-Whites are excited except Trixie, she doubts she'll be allowed to go after the visit her parents had from her guidance councillor about her poor grade in English and the fact she's failing math. But the boys come to the rescue and Jim and Brian agree to tutor Trixie each day they're away and it's all set, they're off to Arizona!
Things take a turn for the worse as soon as they arrive when Uncle Monty tells them that unfortunately he's going to have to send them straight home. The family he employs to work at his dude ranch has run off without a word, leaving only their daughter in law (the cook, Maria) to help Monty take care of the ranch, he managed to hire a young indian girl, Rosita, to help out but even so he isn't sure he's going to be able to manage to keep his ranch open during the holiday season, let alone have the Bob-Whites stay. Trixie comes up with a solution, the Bob-Whites can help out, the boys can help in the kitchen and dining room and the girls can take care of the cleaning. At first the other Bob-Whites are hesitant but once they realise that together they'll be able to get their work done and still have time each afternoon to have fun they all agree and the matter is settled.
So Trixie now has to balance her work as a maid, the math tutoring, work on her english report about Navajo indians and still have time to have fun. Not to mention she wants to solve where the Orlando family disappeared to (the family that was working for Uncle Monty), especially after Maria's little boy Davey threatens to run away to join them. She also wants to know why Rosita dropped out of school to work for Monty and why, if she's a daughter of a Navajo silversmith where all her jewellery is and why does the cowboy, Tenny, speak like a cowboy only when people can hear him? On top of that there's three guests at the ranch that don't seem to be having any fun that Uncle Monty asks for help with. But, no criminals or real mysteries for Trixie to solve this time around.
So, the boys "tutoring" Trixie, hmmm. I should totally get a job as a tutor because apparently all you do is tell the student to do problems in a math book and then get angry when they get the answers wrong, end of tutoring job. Brian and Jim are total buttheads to Trix over this.
Jim and Trixie - We get to see another small glimpse of the feelings there when Trixie is obviously pleased to be Jim's partner for the square dance.
The Mystery in Arizona was the last book by Julie Campbell Tatham, the original author of the Trixie series. From here on out the series is written by a bunch of different authors, all working under the name of "Kathryn Kenny". When I return to the blogosphere (probably later today) I'm going to write a short blog about this stuff and some other stuff. And then we're on to the Mysterious Code!!!! Be here for all the excitement!
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