Book 11 - The Mystery at Bob-White Cave

From the back of the book - " "What is it, Brian?" Trixie asked. "Bats. Thousands of them. They're asleep. Gosh!" The startled bats roared into flight, circling the cave clockwise and beating against the Bob-Whites, almost knocking them down. The gorls waved their arms wildly and ran out of the cave. Slim, pushing the girls aside, ran ahead of them. The whirring wings of the frenzied bats sounded like a roar of an express train..."

This time the Bob-Whites, minus Di and Dan (of course, BOO!) are spending some time at Uncle Andrews fishing lodge in the Ozarks. While they're there, Trixie reads an article in a magazine about the hunt by scientists for some blind cave fish at three stages in the evolution, sighted, blind but with eye bumps and without any eyes at all. Whoever can come up with all three specimens will be awarded $500! The Bob-Whites think this is a great idea as they'd like to contribute it to a station wagon for handicapped kids at their school (or something like that anyway).

Of course it wouldn't be a Bob-White holiday if there wasn't mysteries aplenty! There's the englishman they save from drowning, Slim, the cave guide who turns out to be a douche and when he gets fired a fire breaks out and almost destroys the cabin of Uncle Andrews housekeeper. There's also the mystery of the ghost cabin and the ghostly man that's been seen in the area.

But foremost in Trixies mind is the hunt for the ghostfish, which is what causes her to be in a hole in a cave when it floods due to a sudden storm, almost drowning her!!!

It's funny how the Bob-Whites refuse to accept donations for the station wagon and are determined to work for the $500 BUT Uncle Andrew buys them a stack of caving equipment, lamps, torches, ropes, helmets, etc and they have no issues with that?

Once again it's Trixie's impetuous nature that causes most of the excitement in this story, with the others there to help clean up the messes she makes. They talk about how she's always a good judge of people but it seems to me she gets it wrong as often as right (look at just Dan as an example).

The Mystery at Bob-White Cave was one of my favourite Trixie books during my first read through all those years ago and it's easy to see why. The story jumps right into it and the action is well paced. The characters are fun, they do and see some really fun and cool stuff. Their motivation this time is once again something honourable and charitable. And of course, it all works out in the end, though not exactly as you'd expect :) Trixie's admiration of Jim and it's reciprocation is once again obvious in this book but without being explicitly stated.

Next up is another favourite of mine, the Mystery of the Blinking Eye. Can't wait to get into that :)