Book 12 - The Mystery of the Blinking Eye

From the back of the book - "Great headed man, with blinking eye, A shaded road, a horses cry, Foreign words for all to hear, First clue is now so very near. Watch out for thieves they're everywhere, At home, on island, dead beasts lair. Where shines a beacon 'cross the sky, Beware, great danger lurks close by. Thus begins the strange prophecy that launches Trixie, Honey and the rest of the Bob-Whites upon another exciting adventure, in THE MYSTERY OF THE BLINKING EYE."

This book sees the return of Ned and the Hubbell twins from the Happy Valley Mystery. This time they're visiting the Bob-Whites and having a tour of New York City for a few days. At the airport while the Bob-Whites are waiting for their friends to arrive Trixie helps a mexican lady who was lost. The lady, who was a fortune teller, gives Trixie a pretty hand bag and later, Trixie finds that inside is a prophecy written just for her. Back in the city Trixie buys a little Incan wood statue from an antique store and soon the Bob-Whites are being pursued by a trio of crooks who are seemingly intent on getting Trixie's ugly little statue. As the tour of New York and the villains pursuit of Trixie continue each encounter seems to corespond with part of Trixie's prophecy. Eventually of course, Trixie does a stupid thing and ends up being held at gunpoint by the crooks. And, as usual it's the Bob-Whites who help save her and in the end the crooks are caught, the mystery is solved and the Bob-Whites end up helping everyone :)

Dan and Di are both in this book, YAY! Di is written as a scared, whining girly girl for the most part (when she gets any lines at all) but one of the main encounters happens because of Di so she's got some import to the story. Dan's experiences in his gang days mean he's got a bit of knowledge of New York and how bad it can be and he also plays an important part in this book (at least as important as anyone but Trixie anyway).

The highlights are Mart's magic show, the visit with Dr Joe and his model train hobby room and all the New York sights they saw (Empire State building, Statue of Liberty, Museum of Natural History, Central Park etc). Aside from the slight beef with Di's character being a bit too whiney once again this remains a favourite. Once again the ending seems a little rushed but not so much compared to many of the other books.

Next up we're off to Cobbett's Island (where ever that is) in book 13. I can't remember a thing about it so that promises to be fun :)

PS. Blinking Eye is another one I remember reading in the "ugly" editions...