A review by livlosiewicz
Trixie Belden and the Gatehouse Mystery by Julie Campbell

2.0

This was an interesting journey through time to old children’s books. I used to read this stuff all the time as a kid. Trixie and her brothers and friends are a fun, wholesome, if cliched, group of characters. Kids today might find their world of swimming and riding horses and using payphones kind of exciting. Ultimately, it doesn’t age great- nothing terrible, but some of the language (the kids use the word “dick” as an insult, which really threw me off) and violence from the bad guy (he knocks out a child!!) is outdated and in one instance maybe not appropriate for kids? The strangest thing about this book for me was the lack of red herrings. Trixie comes up with a rather dramatic explanation for the diamond’s presence and she’s essentially dead-on and needs to fill in a few blanks. To my recollection, a lot of kids’ mysteries are about solving them, but this was more about watching it unfold, through some rather mundane dialogue. Overall, I enjoyed my blast from the past while the book was on hand but was not jazzed enough to recommend to younger readers.