Another Judy Bolton Mystery from after her wedding to Peter and with Roberta living with them in their house The Living Portrait is an enjoyable read despite having a few confusing elements within it.
Judy's husband is an FBI agent and the premise is that now that he is an FBI field agent Judy will be involved in bigger cases.
The mystery in this book revolves around a portrait hanging in Judy's lounge which she bought. Horace had informed Judy that the last owner had sold it as they said it brought bad luck and that they had received phone calls telling her she should get rid of it. There were also prowlers hanging around gone house of the previous owner. This story was enough to intrigue Judy to purchase the artwork and of course mystery came with the portrait.
As I have not been reading the Judy Bolton books in order I find Roberta's age confusing. I'm not sure what age Roberta is meant to be but sometimes she says things that seem to old for the age group I am thinking she is meant to be within.
Miscommunication between Judy and Roberta becomes a part of the storyline and delays the process of understanding important elements in the mystery. Overall the mystery is a good one but is a bit predictable in regards to the painting and makes you wonder why it took Judy so long to consider it as an option especially since Judy is always described as having great intuition and is logically minded.
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Judy Bolton The Secret of the musical tree
Since Applewood have republished The Judy Bolton Series recently and these are available through the book depository it makes choosing which Judy Bolton book to read easier as I am no longer limited by what I can find on ebay at a reasonable price. For Christmas 2012 I decided I wanted to read a Christmas based story so I chose Judy Bolton and The Secret of the Musical Tree.
The story is set shortly before Christmas and Judy and Peter are married. Peter is an FBI Agent. They have a young girl living with them called Roberta.
Judy goes Christmas shopping to prepare for the upcoming festive Christmas lunch where she is having family over including her cousin Roxy Zoller.
Whilst shopping Judy is mistaken for her cousin Roxy. She is told by a Store Clerk of a present she bought the day before and she was told by a friend of Roxy's that Roxy and her father were in a plane accident. The friend that talks to Judy about this is trying to find Roxy to talk to her about a missing emerald.
Judy in talking to Roxy learns that something is wrong and her first big clue comes in the form of the present that Roxy sent which says to open before December 23rd.
Roxy and Judy change places and we learn that Roxy was being held captive by crooks trying to find out where the missing emerald is.
The mystery had is ups and downs. That said I did actually continue to read it with interest to the very end.
Some things did bother me. Judy decides to sneak around the house in Roxy's high heels instead of choosing her rubber soled shoes. This seriously leaves you wondering why Judy would make such a stupid mistake. Secondly just as soon as Judy takes Roxy's place she decides to try and escape the place though I thought she was suppose to be there because they had threatened to hurt Roxy's father if Roxy tried to escape so Judy and Roxy traded places. Also what cousins are identical? I think someone in that family has some explaining to do, you can't get close to identical out of cousins. Anyway in the end all is right for Christmas day which is just what you want in a Christmas mystery.
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