Kit Hunter #4 Bush Adventure

I am reading the fourth Kit Hunter book, Kit Hunter, Show Jumper, in Bush Adventure. During a certain scene, I suddenly realized that the cover art shows Kit on a horse trying to escape from a fire in the Australian bush country. I had not made the connection that all of the pretty yellow, orange, and red colors depict a fire. I believe the problem is that Kit looks a bit too happy in the cover art. She is smiling like she is out for a fun gallop on her horse. If the picture had shown her looking like she is worried, I might have realized that she is surrounded by fire. This is a perfect example of someone looking at something yet not really looking at it.

This book has a very good mystery and is quite exciting. Colonel Hamden, Kit, and Mary have gone to Australia with John Parker, a very wealthy rancher who just purchased some horses. The plan is for Colonel Hamden and the others to oversee the horses during the first few months they are in Australia and to make certain that the horses make a good impression, thus improving their business.

During the journey to Australia, a storm strikes the ship, and Kit worries about the safety of the horses down in the hold. When Kit checks on the horses, several of them have escaped from their stalls, and a crewman is found seriously injured. Kit learns from the crewman that he accepted money in return for making something bad happen to the horses. Kit wonders whether someone has a grudge against John Parker.

Upon her arrival in Australia, Kit overhears a suspicious conversation, giving her further reason to believe someone is out to get John Parker. At the ranch, Kit learns that Mr. Parker had fired a previous tutor for his two young children because the man had begun to meddle in his affairs. Mr. Parker has hired a new tutor, and Kit soon becomes suspicious of him.

Kit decides to withhold her suspicions of the new tutor since she is not certain of anything. Too late, Kit realizes that she should have said something, because Kit is blamed for something that the tutor did. Kit finds herself in a very difficult position and must solve the mystery in order to exonerate herself.

So far, I have liked the fourth Kit Hunter book, Bush Adventure, the best. It has so many of the traditional elements of mystery and suspense that are found in series books.