Kay Tracey #7 The Secret at the Windmill

In Kay Tracey #7, The Secret at the Windmill, Kay sees her old friend, Juliana Van Camp, again after several years.  Juliana is engaged, but her guardian, Mr. Skelly, forbids the wedding.  Mr. Skelly is in charge of Juliana's estate, and Juliana learns that he has squandered the money.  Juliana runs away, and Kay tries to find her.  The search leads Kay to a country home that has a Dutch windmill.

Kay and her friends are out of school for the summer and plan to go to Lost Lake again like they did during the previous summer.  Hmm.  This means that a year has passed since the first story in the series.  The only problem is that the girls have not gotten older.

On page 2, the reader learns that Betty is plump, which has never been mentioned in previous books.  Kay is described as "the acknowledged leader of the trio, outstanding in school activities, and for that matter clever at anything to which she turned her hand."  Again, Kay is just like the revised text era Nancy Drew.

This book is full of mishaps and unfortunate events.  Ethel loses her algebra book and takes Kay's book.  Kay's hand gets burned in a fire.  A dog gets run over and killed.  Kay hits her head hard.  Kay's ankle slips into hot coals.

When Mr. Skelly fires his housekeeper and goes to pick up his new employee, Kay and her friends take it upon themselves to sabotage his house.  They turn off the electricity and cover the furniture.

Later, Kay enters Juliana's house when no one is home so that she can take Juliana's clothes back to the store.  Kay does this because she has learned that Juliana will be unable to pay for the clothes due to the loss of her inheritance.  Kay is quite a meddler.

On page 115, Kay has received a letter, so she gets permission from her friends before she opens the letter to read it.  Ah, such manners.  Nowadays, people are rudely engrossed with their phones while ignoring their companions.

Kay hides $10,000 in a windmill.  She checks on the money on page 158, while reflecting that hiding the money in the windmill was not a good idea.  You think?

This book loosely reminds me of Trixie Belden #16, The Mystery of the Missing Heiress.  That book has a character named Juliana who is supposed to receive an inheritance.  The Trixie Belden book has a Dutch connection as well.

The text was not revised for the editions published by Garden City and Books, Inc.

I enjoyed the first part of the book, but I found the second half to be partially boring.