Kay Tracey #10 The Murmuring Portrait

In Kay Tracey #10, The Murmuring Portrait, Kay, Wilma, and Betty are robbed by Monty the Mole while on a picnic.  Later, the girls hear about the Moleson Mansion, and they believe that Mrs. Moleson might be Monty's mother.  While at the mansion, the girls learn that Mrs. Moleson is in terrible health.  Mrs. Moleson's doctor and nurse appear to be trying to gain control of her fortune.  Kay searches for Monty while she tries to keep Mrs. Moleson's fortune safe.

Kay meets a young woman, Miss Robbin, who was engaged to Monty.  Miss Robbin accidentally drops her engagement ring, and Kay keeps it on purpose.  Kay plans to show the ring to Monty, if she can find him.  Keeping the ring is completely inappropriate and it's incredible that Kay does this, even though she does intend to give the ring back.

Kay becomes a thief again later in the story.  She sees a portrait that she knows once belonged to Monty.  The man refuses to give it back, so Kay takes it when she has a chance.  When Kay tells Cousin Bill what she has done, he tells her that it was okay for her to take the portrait.  This is amazing.  Kay really doesn't know if the man has a legitimate claim to the portrait, and she should not have stolen it.

Besides Kay's inappropriate behavior, this book is full of the usual crazy events.  Monty gets impaled by a pitchfork, but he isn't killed.  Monty steals an ambulance and crashes it.  Kay gets lots of bloody cuts on her hands and lower arms.  The girls hear strange mumbling from behind the portrait.  A man known as the Ruler controls all the vagabonds and disabled people who live in the area.

The Garden City and Books, Inc. editions were not revised except for the final page of the story.

The Cupples and Leon edition leaves the fate of the painting hanging at the end.  Kay is supposed to dispose of the portrait.  She doesn't want to keep it, and the text states that the disposal of the painting provides her with another adventure.  This is odd, since the reader never hears anything further about the painting in later adventures.

The final page was revised in the Garden City and Books, Inc. editions to have Kay sell the portrait to an art gallery.  At least in those editions, the reader knows what happened to the painting.

I always feel like Kay Tracey is at her best when the story is crazy from start to finish.  This one certainly delivers.  I greatly enjoyed it.