Trixie Belden #15 Mystery on the Mississippi and #16 Mystery of the Missing Heiress

In Trixie Belden #15, The Mystery on the Mississippi, the Bob-Whites travel to St. Louis, where Trixie discovers a mystery immediately.  Trixie finds papers in the wastebasket of her motel room.  Later, she learns that a man was looking for some papers, but she keeps them.  This starts a sequence of events where three people stay in constant pursuit of the Bob-Whites and try to kill Trixie.  Even when the authorities learn about the case and warn Trixie away from it, she continues her investigation with no thought for her own safety.

Dan is present in this story, but Di is away on vacation.

This really wouldn't be much of a story except for Trixie's mistakes that put her in constant danger.

I don't get much out of all of the Mark Twain and Tom Sawyer references.  It is odd that the Bob-Whites speak of Twain's characters as though they are actual historical figures.  The Bob-Whites act like they are visiting the actual places where Twain's characters lived and breathed.

The Mark Twain references are so strong that I have to wonder whether this was an attempt to get children to purchase Whitman's Mark Twain reprints.

This book is unusual in that the villains attempt to kill Trixie—and attempt to kill her more than once.

I have always really liked this book.  The part I no longer enjoy is everything having to do with Mark Twain and his literary characters.

In Trixie Belden #16, The Mystery of the Missing Heiress, Jim discovers that he has a cousin, Juliana, who will inherit $150,000 from the sale of some land on the Hudson River.  When Juliana arrives, she is a bit distant and wants to close the sale of the land as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, a girl was struck by an automobile on Glen Road.  The girl has amnesia, and everyone calls her Janie.  The Beldens have Janie come home to stay with them, and Trixie tries to figure out who Janie really is.

The mystery in this book is extremely obvious.  I don't remember whether I guessed it when young, but I certainly would have guessed it on this reading if I hadn't already read the book before.

Dan is present in this book.

This is an excellent story.