Trixie Belden #39 The Mystery of the Galloping Ghost

In Trixie Belden #39, The Mystery of the Galloping Ghost, Trixie and Honey travel to Minnesota with Regan to stay on a ranch.  At the ranch, Regan hopes to learn some new techniques that he can use with the Wheelers' horses.  Trixie meets a ghost hunter, and she even sees what might be a ghost riding a horse.  The ranch is in danger of being lost to a developer, and Trixie suspects trickery.

One of the ranch's horses is named Jupiter.  This is odd, since one of the Wheelers' horses is Jupiter.

The ranch owner's name is Bill Murrow.  The author refers to him as Bill throughout the book, and this kept confusing me since Regan's first name is Bill.  I don't understand why the surname wasn't used.  It would have helped me for sure.

The plot is very flimsy, especially towards the end.  For instance, a horse goes missing, and everyone searches for the horse for at least a couple of hours.  It seems to me that they search in the entire surrounding area.  Later, Trixie realizes where the horse must be, and she goes directly there and finds it.  The location is rather close to the ranch, close enough that Trixie and Honey can walk there.  This doesn't make sense.

While I consider this book to be overall good, it bored me for the most part.

As I read Trixie Belden #35 through 39, I kept thinking of the Nancy Drew Diaries series, which is the current incarnation of Nancy Drew that is being published by Simon and Schuster.  I can make multiple comparisons.  The authors of the final Trixie Belden books didn't try very hard, just like the authors of the Nancy Drew Diaries series put forth little effort.  The Trixie Belden authors had to have looked at the publisher information sheet for the series, but it's more like they simply pulled names off of it and used however they wanted, kind of like Mad Libs (see Nancy Drew Diaries #10 review).

Trixie is "smug" in these final books, which is like when Nancy Drew or her friends "smirk" in the Nancy Drew Diaries series.  Both words annoy me so much.

And now I will stop myself before I go off into a long rant about the Nancy Drew Diaries series.  But I will make one final remark.  What was done to Trixie Belden in the final Trixie Belden books was bad but nowhere near as bad as what has been done to Nancy Drew in some of the Nancy Drew Diaries books.  Just read my review of Nancy Drew Diaries #16 to see how Nancy Drew has been turned into a coward.  The inconsistencies of the final Trixie Belden books are bad, but at least Trixie mostly retains her correct character traits, unlike Nancy Drew in the Nancy Drew Diaries series.