Judy Bolton #14 The Clue in the Patchwork Quilt

In Judy Bolton #14, The Clue in the Patchwork Quilt, Judy's grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Smeed, have passed away, and Judy is going through their belongings.  She discovers that Mrs. Smeed's will is missing, and that a criminal known as Blackie may have taken it.

Meanwhile, Judy finds an old telegram that had apparently had never been seen by her grandparents.  The telegram announces the birth of a baby that must be Judy's cousin.  Judy hopes that she can find this unknown cousin, but soon, she learns that this cousin knows Blackie.

On page 7, Margaret Sutton makes a sly reference to Nancy Drew.

"I'm not very eager to solve the mystery of a missing will," Judy told him.  "In books they're always hidden in old clocks and secret drawers and I'm sure Grandma wouldn't do anything as foolish as that."

On pages 41 and 42, the text mentions the radio that Judy and Horace had given their grandparents for Christmas.  Beverly Hatfield incorporated that gift into the plot of The Mystery on Judy Lane.  Since I had just read that book, reading the mention of the radio really emphasized what an excellent job Beverly Hatfield did with Judy Lane.

Sometimes it seems like Honey Dobbs could have been the inspiration for Honey Wheeler of the Trixie Belden series.  From page 87:

Honey let out a little scream of laughter.

"She's trying to say that if she has a cousin and if the cousin looks like her and if the pocketbook was intended for the cousin and if she's at the lecture and if we can find out what lecture it is and if—"

"Honey, for goodness sake, stop before you have us all crazy," commanded Peter.  "The more ifs you put in, the more complicated this sounds when it may really be a simple matter of Judy's uncle by marriage trying to get possession of the will for his daughter."

I felt like I was slipping into a Trixie Belden book as I read the passage.  The dialogue matches the speech pattern of both Honey Wheeler and Trixie Belden when they think faster than they can talk.  Jim Frayne would have been the one commanding her to stop.  It's perfect.  I mean, it's perfectly perfect.

This is an excellent book.