Kay Tracey #18 The Mysterious Neighbors

In Kay Tracey #18, The Mysterious Neighbors, the Traceys vacation in Mrs. Ball's houseboat on the Sharon River.  Ethel Eaton also vacations on the river in a houseboat.  Some strange men, called the "mysterious neighbors," are spending time on the Sharon River in their houseboat, the Ajax.

Bill Tracey is helping Frank Leeson with a case involving his company.  Harry Spicer is after Mr. Leeson and is threatening him.  Mr. Leeson and his daughter also decide to vacation on the Sharon River in a houseboat.  So pretty much everyone in the world is on the Sharon River in a houseboat.

Kay and her friends are on summer vacation, which is the third summer vacation in the series.

Kay's Aunt Harriet sends her a present.  Ah, good old Aunt Harriet.  The Dana Girls also have an Aunt Harriet, named after Harriet Stratemeyer Adams.

This book contains some animal cruelty, but fortunately, the animal is not injured.  Mrs. Ball's cat, Midnight, is lassoed and yanked into the river.  The cat is then yanked around in the water with the rope while it struggles not to drown.  Fortunately, Kay rescues the cat from the perpetrator.

The houseboat catches on fire on page 48.  Later, Cousin Bill is abducted and placed in the hold of a government ship.  Near the end of the book, Cousin Bill's car is stolen.

In the Garden City and Books, Inc. editions, very minor edits were made to the first two pages and the last page.  Otherwise, the texts appear to be exactly the same.

I enjoyed this final book in the Kay Tracey series.

I made some observations as I read through the series.  Wilma's poetry is the worst in the books by Mildred Wirt Benson (#3-12 and 14).  The poetry is also pretty bad in the books written by Elizabeth Duffield Ward (#1 and 2).  The poetry is not as bad in the books written by Anna Perot Rose Wright, because her text often does not include the verses (#15-18).  Edna Stratemeyer Squier has the best poetry by Wilma, because the poetry is kept down to just two lines (#13).

I noticed that chemistry is very important to this series, appearing as an important part of the plot of a number of the books.  I wonder if Edna Stratemeyer Squier was especially fond of chemistry, since she wrote most of the outlines for this series.

Betty and Wilma do not have beaus.  Kay does have a beau, Ronald, but he is often not around.

I have always been quite fond of the Kay Tracey series, and my opinion remained the same upon this reading.  I still really like the Kay Tracey series.

Kay Tracey #17 The Mansion of Secrets

In Kay Tracey #17, The Mansion of Secrets, Cousin Bill is handling the estate of Manuel Greely.  Greely's grandnephew, Peter, is the heir and plans to sell the old mansion and surrounding property to a westerner who wants to open a dude ranch.  Unexpectedly, Kay and her friends find blueprints that show the location of many hiding places in the house.  The girls check a few of the locations and find jewelry, rare bibles, and other valuable items.

An intruder is discovered in the house, and later, someone steals the blueprints.  Cousin Bill hires a watchman, but even he cannot prevent the intruder from entering the house again and again.  Can Kay and her friends find the valuables before they are stolen?

The plot of this book is somewhat similar to the Nancy Drew book, The Sign of the Twisted Candles, with hidden valuables throughout the home.

This is the kind of story that a collector can appreciate.  Mr. Greely was a collector, and the hidden valuables are items from his collection.  The book includes a passage explaining about the rare bibles, and the content is interesting.

This book has many crazy and exciting events.  The girls get trapped in a closet by a dog.  Wilma gets an electric shock and is knocked out.  Ronald falls down a laundry chute to the basement, and Kay joins him soon after because she walks through a dark passage without a flashlight.  Kay's finger gets smashed and stuck between a heavy file cabinet and the wall.  A big pheasant flies through a window, breaking it.

On pages 105 and 106, Ronald "petulantly" complains, "You promised to spend the day with me."  Ronald doesn't realize that he is supposed to do the bidding of the teenage sleuth.  That's his role, and he shouldn't expect more. 

The later editions by Garden City and Books, Inc. have the same text as the original Cupples and Leon books.

This story flows quite well.  I read it quickly and enjoyed every scene.  This book is excellent.

Kay Tracey #16 The Double Disguise

In Kay Tracey #16, The Double Disguise, Kay spends the night with Miss Janey, whose luggage has just been stolen by a young man.  During the night, Kay sees Miss Janey speak to a strange woman dressed in a black robe.  Kay learns that this woman is Nanna, and Miss Janey trusts her completely.  Nanna has told Miss Janey where she can find her luggage.

Kay learns that Miss Janey is heir to a valuable chemical formula.  The papers have been stolen, and someone else has announced the discovery.  Kay must prove that Miss Janey's formula was stolen before she loses her inheritance.

Miss Janey reminds me of Mrs. Putney from the Nancy Drew book, The Ghost of Blackwood Hall.

The various mishaps include the following.  Ethel gets in a car crash.  Betty and Wilma are buried in an avalanche.  Kay is saved from a fire in Miss Janey's chemistry lab.  A carriage and horses plunge over a cliff, and the horses are put down since their legs are broken.

Ethel tells everyone that Kay has been cheating in Chemistry and that she has stolen Miss Janey's formula.  At first, the school officials believe Ethel's story, but Kay is later able to convince them of her innocence.

Kay discovers the solution to Miss Janey's formula.  Of course she does.  Kay is brilliant.

The first page of the Garden City and Books, Inc. editions was partially rewritten.  Otherwise, the text of the Cupples and Leon edition appears to be identical to the later editions.

I overall enjoyed this story, but I found it somewhat lacking.

Kay Tracey #15 The Lone Footprint

In Kay Tracey #15, The Lone Footprint, Kay and Cousin Bill's Uncle Byram owns a resort, Owl's Hole.  The resort has had a series of disturbances and thefts, and the Traceys stay at the resort to try to find out what is happening.  Kay spots a lone footprint, seemingly made by a man with one leg.

Meanwhile, Ethel stays at the resort, spreading malicious rumors that cause residents to leave.  Kay must learn the truth before Uncle Byram loses Owl's Hole.

In this book, Kay is in a boat crash, her forehead gets cut, she falls into a deep ravine and disappears, and she gets a concussion

Ethel finds a dead skunk on her porch, and since Kay is nearby, Ethel assumes that Kay did it.  Ethel is forced to dispose of the skunk.

On page 64, Jupiter Jones buys red paint for his barn.  Some will recognize this name from the Three Investigators series, and it's use in this book is purely coincidental.

On page 94, Ethel and her aunt spread a rumor that Kay has infantile paralysis.  I had forgotten the meaning of the term, so I looked it up.  Ah, polio.  I can see where that would cause a panic.

On page 183, we learn that the lone footprint was made by someone on crutches who has one leg that doesn't touch the ground.  But wouldn't the crutches leave marks?  This plot doesn't make any sense.

The text was not revised for the later Garden City and Books, Inc. reprints.

I somewhat lost interest towards the end of the story, but I never was very interested.  The plot goes around in circles.  This is my least favorite book in the Kay Tracey series.

Kay Tracey #14 The Sacred Feather

In Kay Tracey #14, The Sacred Feather, Brantwood's library burns down.  Abou Menzel is accused of arson, but Kay and Cousin Bill feel certain that Menzel is innocent.  However, even the Traceys have some doubt as additional buildings burn and Menzel is spotted near at least one of them.

Kay and her friends see a performance by a fire-worshiper known as the Sacred Feather.  Kay soon believes that this man might be responsible for the fires, and Abou Menzel confirms that the Sacred Feather is a member of a secret organization.

On page 1, a peddler comes to the back door.  Why do peddlers tend to come to the back door in series books?

On page 28, some police officers are suspicious of Kay until they hear her name.  "Kay Tracey!  Not the Kay Tracey!"  Kay's reputation is her ticket to getting out of trouble.

When the Brantwood library burns, I couldn't help thinking about what kinds of books would have been in a library in 1940.  It makes me shudder to think of them burning.

On page 32, Kay thinks she sees Abou Menzel and wants Cousin Bill to stop the vehicle.  Cousin Bill replies, "I don't see that it would do the slightest good, Kay.  We haven't had our dinners yet and it is late."  What a brush-off!

On page 41, Wilma recites the first verse of a poem.  When Kay tells her that the poem is pretty, Wilma responds, "There are nine more verses.  Would you like to hear them?"  Fortunately, Betty keeps Wilma from reciting them.

Page 47 contains a passage that probably never sounded odd until recent years.  "Ethel began to berate Kay, but Miss Hanson cut the tirade short by telling the former girl to change her clothes and wait in the office until gymnasium class was dismissed."  The words "former girl" jumped out at me, and for a second I thought that Ethel wasn't a girl any longer.  I don't think that I would have thought anything of the phrase even 20 years ago, but now, I read it differently.

Kay has her usual series of bizarre mishaps, including being stuck on an elevator between floors, getting knocked out, nearly being hit by a runaway trailer, and getting doused in oil with a fire started at her feet.

Kay is incredibly brave.  She runs into a burning building and almost gets killed.  Kay also climbs 20 yards down a steep cliff to rescue a child, and Kay doesn't use a safety line.

The text was not changed for the Garden City and Books, Inc. editions.

This is a very good book.  I really enjoyed it, although the story dragged a little bit towards the end.

Kay Tracey #13 The Forbidden Tower

In Kay Tracey #13, The Forbidden Tower, Kay and the Pathfinders Club decide to journey by bus to Florida.  Unfortunately, Ethel's Bittersweet Society also journeys to Florida by bus.

Kay and her friends meet Mrs. Dodd, whose granddaughter is missing.  Kay promises to help find Emily.  Kay soon suspects that Mrs. Dodd's neighbor, Jasper Jackson, might be responsible for Emily's disappearance.  Kay also believes that Jackson is involved in some kind of illegal activity.

This book was written by Edna Stratemeyer Squier, who wrote most of the outlines for this series.  The craziness of the Kay Tracey series is all Edna.  With Edna as the actual author, this book delivers all the craziness one could want, and I love it!

This is one of the three books that was never reissued by other publishers, and in this case, it seems apparent why this title was dropped.  The plot is incredibly crazy, and the text is racist, including describing someone as having a "kinky head" or having eyes that bulge in fear.  One character is named Sambo.  The text also describes Native Americans as "red men."  And that's not all of it.

Wilma's poetry is much less annoying in this book.  Yay, Edna!

The "Bittersweet Society" has to be the worst club name ever.

It's really odd how Kay and her friends randomly meet Mrs. Dodd near home, and Mrs. Dodd conveniently lives near their destination in Florida.  Just a few pages later, the girls also chance to meet Perry Amerman, Mrs. Dodd's grandson.

Perry Amerman stays overnight at Kay's home in Kay's bedroom.  Hmm.  Okay, this is not what you're thinking, but it's still odd.  Kay is displaced from her bedroom so that Perry can stay in it.  Why on earth is the girl displaced from her bedroom instead of Cousin Bill?

It gets even better.  On page 23, Lee Jackson goes to the Tracey home in an attempt to retrieve the wallet he stole from Perry Amerman.  He sees an open window, which happens to be Kay's, and uses a ladder to climb into the bedroom.  Perry sees him, and the two men fight, knocking over furniture.  The Traceys hear the commotion, but the bedroom door is locked.  Kay goes outside, sees the ladder, and climbs it.  She observes the fight, goes down the ladder, then Cousin Bill climbs the ladder into the bedroom to stop the fight.  I love it.

During the journey to Florida, the Pathfinders stay at a hotel, and the coincidences continue.  The maid knows Mrs. Dodd and Jasper.  Her brother is Sambo.

On page 72, Wilma is hit in the cheek with a whip but somehow only receives a "stinging blow."

On page 77, the girls arrive at the Dodd estate.  "After tapping with the knocker they were admitted by a colored servant carrying a pail.  She apologized for her strange costume, which made the three chums think of a masquerade.  The woman said she was on her way to the raspberry patch to pick berries for preserving."

A pail makes Kay and her friends think of a masquerade.  Huh?  What is wrong with them?  I don't see anything odd about a servant carrying a pail.  I would assume that the servant was in the middle of cleaning or some other activity common to servants.

On page 85, Ethel falls into a cistern.  It's too bad she doesn't stay there.

On page 88, Kay, Betty, and Wilma investigate Mrs. Dodd's house while a wrecking crew is tearing it down.  "Bricks and mortar were tumbling everywhere."  The girls then enter a passageway that they find in the basement, but they get trapped when the rubble from the house falls down into the tunnel.

On pages 102 and 103, Kay, Betty, and Wilma are in a storm.  All three suddenly get blown onto the roof of Kay's cottage.  And then immediately, the storm is over.

On page 129, a man who is playing ghost with a sheet catches on fire from a lighted cigarette.

In an instant the fragile draperies about the ghost were in a blaze.  Away it ran, the breeze fanning the ignited cloth.  The figure howled now in agony.

It was a man in masquerade!  Quickly he disappeared into the night, crying in distress.

The girls leave immediately with no concern as to whether the man is okay.  Wow.

On page 143, Kay and her friends are minding their own business having dinner.  A young Indian girl is with them, having stowed away in their car.  The girl's father suddenly appears, after having been told by Ethel that they took his daughter.  "The Indian burst in upon them, his eagle-like eyes spying his daughter.  In his hand the father carried a tomahawk.  Menacingly he converged upon the group."  Yikes.

On page 168, a fire has started in the woods.  When the firefighters arrive, the chief immediately demands, "Who started this fire?" before the men begin fighting the fire.  Shouldn't the fire be extinguished before interrogating the witnesses?  It turns out that Ethel started the fire to get revenge on Kay and her friends.  Nice.

I loved this book years ago, and I still love it.  Kay Tracey is at her best when the plots are crazy, and this one is the craziest one of all.

Kay Tracey #12 In the Sunken Garden

In Kay Tracey #12, In the Sunken Garden, Kay is mistaken for another girl who apparently looks just like her.  Kay is eager to meet her double, Mary Jane, but the girl proves to be elusive.  Soon, Kay is accused of causing a car accident and is sued.  Mary Jane was allegedly responsible, so Kay must find Mary Jane before she is forced to pay damages.

Kay's search leads her to an old mansion where a mysterious figure dances in the sunken garden at night.  This mysterious dancer may hold the key to the mystery.

Kay is in peril soon after the story begins.  On page 7, Kay cuts her hand with a kitchen knife, and blood gushes out.

On page 40, a heavy piece of wood crashes through a skylight during a storm.

Kay pretends to be Mary Jane in multiple scenes.  She dines with Mary Jane's beau, who proposes marriage.  Kay has to find a way to avoid answering the proposal.

On page 114, Mrs. Tracey makes the following observation.

"I can't make head nor tail of it myself," confessed Mrs. Tracey.  "You speak of so many persons who seem to have no connection with one another."

But that's a typical Kay Tracey mystery, and of course all of these people are connected.

On page 153, Kay looks for Mary Jane in the mansion.  Mary Jane's dog, Jerry, indicates interest in a certain locked room.  Kay calls out and receives no answer.  Kay tells the dog, "Mary Jane couldn't be in there now or she would answer."  Um, I can think of several reasons why Mary Jane wouldn't or couldn't answer.  And of course, Kay soon realizes that Mary Jane is indeed in that room.

On page 176, we learn that Kay and Mary Jane not only look just like each other, they are also the same size, including their feet.  Kay can wear all of Mary Jane's clothing!  How convenient.

The later Garden City and Book, Inc. editions have the same text as the Cupple and Leon books.

I enjoyed this story.  It's the usual Kay Tracey crazy.

Kay Tracey #11 When the Key Turned

In Kay Tracey #11, When the Key Turned, Rosa Lusardi may not be able to play in Carmont High School's upcoming recital since her father's Stradivarius violin has been stolen.  Rosa must lend her own violin to her father, leaving her without one.  Kay promises to help Rosa, and Kay's search for the violin leads her into a dangerous mystery.

On page 4, Kay must proofread music as part of an audition.

Not the least bit nervous, the girl seated herself at the piano.  With confidence and ease she played a well-known air.  Mr. Ward nodded approvingly and placed before her the same selection he had given Ethel.  Fortunately Kay could read music quickly and played the simple number without a flaw.

Kay is so perfect, just as perfect as Nancy Drew.

Kay is lucky to get out of this book alive.  Ethel puts some kind of poison powder on the piano's keyboard, and Kay gets knocked out.  Kay and Wilma are trapped in a burning house.  Kay falls through a hole into a basement.  Kay is attacked by a bear, so she hits it over the head with a violin.  Kay gets locked in a trunk.  Kay gets stuck in a quagmire.

Ethel is present when the house burns with Kay and Wilma inside.  The two escape, but Ethel doesn't know this.  Ethel rushes to the Tracey home as fast as she can.  When Mrs. Tracey answers the door, Ethel happily tells her that Kay and Wilma "were both burned to death in a fire!"  Yikes.  Fortunately for Mrs. Tracey, Kay and Wilma show up a few pages later.

On page 181, Betty and Wilma go for help after Kay gets stuck in a quagmire.  When they return, Kay has vanished!  The girls feel certain that Kay was pulled under and is dead.  Wow.

The Garden City and Books, Inc. texts look to completely identical to the Cupples and Leon edition.

This story has such a flair for the melodramatic.  I love it.

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.

Kay Tracey #9 The Message in the Sand Dunes

In Kay Tracey #9, The Message in the Sand Dunes, Kay, Wilma, Betty, Cousin Bill, and Mrs. Tracey are vacationing at Seaside Beach.  A boy named Ben Wheeler comes begging for food, and soon, Kay suspects that he might be responsible for thefts that have been occurring at cabins along the beach.

Spinster sisters Maud and Henrietta Crowley live in a nearby cottage.  The sisters bury something in the sand shortly before they move away to live in an institution.  Kay wonders what the women buried and decides to dig it up.

I find it amazing that Kay thinks she has the right to dig up what the Crowley sisters buried in the sand.

Kay goes to visit the Crowley sisters in the institution, which turns into quite an adventure.  While there, a resident accuses Kay of having been reincarnated.  Kay uses a sheet to scare an old woman and a colored porter.  Of course, Kay quite naturally has good reasons for doing this, but the scenes are quite bizarre and a bit distasteful.

Kay also manages to set off the institution's alarms accidentally.

On page 189, Kay and her friends find a warning message that was buried on the beach.  The message states, "Danger! Do not dig here!"  I mention this because on page 204, Betty makes the following remark.

"[I]f we had obeyed that message in the sand dunes saying 'Danger, don't dig here,' so many of these things never would have happened.  We'd have missed an exciting adventure."

Um, the story is practically over by the time the girls find the warning note.  They would have only missed out on 15 pages of adventure if the message had stopped them from completing their adventure.  How stupid.

The text is almost exactly the same in the later printings by Garden City and Books, Inc.  The first two pages were rewritten, and the rest of the text appears to be identical.  The Garden City and Books, Inc. editions even leave in the scene where Kay scares the colored porter.

This is a very good book.  It has a lot of randomness in the plot, but something interesting is always happening.

Kay Tracey #8 Beneath the Crimson Brier Bush

In Kay Tracey #8, Beneath the Crimson Brier Bush, Kay and Mrs. Tracey go with Aunt Jessie to inspect her farm.  Shortly after their arrival, Kay discovers a baby under a crimson brier bush.  Aunt Jessie falls in love with the baby and declares that she is going to keep it.  Aunt Jessie won't let the Traceys tell anyone about the baby, but Kay privately hopes to find the parents.

Only in Kay Tracey's crazy world would one find a baby under a bush and decide to keep it.  Mrs. Tracey and Kay have misgivings about Aunt Jessie keeping the baby, but it's not like they do anything to stop her.

Kay continues to experience the delightfully random events that are a hallmark of this series.  On page 87, Kay gets caught in a forest fire.  Later in the story, Kay and Cousin Bill return home to find their kitchen flooded by a pipe that has corroded.

It's curious and rather convenient that the one man who can save Rose's eyesight lives in a nearby city.

The story is a bit convoluted with multiple sightings of people who are missing a baby or have been seen with a baby.

For the Garden City and Books, Inc. editions, the first two pages of the story were rewritten, and the last page was partially rewritten.  Otherwise, the stories appear to be the exactly the same when opened to various random pages.

I enjoyed this story.

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.

Kay Tracey #6 The Green Cameo Mystery

In Kay Tracey #6, The Green Cameo Mystery, Kay takes her laundry to Joe Wong's laundry.  When Kay walks in, she hears Mr. Wong muttering about a Cameo Curse.  Kay learns that Wong's daughter, Lotus, is missing, and he is paying Cara Noma, a medium, a lot of money to break the curse.  Kay becomes interested in helping Joe Wong.

This is a book that delivers on many levels.

On page 10, a bloody cross is drawn on Kay's forehead.  Later in the story, a plate glass window is broken, and the glass cuts Kay's forehead in the shape of a cross, right where the bloody cross was drawn.

Kay is drugged by incense and has a crazy dream.

Ethel is really out to get Kay in this book.  She places drugged chocolates in Kay's drink, but fortunately, Kay's drink spills.  Later in the story, Ethel and Pete saw through the back of a chair that is being used in the school's play.  Pete plans to hurl Kay into the chair so that Kay will be injured.

Kay playfully puts her money in a drawer of the mahogany desk at the auction, then she apparently leaves it accidentally.  This is very stupid.

On page 96, Kay hears Mrs. Wong speak in Chinese.  Kay does not understand Chinese, but she "grasped the phonetics very accurately.  These she stowed away in her memory, hoping that she might be able to learn later what they meant."  I have already noted that Kay is just as perfect as the revised text era Nancy Drew, who also has especially outstanding language skills.

On page 147, Kay sees money on Mr. Wong's rug.  She picks it up and puts it in her pocket, planning to give it to Mr. Wong later.  Kay had no business doing that.  How about just putting it on Wong's desk?  Of course, it turns out to be important that Kay keeps the money, but it is totally illogical.  I wouldn't pick up and keep money found inside someone else's house.

Kay is held captive on a boat that is one-half mile from shore.  Kay estimates that she can swim that distance in 25 minutes, so she jumps off the boat and swims to shore.  What an amazing young woman.

Kay is given the Green Cameo at the end of the story, and she keeps it.  Yes indeed, Kay keeps an object that is said to be cursed.  Yikes.  Perhaps we can blame Kay's troubles during the rest of the series on the Cameo Curse.

I did not read the revised text, but the revised text is a rewritten and condensed version of the story.

The book has a plot twist that makes it very good.  This is an excellent story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Kay Tracey #5 The Six Fingered Glove Mystery

In Kay Tracey #5, The Six Fingered Glove Mystery, Betty Worth is hit by a car, and the only clue is a six-fingered glove left behind at the scene.  Later, Kay learns that an actress, Beatrice Ball, was a passenger in the car.  Miss Ball had been abducted by the driver of the vehicle, who is presumably the man with six fingers.

Kay and her friends plan to spend Thanksgiving in the country with Kay's Aunt Jane.  Kay invites Miss Ball and her fiance to join them.  While at Aunt Jane's Kay learns that the owner of the six-fingered glove might be nearby.  Kay also stumbles upon railroad thieves and an abandoned movie set.

The story appears not to have been revised at all for the later Garden City and Books, Inc. editions.  Comparing both editions on various random pages shows the exact same text.

Kay's friends are quite upset by the six-fingered glove.  They look at it with horror and find it repulsive.  Those were certainly different times.  What's the big deal about someone having six fingers? 

Speaking of which, the title of this book bothers me so much.  I wish the title had been The Six-Fingered Glove Mystery, with a hyphen.  Argh!

This story is quite convoluted and strange.  One scene made me cringe.  The girls have just discovered that a ring belonging to the man with six fingers has disappeared.  Meanwhile, Clarence Minton is proposing marriage to Beatrice Ball in the living room.  Betty rushes in and cries out, "The ring has been stolen!"  Miss Ball misunderstands and faints, ruining the proposal of marriage.  Ugh.

Despite the bizarreness of the story, the book is good, and I enjoyed it.

Kay Tracey Series - Titles and Collecting Formats

This is the text of an eBay guide that I created in 2006.  The guides are now orphaned pages that can only be found through an Internet search.  eBay plans to delete the guides in April 2018.

This eBay guide was viewed approximately 5,900 times.

The Kay Tracey series was published by the Cupples and Leon Company during the 1930s and 1940s.  From the 1950s through the early 1980s, the series was published by several different companies.  The series was written by four different authors who all shared the pseudonym of Frances K. Judd.  Most of the volumes, #3 through #12 as well as #14, were written by Mildred Wirt Benson.  #1 and #2 were written by Elizabeth M. Duffield Ward; #13 was written by Edna M. Stratemeyer Squier; and #15 through #18 were written by Anna Perot Rose Wright.

List of Titles in the Kay Tracey Series:

  1. The Secret of the Red Scarf, 1934
  2. The Strange Echo, 1934
  3. The Mystery of the Swaying Curtains, 1935
  4. The Shadow on the Door, 1935
  5. The Six-Fingered Glove Mystery, 1936
  6. The Green Cameo Mystery, 1936
  7. The Secret at the Windmill, 1937
  8. Beneath the Crimson Briar Bush, 1937
  9. The Message in the Sand Dunes, 1938
10. The Murmuring Portrait, 1938
11. When the Key Turned, 1939
12. In the Sunken Garden, 1939
13. The Forbidden Tower, 1940
14. The Sacred Feather, 1940
15. The Lone Footprint, 1941
16. The Double Disguise, 1941
17. The Mansion of Secrets, 1942
18. The Mysterious Neighbors, 1942

Formats:

The printing history and format changes for the Kay Tracey series are rather odd and a bit difficult to explain.  Here goes:

The books printed from 1934 until the early 1940s are thick yellow books with good quality paper and a glossy frontispiece illustration.  The dust jackets each had a question mark on the spine.  At least volumes 1 through 16 were printed in the thick format.  All 18 volumes were printed with the question mark dust jacket.  Later printings of the books with the question mark dust jackets are less thick and have poor quality paper.

During the mid-1940s, the dust jackets were changed to a solid color spine with a spine symbol in the middle of the spine, indicating some part of the mystery.  Each volume had the dust jacket printed in one of three colors:  yellow, blue, or red.  The dust jacket for each volume was printed only with the spine color designated for that volume, either yellow, blue, or red.  There seems to be no pattern for which color was selected for each volume; it appears to be random.  These books all have poor quality paper and plain frontispiece illustrations.  This style of dust jacket is more difficult to find than the question mark dust jackets.

After Cupples and Leon stopped printing the series, The Mystery of the Swaying Curtains, The Shadow on the Door, and The Forbidden Tower each went out of print permanently.

During the 1950s, 15 of the books (all except the three mentioned directly above) were reprinted by Garden City Books and Books, Inc.  Both sets have the same wraparound dust jackets.  The Garden City books were printed first and are shorter than the Books, Inc. books.

During the 1960s and 1970s, all 15 books were reprinted by Books, Inc. in a set of paperbacks and a set of picture covers that have the exact same cover art as the Garden City and Books, Inc. hardcover dust-jacketed sets.  This means that four different sets of Kay Tracey books have the same cover art.  The volume numbers were changed for these sets, so most of the volumes have different volume numbers than when printed by Cupples and Leon.

During the 1960s, 8 titles were reprinted by Berkley in paperback with new cover art and with the volumes in yet another different order.

The volumes printed in this set are Sacred Feather, Mansion of Secrets, Six Fingered Glove, Mysterious Neighbors, Green Cameo, Double Disguise, Strange Echo, and Sand Dunes.

During the late 1970s, a set of 6 books were reprinted with cover art that very closely resembles the Garden City and Books, Inc. cover art, but is actually new cover art redrawn to mimic the older cover art.

This set includes Mansion of Secrets, Six Fingered Glove, Double Disguise, Sunken Garden, Green Cameo, and Sand Dunes.

In 1980, a set of 6 paperbacks were printed by Bantam, also with new cover art.  

This set includes Double Disguise, Sunken Garden, Six Fingered Glove, Mansion of Secrets, Green Cameo, and Sand Dunes.  

Texts:

For the most part, the texts remained unchanged when reprinted by each publisher.  The only three books that actually have significantly revised texts are Red Scarf, Green Cameo, and Strange Echo.  The Garden City and Books, Inc. texts of these three books are around 75% different from the original Cupples and Leon texts.  The remaining 12 texts that were reprinted by other publishers are either identical or nearly identical to the Cupples and Leon texts.  The only changes are a few stray words or passages, or possibly a character's name.   

Kay Tracey #4 The Shadow on the Door

In Kay Tracey #4, The Shadow on the Door, Kay investigates Peter Stannovi, whom she suspects is defrauding wealthy Mrs. Van Hutton.  Stannovi is also engaged to Mrs. Van Hutton's secretary, Ellen Tremont, and Kay wishes to keep Ellen from getting hurt.  Kay and Wilma enter a magazine contest, and Ellen's sister helps judge the entries.  Kay and her friends also keep seeing strange shadows in various locations, and these shadows could hold the key to the mystery.

The shadow part of the mystery is quite lame and bizarre, and I suspect that this is why the book was one of the three Kay Tracey books that went out of print after Cupples and Leon quit publishing the series.

Kay gives a great summary of this mystery on page 7.  "Lovely American girl working as secretary to a wealthy woman, who makes speeches about the conditions of the poor.  Said woman also gives talks about child welfare, but neglects the little boy entrusted to her care.  Moreover, she has some kind of secret dealing with a foreigner whom she pretends not to know, and yet who is engaged to her own secretary!  There's a mystery, if there ever was one!"

Kay finds a checkbook with large amounts drawn to charities that seem fake.  Kay discovers that Mrs. Van Hutton is the owner, which is quite a coincidence and gives Kay a clue to the mystery.  After Kay finds the checkbook, I suddenly realized that this story is similar to the Nancy Drew book, Nancy's Mysterious Letter.  That story also involves a man taking donations under false pretenses, and a woman must be saved from marrying him.  This story also contains a football scene, and so does Nancy's Mysterious Letter.

Kay has never been interested in acting.  When the lead actress for a play is injured, Kay is immediately able to step in and do such a good job that she is asked to take on the role permanently.  Wow.  This is very similar to Nancy Drew in The Clue of the Dancing Puppet.  Kay has a lot in common with the revised text Nancy.

Mr. Hammond calls the police to tell them about the case.  When the police arrive, Mr. Hammond has Kay explain her suspicions to the police.  The police are very impressed.  This is more shades of Nancy Drew.

Kay also has Nancy Drew's ability to avoid serious injury.  Kay is swinging on a trapeze when it fails, so Kay hurls herself through the air to a mat, where she tucks herself into a roll.  Kay is uninjured.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The shadow part is odd and unnecessary, but otherwise, the book is excellent.

Kay Tracey #3 The Mystery of the Swaying Curtains

In Kay Tracey #3, The Mystery of the Swaying Curtains, Kay's friend, Sissy, is to begin work at Mrs. Barley's home, but Mrs. Barley has disappeared.  Sissy has a very nervous disposition, so Kay stays with Sissy and Mrs. Barley's housekeeper, Eliza.  Mrs. Barley sends directions that her home is to be closed up, so Kay and Sissy help Eliza close the home.

Later, Cousin Bill informs Sissy that an anonymous note has suggested that Sissy is heir to a fortune.  Cousin Bill helps Sissy find proof of her lineage.  Martin Cornwall might be able to help, but he has disappeared.  Kay helps his nephew search for him.  Meanwhile, a strange tramp lurks nearby, and Kay is suspicious.

This book is full of odd events that are seemingly disconnected, but of course, all of them are closely connected and part of the same mystery.  The book does have one event that is completely disconnected to all other events.  Ethel Eaton has a chemistry lab mishap and accidentally burns down an entire wing of Carmont High School!

When Kay helps to close Mrs. Barley's house, she decides to invite her friends over to have a party, so that they can get the food eaten before it spoils.  Boys are invited over as well.  While it's wise to use food that would spoil in Mrs. Barley's absence, it's a bit odd to have a dinner party at someone else's house without their knowledge.  How rude.

On page 149, two maids had been shoved into a closet by a thief.  Kay questions the women, who noticed almost nothing about the man except for his "big black eyes" and his "flashy suit" that was missing a button.  The button turns out to be a very important clue and is found by Kay later.  I question whether the terrified women would have noticed a missing button.

While the story is strange, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  This is one of the three books that is only available in the Cupples and Leon editions.  The story was never reprinted in the later sets.

Kay Tracey #2 The Strange Echo

In Kay Tracey #2, The Strange Echo, Kay vacations with the Worth family at Lost Lake.  Many strange events have occurred recently in the area.  The residents have heard strange echos, warnings, and explosions.  They have seen smoke from hidden fires.  Kay investigates and believes that the mystery is tied to the theft of pages about echoes from a valuable book.  A strange foreign woman is involved, and possibly an insane man who worked for a scientific company.

Kay is called "Little Detective" all through this story, which is a bit strange.  She is not called that in other stories.

Cousin Bill likes Elise Conklin, so he wants Kay to find out what her favorite perfume is.  On page 12, Kay calls Elise and gets that information for Cousin Bill.  Kay believes that Elise does not have any suspicions about why Kay needs to know her favorite perfume.  If someone were to call me and ask what perfume I like, I would know something was up.

The villains have hired a farmer's mules and carts.  On page 181, the farmer is upset that the mules and carts still have not been returned.  Kay and her friends "[assure] him that the animals soon would be."  This is a rash promise.  Of course, the plot does get satisfactorily resolved, but Kay and her friends have no idea what will happen at this point.

The last part of the story has some really strange man-made events, including a giant bellows that can create a tornado, and a strong suction that pulls Kay towards a shed.  The suction is caused by some kind of machine that gets turned off just in time, but no explanation is given.

I read only the original text, since the revised text story is very similar.  The revised text is shorter and was significantly rewritten.  However, it follows the same story, and I was not interested in reading the same story again.

I enjoyed this book because of the rural setting, exploring all around in that location.

Kay Tracey #1 The Secret of the Red Scarf

The Kay Tracey Mystery Stories series consists of 18 books that were originally published by Cupples and Leon.

  1. The Secret of the Red Scarf, 1934
  2. The Strange Echo, 1934
  3. The Mystery of the Swaying Curtains, 1935
  4. The Shadow on the Door, 1935
  5. The Six-Fingered Glove Mystery, 1936
  6. The Green Cameo Mystery, 1936
  7. The Secret at the Windmill, 1937
  8. Beneath the Crimson Briar Bush, 1937
  9. The Message in the Sand Dunes, 1938
10. The Murmuring Portrait, 1938
11. When the Key Turned, 1939
12. In the Sunken Garden, 1939
13. The Forbidden Tower, 1940
14. The Sacred Feather, 1940
15. The Lone Footprint, 1941
16. The Double Disguise, 1941
17. The Mansion of Secrets, 1942
18. The Mysterious Neighbors, 1942

Kay Tracey is sixteen years old and lives in Brantwood with her friends, twin sisters Betty and Wilma Worth.  Betty has fair hair and a lively personality.  Wilma has dark hair, is timid and serious, and recites poetry at strange moments.  Kay has a jealous rival, Ethel Eaton, who is always causing trouble.  The girls all live in Brantwood and commute by train to Carmont High School.

Kay lives with her mother and Cousin Bill, who is an attorney.  Kay's father worked at a newspaper and is deceased.  Kay has a boyfriend, Ronald Earle.

The Cupples and Leon editions contain the original text.  Later printings by other publishers may be slightly revised, greatly revised, or not revised at all.  Three books were never reprinted outside of the Cupples and Leon editions:  The Mystery of the Swaying Curtains, The Shadow on the Door, and The Forbidden Tower.

The Kay Tracey series is often criticized because the stories tend to be rather absurd and crazy.  The plots consist of a bunch of seemingly unconnected events that sometimes come together as part of the same mystery.  Other times, the events are truly unconnected. 

I have always enjoyed the Kay Tracey series.  Life is often full of random events, like car accidents and conflicts, that come out of nowhere.  Life takes unexpected detours all the time.  The Kay Tracey series is just like that.  The reader never knows what will happen next, since the events can be so random.  I find the stories highly interesting and amusing.  As long as a story holds my attention and doesn't bore me, I will enjoy it, random or not.  Kay Tracey meets all of my requirements for good entertainment.

In the original text version of Kay Tracey #1, The Secret of the Red Scarf, Kay Tracey rescues a boy who was thrown from his horse.  Kay learns that the boy is Dick Ludlow, and he is looking for his sister, Helene.  Helene ran away from home to become an actress and hasn't been seen since.  Dick father has passed away, and most of Mr. Ludlow's fortune was stolen by crooks.

Kay goes to a masquerade, dressed in a red scarf with a design copied from a magazine.  Another guest has the same scarf, and Kay believes that the girl is Helene, who goes by the name Barbara Brown.  Barbara will not admit to her true identity and runs away frightened.  Kay soon learns that two swindlers are making unwanted advances upon Barbara and her friend and that these swindlers might be the same men who stole the Ludlow fortune.  Can Kay speak to Barbara in time to save her?

I notice that Kay Tracey acts a lot like the revised text era Nancy Drew.  She is unruffled and cool in this story.  I like her.

On page 129, a statement is made about the villains.

"So they've descended to the level of pickpockets," he added scornfully.  "Instead of being so-called gentlemen crooks, they're now just common thieves."

I don't see a difference.  A thief is a thief, whether a swindler or a pickpocket.

This book was written by Elizabeth Duffield Ward, author of the Blythe Girls series, many Outdoor Girls books, and most of the May Hollis Barton books.  The book reads a lot like early series books, which have a slower pace than most series books published after 1930.  I did not like this book years ago, but I found it much better this time.  I suspect that this is because I have read many early series books in the years since I first read this book.

In the revised text of The Secret of the Red Scarf, Kay, Wilma, and Betty find a young man unconscious in his car.  They take him to the Tracey home, discovering that he has been robbed of his papers and money and has amnesia.  Kay decides to call the young man Bro, since he at first thinks Kay is his sister.  Kay has a scarf that looks like one owned by Bro's sister.  Kay copied her scarf from one pictured in a magazine, so Kay deduces that the girl in the photo is probably Bro's sister.

Ethel Eaton overhears Kay speaking about Bro and spreads rumors that Kay has a crazy brother who has been released from an institution.  Betty decides to play a trick on Ethel to get back at her.

Early in the story, Kay and Wilma cause an explosion in the chemistry lab at Carmont High School.  Kay absentmindedly places a chemical in the wrong location, and Wilma uses it without reading the label.  The explosion causes some damage, but the girls are fine.  There is really no point to the explosion, and it is an odd scene.

The explosion scene is atypical of the Kay Tracey series, since Kay and her friends never cause trouble or any kind of destruction.  I have no idea why the revisionist felt that this explosion was appropriate, since it has nothing to do with the story.  The revisionist should have had Ethel cause the explosion rather than Kay and Wilma.  The explosion is a complete anomaly.

In the revision, the basic story elements are the same, including a man after an inheritance, the search for Helene, the masquerade, and the red scarf.  However, the text of the story is completely different.  Both stories are enjoyable.  I enjoyed the original text much more this time than I did years ago, but I still feel that the revised text is an overall better story.

Early Kay Tracey Dust Jackets

I recently bought an auction lot that contained the first four Kay Tracey books with dust jackets. The dust jackets are very early dust jackets; in fact, all four dust jackets may be the first printing dust jackets.

I have a complete set of the early thick yellow Kay Tracey books with dust jackets, and it was very difficult just to get the thick books with dust jackets that have unfaded spines. Due to the difficulty of getting a thick book with a nice dust jacket, I never tried to get any first printing dust jackets. I probably do have a few of the first printings of the last several titles, but I do not have any for the early books.

I used to have a first printing dust jacket of one of the early Kay Tracey books, but the spine was faded so I sold it when I acquired a slightly later printing with an unfaded spine. The condition of the dust jacket spines is very important to me since that part of the dust jacket is the part that I see on the shelf. I cannot stand faded spines and only have faded spines for the series books that are very scarce.

When I spotted the lot of four books and realized that the spines were unfaded and that the jackets were very early or first printings, I decided to buy them. The jackets are in varying stages of deterioration. All of them are brittle, but The Strange Echo is the worst of the four. This is what I had after I removed the dust jacket from the book:


The dust jacket was in many pieces, and additional pieces came loose as I repaired it. I had to use archival tape on it as there was no other way to get the dust jacket reassembled. Anyone who has tried to repair a dust jacket knows how hard it is to get the different pieces lined up properly. This is what I had after around 15 minutes of work:

I still had a couple of pieces that I could not match up with it or any of the other jackets. Since they must belong to Strange Echo, I put them in the mylar cover behind the jacket.

I do believe that at least three of the four dust jackets are the first printing dust jackets. Here is the dust jacket for The Secret of the Red Scarf, which is the first title in the series:


The dust jacket lists just the first two titles in the series. Since it was standard practice for publishers to release the first two to four books of a series simultaneously as a breeder set, the first two Kay Tracey books were probably released at the same time. For this reason, I believe that the above dust jacket is the first printing dust jacket.

Here is the dust jacket for The Strange Echo, the second title in the series:


The front flap lists just the first two titles in the series, just like the dust jacket for The Secret of the Red Scarf. Most likely, the above dust jacket is the first printing dust jacket.

Here is the dust jacket for The Mystery of the Swaying Curtains, the third title in the series:


It lists to the fourth title in the series. For that reason, it may not be the first printing dust jacket, unless volumes three and four were released simultaneously. I notice that the copyright pages for the first two books list just the first two books with "other volumes in preparation." The copyright pages for the third and fourth books list the first four books with "other volumes in preparation." For this reason, it seems likely that the third and fourth books were released simultaneously, so my third book does likely have the first printing dust jacket.

Here is the dust jacket for The Shadow on the Door, the fourth title in the series:


This dust jacket lists to the fourth title, so it is probably the first printing dust jacket.

One last thing—I paid under $8.00 per book, so these books were a bargain.