Roger Baxter #3 The Riddle of the Hidden Pesos

In Roger Baxter #3, The Riddle of the Hidden Pesos, Roger, Bill, and Slim drive into Mexico for a vacation.  Soon after they enter Mexico, the boys discover packages containing counterfeit pesos hidden in the seat cushions of the car.  Unwittingly, Slim and the boys just smuggled counterfeit money into Mexico.  They find themselves in a difficult position, as they learn that one or more parties are tracking their movements.  Slim and the boys attempt to evade the men who are following them as they race towards Mexico City. 

The plot of this book is rather similar to the Ken Holt book, The Mystery of the Green Flame.  The book also reminds me a little bit of another Ken Holt book set in Mexico, The Mystery of the Plumed Serpent.

Bill's experience with hot Mexican food is like Sandy's.  He impulsively eats hot Mexican food and then promptly regrets it.

On page 65, Bill throws a wrapper out of the window of the car.  I hate it when series books have the characters litter.  That's not cool.

This book is very exciting from start to finish.  I greatly enjoyed it.

I ended up liking all three Roger Baxter books better than most all of the Ken Holt books.  That might sound surprising, but consider that to me, Ken Holt is an average series.  My reaction was lukewarm to the first half of the series, so I like most series books more than those.  While I ended up greatly liking the books in the second half of the series, the books were not outstanding in my opinion.  They are to Ken Holt fans, but not to me.

I think I like these books better because the boys are a little younger, and the books don't come across as adult mysteries.  The Ken Holt books are similar to adult mysteries, and that makes a difference.

Stranger at the Inlet is an excellent book.  The Secret of Baldhead Mountain and The Riddle of the Hidden Pesos are outstanding.

The Roger Baxter series is tough to complete.  If you want to build a set of the books, make sure you check everywhere on the internet.  Check Amazon's main site and Amazon's UK site.  Check Alibris and AbeBooks.  Check Bonanza, Etsy, and Google's shopping search.  Also check eBay, but keep in mind that reading copies of obscure books are often easier to find on sites other than eBay, since fewer people check those sites.

Roger Baxter #2 The Secret of Baldhead Mountain

In The Secret of Baldhead Mountain, Roger and Bill travel to Colorado to join their father as he works on a tunnel-building job.  Some residents of a nearby town are against the present location of the proposed highway tunnel.  When Roger learns that a landslide just occurred at the tunnel's entrance, he becomes convinced that someone is sabotaging the tunnel.

Bill is skeptical of Roger's theory about the sabotage, which is so much like when Sandy questions Ken's theories in the Ken Holt series.

Near the beginning of this book, we learn that the boys helped with the smuggling case last summer.  This means that around one year has passed between the two books.

When I read the Ken Holt books, I noticed that everyone drinks coffee, including Ken and Sandy.  In these books, I notice that all of the men smoke.  Naturally, Roger and Bill don't smoke, but give them a few years, and they, too, will smoke like all of the men.

In Chapter 7, Roger and Bill's new friend, Diego, tells them about how some people in Colorado don't seem to like Diego because he is Mexican.  Roger thinks that Diego's belief is nonsense until he remembers how he at first didn't like a boy at school who friends said didn't belong and wasn't worthy of them.  Roger "had unthinkingly accepted the verdict of a group of older boys who called Mike a 'Hunky' and dismissed him immediately as unworthy of their gang.  People don't like foreigners.  Sure it was crazy.  But he knew it was true, sometimes."

I had never heard the term "Hunky," although I realized it had to be an ethnic or racial slur.  I looked it up and learned that it is a derogatory word for immigrants of Slovakian descent.  I then made the connection between "Hungarian" and "Hunky."  Now I understand.  I learn so much from reading books.

From page 78:

There was an awkwardness between them now, and in a way he wished that Diego hadn't spoken.  In another way he was glad he had.  Because if you didn't know about things like that, how could you do anything about them?

This type of passage is atypical of older series books.  I am impressed, but I am also struck by how little things have changed in the last 69 years.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  Roger and Bill do lots of sleuthing in interesting places, including an old ghost town and an old mine.  Part of the scene in the mine plays out very similar to a scene in the Ken Holt book, The Mystery of Gallows Cliff.

Roger Baxter #1 Stranger at the Inlet

The Roger Baxter series is the precursor to the Ken Holt series.  The books were written by Sam and Beryl Epstein, authors of the Ken Holt series.  Plot ideas and character attributes were later incorporated into the Ken Holt series.

The first book was written under the pseudonym Charles Strong, while the other two were written under the pseudonym Martin Colt.  The UK edition of the first book gives the author as Martin Colt.

1.  Stranger at the Inlet, 1946
2.  The Secret of Baldhead Mountain, 1946
3.  The Riddle of the Hidden Pesos, 1948

Roger and Bill Baxter are brothers.  Roger is 14, and Bill is 12.

In Stranger at the Inlet, Roger and Bill's summer plans are upended when their parents rent the family's cottage to a man named Slim Warner.  They had planned to spend time at the cottage, but Mr. Warner's presence changes their plans.  Roger becomes suspicious of Slim and decides he is up to something.  The boys are shocked when they learn that Slim is a government agent who is investigating a smuggling ring. Slims lets the boys help him on his case.

The way the boys are suspicious of Slim, learn the truth, and help him on his case is very much like how Ken and Sandy become acquainted with and work with Mort in The Mystery of the Green Flame.  The general setting of this book reminds me of The Clue of the Marked Claw.

Uncle Willie partially reminds me of Steven Granger.

During one part of the book, Bill has to stay behind while Roger gets to have an adventure.  Later, Roger volunteers to stay while Bill gets to have the adventure.  Even though Roger volunteered to stay, Slim asks him if he minds.

"Of course not."  He did, naturally.  But Bill hadn't complained when it was his turn, so he couldn't complain now.

I like these boys.

This book reminds me a lot of the earlier Ken Holt books, which are the ones that I had trouble enjoying.  I easily like this book more than those books.

The Stranger at the Inlet is quite engaging and flows quite well.  The boys sleuth around in dark and creepy places, and the atmosphere is quite tense.