The Mystery of the Ghostly Galleon

## Plot

The Bob-Whites plans to spend a few days at Finger Lakes with the Wheeler's are ruined when Mr Wheeler has to go away on business, so Miss Trask invites them to join her on a visit to her home in the Catskills.  The Bob-Whites are tempted by the opportunity to solve the mystery of the disappearing Pirate captain, but Trixie finds other suspicious happenings occurring at the Inn.  Ghostly Galleons, fires, mannequin wrestling and the disappearance of Miss Trask's brother present a major mystery for Trixie to solve before the mortgage on the Inn is foreclosed and the Trask family lose the Inn forever.

## Characters

* Trixie Belden
* Jim Frayne
* Honey Wheeler
* Brian Belden
* Mart Belden
* Diana Lynch
* Dan Mangan
* Bobby Belden
* Miss Trask
* Frank Trask
* Jerry Vanderhoef
* Weasel Willis
* Smiley Jackson
* Marvin Appleton
* Gaston Gabriel
* Nicholas Morgan

## Chapter Titles

1. The Vanishing Pirate
2. A Family Quarrel
3. Mart's Ghost
4. Ready for Action
5. A Narrow Escape
6. Fire!
7. Phantom From the Past
8. A Second Disappearance
9. New Worry
10. A Fruitless Search
11. Midnight Mission
12. The Crying Lady
13. Clues to a Treasure
14. The Cave
15. Treasure Island
16. The Vanishing Trick
17. More Worries
18. Disaster!
19. A Villain Unmasked

## Trivia

* This book is set in October and Honey and Trixie are 14, Brian and Jim are 17 and Mart is 15.  Dan's age isn't mentioned, but he does go on this trip.
* Mart and Trixie fight a lot through this book although they reach a truce by the end, which parallels Miss Trask's relationship with her brother.
* The Bob-Whites were supposed to fly to Finger Lakes in northern New York to a cottage owned by the Wheeler's on Owasco Lake, not far from Auburn (p. 16).
* Miss Trask 'had patiently arranged a wedding while the Bob-Whites were in the middle of searching for a missing heiress and solving mysteries around Glen Road' (p. 19).  This could have been worded better, as the wedding was for the 'missing heiress'!
* Trixie reads *Lucy Radcliffe* novels and Mart reads *Cosmo McNaught* books, and it is suggested that the novels are autobiographical: 'Her name is Lucy Radcliffe.  And she does not write dumb novels.  She's only eighteen years old, but she's had so many wonderful adventures' (p. 28).
* Marvin Appleton becomes a suspect briefly because of his strange behaviour with a mannequin named Clarence.  However, it is the mannequin that saves the day when they dress him to look like the missing Frank Trask to trick Nicholas Morgan.  The laughs continue when Appleton reveals at the book's conclusion that he is the author of both *Lucy Radcliffe* and *Cosmo McNaught* books,
* 'Everyone knew that since Trixie had rescued Jim from his cruel stepfather, she could do no wrong as far as he was concerned' (p. 82).
* Di knows about loans and collateral and explains how it works to Trixie when she laments about not being able to ask her father, a banker, for advice (p. 124-125).  Trixie must have forgotten all about loans and collateral from *The Mystery Off Glen Road,* when she used her diamond ring as collateral to hold Brian's car until they earned enough money to buy it.

## References

1. ↑ "The Mystery of the Ghostly Galleon." Trixie-belden.com. N.d. Retrieved September 5, 2021 from http://www.trixie-belden.com/books/series/book27.htm