The Black Jacket Mystery

## Plot

Trixie is intrigued by Regan's problems and the sudden appearance of Dan Mangan, a black-jacket wearing city kid who has come to stay with My Maypenny.  Although the Bob-Whites are busy organising an Ice Carnival to aid their Mexican pen-pals, Trixie is determined to find out why Dan is here and what is troubling Regan.  When Honey's missing watch is pawned and the clubhouse is broken into, the finger points squarely at Dan.  Trixie's dislike of him is evident, but when she and Bobby find themselves in trouble he is the only one who can save them.

## Characters

* Trixie Belden
* Jim Frayne
* Honey Wheeler
* Brian Belden
* Mart Belden
* Diana Lynch
* Mrs Belden
* Peter Belden
* Bobby Belden
* Miss Trask
* Mr Lytell
* Celia Delanoy
* Bill Regan
* Tom Delanoy
* Dan Mangan
* Mr Maypenny
* Luke

## Chapter Titles

1. An Emergency
2. Mysterious Errand
3. Suspicions
4. The Missing Skate
5. Bobby's See-crud
6. The New Pupil
7. The Rebel
8. The Black Leather Jacket
9. Jim's Advice
10. The Big Cat
11. More Suspicious
12. Strong Evidence
13. A Thief in the Night
14. Mr. Maypenny's Accident
15. A New Mystery
16. A Terrible Discovery
17. Runaway Dan
18. Double Danger
19. Rescue
20. Thanks to Dan Mangan
21. The Carnival

## Trivia

* Regan gets a first name in this book - Bill (p. 17).  Up until now, it had been safe to assume his first name was Regan as all the Wheeler's staff are called by their first names.
* Aunt Alicia becomes Mr Belden's sister in this book (p. 28).  In a past book, she was said to be Mrs Belden's sister.
* Both Mart and Brian are rivals for Honey's attention, dressing up to impress her and fighting to carry her suitcase.
* Honey tells Trixie that Regan had to send money to his sister to help make ends meet (p. 33) but later in the book, Mr Maypenny tells them that Regan and his sister were brought up together in an orphanage and he hadn't heard from her since she ran off to get married (p. 189).   So either Honey was wrong, or the author contradicts herself.  Dan's father is called Tim and was killed in a car accident.
* The Wheeler's have a horse called Thunderer.  It is not mentioned again in later books.
* Mrs Belden apparently sings in a choir, as Trixie says that Moms has choir practice (p. 95).
* The Sleepyside Police force has a Police Chief Moran (p. 134) and Sleepyside apparently has a new doctor, "Doc Tremaine" (p. 171).
* The author tells us that the Wheelers bought Susie for Trixie to ride with Honey, when originally the horse was bought for Miss Trask and previous Campbell books enforced this.
* In the previous book, The Mysterious Code, Regan installed an alarm in the clubhouse.  The clubhouse was broken into in this book.  Had the alarm been disabled or did the author simply forget?
* The ice carnival is held on Saturday, the 27th.  In the Mysterious Code, Di has a pre-Valentine's Day party, so it seems that this book would probably have been set in March.

## References

1. ↑ "List of Trixie Belden Books." Wikipedia. March 28, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Trixie\_Belden\_books
2. ↑ "The Black Jacket Mystery." Trixie-belden.com. N.d. Retrieved April 5, 2021 from http://www.trixie-belden.com/books/series/book8.htm