The Secret of the Sand Castle

The Secret of the Sand Castle by Margaret Sutton (1967) Somewhere I found a copy of this, awhile back—it’s number 38 in the Judy Bolton series, the last one written by Margaret Sutton to be published. Seeing how I don’t think I’ll get through all the books (in this lifetime), I figured I’d go ahead and read this one—I was curious. I always mention that it’s best to read Judy Bolton books in order, as they progress, through the years—and refer back to previous ones—so it wasn’t surprising that I’d be lost a bit in this book. There are a lot of characters, and there’s a lot going on, and I felt like I was missing some background. Irene is still around, but now has a daughter named Judy… who has a little black kitten named Jet Blackberry—named after Judy’s cat, Blackberry (who is also still around, but must be old, for a cat). The exiting thing for me in this adventure is that Judy and her friends visit the Fire Island seashore, offseason—not far from where I visited once, also offseason—and even though that was half a century after this book, the feeling of it—the isolated, shored up houses, the sand, and the boardwalks—felt exactly the same! It took me an incredible amount of time, by the way, to “get” the name Jet Blackberry. I’m slow. The mystery is intense and convoluted, a lot of odd characters involved, and some real danger. It’s a good mystery—pretty consistent with the earlier ones. When I read future Judy Bolton books, however, I’m going back to Number 9, or so, and continue to read them in order!

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