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Linda Craig #2
The Clue on the Desert Trail
From a clue hidden on the historic Mojave Trail, Linda and her prize palomino track down a band of smugglers.
187 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 6, 2018
Linda Craig is back again and this time her knack for getting in trouble has spread! Someone who looks similar to her has been kidnapped, and the kidnappers are now trying to get Linda and her horse.
There are very few reviews of this book on Goodreads and I suspect that most people who read book one in the series proceeded to avoid any remaining books like the plague. Book two is marginally better than book one, but that's probably only because Linda is less single-minded about acquiring a horse than previously.
In this book she becomes a beacon of bad luck. Her horse gets poisoned. She watches a car roll off the road for no reason. A random statue she buys turns out to contain. Then she gets a replacement statue which gets stolen. Someone who looks like her gets kidnapped. A friend of hers ends up dehydrated in the desert wandering on a horse. Her accommodation gets ransacked. She ends up trapped in a cave. All in all, she's a very unlucky girl and I'd suggest not being around her.
Once again the characters are fairly two dimensional - her brother Bob is the protector, her friend Kathy barely registers any memory in my mind (even though she's on every second page) and the rest of the people from the ranch are just there to move the plot along a little. Linda still has no care for her parents that died a few months back, maybe showing emotion for your dead parents was a no-no in 1960s America?
Also similar to book one, the descriptions of horsey stuff is decent although I think the author skimmed a bit on the descriptions of the landscape in this one, some are described beautifully, and others are basically "oh there's a rock here".
The best part of the book is that Linda's horse adopts a donkey it meets in the desert. Just cause.
There are very few reviews of this book on Goodreads and I suspect that most people who read book one in the series proceeded to avoid any remaining books like the plague. Book two is marginally better than book one, but that's probably only because Linda is less single-minded about acquiring a horse than previously.
In this book she becomes a beacon of bad luck. Her horse gets poisoned. She watches a car roll off the road for no reason. A random statue she buys turns out to contain. Then she gets a replacement statue which gets stolen. Someone who looks like her gets kidnapped. A friend of hers ends up dehydrated in the desert wandering on a horse. Her accommodation gets ransacked. She ends up trapped in a cave. All in all, she's a very unlucky girl and I'd suggest not being around her.
Once again the characters are fairly two dimensional - her brother Bob is the protector, her friend Kathy barely registers any memory in my mind (even though she's on every second page) and the rest of the people from the ranch are just there to move the plot along a little. Linda still has no care for her parents that died a few months back, maybe showing emotion for your dead parents was a no-no in 1960s America?
Also similar to book one, the descriptions of horsey stuff is decent although I think the author skimmed a bit on the descriptions of the landscape in this one, some are described beautifully, and others are basically "oh there's a rock here".
The best part of the book is that Linda's horse adopts a donkey it meets in the desert. Just cause.
September 13, 2025
This is a review of the 1981 Wanderer edition. I bought, or got as gifts, books 1-9 of the Wanderer editions soon after they were published, as I was (at the time) part of the target age range. I had a habit of re-reading my entire horse book collection every year, then every two years, when I was a kid. This got to be impossible to do when I started college, but I know I read this book at least once in my 20s before I sold or gave away the series.
The point is, I read this book at least five times.
And couldn't remember a damn thing about it when I joined Goodreads in my 40s. Except a lingering sensation that I didn't it.
I found three editions of this book at the Internet Archive at age 55. I decided to re-read the edition I had. I'm really surprised that I forgot this book. There's a good bit of horse action, including the addition of a new equine member to Rancho Del Sol -- a donkey jack named Vagabond. He was an interesting character, but he disappears from the series by book 7. Since he was a jack, I'm really saddened that Chica didn't get pregnant. That would've made for an interesting plot twist.
Chica is constantly described here as a pony, although she's an Arabian/Saddlebred cross (which today would be called a National Show Horse.) I know cowboys tend to call their horses "ponies", no matter what their size. But I think this was the only book in the series that called this obvious horse a pony.
The mystery itself -- and there winds up being two -- are as jaw-droppingly stupid as in most of the other books. It's like Scooby Doo on horseback. (Others have called this series Nancy Drew on horseback, but I can't remember any of the two or three Nancy Drew books I ever read, so I don't know how they compare.)
Linda Craig and the gang have the good/bad luck to keep bumping into one brainless criminal gang after another. How dumb? They keep doing crimes in broad daylight in full view of witnesses without any kind of disguise. This time -- they kidnap the wrong girl.
But Linda makes it so easy for the criminals at times. And if you think you see a kidnapped girl calling for help -- a girl the object of a statewide hunt -- don't decide to keep the news to yourself. Go to the Goddamned police. And if your horse/pony has been poisoned, don't decide she's okay to return to the same amount of work as before the poisoning.
However, despite everything, this winds up being a DOG book more than a horse book, or mystery book. The ranch dog (apparently a coyote/mysterious shepherd mix) takes over and gets the job done in solving the crimes more than the people do. He out-Lassies Lassie at times. When I was a kid, I'd become afraid of dogs (which lessened as I reached my 20s.) I was in no way the dog lover I am now. It was probably the emphasis on the dog and the lame mystery that made my brain decide that this book just wasn't worth the effort of remembering.
Nice cover, though.
The point is, I read this book at least five times.
And couldn't remember a damn thing about it when I joined Goodreads in my 40s. Except a lingering sensation that I didn't it.
I found three editions of this book at the Internet Archive at age 55. I decided to re-read the edition I had. I'm really surprised that I forgot this book. There's a good bit of horse action, including the addition of a new equine member to Rancho Del Sol -- a donkey jack named Vagabond. He was an interesting character, but he disappears from the series by book 7. Since he was a jack, I'm really saddened that Chica didn't get pregnant. That would've made for an interesting plot twist.
Chica is constantly described here as a pony, although she's an Arabian/Saddlebred cross (which today would be called a National Show Horse.) I know cowboys tend to call their horses "ponies", no matter what their size. But I think this was the only book in the series that called this obvious horse a pony.
The mystery itself -- and there winds up being two -- are as jaw-droppingly stupid as in most of the other books. It's like Scooby Doo on horseback. (Others have called this series Nancy Drew on horseback, but I can't remember any of the two or three Nancy Drew books I ever read, so I don't know how they compare.)
Linda Craig and the gang have the good/bad luck to keep bumping into one brainless criminal gang after another. How dumb? They keep doing crimes in broad daylight in full view of witnesses without any kind of disguise. This time -- they kidnap the wrong girl.
But Linda makes it so easy for the criminals at times. And if you think you see a kidnapped girl calling for help -- a girl the object of a statewide hunt -- don't decide to keep the news to yourself. Go to the Goddamned police. And if your horse/pony has been poisoned, don't decide she's okay to return to the same amount of work as before the poisoning.
However, despite everything, this winds up being a DOG book more than a horse book, or mystery book. The ranch dog (apparently a coyote/mysterious shepherd mix) takes over and gets the job done in solving the crimes more than the people do. He out-Lassies Lassie at times. When I was a kid, I'd become afraid of dogs (which lessened as I reached my 20s.) I was in no way the dog lover I am now. It was probably the emphasis on the dog and the lame mystery that made my brain decide that this book just wasn't worth the effort of remembering.
Nice cover, though.
June 3, 2015
This was an easy read and a good mystery for middle grade readers.
Linda and her friends have gone to an outdoor market. There she buys a horse shaped piece of pottery. But someone is out to get that piece of pottery. Linda also meets a young girl that resembles her.
Chica D'Oro is almost fatally poisoned and the group of kids try to find out who did this. And they find out the young girl has also been kidnapped. Will Linda and her friends find out why the pottery is so important? And will they rescue the girl?
Linda and her friends have gone to an outdoor market. There she buys a horse shaped piece of pottery. But someone is out to get that piece of pottery. Linda also meets a young girl that resembles her.
Chica D'Oro is almost fatally poisoned and the group of kids try to find out who did this. And they find out the young girl has also been kidnapped. Will Linda and her friends find out why the pottery is so important? And will they rescue the girl?
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January 18, 2010One of my favorite series as a child - I even had my very own golden palomino!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews