Kristy and the Cat Burglar

The Baby-Sitters Club Mysteries #36

by Ann M. Martin

It's the biggest crime in Stoneybrook history--one of the town's mansions is missing! Kristy & Co. are hot on the trail of the Cat Burglar, who left his sign at the scene of the crime.

Genres: Mystery, Middle Grade, Childrens, Fiction, Young Adult, Collections, Friendship

142 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998

About the author

Ann Matthews Martin was born on August 12, 1955. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, with her parents and her younger sister, Jane. After graduating from Smith College, Ann became a teacher and then an editor of children's books. She's now a full-time writer.

Ann gets the ideas for her books from many different places. Some are based on personal experiences, while others are based on childhood memories and feelings. Many are written about contemporary problems or events. All of Ann's characters, even the members of the Baby-sitters Club, are made up. But many of her characters are based on real people. Sometimes Ann names her characters after people she knows, and other times she simply chooses names that she likes.

Ann has always enjoyed writing. Even before she was old enough to write, she would dictate stories to her mother to write down for her. Some of her favorite authors at that time were Lewis Carroll, P. L. Travers, Hugh Lofting, Astrid Lindgren, and Roald Dahl. They inspired her to become a writer herself.

Since ending the BSC series in 2000, Ann’s writing has concentrated on single novels, many of which are set in the 1960s.

After living in New York City for many years, Ann moved to the Hudson Valley in upstate New York where she now lives with her dog, Sadie, and her cats, Gussie, Willy and Woody. Her hobbies are reading, sewing, and needlework. Her favorite thing to do is to make clothes for children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/annmma...

Reviews

[FIND ME ON STORYGRAPH · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is my first time reading this book!

in this LAST EVER BSC MYSTERY by ghostwriter Ellen Miles there is a break-in at the mansion near kristy’s house. which mansion, you ask? the mansion that makes her mansion look like a much smaller mansion (that has never been mentioned in the series until this book). there is a security guard there, but he was away for the break-in because he got a (fake) emergency call about his wife being in the hospital. the mansion owner’s diamonds were stolen in the break-in. sgt johnson is at the mansion when the break-in happens, and when a couple other cops show up, they seem to think it’s suspicious that he was already there. they find a red cat drawn on the owner’s mailbox, which is the calling card of someone who’s been breaking into houses all over the east coast, who the authorities call the cat burglar (for obvious reasons). oh, and cary retlin was nearby during the break-in, claiming he was birdwatching, but the bsc think he might have had something to do with it. the cops examine the area surrounding the mansion, and then after that the bsc and cary examine it and find a bullet casing and a red magic marker. because they’re better cops than the cops? I guess? the owner, reinhart golem (yes, that is his name) is happy the bsc is helping him solve the mystery, but the way he’s acting about it is super weird -- see the section in my lowlights/nitpicks about this. anyway, the bullet casing comes from the types of guns the cops use, and the magic marker seems to have come from sgt johnson’s office. so then they arrest sgt johnson for burgling golem. but the bsc suspect that one of the other cops is framing sgt johnson to make him look worse to the chief of police. so the bsc go to golem’s house and tell him about it, but it turns out golem was the burglar. he faked his own burglary, to get the insurance money but also to frame sgt johnson who he hates because johnson investigated him for something a while back. he planted the bullet casing and stole the marker from johnson’s office. furthermore, golem is actually the cat burglar, which is why he’s so rich. the subplot is that charlotte johanssen reads Harriet the Spy and wants to be just like her, so she starts spying on her friends. she must not have read the whole book, because just like it doesn’t work out for harriet, it doesn’t work out for her either.

highlights:
-reinhart golem! what a name!
-under char’s influence, the kids of stoneybrook get into spying. matt braddock is a particularly good spy because he can lip read. this is a cute detail.
-the meta-ending: the bsc agree unanimously that this will be their last mystery "at least for now." this is actually the last mystery in the series. cheesy, but I love it anyway.

lowlights/nitpicks:
-the mystery is SO OBVIOUS. here are the notes I took about reinhart golem while reading the book:
-->the security guard and his boss repeatedly begged golem to put the diamonds in a bank but he wouldn't listen, and he doesn’t have any good reason why. I’m pretty sure he’s the burglar.
-->nobody knows how golem made his money and he has a ton of it. he’s never married, stays by himself most of the time, and travels a lot. yeah, this is definitely the perp, guys. I solved it for you.
-->the bsc and cary go back to try to find clues and find a bullet casing and a red magic marker. even though the cops had already looked everywhere and hadn't found a thing. uh, I think the guy who OWNS THE HOUSE probably planted them there.
-->golem gives the cops the marker and bullet casing but handles them carelessly, ruining the chance for fingerprinting. suspicious...
-->there was a cat burglary in nyc in the same building where reinhart golem has an apartment. suspicious again…
-->golem seems unconcerned about losing the diamonds. they were insured, he explains. hmm…
-->sgt johnson had investigated golem a few years ago for being involved in smuggling, but there wasn't enough info so he had to drop it. and now johnson is being made to seem guilty for stealing from golem. hhhhhhmmmmmmm…

-they claim cary lives in this neighborhood, but is that true? what about Mary Anne and the Silent Witness? is that neighborhood near kristy? they never said it was before.
-kristy says mary anne's favorite mystery was one involving a music box and a secret romance, referencing Mary Anne and the Music Box Secret. but kristy doesn't know that she solved the mystery and doesn't know about the romance plotline, since mary anne promised her step-grandmother she wouldn’t tell anyone.
-stacey suggests a tomato sandwich to char since harriet loves them. char says yuck and asks for fig newtons instead. WHAT? when I was a kid I loved tomato sandwiches (even before I read harriet the spy!) but thought fig newtons were guh-ross.
-jessi says the cat burglar might be a woman and then mal says "okay, so maybe it's a woman. but I'm still going to say he, since that's how all the articles referred to the person." it’s too bad there isn’t a singular gender neutral pronoun that people could use in a situation like this. WAIT! there IS one! it’s "they" and it’s been used since 1375! mal is too smart and too cool to be this androcentric.
-I hate when people wear glasses without needing to wear them, so I'm mad at claudia for her outfit described below. I have to wear glasses to see. I don’t have a choice. she does. it’s not quite a "we’re a culture, not a costume" situation, but it’s not far off.
-sgt johnson shows up at claud’s house during the bsc meeting begging them for help. he has no boundaries in his relationship with LITTLE GIRLS. because that’s what the members of the bsc are. CHILDREN. anyway, then the chief of police shows up at claud’s house and arrests him there. once again, NO BOUNDARIES.
-char tells abby she’s concerned that sgt johnson got arrested because she thought the police were supposed to take care of people and she doesn't feel safe if they do wrong things too. abby tells her the police are here to protect us and she shouldn't worry, but really, char is totally on the nose, and abby is wrong. cops aren’t infallible. no one is infallible. cops are actually particularly fallible, if you ask me, since they are people who want to oppress people and learn from a violent, racist system.

claudia’s harriet the spy-inspired outfit:
-"Claudia was wearing purple painter's pants with lots of loops and pockets for carrying tools, red high-tops with purple laces, and a red sweatshirt customized with purple embroidery. She was even wearing glasses like Harriet's (with plain lenses since Claudia's eyesight is fine), but the frames were purple instead of black."

stacey’s outfit as described by charlotte:
-"Today she has on khaki pants and a white button-down blouse. She has a dark blue ribbon in her hair, and it kind of matches her eyes. Her shoes are brown lace-up boots..."

snacks in claudia’s room:
-caramel-nut popcorn (n.s.)
-chocolate wafer cookies (n.s.)
-salsa-flavored corn chips (n.s.)
-milky way bars (n.s.)
-miniature butterfinger bars (n.s.)
-cheez-its (n.s.)

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The answer to this mystery was extremely obvious, but I did sort of enjoy the twists and turns (even though they weren't that twisty) because of the campiness they (unintentionally?) created.

I do think it was a weird (but interesting) choice to get one of the BSC's schoolmates so involved in this case with them, too, especially when most of the babysitters themselves aren't very involved.

It was fun, but it wasn't that great.

[Ciara · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is the last babysitters club book, & arguably the most convoluted one. let's see if i can remember all the details.

kristy is in her yard, playing hide & seek with her younger siblings. cary retlin sneaks up on her. he has binoculars & says he was birdwatching in the woods. apparently kristy's house backs up on to a wooded area that also runs through cary's neighborhood--miller park, i believe? even though we established just a few books ago that abby, who lives two houses down from kristy, has a backyard neighbor.

anyway, inspired by cary, the younger kids decide they want to explore the woods--especially a big mansion out in the middle of a clearing. kristy walks them out there, passing sergeant johnson driving down the road in the woods on the way. she waves at him, but he doesn't see her. the kids want to walk right up the driveway of the house & get a closer look at it, & kristy reluctantly allows them to do so. suddenly a gunshot is fired. kristy grabs the kids & books it back to the road, but the cops arrive just as she gets to the end of the driveway. sergeant johnson appears behind them & herds them into his cop car while the cops check out the scene. a security guard shows up, claiming that he is employed by the owner of the house, a man named reinhart golem. he was doing his rounds at the house when he got an urgent phone call about his wife being at the hospital. he rushed to the hospital, but his wife wasn't there. he assumes someone wanted to lure him away from the house. someone has tripped the security alarm & the security guard is concerned that someone may have stolen some diamonds that golem keeps in a vault in the house. kristy notices a cat face stenciled on to golem's mailbox & points it out to the cops. they tell her it's the sign of the notorious cat burglar, who has been robbing rich people's homes up & down the east coast. & golem is definitely rich.

kristy also noticed a) a light on in an upstairs window right before the alarm went off, & b) cary retlin creeping around the perimeter of the yard, out of sight of the cops.

the cops confirm that some diamonds have been stolen. they try to get in touch with golem, who is in france. the cat burglar is a prime suspect, but the cops are checking out everything. sergeant johnson asks kristy to stop by the station & answer a few questions. he clarifies that it's not really "questioning," because she is a minor & legally, a parent or guardian would have to be present for that. which immediately set off red flags for me. if he's questioning her about the crime, it's not like saying he's not questioning her suddenly makes it not questioning her. if she provided him with some sort of evidence he could use to arrest & eventually prosecute a suspect, there's no way her testimony would stand up in court because it was obtained illegally. anyway!

when kristy gets to the station, some other cops start asking her weird questions about sergeant johnson, like how soon he appeared on the scene after the alarm went off, & if he saw her while she was walking in the woods, etc. kristy doesn't get it, even though the reader is being clobbered over the head with the idea that the other cops suspect sergeant johnson.

kristy runs into cary outside the station & he suggests they go check out the scene of the crime again. she agrees, & mary anne tags along. cary says they should look for a bullet casing if kristy thinks she heard a gun. they poke around...& find a bullet casing. nearby is a bullet hole. then mary anne finds a red marker that looks like it may have been used to stencil the mailbox. the kids snoop around some more, peering into windows & whatnot...& they see someone peering back out at them. it's reinhart golem himself, apparently back from france. he invites them inside & they share their finds with him. he congratulates them & calls the police to turn over the evidence. he gives the kids his business card & asks them to get in touch if they find any other clues. kristy is flattered by how seriously golem is taking their detective work. she is also intrigued by his offer of a reward.

the babysitters have some suspects:
1) the cat burglar. except no one knows who that actually is, & the golem robbery could very well have been a copycat crime.

2) cary retlin. kristy doesn't really think he's a suspect. she acknowledges that it's a stretch to think a 13-year-old would be able to get into golem's safe, & obviously cary has no use for stolen diamonds. he does act suspicious & sneaky though.

3) ben birch, a business associate of golem's who may have turned on him.

4) sergeant johnson, as much as the babysitters are loath to think it. but when golem calls them to confirm that sergeant johnson's prints were all over the red marker mary anne found, & that the bullet casing kristy found matches the kind of bullets used by the stoneybrook police department, the babysitters don't know what to think. & sergeant johnson was near the house right before the alarm went off...

the girls start doing research. they look up ben birch at the library, but there's no record of him anywhere. they look up the cat burglar & learn that he's been robbing rich people for years, & has taken some strange things, like a priceless blue tiffany lamp. the lamp is one-of-a-kind, so the burglar would never be able to sell it. the babysitters speculate that sometimes he just steals nice things because he likes nice things. they also research sergeant johnson & find that he had investigated reinhart golem a few years earlier for smuggling, but charges were dropped.

the evidence seems stacked against sergeant johnson. he was in the area right before & right after the robbery, & he left behind a marker & a bullet casing. the babysitters think maybe he's had it out for golem since the smuggling investigation--that he was upset that it didn't go anywhere & made him look bad to the rest of the force. the babysitters begin to feel uncomfortable about their friendship with him--doubly so when he stops by claudia's place during a babysitters club meeting to lament the fact that he is being framed. seems to pretty inappropriate to swing by the house of a 13-year-old girl to complain about such a thing, while on duty & in uniform. while he's there, the other stoneybrook cops show up & arrest him for the golem robbery. apparently some of the missing diamonds have turned up in his desk at the police station (& how were they discovered? did the other cops have a warrant to go through his desk?).

kristy starts thinking it through & decides that sergeant johnson is in fact being framed. she saw the light on at golem's house well after she saw sergeant johnson on the road, but well before the alarm went off. she thinks whoever robbed the house must have been in there the whole time (it's a huge house). she also notes that sergeant johnson wasn't out of breath at all when he reported to the robbery scene--not at all like someone who had just committed a robbery & then booked it around the corner to pretend to be responding to it. this seems like scant evidence in the face of the evidence AGAINST sergeant johnson, but the babysitters fan out to find golem & tell him their suspicions anyway. half the group goes to chez maurice, where golem often eats dinner, & the other groups (including kristy, cary, abby, & mary anne) go to golem's house.

golem is home & welcomes them inside, thanking them for their assistance in apprehending the robber, sergeant johnson. abby starts outlining their thoughts about sergeant johnson's innocence. while she talks, kristy spaces out & notices that cary looks very pale & scared. she follows his eyeline...to a blue tiffany lamp. the gears start turning & she realizes that golem was the cat burglar all along, & he's been playing the cops against each other & using the babysitters club to recover evidence he planted implicating sergeant johnson. as abby wraps up the "sergeant johnson is innocent" angle, golem notices cary & kristy staring at the lamp & cottons on to the fact that they've fingered him as the cat burglar. he presses a button that locks them in the parlor & says they'll have to stay until he leaves for france later that evening...at which point i guess he'll be scot-free or something? i don't get it. it's not like the u.s. doesn't have extradition powers in france.

cary lunges for the button, golem & cary wrestle, kristy hits the button, abby & mary anne flee, & then the cops show up. they bust into the parlor & arrest golem. apparently the other babysitters flipped through the reservation book at chez maurice & noticed that golem had been there the day of the robbery--when he was supposedly in france. somehow this made them realize that he was the cat burglar & the other group was in trouble. they alerted police, who freed sergeant johnson & came to arrest golem. golem's motive: he was ready to retire the cat burglar persona, so he framed sergeant johnson as revenge for johnson investigating him for smuggling several years back. pretty bad move. he's gotten away with the smuggling & the cat burgling & could have just continued to live a quiet life of wealth & luxury. there is also no ben birch--that was an alias golem sometimes used.

i could go on for several hours, picking apart all the plot holes in this book, but i think we have all suffered for long enough. the B-plot is all about charlotte pretending to be harriet the spy. she gets a comeuppance, just like the original harriet the spy. this has to be at last the fifth time the babysitters c;lub has recycled the harriet the spy plotline. NO ONE CARES.

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This actually had a Nancy Drew-esque action sequence in the end, which was a nice surprise. Most BSC mysteries are careful to keep the club members away from physical danger.

Also bonus points for a Kristy/Cary story where Kristy is actually rather reasonable about Cary and while they aren't BFFs, they actually work together pretty well.

The big reveal wasn't a huge surprise (seriously, how creepy was that Reinhart Golem guy from the get-go?! and oh dear, the infamous Cat Burglar also burgled one of his neighbours in NYC? That was a blinking neon sign of a clue.) but it was still fun to get there. And I like Abby's realization that just because they got a whole bunch of clues doesn't mean they interpreted the clues correctly.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fiiiiiinally the BSC see how dangerous their detective work is (not when dealing with counterfeiters, armed robbers, or SOMEONE LITERALLY THREATENING AND STALKING THEM) and they decide to call it quits. Also Sergeant Johnson has a mental breakdown in Claudia's living room (and lol sympathetic Mary Anne sits beside him on the couch to comfort him ahahhaha) before he gets arrested. This Mystery is unhinged.

[Sarah Hyatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's no Babysitters Beware, but it's decent. A dramatic novel of suspense, indeed. A gunshot! A framed police officer! Babysitting! Such intrigue.

Apparently this was the last BSC mystery and that is actually addressed in the book. It was after I stopped reading BSC books so I didn't have the opportunity to mourn then. I will mourn now.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hallelujah! I have finished the regular mysteries series! I have two super mysteries to go, but I feel very accomplished now!

Also this might have been the worst of all. Even Cary Retlin couldn't save this steaming pile.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This just took me back to a simpler time. I loved this series as a youth and the characters are so fun and diverse. The mystery was interesting and involved a policeman who might have done wrong, which was advanced for the late 90s. I enjoyed this one.

[Christina]

Read my recap at A Year with the BSC via Stoneybrook Forever: www.livethemovies.com/bsc-blog/kristy...

[Liesl Miller]

The Sergeant Johnson suspicions were a…choice.

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marginally interesting also seems to rip off a Simpsons episode much like the previous book. This time like the episode with grandpa trying to find a cat burglar. It begins when a house in Kristy's neighbourhood is broken into. Kristy happens to be nearby as us Cary Reitin and the famous Sergeant Johnson who's helped the girls solve cases only this time he's seemingly being set up as the culprit or is he being set up? That aspect makes the story somewhat more interesting but it's just as ridiculous as all the other mysteries have been. The b plot involves Charlotte and the other kids becoming spies like Harriet and it ends up just like the actual book does. I'm just glad I somehow managed to get through the mysteries.

[Melenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved these books as a child

[V. Arrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was INTENSE for a BSC mystery! No wonder at the end they were like, "We are, perhaps, actual children who should not be going into strange adult men's houses all the time actually?"