The Mansion of Secrets

A Kay Tracey Mystery #17

by Frances K. Judd

What is going on inside the spooky old Greely mansion? Peering into the deserted house, Kay Tracey sees a mysterious figure prying open the seventh step of the spiral staircase. Startled, the intruder flees through the dark halls and gets away. Kay, sixteen-year-old girl detective, has for the moment lost the prowler, but she finds herself head over heels in another baffling mystery. The chase is on!

What is hidden in the seventh step? The question sets Kay's sleuthing brain into high gear. Kay's cousin Bill, a young lawyer, becomes involved in the strange doings when he tries to sell the Greely estate. Even Kay's jealous schoolmate, Ethel Eaton, sees a chance to get even with Kay, with a scheme that ultimately backfires.

Not until Kay and her friends Betty and Wilma Worth uncover a strange clue do they get to the bottom of the exciting mystery.

Genres: Mystery, Childrens

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

A pseudonym used by several authors: Elizabeth Mildred Duffield Ward (Kay Tracey series #1-2), Mildred A. Wirt Benson (Kay Tracey series #3-12, 14), Edna Stratemeyer Squier (Kay Tracey series #13), and Anna Perot Rose Wright (Kay Tracey series #15-18).

Series:
* A Kay Tracey Mystery

Reviews

[Theunis Snyman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast moving juvenile mystery. Every chapter something new is happening. It makes you want to read on and on. There is however no depth in the characters. That's why it loses one star.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book comes from the old Kay Tracey Mystery Series. It's my favorite book in this series and I re-read it for an interview. As a child reading this book I learned so much about valuables- about ambergris and old Bibles to name a few.

Kay's Cousin Bill is the lawyer in charge of settling the estate of the miserly old Mr. Greeley, who died without a will. His great nephew is the only living descendant and the man, an aviator, has instructed Bill to put the place up for sale. But the place is said to have hidden treasures so laughingly, Peter Greeley gives Kay and her chums permission to search the old three-story mansion. There are many secrets awaiting to be discovered but Kay and her chums also have a dangerous rival in competition to find the treasures before they do!

[Randy Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a later book in the Kay Tracey Mystery series—I guess they were revised, slightly—and this is the first one I’ve read. I didn’t get that much of a feeling of 16-year-old Kay’s personality, though her friends, the twins, Wilma and Betty, are a little more fun. One of them, however, constantly recites verse—that she has composed herself—and if that sounds annoying, it is, more than you can imagine. This isn’t one of the better written series books I’ve read, but the story just kept getting more and more bizarre—so I was pretty entertained. It centers around an old house in which the deceased owner has all kinds of secret hiding places for his riches, and hidden rooms and passages. There are far too few secret rooms in real life, as far as I’m concerned, but at least we have books. My favorite part of this story, though, was an interesting side plot where the kids have a fieldtrip to a perfume factory—it’s obviously a genuine interest of the author. (Frances K. Judd is a pen name—these books were written by various authors.) There’s a lot explained about fragrances, including a detailed explanation of ambergris—and naturally, one of the kids accidentally destroys the factory’s supply of the valuable substance—and naturally, Kay gets blamed for it. She wants nothing more than to be able to replace the ambergris—but where in the world is some of that rare stuff going to turn up?

[K.L.]

Bill is involved in selling the Greely place to a rancher. The owner, a pilot allows the girls to search the mansion after they uncover a treasure. The pilot soon disappears, halting the sale although the rancher is not happy. The girls search for the treasures, finding lost of valuable things. They arte thwarted by a masked intruder who spies on them and keeps entering the house through what seems like a million secret entrances. The girls never look for these entrances. At one stage Kay is nearly thrown out of a window, and Wilma suffers an electric shock. The crook turns out to be the grandson of the architect that designed the house, he is a model with a vicious Alsatian that attacks everyone. Ethel makes a nuisance of herself as she has taken a shine to the rancher. At a perfume factory Kay/Ethel accidentally destroys some valuable Ambergris. They later find some in the house, and when the pilot is found he gives Kay some so that she can replace it.

[R.J. Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun outing for fans of the Kay Tracey series, which was created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, creators of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Nancy Drew fans will see a lot of similarities, and some fun differences, between Nancy and Kay. The original text contains its share of quaint expressions. Ghostwritten by Anna Perot Rose Wright, "The Mansion of Secrets" is, perhaps, not quite up to the level of books in the series ghostwritten by Mildred Wirt Benson but still a fun story with plenty of twists and turns.

[Nora · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Kay Tracey mystery. It's so funny, I remember this book being absolutely amazing in my late childhood, but it's not really very good at all. First, it's a total copycat of Nancy Drew--right down to the reddish hair, the boyfriend & the two trusty sidekicks. There is a Mom & an older male cousin instead of a housekeeper & Father, but the relationships are very similar. Second, it ended so abruptly. It was going & then it was over. Third, you don't really get a feel for who anyone is. They are all just cardboard space fillers. I didn't hate it, but now I remember why I didn't read any more of the series.

[Ashley · Rating 1 out of 5]

A knock-off Nancy Drew series, created by the same company, that lacks any of the real danger or intrigue of Kay Tracey's more famous detective competition. I found this book infuriating; the plot was both obvious and muddled, with several characters who hold no importance to the plot thrown in. Unlike Nancy Drew, who has adapted (with both good and bad results) to the changing times, Kay Tracey remains a product of her own time and should be left behind in the 40s/50s.