Ainslee’s Reviews > Kristy and the Cat Burglar > Status Update

Anyway, 3/5 stars because for a book that was fairly easy to solve, there were SO MANY CRAZY DETAILS. What kind of town even IS this.

--Do not go into creepy houses owned by creepy guys who have just been robbed and wear smoking jackets because they are after insurance money and are also exciting gentlemen thieves because sure
--why the hell is Chez Maurice not noticing 11-year-old girls reading their handwritten reservation info
--"I can't find anything on this guy on the Web" dude it's 1998 good luck finding anything

I've written too many notes about this incredibly undramatic book. To sum up:
--A Harriet the Spy subplot? Cut it out, Charlotte.
--CARY
--All the police officers are insanely dramatic and also not good at all at their jobs; Sgt. Johnson clearly pushes the girls away at the end because he's finally realized the boundary issues ("these 13-year-old girls... are the only people I trust... What is wrong with me")

Yes, this book contains Cary getting his head cut open and his face bruised, and Mary Anne even wipes the blood off his face because WHY NOT. Cary also attends a BSC meeting and even a celebratory pizza party, described with the blood still on his face. I... I love it.

His dad also doesn't care that he got pulled into a police station for questioning and peaces out immediately, leaving Cary to get home ON HIS OWN.

Other than that, Cary's basically a vaguely more sinister Logan here, as he helps the BSC investigate and is bizarrely not pulling a SINGLE scheme. He also knows the creepy guy who owns the house somehow, which is never explained, especially since he doesn't know him THAT well and even almost gets his head bashed in by the guy.

Apparently Cary really DOES love birdwatching, so that's... That's Cary. A birdwatcher with his own lair in the school basement that he uses to read privately. I feel like his characterization derailed somewhere, but it doesn't change a bit of my love for him. They did have him state again that "Complications make life interesting," so that was some nice CONTINUITY.

I mean, are we supposed to expect the Stoneybrook police force to solve these cases? I mean, we had a whole 38 books designated for mysteries that ONLY the BSC can solve. Are we really supposed to believe that Stoneybrook (and the surrounding communities) won't just fall to pieces around them?

Anyway, CARY.

After being used by the villain the whole book, the BSC finally manages to crack the case-- and it's JESSI who finds the decisive evidence! I don't know if this is meant to make up for her solo crappy mystery in this side-series, but it's a nice detail nonetheless.

Sgt. Johnson then later SHOWS UP at Claudia's house (????) for the sheer reason of having a MONOLOGUE about how everyone's turned against him, and Kristy mentions how unhinged he looks. He just basically shows up to dump on them in Claudia's dining room when her parents aren't home. Sgt. Johnson has been too casual with the BSC before, but this was really overstepping it.

(Turns out his first name is James, btw.)

First off, this book is full of unnerving situations now that I'm an adult. Kristy and her friends are invited to dine with Mysterious Male Neighbor of Uncertain Age at Chez Maurice, but she doesn't think her parents will let her, so she convinces him to let them have breakfast at HIS CREEPY HOUSE instead, with the implication that this means she doesn't have to tell her parents now. KRISTY.......