Mystery #16: Claudia and the Clue in the Photograph

 

Thoughts before reading:

I've never read this before, and I am VERY over the mysteries. There's still so many to go! This, unfortunately, sounds like one involving the police and real criminals again too.

This is a very unflattering picture of Claudia, poor girl. Far from her best cover. 

The basics:

Claudia's taking a photography class over the summer, and she loves it. (Her dad has loaned her his old camera, and let her make a dark room in the bathroom.) So when the BSC and some of their charges start talking about making Dawn something, Claudia comes up with the idea to make a photo album of pictures from all over Stoneybrook. Everyone is enthusiastic about it, and the girls coordinate with the kids to do a Day in the Life of Stoneybrook, where they all take pictures around town in just one day. 

During the photo taking day, Claudia gets really into the bank's façade and takes a bunch of pictures of it. Shortly after she's done, the girls hear that a bunch of money is missing from the bank, and no one knows why. No robberies or big errors have happened. Claudia excitedly decides to look through her roll of bank pictures for clues, but is disappointed to find nothing helpful. All she captured are some kids and a man with a briefcase. 

Stacey wants to go to the bank to exchange her penny rolls, and while she's there, she's surprised to see the man with the briefcase that Claudia caught in a photo. Turns out, he works at the bank. When the girls later hear that the police think the theft was an inside job, they look through Claudia's photos again. The girls also take the pictures with the man in them to the police, who (rightly) say they don't prove anything. 

Undeterred, the girls decide to have a stakeout at the bank. During this venture, Shannon learns that the man is actually VP of the bank, and his name is Mr. Zibreski. They follow him to a café, and spy on his really dull conversation with a friend. 

Later on, Claudia's working on her photography when she realizes she still has a roll of film from the bank inside her camera. She hurries to the dark room with it, but someone opens the door while she's developing and ruins the roll. The weird thing is, she's home alone, and both doors going into the house are locked. A quick search inside turns up nothing, but Claudia's spooked and calls Stacey over. She also later booby traps her room, Home Alone style.

When the rest of the BSC hears this story, the girls become worried that Mr. Z is following Claudia, and she could be in danger. They go back to the police with a picture Mary Anne took on photo day, which shows that there was a light on inside the bank (which was supposed to be closed at the time). The Sergeant tells them Mr. Z is in fact under suspicion. 

Next, Claudia gets the idea to enlarge her photos of the bank, then look for new clues. In doing so, the girls notice the time on Mr. Z's pocket watch never changes, so it's probably a fake. (Kind of a big leap, but okay...) From there, they figure out he could have a key hidden inside, and the stolen money could be inside the bank still, in a safety deposit box. The BSC girls rush to the police station once again. Mr. Z is actually already there, being questioned, and they end up presenting their evidence in front of him. He immediately confesses. Apparently he was stealing money to save for his retirement years. They had guessed all this right, and get yet another article in the newspaper about them. 

Janine confesses that she opened the dark room door that day, then got embarrassed and ran out of the house (a great image!). 

Claudia does well in her summer school math class, so her parents say she can take photography in the fall too. 

Timeline:

It's still summer vacation, and there's some continuity with Claudia's summer school too.

Misc. thoughts:

*It's really nice of the Kishis to let Claudia take over a bathroom for her dark room. Also, the photography information in this book was actually interesting.

*The Barrett-Dewitt engagement hasn't happened yet? Did I mess up the book order somehow, or is this an error? This book and the last both came out in August of 1994, and #77 is listed first...

*The Barrett kids suddenly have a bunch of new pets: guppies, a turtle, and a gerbil.

*Disposable cameras were new around this time. I am also old enough to remember them being a novelty... I was around 8 when they became a thing, and I used to love them.

*Janine's still dating Jerry.

*Kristy won't let Claudia listen to the radio in her own room during a club meeting. I'd be pretty pissed if I was her.

*Stacey and Claud are now really into a singer named Billy Blue.

*The Clue of the Tapping Heels is one of Claudia's all-time favorite Nancy Drews. 

*At the police station, the girls are recognized because they've helped solve cases before. This is definitely a sign that the series has taken a nosedive off the rails!

*I love that the Sergeant told information about an active case to some teenage detectives. Seems totally professional and legit...

*If I had known how often BSC members would be written about in the newspaper, I would have kept track from the beginning. That would be a great statistic to have by the end!

*Claudia's parents are worried about her "playing detective". It's a bit late for them to be taking notice of this, 16 mysteries in...

*These mysteries have REALLY become like Scooby Doo episodes, and not in a good way.

*Ghostwritten by Ellen Miles

Books mentioned:

*A Day in the Life of America, by Rick Smolan (This book was the inspiration behind their photo book project for Dawn)

My rating:

2 stars. This was too ridiculous to overlook any of it. They have got to have these kids stop solving real crimes! Also very predictable, repetitive, and boring. This was a total miss for me, other than the idea of the photo album for Dawn, which I thought was sweet.