The Boxcar Children

The Mystery Cruise by Gertrude Chandler Warner, 1992.

Mr. Alden takes his grandchildren on their first cruise to the Caribbean! The Alden kids are excited to go because there are a lot of interesting things to do on the cruise ship. However, they begin to notice some strange things happening happening on the ship and some odd people among the passengers and crew.

The first person they meet is Max, a history professor who shares their table at dinner. The Aldens can tell that something is bothering him. He gets a telegram that upsets him, and he seems desperate to communicate with someone, but for some reason, the phone and radio systems on the ship keep breaking down. It looks like sabotage! Could someone be trying to stop Max from communicating with someone?

Eventually, Max explains that he was notified about the death of a great-aunt, but to claim the inheritance, he must be present at the reading of the will, and various problems on the ship seem to be delaying the ship from reaching its destination in time. Besides the sabotage of the phone and radio, someone also gives a false cry of “man overboard” to make the ship stop. The crew is able to verify that nobody is missing from the ship by doing a head count. Is someone deliberately trying to prevent Max from reaching their destination on time, so he won’t receive his inheritance? If Max isn’t there, he says another relative, his cousin, will inherit, but this cousin isn’t on the cruise with him. Could she have hired someone to keep Max away from the will reading?

There’s a new employee on the ship, Heather, who seems very nervous and secretive about some messages that she’s been receiving. Heather also seems to know the Rands, a family who says that they used to work for another cruise company and who keep saying that the other cruise company was better. Could Heather and the Rands be working together to sabotage the cruise? Tom, another passenger, seems friendly and likes working out and showing off how well he lifts weights, but he also seems too interested in Max’s business and too happy about the ship’s delays. Could he be the mysterious saboteur? How can the Aldens be sure that they can get Max to his destination on time?

My Reaction

One of the things I enjoy about the Boxcar Children mysteries is that they’re good at presenting multiple suspects. The story delays telling readers about Max’s inheritance, so the first part of the mystery centers on what’s going on with Max. When we find out about the inheritance, the mystery becomes a question of whether or not his cousin is trying to keep him from the inheritance. There is only one other possible motive under consideration – that the Rands are still working for a rival cruise company and may be sabotaging this cruise to draw more attention to their company. Sometimes, Boxcar Children books take twists, where the more obvious motive isn’t the culprit’s real motive, but in this case, the inheritance is directly related to the mystery. It’s more a question of who is helping Max’s cousin and what the Aldens can do to help Max reach the reading of the will. In this case, the Aldens get the crew of the ship to help them with their plan to outwit and catch the saboteur.

This is also one of those books where the Boxcar Children are given the opportunity to do things that most children in real life would never been allowed to do. Isaac, one of the chefs on the ship, is charmed by Benny and his love of food, and he invites him to visit the kitchen with his siblings to get free samples of different pastries and desserts. The children ask if they can help out in the kitchen in return for this special favor, and Isaac agrees. In real life, I don’t think most professional kitchens would just allow random kids to visit or to actually help with cooking. Professional kitchens have to maintain health standards, and people who work there have food handlers’ licenses. These things went over my head when I was a kid, but in some ways, they annoy me a little now.

One of the themes of the Boxcar Children books is that the Aldens are hard workers and are incredibly capable, even though they’re young. They often make it a point to earn any special treats or privileges they get or help out without being paid. I think it was the authors’ way of emphasizing the value of hard work. However, it bothers me now because situations like this in these books are very contrived, not things that real life kids would be given the opportunity to do, and probably not things they would even be allowed to do if they asked. Sometimes, the jobs the Alden kids get are due to their wealthy grandfather’s friends and connections, but other times, like this, it’s for no apparent reason. Benny just really liked the food, so they got an invitation from the chef.