A Ted Wilford Mystery, no. 12 - The Mystery of Rainbow Gulch

As I get nearer to the conclusion of the Ted Wilford mystery series, I am beginning to notice the stories are straying further away from Ted working on a story for the school or hometown newspaper and moving into standard mystery fare.  After the last book's focus on baseball, I was hoping this book would get Ted back to his newspaper work; but, alas, such is not the case.  Instead, we get probably the most convoluted mystery Ted and Nelson have faced to date.

The Mystery of Rainbow Gulch sees Ted and his best friend, Nelson, taking a much needed vacation.  The two young men head off to stay with Nelson's friend, Bob Fontaine, who lives on a farm with his parents and younger sister, Tony.  Oh, and their dog, Cougar.  And their horses - Starlight, Meadowlark, and Blaze.  And their new farm hand, Henry Cox. And we can't forget their neighbor, Mrs. Manners.  And we definitely must make mention of that old hermit who lives way out in the hills, in Rainbow Gulch, to be exact.  Author Norvin Pallas provides plenty of characters in this story, and with the numerous characters comes the numerous mysteries that fall into Ted's lap!

MYSTERY #1 - Ted learns that Bob's little sister, Tony, is not actually the Fontaine's daughter.  They discovered her in their front yard after someone dropped her off late one night and disappeared thereafter.  The Fontaines did all they could to find relatives of the girl, but she could not even remember her own name (she was too young at the time), and the only thing she could really say was "Tony," which is why they gave her that name.  They are trying to adopt her, but their lawyer says something is slowing the process down - and that something turns out to be the Fontaines' neighbor, Mrs. Manners (yes, that's really her last name!).  Despite her name, she has no manners at all, for she tells Mr. Fontaine that she intends to adopt young Tony herself, and there is nothing he or his family can do to stop her!

MYSTERY #2 - Soon after arriving at the Fontaines' farm, Ted and Nelson join Bob on a horseback ride, only to watch a plane crash over one of the distant hills.  They report the possible downed plane, and a ranger comes to the property and has them take him to where they think the plane went down.  They discover the pilot is dead, and it appears the plane had surveying cameras aboard - but for what reason, they do not know.  And Ted discovers some very strange footprints leading away from the plane, leaving them to wonder if someone survived the crash, or if someone came to the plane and took something away...

MYSTERY #3 - Ted and Nelson also learn that a nearby house burned to the ground not long ago, and there is an auction taking place for some of the livestock and other items that survived the fire.  Bob tells them the couple who rented the property - Mr. and Mrs. Franton - died in the fire, and no one could find any of their relatives to claim the remaining property.  Bob inadvertently bids on, and wins, an old stuffed chair, which, when Ted sits in it, he discovers a paper shoved into the cushion - a paper that contains a very strange coded message!

MYSTERY #4 - A young man by the name of Henry Cox shows up, looking for work as a farm hand.  Mr. Fontaine hires him, but Ted suspects there is something off.  Henry does not appear to know much about what he is doing, and his questions raise suspicions in Ted's mind.  Then Henry takes off one day, leaving no word, and the family discovers that before he left, he used more than one roll of film to take pictures of young Tony, asking her numerous questions about what she remembers from her past and her real family.  

MYSTERY #5 - And last, but not least, there is the mysterious old hermit the boys find living out beyond Rainbow Gulch.  He lives in a beat-up old shack that no one knew was there, and he talks incoherently to himself as he wanders around.  The boys cannot figure out if he is prospecting for something, or if he is simply seeking a solitary life.  And Ted can't help but wonder if he is the one who left the footprints out near the sight of the plane crash...

Five seemingly unrelated mysteries, and here Ted and Nelson thought they were going to have a relaxing, uneventful vacation!  Of course, Pallas doesn't wait long before he starts to interweave the mysteries, and the reader, alongside Ted and Nelson, begins to get pieces of what is really going on and who all the players really are.  The disappointing thing about the book is that Ted does not do any real investigating, except to question Henry Cox.  The revelations regarding the burning of the Franton's home, the real identity of Tony, the true motivation behind Mrs. Manners' actions, the reason for the plane crash, and the truth about the hermit out in Rainbow Gulch all come to light without any help from Ted at all.  I suppose it could be proffered that if Ted had not come out to the farm, none of these secrets would have come to light; however, he is simply a catalyst and not an actual reason.

That is not to say there is no excitement to the story.  There are some rather tense scenes building up to the climax, when Tony is kidnapped, and Ted joins Bob to go in search of her.  After they find her, they get trapped out in Rainbow Gulch as a fire begins to spread around them, trapping them with no way out.  The scene of them climbing the "rainbow" shaped rock formation in order to escape the coming flames is the cover scene for the book.  I rather liked how Pallas portrayed Ted and Bob in these scenes, as they are forced to remain calm for Tony's sake, so she does not become hysterical at the thought of the fire consuming them, and even when they believe there is no hope of rescue, they stay positive for the small girl.  That writing stays true to Ted's character in the series.

Not one of the better books in the series, but definitely not the worst.  With only three more books left in this series, I'm hoping they get better before it ends!

RATING:  6 cloths soaked in water from the stream out of 10 for crafting five mysteries that ultimately tie into one rather complex mystery to be solved!