Trixie Belden/Characters

The Bob-Whites of the Glen
The Bob-Whites of the Glen, or B.W.G.s, were formed in #3, The Gatehouse Mystery, when Honey expressed her wish that they could be part of a club. The name is derived from the whistle Jim taught Honey and Trixie in #1, The Secret of the Mansion, and the name of the road they live on: Glen Road. They have their own jackets which are red with white lettering. The main purpose of the club is to help others (while having fun). They are often involved in charitable projects, and of course, solving mysteries. Oftentimes, the two are somehow connected. Usually if they go on a trip, either Honey's parents or Trixie's uncle will pay their way through.

The seven members are: Trixie, Honey, Jim, Brian, Mart, Diana, and Dan. Diana joined the club after #4, The Mysterious Visitor, and Dan became a member after #8,The Black Jacket Mystery. Trixie and Jim are co-presidents, Honey is vice-president, and Mart is secretary/teasurer (Considering that there were five founding members, it's unknown why he wasn't just one or the other so Brian could also have a position).

Because of the various ghostwriters throughout the series, everything about the characters, from their personality to their eye color, switched between books. As a result, many of the tropes on this page are Depending on the Writer.

Associated tropes for all of the Bob-Whites include:

 * Born in the Saddle: All of them become very skilled horseback riders.
 * Chronic Hero Syndrome: They can't take a vacation without stopping to help others in need.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * The Hero: Trixie
 * The Lancer: Honey
 * The Smart Guy: Mart
 * The Big Guy: Jim
 * The Chick: Diana
 * Big Brother Mentor: Brian
 * The Sixth Ranger: Dan
 * Flanderization: All of them suffered this throughout the series. Except for Dan, who wasn't around.
 * Free Range Teenagers: From New York City and Saratoga to rural Virginia to the woods of Idaho, this group of fourteen to seventeen-year-olds barely ever had consistent supervision.
 * Friend to All Children: All of them, even Dan.
 * Good Feels Good
 * Honor Before Reason: Could very well be their club motto.
 * Kid Heroes
 * Kid Detectives: Trixie and Honey, but all of them have their turn.
 * Lawful Good: Depending on the Writer, Dan might not be.
 * Mystery Magnet: All of them, but especially Trixie.
 * Naive Everyteen: Except for Dan.
 * Nice Guys and Girls: Even Dan, despite his background.
 * Plot Induced Stupidity: All of them, at least once.
 * Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Despite all of Trixie's tomboyishness, this was enforced with gender-divided labor.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Trixie is red and Honey is blue, Jim is red and Brian is blue, Mart is red and Dan is blue. Diana's personality doesn't quite fit either one.
 * Smoking Is Cool: Inverted. All of them detest smoking, even Dan.
 * True Companions: A supposed "club motto" but seems to be more like "whenever the current author feels like it."
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: Except for Dan.

Beatrix "Trixie" Belden
""'Gleeps!""

The spirited protagonist who is an amateur detective. She's quick-tempered, smart, and often is quick to deduce clues, but not fond of schoolwork. Trixie is a tomboy, finding fashion, make-up, and jewelry to be dull. Additionally, she hates housework and only completes her chores out of respect for her parents. Among her interests, she enjoys horses, solving mysteries, and the Lucy Radcliffe spy novels. When the series started, Trixie was thirteen going on fourteen. Her age became fixed at fourteen for the remainder of the books.

As co-president of the Bob-Whites of the Glen, Trixie takes great pride in the club and has a generous heart, but sometimes finds it difficult to remain a team player due to her impatience and tendency toward bossiness. She also has a bad habit of acting on impulse, ignoring basic common sense, and being utterly tactless.

Her character provides examples of:

 * All Girls Like Ponies: Subverted, she prefers legitimate horses.
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted hard: one of the reasons she detests Dan so much at first is because he's sullen, abrasive, and wears black leather.
 * Alliterative Name: Her real name.
 * Action Girl: Sometimes.
 * Amateur Sleuth
 * Blue Eyes
 * Bratty Half-Pint: She means well, most of the time, but there are occasions when she acts like a typical spoiled teenager.
 * Bob Haircut: She keeps her hair much shorter than most girls.
 * Daddy's Girl: Has him wrapped around her finger.
 * Distressed Damsel: To the chagrin of her fans, she is often reduced to this.
 * Dojikko: She can be very clumsy.
 * Embarrassing First Name: She hates "Beatrix" with a passion.
 * Fan Girl: Of the Lucy Radcliffe spy novels, a book series within a book series.
 * Fearless Fool: At times, particularly when she runs off to meet three gangsters without telling anyone.
 * Green-Eyed Monster: Has her moments. She doesn't really appreciate when her friends start paying more attention to other people, especially not Jim.
 * Hair of Gold: Subverted: To make Trixie a tomboy, she was written to have "sandy" hair, and she cares little to style it.
 * Hot-Blooded: She's very impulsive and hot-tempered.
 * I Am Not Pretty: Often compares herself to her two beautiful friends and thinks this. However, this mostly a writing technique to show Trixie's modesty and lack of ego, and presumably, so readers could identify with her. She was less glamorously beautiful than naturally appealing and energetic.
 * It's All About Me: While Trixie is very materialistically generous, she has a bad habit of commandeering Bob-White road trips to turn it into a crusade for her own purposes.
 * Mouthy Kid: Especially in the Julie Campbell books.
 * Plucky Girl
 * Quirky Curls: her hair is said to make her look like a Coney Island chorus girl.
 * She Cleans Up Nicely:
 * Snooping Little Kid
 * Sweater Girl
 * Tomboy: Her original incarnation. In some books moreso than others, depending on who's writing.
 * Youthful Freckles

Madeleine "Honey" G. Wheeler
Honey is Trixie's bestfriend and detective partner. She's pretty, very kind, and an excellent swimmer. The daughter of wealthy parents, she is not close to either of them. Her early years were spent in boarding schools, where she was lonely and dejected. Due to Honey's poor health and failing grades, her parents relocated to the countryside in hopes of her regaining her strength. They bought Manor House, the property neighboring Crabapple Farm, where Honey met Trixie and later Jim, becoming fast friends with them both. She convinced her parents to adopt Jim as well.

Her interests include sewing and solving mysteries with Trixie. Because her parents are often away on business, she had substitute parental figures in the form of her governess, Miss Trask, and Bill Regan, the Wheelers' handsome and muscular groom.

The Bob-Whites' clubhouse is located on her parents' property and she is vice-president of the club. Out of all the Bob-Whites, she probably best embodies the charitable qualities they try to exemplify and remains the most diplomatic, always trying to prevent arguments. Her nickname comes from the honey colour of her hair and her sweet disposition.

Her character provides examples of:

 * Amateur Sleuth
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Every once in a while, she can be quite vindictive.
 * Big Brother Worship: Jim can do no wrong in her eyes.
 * Buffy-Speak: Her "Honey-speak."
 * Girly Girl: To Trixie's Tomboy.
 * Hazel Eyes: Though they once became blue.
 * I Just Want to Have Friends
 * The Ingenue
 * Lonely Rich Kid and Ill Girl: Before she met Trixie, anyway.
 * Mysterious Middle Initial: Her actual middle name is never provided. Fanon has it as "Grace".
 * Parental Neglect: Her parents barely spend any time with her and Jim.
 * The Pollyanna
 * Spoiled Sweet
 * Sidekick: Trixie's.
 * Aunt Pennybags: To all of the Bob-Whites through her parents, but especially Trixie.

James "Jim" Winthrop Frayne II
The handsome, red-haired, adopted older brother of Honey. Initially, he was a fifteen-year old junior in high school (his birthday way in July and he skipped a grade), but somehow became seventeen when he was a senior. He lived with his parents in Rochester until his father, Winthrop Frayne, died when he was ten, and later, when his mother remarried, he moved to his step-father's farm in Albany. It seems his mother, Katje Vanderheiden Frayne, died when he was thirteen or fourteen years old.

When Jim was introduced, he had just escaped from his physically and verbally abusive stepfather, and he was hiding out in the ramshackle mansion of his comatose great-uncle in hope of seeking refuge. After his great-uncle died, Jim was adopted by Matthew and Madeleine Wheeler, becoming Honey's adopted brother.

His interests include basketball and football, and the outdoors in general. Jim is handsome, knowledgeable, studious and serious. He appears an expert at everything he attempts and does not seem to have any flaws except his quick temper and his stubbornness. His ambition is to take his inheritance and build a school for underprivileged boys once he has graduated from college.

As co-president of the Bob-Whites along with Trixie, he has natural leadership skills and is always willing to help out his friends. Jim also acts as the main romantic interest for Trixie throughout the series.

His character provides examples of:

 * Abusive Stepfather: The first time Jim ran away, Jonesy caught him and tied him hand and foot, leaving him that way for three days.
 * Broken Ace: He's an excellent student and athlete, he's honorable, generous, and kind-hearted, but he was subject to disturbing physical abuse by his stepfather.
 * Determinator: Completed two school years in one in order to escape from under his stepfather's thumb.
 * Dumb Muscle: Averted, despite being talented at boxing, Jim is very academically intelligent.
 * Fiery Redhead
 * Green Eyed Red Head
 * Green Eyes
 * Though they once became blue. In a separate book than Honey's, noticeably.
 * Happily Adopted: To the point of Angst? What Angst?
 * Heroes Want Redheads
 * Not So Different: He attempts to draw this comparison between himself and Dan during the latter's introduction, but neither Trixie nor Dan buy it.
 * Momma's Boy: After his father died, Jim cared for his ill mother, whom he deeply loved.
 * Orphan's Ordeal: Jim's stepfather used to beat Jim after his mother died.
 * This also ties in with his Heartwarming Orphan status.
 * Parental Abandonment: His birth parents are dead.
 * Sympathy for the Devil: While all of the Bob-Whites disapprove of Dan's initially sullen attitude and black leather jacket, Jim refrains from judging him, because he suspects that Dan is actually lonely.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: He's not afraid to call out Trixie during her overtly judgmental or foolish moments.

Martin "Mart" Belden
Mart is eleven months older than Trixie and a grade above her. He looks enough like Trixie to be her twin, so he deliberately keeps his hair short to subvert this. His resemblance to Trixie is more than just physical: he is often just as impulsive and hot-tempered as her. The two bicker and tease each other, but they are very close and frequently confide personal troubles to each other. He and Trixie know that they can depend on each other no matter what, and he often indulges her by helping her out with her chores when she's off sleuthing.

Mart has a love for big and difficult words and often uses them to impress his friends and bewilder his sister. Occasionally, he uses these terms in the wrong context and Trixie delights in his embarrassment. Mart is knowledgeable and may occasionally have an air of arrogance when speaking, but his friends know him too well to think so. Diana is very impressed by how smart he is and looks up to him: the two share a special friendship.

Supposedly, Mart has a love of the land and the farm where he has grown up. He loves to work with his hand and he plans to major in agriculture and work at Jim's school for underprivileged boys after he graduates.

He is also secretary/treasurer of the Bob-Whites, though this role is rarely expounded upon.

His character provides examples of:

 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Has several of these moments with Trixie.
 * Big Eater
 * Blue Eyes
 * Clear Their Name: #30, The Mystery of the Midnight Marauder.
 * Fan Boy: Of the Cosmo Mcnaught science fiction novels, a book series within a book series.
 * Malaproper: Every once in a while.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
 * Sibling Rivalry: With Trixie.
 * Sarcastic Devotee: To Trixie and her mysteries.
 * Straight Man and Wise Guy: Wise Guy to Brian's Straight Man.
 * Quirky Curls: Keeps his hair short to avoid them.
 * Youthful Freckles

Brian Belden
Trixie's oldest brother, in Jim's grade at school, first a junior, than a senior. He is introduced alongside Mart in #3, The Gatehouse Mystery. Brian is the eldest of the Belden children and takes his role as the eldest very seriously. He is an ideal role model: patient, understanding and considerate of others and often plays the referee between Trixie and Mart.

Brian is also the oldest Bob-White and his friends respect his opinion and often look to him for advice. He is conservative, serious and studious as he intends to study medicine and become a doctor at Jim's school for underprivileged boys.

He is the first to aid an injured person and is knowledgeable in medicine and first aid. He is often praised for his care of injured people and takes charge in an emergency. Brian is quick to caution Trixie and stop her from acting impulsively. He questions her theories and often discounts them, but he is quick to defend her when Mart's teasing gets a little too much.

His character provides examples of:

 * The Alleged Car: His various "rattletrap cars", which he is constantly repairing.
 * Alliterative Name
 * Big Brother Instinct: To the entire club.
 * Big Brother Mentor: To the entire club.
 * Brown Eyes
 * Curtains Match the Window: He's a brown-eyed brunette.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Has the most moments.
 * The Dutiful Son
 * Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Responsible to Trixie and/or Mart's foolish.
 * The Medic
 * Only Sane Man: At times.
 * Straight Man and Wise Guy: The Straight Man to Mart's Wise Guy.

Diana 'Di' Lynch
Described by Trixie as the prettiest girl in their year with black hair and violet eyes, she Diana was possibly modelled on a young Elizabeth Taylor. She is aware of her good looks and knows how to use them, often making Trixie feel quite inadequate.

Diana is the eldest child of her family, with a set of twin brothers and twin sisters for siblings. Diana has lived in Sleepyside all her life and spent most of her life growing up in a small apartment.

However, when her father made his fortune, he purchased a huge estate and relocated his family. Though she and Trixie had been close friends, Trixie felt uncomfortable with Diana's new wealth. Diana was aware of this, and she and Trixie grew apart until Honey made an effort to include Diana in the Bob-Whites.

Di is a sweet, friendly girl who loves her younger brothers and sisters. She originally intended to become an air stewardess, but later in the series she expressed an interest in majoring in art and possessed some good drawing skills. She and Mart are hinted to have romantic feelings for one another.

Her character swings wildly between the books- at times she is all beauty and no brains, other instances have her as the stereotypical girly-girl who's afraid of spiders and snakes, but books #26, 27, 30 and 32 present a much stronger, knowledgeable Diana who has much more meaningful dialogue.

Her character provides examples of:

 * Ability Over Appearance: Subverted. Trixie believes that the main reason Diana wins roles in school plays in because of her beauty. Seeing how Diana frequently has difficulty with her lines, Trixie's perspective may be accurate.
 * Acceptable Feminine Goals: Her ambition to be an airline stewardess.
 * All Girls Like Ponies: She has a palomino pony named Sunny.
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Subverted, she's not discouraged by Dan's brooding demeanor, but she becomes frightened of him when Trixie suggests he's a gang member.
 * Brainless Beauty:Depending on the Writer.
 * Curtains Match the Window: Subverted, but Trixie, in all of her detective observatory skills, thinks that Diana's eyes are black like her hair.
 * The Ditz
 * Drama Queen: Sometimes. Other times she was much more composed.
 * The Fashionista
 * Fille Fatale: Occasionally uses her beauty to get by.
 * Graceful Ladies Like Purple
 * Hysterical Woman: Often designated with this role.
 * Lonely Rich Kid: At first, but the Bob-Whites help her out of it.
 * Purple Eyes:
 * What Beautiful Eyes!
 * Raven Hair, Ivory Skin
 * Shiny Midnight Black
 * Vanity Is Feminine

Daniel "Dan" Mangan
The most mysterious of the main characters, Dan was introduced in #8, The Black Jacket Mystery, as the nephew of Regan, the Wheelers' groomsman, and a sort of juvenile delinquent. Of course, he "reformed" by the end of the book (he was never all that bad in the first place- he just had an attitude problem).

However, the writer of Black Jacket never returned, so other writers were never quite sure what to do with him. His initial personality was at odds with the Bob-Whites and they had little other basis material. Besides, they couldn't write conflicting personalities in a book series for tween girls! As a result, the writers often wrote him out of the story to avoid giving him legitimate characterization, which would distract from Trixie and her mysteries. When he does appear in a story, he's about fifty percent more likely than anyone else to undergo some sort of angst and try deal with it alone.

Dan is an orphan, whose father, Tim, died in a car accident when he was young, and his mother died when Dan was in his mid-teens. He fell in with a bad gang in New York City and was later arrested for a gang fight. His uncle, Bill Regan, whom he had never met, was contacted by the juvenile courts and given the option of offering Dan a home or letting him go to a juvenile home.

Unsure how to raise a teenage delinquent, Regan arranged for Dan to stay with Mr Maypenny, the gamekeeper, and assist him in patrolling the game preserve, under Mr Wheeler's employ. Dan had a shaky start and Trixie suspected the worst of him, but he saved the life of her and her younger brother Bobby. Afterwards, he was quickly accepted into the Bob-Whites.

Dan often misses group vacations because he has to work or catch up on his studies. Therefore, he doesn't usually get to play a large role in the mysteries but when he does, he is incredibly useful. His knowledge of New York City's underground once saved Trixie's life when he led the police to her and rescued her from three gangsters. Not so quick to dismiss Trixie's theories, he sometimes supports her when the other boys don't. Dan's ambition is to become a policeman in New York and this could be why he is more supportive of Trixie than the others.

Dan is quiet and sensitive, a hard worker who doesn't mind manual labour. He is extremely loyal, sensitive to the feelings of others, and a talented ice-skater. His deeper personality is quite enigmatic, and the audience is only shown brief flashes of his fundamental beliefs.

His one-time excuse as to why he couldn't hang out ("I'll be chopping wood.") has become a Memetic Mutation with the fandom.

Due to inconsistent writing, Dan's age was never confirmed. Perhaps Trixie can solve that mystery.

Also, his mother told him fairy tales about leprechauns when he was a child, so he may have been Irish.

His character provides examples of:

 * The Aloner: He's the most detached of all the Bob-Whites.
 * Ambiguously Brown: He was mentioned upon his introduction and on several other occasions to have a "dark face", but this may have only been to indicate his brooding, sullen nature.
 * Angst? What Angst?: To a bizarre degree. He rarely shows any signs of struggling to reconcile his two very different lives. See Trauma Conga Line.
 * Berserk Button: Drugs.
 * Beware the Quiet Ones: He's a former gang member who knows how to use a switchblade, and now he spends his days chopping wood. So he has access to an axe in addition to being able to beat people senseless.
 * Big Damn Heroes: When he leads the police to where the gangsters are holding Trixie at a gunpoint in #12.
 * Black Eyes: Type 1 at first, later Type 3.
 * Curtains Match the Window: Has black eyes and black hair.
 * Though his eyes were blue in at least one edition of one of the books.
 * Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Honey attempts to invoke this after noticing his cold and moody demeanor, by acting extra-nice to to him, deliberately ignoring his brush-offs, and offering to help him numerous times. Dan subverts this with his Don't You Dare Pity Me! reaction.
 * The Cynic:

"Dan:So many people I knew before I came to Sleepyside turned out to be bad characters. I guess I find it hard to keep faith sometimes in present people’s goodness.(#24, p. 51)."


 * Dark Is Evil: Played with but ultimately played straight. Despite his black leather jacket, Dan ultimately is discovered to be a good person beneath his bad attitude, but in order to prove that he's "good", the writer has him give up his black jacket and black clothing.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: His parents died, leaving him to live on the streets, and he became involved with a violent street gang and, possibly, drugs.
 * Darker and Edgier: Possibly introduced with the intention of bringing in this element.
 * Defrosting Ice King: Over the course of #8. Though Jerkass Facade was in partial effect as well.

"Jim: I can tell by the look in Dan's eyes that no matter how big he talks, he's scared."


 * Delinquents: He's reformed, however.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: To Trixie and Honey at first, whenever Honey tried to be nice to him. Trixie was never pleasant toward him, and didn't plan on pitying him anyway.
 * Dynamic Character: In spite of rarely being featured.
 * Earn Your Happy Ending: In order to remain in his safe and secure home, he often has to miss out on fun activities for his job of manual labor.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse
 * Emotions vs. Stoicism: He tries to be unemotional at times, but Trixie, Honey, and Jim on separate occasions are all able to read him anyway.
 * Fire-Forged Friends: He and Trixie became friends after he defies a senior gang member to help rescue Bobby, who was trapped in a cave, and then did his best to protect them both from a cougar (the animal).
 * Harmful to Minors: He was an orphaned street gang member during the 60's. Enough said.
 * Hell-Bent for Leather: At first, as a Shout-Out to the greasers of that era.
 * Help Face Turn: Seemingly, toward Trixie, but subverted. His Hidden Heart of Gold would have had him help Bobby and Trixie even if she hadn't appealed to him for help.
 * Hospitality for Heroes: The town is much more welcoming to him after he rescues Bobby.
 * I Just Want to Have Friends: His motivation for joining the street gang, and later, the Bob-Whites.
 * Ineffectual Loner: Even after he becomes friends with the Bob-Whites, his stubborn refusal to trust others, including the Bob-Whites, often has disastrous results. Ironically, he goes off on his own because he wants to protect the people around him, but ends up just endangering himself along with everyone else.
 * Keeping Secrets Sucks: Three times out of four, he and others will personally suffer because he didn't confide in anyone.
 * Lean and Mean: In his first appearance. He stays lean but shows his nicer side.
 * Mysterious Parent: Dan's mother, Regan's sister, is given contradictory backstories and never so much as named.
 * Naive Newcomer: Inverted. Though not The Corrupter, Dan is the Jaded Newcomer.
 * Nephewism: His connection to Regan is what ties him to the books.
 * Odd Friendship: With Mr. Maypenny, his legal guardian, an old hermit who prefers to live in the woods rather than in a town, because that would require interaction with people. Also counts as an Intergenerational Friendship.
 * Orphan's Ordeal: See Trauma Conga Line.
 * Parental Abandonment: Both of his parents are dead.
 * Perpetual Frowner: Frowns much more frequently than he smiles.
 * Put on a Bus: Often, to avoid giving him characterization.
 * Pride: Many of his problems could be solved if he just learned to depend on other people.
 * The Quiet One: More than likely the writers just didn't want to have to give him dialogue.
 * Real Men Wear Pink: He can ice-skate like nobody's business, and is possibly the best skater of the Bob-Whites. Also, he's familiar with "The Blue Danube Waltz" enough to hum the tune.
 * Relatively Flimsy Excuse: Bizarrely inverted. At first, the Bob-Whites assume that he must be Mr. Maypenny's grandson. Even after Dan tells them that he isn't. Noticeably, in spite of her friendship with Mr. Maypenny, Trixie is hostile to Dan from the start, and she's deliberately trying to provoke him the first time she speaks to him. She continues to unnecessarily, though perhaps not consciously, make his life difficult, even while she suspects he's related to her friend.
 * Shrouded in Myth: He rarely discusses his background or divulges much personal information, which leads the fandom to speculate.
 * The Spock: He prefers logic and control over emotion.
 * Still Wearing the Old Colors: Subverted, for a reason. The black gang jacket is never seen again after he receives his Bob-White jacket.
 * Street Urchin: Lived on the streets on New York City while in his early teens.
 * Tall, Dark and Handsome, and Snarky
 * Token Chaotic Good Club Member: Depending on the Writer.
 * Troubled but Cute: Enough for Diana to be very pleased with him and primp in hopes of impressing him. Honey and Hallie are also implied to find him attractive.
 * Trauma Conga Line: His father dies. His mother dies. He becomes involved in a NYC street gang. He's arrested after a gang fight and taken to a juvenile detention center. When his uncle is located, the guy wants nothing to do with Dan, so he sends the city kid to live in the middle of the woods with a complete stranger and do manual labor. But a gang member tracks him down, harms the one person Dan's close to, and tries to convince him to rob the Wheelers' mansion. When Dan refuses, the gang member leaves him, Trixie, and Bobby to die at the hands of a catamount. Later, justice is done and it looks as if Dan will have a happy ending.
 * But his entire old gang shows up and captures him, keeping him tied to a bed in an un-airconditioned attic room for two weeks during a summer that is continually described as "blazing hot." He is also hinted to be tortured with switchblades by his old gang. During this time, the entire town, including his friends, suspect that he is involved in the recent jewel thefts. Then he's rescued. And then later his home is threatened by industrial construction. The construction is readily supported by all of his friends. It's all okay in the end. But during all this, his uncle rarely seems to spend any time with him, interacting with the other Bob-Whites much more often. And he's held at a gunpoint along with all the Bob-Whites, on at least two separate occasions.
 * Undying Loyalty:

"Trixie:: Dan’s as stubbornly loyal as Regan. It runs in their family. (#17, p. 148).]"


 * Vague Age: At first he's introduced as being in Brian's grade (a junior in high school, at the time), but later reprints changed this to Mart's grade (a freshman). In the very next book, all editions mention him to be in Jim and Brian's grade, but #27 confirms that he's in Mart's grade, and later books go back to state that he's in Brian's chemistry and social studies classes. Book #35 totally contradicts all of this to state that he didn't attend school at all, but later books contradict this as well, because he's still attending high school.
 * What You Are in the Dark: At the climax of The Black Jacket Mystery, Dan has the choice between escaping consequences for his actions by returning unsupervised to New York City, or staying to help Bobby and Trixie, by doing which he must accept responsibility for his past and present decisions. He chooses the latter.
 * When He Smiles:After Dan scowls and sneers his way through The Black Jacket Mystery, the first time he smiles in #8, Trixie feels that it's a very humanizing moment for him.
 * Wicked Stepfather: Maybe. Could just have been a mistake.
 * The Workaholic: Considering that Dan's underage and almost every moment of his spare time is spent working, Mr. Wheeler may well be in violation of child labor laws.