Freddy is the primary suspect when animal hooligans, whose leader is a pig, vandalizes properties in Centerboro and threatens citizens with worse unless those citizens pay. Because Freddy and the black cat, Jinx, are on an extended horseback ride to the west, they don't know anything about the incidents, and they are surprised to be greeted with glares and hostility upon their return through the town.

As the plot thickens, several denizens of the Bean Farm are implicated. Hoof prints on a door implicate Hank, the Beans' horse, for example. But considerable damage is done by a huge bull that's torn up gardens and knocked down fences. And the Beans don't have a bull, only cows. The scariest event is the appearance of a headless horseman to collect money that citizens had been directed to leave at a remote spot if they wanted to avoid future trouble.

Solving the riddle requires teamwork of the animals and a few of their trustworthy friends in the local populace. Birds scour the town for evidence, and eavesdrop on conversations, reporting everything they see or hear. Freddy seeks advice from Mr. Bean's Uncle Ben, who is an inventor with a workshop in the barn loft. Ben builds a large and scary, fire-breathing dragon to give the bad guys a dose of their own medicine.

Yes, as always, it ends well. This book is the last in the Freddy series. Brooks delivered the manuscript to the publisher only weeks before he died.

Definitely not one of the best Freddy books. If you start here you'll have no idea why the series was popular. Jinx's character is a shadow of his former presence. The troopers are total bunglers. The animals aren't limited (or enabled) hardly at all by their given shapes and natures, but are instead simply clumsy (or strong, or winged) humans.

Still, there are bits that are neat. I love that Alice and Emma (the white duck sisters) aren't frightened of the headless horseman - all that occurs to them, when they see it, is that the crook of one's arm is an awkward place to carry one's head. And I did like it when, once, Freddy's weapon of choice was a water pistol filled with cheap perfume. (But why only that time, and not the others?) ( )

Freddy the pig and his friends have to deal with a protection racket gang whose members apparently include animals --some people suspect dand his friends involved. The racketeers have fake hedless horseman, bbut Freddy's side tops it w9ith a dragon. ( )

I recently decided to read all the Freddy books I'd missed as a child. The library didn't have this one in hardcopy, so I listened to the audio. It deals with some problems brought on by the book before this, and the plot has some nice twists and turns. As usual, the animals band together to set things right and even end showing up the New York State Police. Of course, there were no illustrations in the audio book, but I had fun trying to figure out what Weise would have decided to illustrate. I was sad this was the last one in the series. Clearly Brooks had another one in mind as there is an unkept promise at the end of this one. ( )

My copy Knopf, 1958, 239 pp. ( )