The Mystery of the Brobdingnagian Beast - the Second (new) Three Investigators Mystery

It has taken me a few months, but I finally picked up the second book in this new series of The Three Investigators.  Elizabeth Arthur, the daughter of Robert Arthur (the writer of the original series), and her husband, Steven Bauer, are clearly trying to re-establish these characters and this series in the 21st century, and it is evident from the stories that they are making certain changes in the hope to appeal to today's readers.  In some ways, I am fine with that.  Obviously, the use of technology (cell phones, internet, etc.) makes obvious sense, since kids today would likely not know how to function without these things.  But other changes, such as the change in heritage for each of the investigators, feel forced and unnecessary, as if the authors are making the changes simply to show that Pete, Jupiter, and Bob are not simply "white, American boys."  Whatever the reason, I hope the authors move away from the constant emphasis on their family heritage and move back to what made these stories great back in the day - the great mysteries and the fun interaction between the boys!

 

The Mystery of the Brobdingnagian Beast picks up not long after the conclusion of the first mystery.  The three boys are excited at the prospect of receiving money from Isabella Change, for whom they helped clear up some mysteries surrounding her family's past (and find some long-lost gold in the process!) - see the previous book, The Mystery of the Abecedarian Academy.  They have ideas on how to not only save that money for college, but to use part of it to buy a car and hire a chauffeur (since their time with Worthington was now over).  But fate has a way of keeping these boys busy, and before the first chapter is over, Pete's father, who is working a set construction supervisor for a historical film about John Fremont, and his impact on California and the old west, wants Pete, Bob, and Jupiter to come visit the set with him to help solve a mystery.  It seems ever since a man named Daniel Hernandez has published a book that disputes the claims of Dr. Phillipa Paxton, upon whose book the film is based, the movie has been plagued with problems.  Small mishaps, such as stolen equipment and break-ins, have been happening, and there is a group known as OUTLAW (Outing Lawbreakers from Past Centuries) that has been loudly protesting at the film site.  The Three Investigators are only more than happy to look into it!

 

From the beginning, it is not really hard to see who is causing all the problems, and even the three boys are fairly certain who the criminal is - it's just a matter of proving it.  Thus, the mystery is focused less on who is committing the crimes and more on how and why he is committing the crimes.  John Fremont, who is the central figurehead of the mystery, was a real person (January 21, 1813 - July 13, 1980), and as related in the book, he did, with the help of Kit Carson, explore the new country, deep into the western area - and, just like stated in the book, there was an incident where three unarmed men were murdered by Carson and a couple of other men, and it still remains a mystery today whether they murdered the men of their own volition, or if it were on the orders of Fremont.  Elizabeth Arthur and her husband use this as the focal point of their mystery, as Dr. Paxton is said to have two letters in her possession from Kit Carson that exonerate Fremont, while Hernandez has a letter that lays the blame right at Fremont's feet.  Someone has a forged letter, and it is up the Three Investigators to figure out who.

 

Not all of the historical information in the book is on point, however, so one has to be careful to take all of the "history" given in the story as factual.  While Mallory (remember that Scottish girl the boys met in the first book?) tells Pete that John Fremont's wife made a bear flag for him as a present, measuring 15 feet by 20 feet; however, the legend is that his wife made him a flag with an eagle in the upper corner, which Fremont carried with him on his first expedition into Wyoming.  Thus, Arthur and Bauer fudge the facts a little bit to keep in theme with the mystery (and her alleged 15 x 20 flag does play an important part of the mystery, as the boys are commissioned with locating someone who supposedly has a replica of the flag, which, when they find it, turns out to be the original and not a copy!).

 

I did enjoy the reference that Pete makes to "an old science fiction TV show he'd seen a couple of times on late night TV" (p. 157); although, I'm not sure if I like the idea that it is considered an "OLD" science fiction show!  Pete describes it as "a show in which the aliens looked just like regular human beings, though if you ripped off their skin, they were really lizards underneath" (p. 157). That's a great way of describing the NBC television show V without actually naming it. Again, I just hate the idea that the show is labeled as "old" (although, looking at the facts, the show did come out in 1984, which was over forty years ago now!).  Yet, despite omitting the name to this show, Arthur and Bauer had no problem name-dropping Jurassic Park, The Terminator, The Fifth Element, and The Deer Hunter as movies Pete had seen with his father.

 

I also agree with the authors' view on news reporting, which is expressed by Mr. Andrews (Bob's father) when he and Bob's mother are discussing how everything has become politicized - from teaching at universities to news reporting.  "News reporting at least used to try to be objective, but now every article reads as though it belongs on the Opinion page," he says, going to say that journalists "need to work as hard as we can to present facts, not opinions - to stick to the objective truth" (p. 197).  Mrs. Andrews even pipes in with the comment that "Anything else is basically propaganda" (p. 197).  This is clearly a commentary on the state of teaching and reporting in today's society, and quite frankly, I could not agree more.

 

What I do have to question about the authors' choices, though, is the imprinting of previously never stated ethnic backgrounds for the boys.  As we learned in the first book, Bob's mother is Chinese, and people have sometimes commented that they see it in Bob's eyes.  In this book, we learn that Jupiter's mother had been Serbian, and, thus, he was able in this mystery to determine that a particular character was Serbian and how to pronounce his name (p. 125).  We also find out that Pete's father is Mexican-American (p. 90).  The author's webpage (The Salvage Yard) reveals that she wanted to build upon the boy's backgrounds, to more fully flesh out the characters as befitting of the "melting pot" nature of America, and therefore, Bob, Jupiter, and Pete suddenly have a mixture of ethnic heritages.  Unfortunately, the expression of these ethnicities feels forced and does not read naturally within the stories.  Nor does the fact that Pete's family is Catholic, yet his mother is caught up in "other interpretations of the invisible world" (p. 1), such as I Ching, serve any real purpose.  I am all for diversity, and I love for the stories I read to represent the reality of different people that exist in our world; but I am not overly thrilled with new authors take existing characters and change them simply for the sake of wanting to promote "diversity."  If there were a compelling reason to reveal these "new" backgrounds (say, for instance, a mystery was to take the boys to Serbia, where they had to solve a mystery involving one of Jupiter's distant relatives), that would be one thing.  But imprinting the boys with these new backgrounds without reason feels unnecessary and forced.

 

Oh, for those wondering about the title - the word "Brobdingnagian" comes from the book, Gulliver's Travels, which Mallory reads during the course of the story.  "Gulliver goes to another country called Brogdingnag, which has a race of giants, and where everyone is huge," she tells the boys (p. 87).  At the end, when Bob is trying to come up with a "B" word to go with Bear or Beast, Pete suggests the name.  Bob likes it, commenting, "in a way, it's been there all the time ... something large and menacing..." (p. 310). 

 

Aside from that, the mystery itself was fairly entertaining, and the boys do retain their natural instincts for working together to solve a crime.  I have the third book in the series (I bought the first three at one time when they came out), and I'm going to give the series another chance - but, to be completely honest, I'm not really overwhelmed by the stories, and they do not have the same feel that the originals had.  The next book will determine whether I continue buying and reading the books, or whether I shelve these alongside the originals and simply re-read the originals for my TI fix!

 

RATING:  7  Ghost-to-Ghost hookup e-mails out of 10 for navigating the worlds of movie-making, history, publishing, and social media and mixing them into a relatively enjoyable mystery to read!

Meg and the Mystery in Williamsburg - Mystery #6 in a series

Alas, with this book, we come to the end of the Meg Duncan series by Holly Beth Walker (or whatever ghostwriter actually wrote this final mystery).  It has certainly been a fun journey, trailing along with Meg and her best friend, Kerry Carmody, as they stumble across one mystery after another, no matter where they are. The mysteries have become a bit more complicated and more mature in theme as the series has progressed, and the character of Meg certainly acts like someone much older than a girl barely in her teens.  And despite the likelihood of different ghostwriters for the books (especially for this one, whose writing style and sentence structure definitely differs from the previous books), the characters have, for the most part, remained consistent.  It's a shame the publisher did not commission more books, either during the series' first run or when it was later reprinted by Golden Press.

 

Meg and the Mystery in Williamsburg sees Meg and Kerry join Meg's Uncle Hal on a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia to help out at a vintage toy show.  This obviously caught my attention right away, having a house full of vintage and collectible toys myself!  But the toys that are the focal point of this mystery are dolls and a doll house that date back to the colonial days.  The girls are staying with Lucy Cameron, a friend of Meg's now-deceased mother, and she introduces them to one Miss Mariah Collins (yes! Collins! a shame more of the Collins' family didn't enter the story...), a quirky old woman who has agreed to allow her family's toys be displayed at the show.  Only, her toys come with a story - and a mystery!  It seems many years ago, when Mariah's cousin came for a visit (back when Mariah was a little girl), her cousin brought her two small children with her. The children had a quarrel and ultimately wrecked the play room, breaking toys, smashing the dollhouse her grandfather had built, and pulling the arms and legs off of Mariah's special doll named "Paris."  But worst of all, when the room was cleaned up, it was discovered that two clothespin dolls that had been carefully displayed in a glass cabinet were gone (p. 31).  Miss Mariah's grandfather did eventually find the two dolls, but he hid them away so they could never go missing again.  And so begins the mystery...

 

Miss Mariah has spent most of her life searching for those clothespin dolls.  She keeps the upstairs toy room locked so no one else can enter.  She has searched the secret room just off the toy room.  She has looked through the doll house.  In fact, her father told her if she turned the house upside down, she would find them - but she has searched her plantation home from basement to attic, and she has never found the dolls. Meg and Kerry are excited with the idea of another mystery to solve, and they are determined that before they leave Williamsburg, they will do their best to locate those dolls.  In the meantime, they must put on colonial-style costumes and greet guests at the toy show, giving memorized speeches about the toys themselves, and answering questions from the visitors.  What they do not expect is that the mystery of those missing dolls will cross over into the toy show, as strangers begin to start asking very pointed questions - about the dollhouse, about Miss Mariah's doll "Paris," and ab out the Collins' collection of toys.  The mysterious Mr. Adam, who takes an intense interest in Paris.  The friendly but overly-curious Stephen Anderson, who is more than determined to get a closer look at the dollhouse.  Then there is the unknown man that the girls see talking to both Mr. Adam and Stephen Anderson.

 

Someone tries sneaking up the stairs of Miss Mariah's house to her playroom.  Someone enters the toy show during lunch and makes a mess of the toys, which are in a roped-off room that no one is allowed to enter.  Someone steals Paris, but then leaves her at the door to the playroom.   Someone chases Meg and Kerry through the woods, determined to get their hands on that doll.  What has caused the roof of the dollhouse to not seal properly?  Why does the secret room in the dollhouse, modeled after the one in the real plantation, not have a door knob?  What has caused Paris to no longer say "Mama" like she did years ago? And why is Meg so certain the clue to unraveling this whole mystery has been in front of her face the entire time?

 

This was definitely a mystery worthy of Nancy Drew and some of the other "great" teenage detectives. If the series had to end, this was definitely a fantastic way to close it down.  The author integrates a number of real Williamsburg sites into the story - from the Duke of Gloucester Street (p. 16) to the Brush-Everard House (where the toy show is) located next to the Governor's Palace (p. 20); from the Raleigh Tavern Bakery (p. 52) to the holly maze located on the grounds of the Governor's Palace (p. 83).  You have to love it when an author includes actual locations in the book, providing readers with an opportunity to explore the same locations in the real world and truly follow in their favorite sleuths' footsteps!

 

The artists for the covers and the interior remain the same as the previous five books - Cliff Schule provided the cover for the original hardback edition, as well as the interiors for both, while Olindo Giacomini provided the cover for the later paperback edition.  Both covers depict the scene where Meg and Kerry are running back to River House Plantation to escape the man chasing them, and are ready to sneak in through the chimney door.  It is interesting that while they both depict the same scene, and both accurately portray Meg and Kerry in the correct costumes they are wearing in the story, the hardback gives us a perspective from above, looking down them as the come around the chimney to the door, while the paperback gives us a perspective from the side, watching the girls run around the corner of the house and directly into the door located in front of the chimney. 

 

On a complete side note, when Meg reads an article giving the history of the two clothespin dolls, which were said to have been made by George Washington for his sister, Betty, the article reveals that "when Betty was a grown woman, she had given the dolls to a girl named Nell Benson..." (p. 92).  I had to laugh out loud at that name, because there was a character by that very same name on General Hospital a few years back - a character who turned out to be quite a dastardly villain, but one who I grew to love immensely!  Funny coincidence!

 

And with that, we reach the end of the Meg Duncan series.  One can only wonder how many unrecorded mysteries Meg and her best friend, Kerry, solved, and whether either of them went on to find boyfriends (as none whatsoever are mentioned in these six books) and went on to college and careers...

 

RATING:  10 fresh-baked ginger cookies out of 10 for ending the series on a high note, with a well-plotted mystery with a great mix of real and fictional history!

 

 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #22 - The Final Fair

Everyone's favorite nurse-turned-sleuth (and, no, I'm not talking about Cherry Ames!) returns for her sixth Zebra Mystery Puzzler.  Author Marcia Blair (in reality, Marc Baker) brings back Victoria "Tory" Baxter for another murder mystery - only, for the first time, the murder is not in any way connected to a patient for whom Tory is caring.  And that is not the only unusual thing about this book - there are a couple of other "firsts" in this one.  Oh, and this book also sports the misnumbered titles in both the front listing and the order from at the back of the book.  I'm guessing since books 21, 22, 23, and 24 were published simultaneously, they all contain the same errors in the listings.  When I read the next two books in the series, I suppose I'll find out whether that holds true.

 

The Final Fair does open pretty much the same way as all of the other Tory Baxter books in this series - the murder takes place right there in the opening pages. Which means, the reader has absolutely no opportunity to meet any of the characters prior to the killing, and therefore, we know nothing about anyone as the story progresses.  That honestly is okay with me.  I think it adds a certain nuance to the story, because the readers goes into it without any preconceived notions about any of the characters that the author may have inadvertently put into them.  In this instance, Tory and her coworker, Dr. Sandy Brockman (oh, he of the flashy red hair!), are attending a renaissance faire, all decked out in costume, when she hears a scream.  Before you know it, a jester gets up on stage and asks if there is a doctor in the house (and, of course, there is - literally).  Tory and Sandy follow the costumed clown to where a man is lying on his back with a knife protruding from his chest.  The dead man is Dr. Michael Peters, another resident at the hospital where Sandy works.  And the knife in his chest belongs to none other than his date, Nurse Leanne Davis, a women who Terry generally knows.  She claims someone took the knife and did this - but, as it turns out, only her fingerprints are on the hilt of the knife.  So, if she did not do it, then who did?  And how?

 

This is quite the challenging mystery, I will admit. There are not a tremendous amount of suspects.  There is Leanne, obviously, who was being blackmailed by Dr. Peters into marrying him.  There is also Leanne's father, who has been the one shelling out the money to protect his daughter's reputation.  And then there is Dr. Jeremy Jones, a married doctor with whom Leanne was once having an affair - an affair that Dr. Peters walked in on by accident and then used that "accident" as a means to get money.  And we must not forget Dr. Peters wife, who is so obsessed with social climbing, she stares daggers at any woman who comes in contact with her husband.  All of them have motive for killing Dr. Peters, but not all of them have the opportunity.  Dr. Jones and his wife happened to be out of town the weekend of the renaissance fair.  And oddly enough, Leanne's father does not even make the suspect list for the police.  So, was it Leanne?

 

Well, when Leanne turns up dead of an apparent suicide (complete with a typed-up, but unsigned suicide note right beside the empty pill bottle), the police think the matter is all wrapped up.  Tory is not so sure.  She is convinced Leanne was innocent, and for her, the girl's death only proves it.  She keeps looking into it, and suddenly she finds her own life in jeopardy, as she is nearly run down by a racing car and almost pushed into the path of an oncoming train!  Just when she has convinced her friend, Lieutenant Jay Thorpe, that the case may not be so clear cut, another body turns up.  With another typed suicide note.  Jay is convinced now that it really is all over, and he warns Tory to let it go.  Of course, anyone who knows Tory Baxter knows she is like a dog with a bone - she will NEVER let it go.  Not until the real murderer is caught.  Only this time, the murderer catches up to her in a dark parking lot with no one else around.  It makes one wonder just how she is going to survive this one...

 

As mentioned above, this book features several "firsts."  Not only is it the first Tory Baxter story to not have Tory taking care of someone, it is also the first Zebra Mystery Puzzler to NOT feature the title character on the cover.  This cover art, by none other than Sanford Hoffman, who has provided internal illustrations for a number of the books in this series (including this one), features the scene of Leanne having the knife taken from her by the masked man in the dark colored robe.  Hoffman even gets the minor detail right about the hint of blond sideburns peeking out from under the hood of the monk!   While Leanne is prominent, front and center, on the cover, our sleuthing nurse, Tory Baxter, is nowhere to be seen!  (Something else of note about the cover is that one the white car in the background, there appear to be some words written in red along the side of the car; however, I am unable to make it what they say, even when I try to enlarge the image. I would be curious to know what words the artist tried to sneak on to that cover!)

 

Another "first" for this series deals with one of the internal illustrations.  In all of the prior books, all of the illustrations have been included in the story before that final sealed chapter. Not so in this book.  The last illustration can be found on page 197, four pages into the last chapter!  And what is odd about it is that it holds absolutely no clues to the murder mystery at all - it merely shows the backside of Tory as she makes her way to her car in the dark parking lot (see above illustration depicting the scene just before the killer comes up behind her with a gun!).  I'm not sure why the publisher elected to have an illustration done from the last chapter, instead of adding another one to the main story, which might have provided another clue to the identity of the killer.  Which would have been helpful, as quite frankly, only one of the illustrations from the story had any sort of clue that would direct the reader to the killer.

 

Despite the lack of illustration clues, there were enough in the story to lead you to the killer - although, I will admit, there was some misleading ones as well, which took me in one direction, before I caught on the other ones.  I think I figured it out just before Tory did in the story - meaning Baker a/k/a Blair did a pretty good job keeping me guessing.  One big plus for this story is that Tory and Jay's relationship got pushed a bit further along, particularly right there at the end when Jay accidentally blurts out some things he never intended to say out loud, leaving him all flustered before he storms off - and leaving Aunt Tildy with a great big smile!

 

The author makes reference to Toll House cookies in the story (p. 20), which I found surprising, as these type of books usually avoid name brand references.  I could not even recall if Toll House cookies were popular back then, but apparently they have been around since 1938, so by the 1970s, they would be pretty well known.  The author also references the Cow Palace, which I first mistook for the name of a steak restaurant from back in the day when I lived in Kentucky (their slogan was "take ol' Alice to the Cow Palace!"); however, it is actually an historic exhibition hall where they host a "Dickens Fair" annually.  In the story, Aunt Tildy takes Tory to see the Dickens Fair at the Cow Palace, making it another non-fictional reference in the book.  As I've noted before, these type of references to real places and things ground the story, to keep it a bit more "real" for the reader.

 

Another good one is a series of good mysteries!

 

RATING:  9 enormous pieces of apple pie out of 10 for keeping the mystery challenging and the friction between Tory and Jay even more challenging! 

A Rather Curious Engagement - second in a series of "Rather" mysteries

It has been a year since I read the first "Penny Nichols" mystery, written by C.A. Belmont.  I still can't get over the name of the title character - I cannot believe it is merely a coincidence that her name mirrors that of Mildred Wirt Benson's character from her series of children's mysteries published back in the late 1930s, especially since the title character's mother wrote a series of book about "Penny Nichols, Girl Detective" (named after her daughter), and Penny's mother's name happens to be Nancy (after an even more famous girl detective, perhaps?).  I tried reaching out to the author via her website to inquire as to the names, but I never got a response, unfortunately.  Perhaps now that I have read the second book in her series, I'll try again and see if I have any better luck this time (you know the old saying: if at first you don't succeed....)

 

A Rather Curious Engagement picks up not too long after the last book.   Author C.A. Belmond drops us into a rather ritzy auction, where Penny and her step-cousin / boyfriend, Jeremy Laidley, are waiting to bid on an item - THE item - that Jeremy was willing to splurge on and sink a large chunk of their combined inheritance to win.  But rather than reveal that right away, Belmond instead turns back the clock to that exact moment when the last book ended - and Penny walked into Jeremy's apartment, only to be met with a rather snooty woman who believed she was the one and only Mrs. Laidley.  Fortunately, Penny was already aware of the former Mrs. Laidley, now the ex-Mrs. Laidley, and so she set about to show this woman that she would not be intimidated.  And thus begins a subplot that manages to maneuver its way through the entire book, pitting the current love of Jeremy's life against his former love - and poor Jeremy is stuck in the middle!

 

But this is not a romance novel!  Or, well, at least, the romance side of things is not the main story.  No, the main story is supposed to be a mystery, and I had to bide my time until I was nearly 200 pages into the story before I finally reached the point of the mystery - the ever elusive and more-than-likely mythical Beethoven Lion.  It seems that the gorgeous yacht that Jeremy and Penny won at the auction (yes, that was Jeremy's dream - to own a yacht) comes with a backstory.  The previous owner was a collector, and one of his most precious items was an aquamanile known as the "Beethoven Lion" (because the sculptor crafted the bronze lion to look like the great composer!).  The lion seems to have a sordid history, changing hands from one family to another, back and forth, and Count von Norbert, the previous yacht owner, had finally got his hands on it - but upon returning home in a horrific storm, the Count's health not only deteriorated under unexplainable circumstances, but the lion also disappeared.  Now, it is up to Penny to put her research skills to use and see if she and Jeremy can locate the missing lion!

 

 The story takes our sleuthing couple from England to France  to Italy and some little islands along the way - from the apartment house of Penny's aunt to the villa Jeremy inherited to a foreboding castle to a small grave to the stormy seas - Penny finds herself following up one clue after another, digging into the history of not only the Beethoven Lion itself, but also its creator's family and the sad love story that goes with it.  Belmond takes readers on a ride, because just like with Penny, the reader is constantly changing direction as to who might be the one currently in possession of the lion.  As we learn more about the family history of the lion's sculptor, the more complicated the story becomes.  Plus, there's a seer who gives out dire warnings, a blind woman who can sense the truth, a photographer who wants nothing more to do with the lion after accidentally photographing it, and a dangerous antique dealer whose connections are less then reputable.  And on top of all of that, there is plenty of fun and moments of humor along the way to keep the story from becoming too dark.

 

Oh, and did I mention that the Beethoven Lion holds another secret within its empty shell?  A secret that is literally worth millions and could very well be the reason why so many are after the famed sculpture...

 

I mostly enjoyed this story, as I did the first book; however, I was a bit annoyed that a couple of plot threads were never resolved.  The first is the Count's strange illness.  His family reveals that the Count went away to buy back the lion, but when he returned, he was ill and was no longer his former self (which is why the family sold the yacht).  There was never any explanation as to what the illness really was, how he contracted this unnamed illness, and why it affected him the way it did.  The second is the shooting that takes place in Calvi, on the island of Corsica.  As Penny and Jeremy are heading back to the yacht after meeting with the family who once kept the lion, someone takes several shots at them, forcing them to run through the thickets to get down to the docks.  They never really follow up on this, and it is never revealed who took those shots (while Penny's other cousin, Rollo, suggests it was someone hired by the antique dealer, that is never actually confirmed).  It is almost as if these elements were put into the story to strengthen the mystery elements, but without any explanation for them.  Oh, well, I suppose there is plenty that happens in the real world that goes without explanation, so why not in fiction, too?

 

The book ends with a phone call that Penny is about to answer - but before she does, she breaks the fourth wall and tells the reader, "But that, I'm afraid, is entirely another tale."  Which, one can assume, is the perfect lead in for the next book.

 

RATING:  8 small Chinese sailor clocks out of 10 for a good European mystery that takes the reader from country to country, while also moving the story of Penny and Jeremy's personal life forward, as well! 

Harlequin Gothic Romance Series No. 32014 - The Devereaux Legacy

"She had never believed in ghosts - then she came face-to-face with their deadly omen" (cover blurb)

 

I can't believe I'm saying this, but the books in this Harlequin Gothic Romance series just keep getting better and better.  Despite the number of various authors who have contributed to this series, the stories all have been strong, they all have featured great protagonists, and they all have mixed the elements of Gothic and mystery perfectly, sprinkling the stories with just a touch of romance.  This book is Carolyn G. Hart's one and only entry in the series, and it is a superb one!  Hart is the author's actual name, a mystery and suspense writer who has had more than 63 books published under the name of Carolyn Hart and Carolyn G. Hart.  After this book was published, Hart began her own series of mystery novels (the Death on Demand series, which lasted 26 books), alongside another series about a required newswoman turned sleuth (the Henrie O series, which lasted 7 books).  Her most recent series actually featured a ghost as the protagonist (the Bailey Ruth Raeburn series, which lasted 9 books). It's rather a shame she did not write more Gothics.

 

When I first saw the title to The Devereaux Legacy, my mind automatically went to The Golden Girls.  After all, Blanche Devereaux was a true Southern belle, and since this book is set in South Carolina, she would certainly fit in!  But, alas, our resident seductress is not at all related to the family in this book; rather, the title character, Leah Devereaux Shaw, is the granddaughter of an aging matriarch - a granddaughter everyone thought had been dead for the past 19 years!  It's actually a pretty great premise to start the story, much in the vein of a soap opera.  A long-thought dead character suddenly shows up decades later, and everyone is scrambling to determine (a) whether this person is who she says she is and (b) what impact her re-appearance will have on the family dynamic.  In this instance, it comes down to the fact that Leah is a direct descendant of Carrie Deveraux, while the other three members of the family residing on the Devereaux Plantation are merely adopted and not actual blood relations.  The story develops from there, as the ghost of the Whispering Lady is seen - a forewarning of death to come to the Devereaux family!

 

Hart integrates a number of great Gothic and mystery elements into the story.  There is the family history, where the Devereaux women have been thought to be mad.  One woman killed her husband and herself, and it is said that Leah's parents followed that same pattern two decades before.  There is the Whispering Lady, a ghost that has appeared off and on through the years, each appearance heralding doom for someone in the Devereaux family.  Recent appearances have coincided with mysterious accidents on the property, leading everyone to take the warning seriously.   There is also the mystery surrounding the locked tower on the property.  Her cousins and grandmother tell her the tower is dangerous and not stable, which is why it is padlocked; but Leah suspects there is more to the story and wonders if the tower holds the clues to what really happened to her mother and father that fateful night.  Then there is the enigmatic Kent Ellis, an archaeologist who is digging and researching the history of the land surrounding the Devereaux Plantation.  Just what danger does he pose to the family and their secrets?

 

The story manages to build the suspense slowly and effectively.  Leah, of course, does not believe in ghosts, so she discounts the story of the Whispering Lady. But then she sees it for herself.  And then she hears the howling dog that turns out to belong to Kent Ellis and is found brutally murdered.  Then she witnesses an accident that nearly leaves Ellis as dead as his dog.  Then a heavy planter falls from the second story veranda, crashing down where Leah had stood only a moment before.  Then she overhears a conversation that reveals how one of her cousins has been using her - a cousin she had grown to trust and care for - in fact, she was falling in love with him.  Betrayal and danger surround her at every turn, and Leah finally realizes that one of her own family is out to remove her - permanently!

 

As can be expected with any good Gothic, there are two men who could be potential suitors for our lovely heroine, and Leah struggles to know who she can trust and who she can't.  Even I have to admit, I wavered back and forth as to who the culprit could be that was so desperate to rid Devereaux Plantation of Leah's presence - and the climactic reveal and crazed attack on Leah Devereaux Shaw is a fantastically written payoff for readers.

 

The gorgeous cover art is provided by Len Goldberg, who has provided art for several other books in this line (Castle at Jade Cove, The Blue House, and Shadows Over Briarcliff).  Goldberg perfectly captures the fear and shock on Leah's face as she sees what could be a ghost of the Whispering Lady on the back side of the bridge in the Plantation's massive gardens.  It is funny, this cover has a certain resemblance to the third cover art by Rudy Nappi for Nancy Drew's 15th mystery, The Haunted Bridge, which was introduced to readers in 1972.  Both cover feature the protagonist in the foreground, turning to look back across a bridge what appears to be a ghost in the background at the end of the bridge.  This is the second time Goldberg's cover art mimics a Nancy Drew mystery, the first being the cover to Castle at Jade Cove.   It almost makes you wonder if Goldberg was intentionally honoring the Nancy Drew series, paying homage to the Gothic elements of that series.

 

This book is a definite winner and a must-read.  

 

RATING:  10 gigantic curtain of cobwebs out of 10 for thriller readers with a suspenseful mystery and glorious Gothic tale of ghosts and secrets! 

Flash Evans, Camera News Hawk (Flash Evans #2)

Alas, with the second book in the Flash Evans series, we come to the end of this short-lived series by famed Nancy Drew ghostwriter, Mildred Wirt Benson (writing under the pseudonym Frank Bell).  It's rather a shame this series did not last beyond these first two books, as the stories are quite exciting, fast-paced, and filled with both mystery and adventure.  Benson definitely pulled out all of the stops in this series, constantly putting her title character in some of the most dangerous (and outrageous!) situations; yet, like any good, plucky series book hero, he always manages to come out of each scrape pretty much unscathed.  Both books are great reads, and even for those who are not necessarily fans of boys' series books (like me!), the stories are very enjoyable, and I would definitely recommend them.

 

Flash Evans, Camera News Hawk is set nine months after the events in the first book, and Jimmy, or "Flash" as he is called by his fellow photographers, is now seventeen-years old. As seems to be his habit of being in the right place at the right time, Flash is invited by his fellow photographer, Joe Wells, to watch Bailey Brooks, a famed aviator and parachute jumper, test out a brand new parachute of his own design.  Joe now works for a newsreel company, filming the scenes rather than simply taking still photographs.  He and Flash snag images of the successful test of the parachute, but Flash grows uneasy when he sees Brooks talking with a man named Albert Povy, who Joe says is an unsavory character that has been suspected of being a spy.  With a scar running down the side of his face, he has the typical appearance of a series book villain!

 

Similar to the first book, this one has an overarching mystery (involving a government agent and a potential theft of important papers), while at the same time putting poor Flash through the ropes with one harrowing adventure after another.  The first is a horrific train wreck (how does Flash always manages to survive these disasters with barely a scratch?!?!), in which his friend Joe Wells is injured, placing Flash in a position to take his place as a cameraman to help out his rather contentious partner, George Doyle. Doyle and Flash take an instant disliking for each other, but to help his friend, Flash agrees to do the camera work.  Their first assignment is to video the Indianapolis auto race (which may have been a vague reference to the famous "Indianapolis 500," which began as far back as 1911), and while they arrive late and other film crews have all the prime spots, Flash's luck aids them out, as their not-so-great spot turns out to be the very place a horrible racing accident occurs, which they capture it all (p. 44)!

 

From there, Flash and Doyle just happen to be at the right spot when a bridge gives out, with a speeding car going down with it (pp. 100-01).  They catch it all on film, of course; however, the driver of the car is caught in the raging waters, so Flash risks his life to dive in and save the man.  As it turns out, the man is a wanted criminal, and when Flash gets him to shore, the police are there to arrest him - and to thank Flash for catching him before he could escape!  After that, Flash finds himself on the wrong end of an oar, and he is left by a villainous cretin (and I won't spoil the story by telling you who that is!) in a river that is surrounded on both sided by an out of control forest fire (pp. 136-39)!  As can be expected, he manages to swim under the water to avoid the intense heat of the fires and swim far enough downstream to get up on shore and get away - only to wind up kidnapped by the villain and held locked in an isolated house.  The poor kid just can't catch a break!

 

All of the stories tie into the aviator and his new type of parachute, and the government agent and the attempt to rob him during the train wreck.  It is one of Flash's photographs from the night of the train wreck, as well as his keen sense of observation and a fortunate find while locked up in that house that lead to the identity of the villain being revealed and his machinations put to an end.  And along the way, Doyle and Flash manage to earn one another's respect and let go of all the animosity between them.  But Flash is nothing but loyal, and despite both Joe and Doyle trying to convince him to join them on the newsreel crew, he sticks with his job at The Brandale Ledger.  However, he admits Doyle in the last paragraph of the book that "[t]aking ordinary pictures will seem pretty tame after this.  One of these days I'll probably be back" (p. 211).  Obviously, this was an open door for Benson to later have her photographer protagonist return to newsreel filming in a later adventure, had the series continued.

 

The cover art is the same as that on the first book - but after reading this, it becomes clear that the top and bottom of the four scenes are taken from this book, while the two scenes on either side of Flash's headshot in the middle were taken from the first.  I would be curious to know if this same cover art would have been continued to be used on future books, if more had been written and published.  The interior art depicts the scene of the car pile-up from the Indianapolis raceway.  With so many thrilling moments in the story, I am sure it was hard for the publisher to decide which scene to depict on the frontis piece!

 

And with that, we reach the end of this short-lived, two-book series.  One has to wonder if Benson had any other ideas for stories in this series, and whether it was her idea, or the publishers, to end it so quickly.  In any event, poor Jimmy "Flash" Evans was put on the series book shelf, a mostly forgotten character that only die-hard collectors seek out and read!

 

RATING:  9 nail files and rusty razor blades out of 10 for keeping the danger high, the mystery exciting, and the hero resourceful - all the great trappings for a fantastic read! 

 

 

 

Flash Evans and the Darkroom Mystery (Flash Evans #1)

This two-book series was one I honestly thought I would never own.  For whatever reason (limited print run, short series, scarcity of volumes), any time these books show up for sale, they are always very high prices, especially if you want them in dust jacket!  Recently, though, I lucked upon an eBay auction where a seller was selling both books in this series, no dust jackets, for only $15.99!  While I was hoping to one day own them with dust jacket, at this price, I could not pass it up.  After all, I can always upgrade to a dust jacket later, or even use a reproduction or photocopy dust jacket.  The important thing was, I now owned Mildred Wirt Benson's two book series about the hotshot newspaper photographer, Flash Evans!

 

Flash Evans and the Darkroom Mystery introduces readers to Jimmy Evans,  a "tall, slender lad with a thick shock of dark, curly hair and frank gray eyes" (p. 3) who is all of sixteen years of age (p. 4).  Having graduated Brandale High School, Jimmy has been trying to obtain a job with any one of the local newspapers as a staff photographer.  As this book opens, he is facing rejection again from Tom Riley, city editor of The Brandale Ledger.  His best friend, Jerry Hayes, tries to convince Jimmy to find another kind of work, but Jimmy is determined to follow in the footsteps of his father, who was "city editor on the Brandale Post ... years ago before the paper folded" (p. 6).  Now that is father was dead, and it was just he and his mother, Jimmy wanted to make a go in the newspaper field.  Fortune shines on Jimmy, however, for that very afternoon, while lunching with his friend at the local drugstore counter, they witness an accident outside, and Jimmy is able to snap some great pictures at the scene.  Not only are Jimmy's pictures important to the police, as the men who caused the accident are wanted criminals - but the photos prove to be Jimmy's way to get himself a job - at The Brandale Ledger!

 

Written by Mildred Wirt Benson, the two Flash Evans books were published in 1940 by Cupples & Leon, who also published her Penny Parker series, as well as her Mildred Wirt Mystery Stories for Girls series of books.  Benson had just completed her Mystery Stories for Girls, as well as her Penny Nichols series, both of which concluded in 1939, and her Trailer Stories series had finished the year prior.  Her Penny Parker series was only in its second year, with books 3 and 4 being published in 1940, and she had books published in the Nancy Drew, Dana Girls, and Kay Tracey series that year, as well.  She had not yet begun her work at the newspaper when these books were written, but her husband at the time (Asa Wirt) had been working for the Associated Press for some time (meaning Benson was no stranger to newspapers, as as evident with her Penny Parker series).  This book (and presumably the second, also) is heavy with the inner workings of a newspaper office, and for this series, particularly with photography, the technical aspects of developing photographs, and the urgency and importance of the right photos for a rushed, important headline story!

 

As far as this first story goes, it does have an overarching mystery involving various incidents that happen in the darkroom at the newspaper - Jimmy, who gains the nickname "Flash" (p. 13), faces embarrassment at every turn. First, some photographs he is developing are damages by a wrong mix of chemicals; then, some photographs he takes of a fire disappear from the editor's desk.  Then, while he is developing an extremely important photo of some criminals he caught in the act trying to burn down a warehouse, Jimmy a/k/a Flash is knocked unconscious and his photos are stolen, getting him in trouble with both the police and his editor. His immediate reaction is to suspect his boss, Fred Orris, who has made it clear from the beginning that he disliked young Flash.  But, as the story progresses, he learns it is wrong to make assumptions about people, and it turns out that a very unlikely person was hiding a secret grudge against Flash, which resulted in all these actions.

 

Alongside this mystery, Benson fills in this book with a number of vignetttes - saving a man from a burning building (which is depicted in the frontis piece), fighting a competing photographer for photos from an out-of-state airline crash, saving a man from an insurance scam racket, flying out to a sinking ocean liner for daring photographs, and several other adventures that allows Flash to prove his worth over and over.  A couple of these scenes appear on the cover art (the burning apartment building and the sinking ocean liner).  Benson knows how to write fast-paced, exciting stories that keep the reader engaged, turning page after page to see what is going to happen next.  Benson's self-created stories are, for the most part, a far cry better than those she wrote based on outlines from others.

 

One can only assume Benson used the "Frank Bell" pseudonym for this series so that a boys' series was written by a "male" author (similar to how male authors used female pseudonyms when they wrote girls' series books). This, of course, is only one of several pseudonyms that Benson used when writing her own stories - including Joan Clark (the Penny Nichols series), Don Palmer (the Boy Scout Explorer series), and Dorothy West (the Dot and Dash series).

 

While I am not normally a fan of boys series, this book is a great opening story for a series, and it's a shame the Flash Evans series only lasted two books.  I am curious to see how the second book compares with this one.

 

RATING:   9 shattered photo plates out of 10 for a fun new character and an action packed new series about a newspaper photographer in the 1940s!