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!

Short Lived Comics Series #32 - Super Heroes (Dell Comics)

Dell Comics is not particularly well-known for their superhero comics - in fact, I was not even aware until recent years that Dell actually published any comics with superheroes in them.  Sure, I had heard of Brain Boy (of which I have all but one issue), but I never really considered him a superhero; I saw him more as just a science fiction type tale.  To me, Dell was famous for a lot of licensed material, such as Walt Disney World comics and old Western comics.  In fact, I have some of their books, such as Gil Thorp, Ellery Queen, Friday Foster, Johnny Jason Teen Reporter, Mary Perkins On Stage, and The New People.  But it was not until I stumbled upon a couple of issues of this title that I found a whole susbset of titles from Dell that offered superhero fans some new characters and stories.  I was pleasantly surprised and definitely curious enough to pick them up and give them a try!

 

Super Heroes, as it was so generically titled, was a four-issue series published in 1967 featuring a team known as the "Fab 4."  One might think this is a cheap rip-off of Marvel's the Fantastic Four (the name is even very similar), which first hit the stands back in 1961; however, other than the name similarity and the fact both teams has four members (with only one female), the two books are very different.  While Marvel's "World's Greatest Comic Magazine," as it promoted itself, featured a family dynamic, the Fab 4 is actually made up of four teenagers who, through unexpected circumstances, wind up with the ability to transfer their consciousnesses into four amazing robots with superhuman abilities:  Dan Boyd can become "El," with light-based powers; Polly Wheeler can become "Polymer Polly," with speed and heat resistant powers; Tom Dennis can become "Hy," with sonic powers; and Reb Ogelvie can become "Crispy," with cryogenic powers.  Although not very original, each character's costume has the first letter of their name on the chest (with the except of "El," who has a huge "L" on his chest, I'm guessing because his name is actually pronounced simply as "L").

 

Each issue features three chapters, with some connecting and some simply stand-alone tales.  The first issue,  cover dated January 1967, opens with a 12-page origin story (yeah, let's see any of today's comics tell an origin story in that few pages!), followed by a second chapter that finds our new heroes battling a nuclear powered robot, and a final chapter that brings the Fab 4 versus the rampaging robot story to a chilly conclusion (yes, that's a pun - read the story to find out why!).  The story and plot are pretty simple and straightforward, but I do think the author managed to capture some of the nuances of what it would be like for teenagers to suddenly find themselves able to control super-powered robots.  The only problem is, like Negative Man in DC's Doom Patrol title, when they transfer their essence, their actual bodies basically become comatose; so, they must be sure their bodies are in a secure location before they transfer over to the Fab 4.

 

The second issue was released three months later, with a cover date of April 1967.  This issue features three different tales, as our Fab 4 face off against various villains.  In the first chapter, the kids go up against "The Clowns," a group of dastardly circus men who use their clown disguises take advantage of attendees and steal their valuables - with their ultimate goal of cleaning out the city!  Of course, the Fab 4 manage to round them up and take them down.  The second chapter is the story of "Nutt's Revenge," as an engineer is determined not to see his creations displayed at the Great Fair (a/k/a the World's Fair in our world) destroyed by others - so he decides to take them out himself, until the four kids get in his way, and they have to use their fabulous alter egos to save their bodies!  The final chapter find El enslaved by a criminal who learned electronics in prison - and he uses El to go after the police that put him away.  It's up to the remaining Fab 4 to save their friend and bring him to his senses.

 

Which brings us to the third issue, in which our fabulous foursome must face the threat of the Coalman, an underground creature that gets hotter and more deadly the more the kids throw at him.  The four heroes then face the hypnotizing spells of the Mad Magician, who uses hypnosis to steal from his guests, leaving them with the impression they enjoyed the show and not caring about their lost valuables!  The four have to put their heads together to stop the madman from hypnotizing the entire city and robbing it blind.  In the last chapter, the gang goes up against Nepto of the Reef, an underwater villain off the coast of Florida (yay!  my state!) who, like Aquaman, is able to get the help of marine life to aid him in his tasks - only Nepto's tasks are criminal, and the Fab 4 go underwater to put an end to his crime spree.

 

The fourth and final issue of this series, cover dated June 1967, foretells its own demise, with a cover blurb that proclaims: "The End of The Fab 4!"  Like the first issue, it features three chapters that are interconnected, but these final tales alter the lives of our heroes in an unexpected way.  While the first chapter provides a simple mission of stopping missiles that were somehow controlled to drop on the city, it is the second chapter that changes everything - when the four teens throw their consciousnesses into the heroic robots, only to have an explosion merge them, so that the teens no longer need the robots!  Instead, they find themselves now possessing the powers of the robots, giving them the chance to fight crime in their own physical forms - something they do in the third and final chapter as they face off against Mr. Mod, a hippie musician with the power to influence things around him.  It was he who directed the bombs to be dropped on the city, and it was he who caused the explosion that changed the Fab 4's lives forever.  And it takes some quick thinking and cooperation on their part to bring Mr. Mod to justice at last.

 

And with that final battle, Super Heroes and its tales of the Fab 4 came to an end.  After only four issues and eight battles of good versus evil, the adventures of these powerhouse teens came to a conclusion.  As far as I have been able to find, these four heroes have remained in comic book limbo (with the exception of a short story in InDELLible Comics first issue of Popular Comics, published in July 2017).  I actually found the concept for these heroes somewhat different, and they certainly would have been the perfect fit for comics published back in the 1960s and 1970s; however, I wonder if the fact they were published by Dell, who did not seem to have the same popularity as DC or Marvel Comics, hurt their chances of succeeding.  InDELLible Comics, headed up by David Noe and Jim Ludwig, seems to be bringing some attention back to all of these old Dell Comics characters, so who knows?  Perhaps someone will get inspired and get the rights to bring these characters into the 21st century!

 

There is some dispute about who wrote these four issues of Super Heroes for Dell.  While some websites credit Don Arneson as the writer, the Grand Comics Database indicates that "[i]n an e-mail to Jim Ludwig August 2013, DJ Arneson states that he did not write this series."  Thus, the writer remains a mystery.  The art, however, has been credited to Bill Ely on pencils (according to Martin O'Hearn's blog) for the first two issues and Bill Molno on pencils (according to Martin O'Hearn's blog) for the last two issues, with Sal Trapani on inks on all four books.  The covers for all four issues are credited to Sal Trapani on inks, as well as possibly the pencils.  The art is not overly impressive, with many panels simply featuring the characters against single-colored backgrounds, I did enjoy it for the simple fact that it was not overpowering.  The pages provided backgrounds where necessary, but it focused more on the story and less on flashy splash pages as today's comics do, which definitely was a plus in my book!  Simple stories of good guys vs. bad guys without all of the needless personal crises and forced continuity - just plain old fun!

 

One thing I did notice about the Fab 4's costumes - the letters on each of their chests could have spelled the word H-E-L-P (because the "c" on Crispy's chest could easily be mistaken for an "e"), and I wonder if that was intentional, since these kids / heroes were determined to help keep the world safe?  Just a thought...

 

Now the hunt begins for some of Dell's other super hero titles, such as Nukla, Frankenstein, Dracula, Wereewolf, and any others I can discover in my hunt! 

 

RATING:  8 circus-battling, undersea-fighting, robot-defeating, mad-magician stopping adventures out of 10 for giving comic fans a creative new crew of heroes (it's just unfortunate they did not last!). 

Mansion in Miniature - a Signet Gothic novel

If the name Elizabeth St. Clair seems familiar, that may be because I have read and reviewed her first Zebra Mystery Puzzler (Murder in the Act) back in October of last year.  St. Clair is a pseudonym used by author Susan Lois Handler-Cohen, who wrote novels in both the Gothic and mystery genres, and this is the first of her Gothic novels that I have read.  I thoroughly enjoyed her Zebra Mystery Puzzler, so I went into this with high hopes, and I was not disappointed.  Yes, the story is told in first-person point-of-view (I much prefer third-person POV), but I quickly got over that, as the story was so engaging, and the characters, while a bit odd in many ways, definitely kept my attention.  

 

The cover art for this book is signed, revealing the artist to be Allan Kass (1917-2005), who was quite the prolific paperback artist.  Kass provided coves to any number of romance, regency, Gothic, and western novels - there is even a blog dedicated to all of his cover art (Allan Kass - Illustrator).  I did not realize how many Gothic covers were done by Kass, including quite a few that I have in my personal collection - from the many Phyllis A. Whitney mysteries for young adults to the Caroline Farr Gothic novels to various Virginia Coffman Gothic novels to The Dornstein Icon by Janet Louise Roberts, and so many others.  Kass definitely left his mark on the Gothic genre of that period.

 

Now, back to the book itself - Mansion in Miniature is the story of two sisters (and no, this is not Soap!): Karen Livingstone and her younger sister, Crystal Livingstone Fairchild.  Karen has always been the strong, sensible one, while Crystal, like her name, is the delicate one who everyone treats with kid gloves, always cleaning up the messes she leaves in her wake.  While Karen has grown to see through Crystal's manipulations and lies, everyone else seems mesmerized by her beauty and fragility.  So, when Crystal met the wealthy Lawrence Fairchild, married him, and was whisked away to the Fairchilds' private island off the New England coast, Karen thought she was finally free of the shadow her sister's needs cast over everyone around her.  But then she receives a letter practically begging her to come to Fair Island - not just to see the one-of-a-kind dollhouse she has created, but also to help her.  Karen, who owns a shop that sells dollhouses and furniture cannot resist seeing this dollhouse, as this may be what she needs to enter into the annual competition.  What she does not know is the web of intrigue she is about to step into...

 

Lawrence Fairchild is dead.  His entire estate has been left to his grieving widow - Karen's sister, Crystal.  Lawrence's sister, Carlotta, remains on the island, caring for Crystal with the help of her trusted housekeeper, Stafford.  Carlotta's two sons, Paul and Arthur, also live in the house. Paul is a successful attorney with an ambitious career in politics that his mother will do anything to foster.  Arthur is the younger brother, never truly succeeding at anything, always angry at everything, and controlled completely by his mother.  And then there is Crystal.  Sometimes she seems to be off-balance, unaware of her surroundings; yet, other times she seems not only full aware, but in complete control, manipulating those around her with feigned insanity.  Karen does not believe any of it, and when Crystal begs her to sneak her off the island, away from a family that is desperate to get their hands on her money, Karen believes it is only another ploy.  Until she finds Crystal's body washed up on the beach, dead from apparent suicide.  Or was it?

 

The destroyed miniatures in Crystal's room, which the Fairchilds insist were strewn about by Crystal in a fit of rage does not match Karen's knowledge of Crystal's love and devotion for those miniatures.  She knows Crystal would never dream of damaging a one of them.  Which means someone is lying.  And someone is a murderer.  And Karen has to figure out who it was before she becomes the next victim.  She cannot trust anyone, and even after she returns to New York with her sister's dollhouse, even after the house wins the miniature competition, and even after Karen thinks all of the horrors are behind her - she is brutally attacked and nearly killed in her own hotel room by the person she thought she could trust.  In true Gothic fashion, Karen finds herself the target of a killer who wants her out of the way, and the person she thought she could trust the most turns out to be one of her deadliest enemies.

 

Handler-Cohen a/k/a St. Clair writes a wonderfully thrilling tale of suspense, mystery, and terror. This is a story that certainly confirms why I love St. Clair's writing so much - I can't wait to read another of her books!

RATING:  10 miniature safes hiding dark secrets out of 10 for a dramatic and gripping Gothic tale that will keep you in suspense until the very last page! 

Up Goes the Curtain - a Penny Parrish book

I picked up this book at Atlanta Vintage Books when we went through Atlanta this past summer going up to Kentucky to visit my Dad.  Having done community theater, I have grown rather fond of reading stories about the theater (such as the Mary Perkins, On Stage newspaper strips, the Carol Page theater stories, Terry Carvel's Theater Caravan, and the Backstagers series for young adults).  So, when I saw this cover, I did not hesitate to buy the book.  I have heard the author, Janet Lambert, mentioned in various book groups to which I belong, but I've never actually owned or read any of her books.  I had always assumed her books were simply young adult romance stories, but this book definitely proves me wrong.  This story was clearly based on Lambert's own experiences, both on Broadway as an actress and as an Army wife (both of these elements playing a large part of this story).  And what surprised me even more is that this book, while having a stand-alone story, is actually part of a series - the fourth book in a series of novels about Penny Parrish (with three prior books being published in 1941, 1942, and 1943 respectively, and two more after this book being published in 1947 and 1950).  Knowing this, I'm more than likely going to track down the other books in the series to see how the character evolves over the course of the decade in which the books were published.  (NOTE - Lambert also wrote series about Tippy Parrish, who is Penny's younger sister, as well as other characters, suich as Parri MacDonald, Candy Kane, Dria Meredith, etc.)

 

Up Goes the Curtain actually contains two separate stories, although Lambert does intertwine them a bit. The book opens with Penny excited about her part in an upcoming Broadway play (her background sounds very similar to that of Carol Page - spent a summer in a stock company training, went to New York, and finally lands a part in a play (p. 10), and, just like Carol Page, she makes a vow that not matter what, she will succeed, so she does not have to return home (p. 12)).  But, since the rehearsals do not begin for three weeks, Penny decides to visit her family, who are staying at Fort Knox, Kentucky where her father and brother are stationed, which begins the mystery that surrounds a young woman named Marcia McMain (what is with the alliteration in names?  Penny Parrish?  Marcia McMain?), who is being escorted to Fort Knox by Terry Hayes, a young man that had previously shown an interest in Penny. Penny is somewhat taken aback by Terry's attitude towards her, but it slowly begins to dawn on her that since Terry is serving in the military, perhaps the woman was a job - perhaps he was actually keeping tabs on her because she was a spy!  (What she does not know, but what the reader does learn thanks to a point-of-view switch to Penny's brother and his wife, who are fully aware of the situation, is that the woman is indeed a spy, and it is Terry's job to flush her out in the open!)  Of course, a lot of miscommunications ensue as the family tries to convince Penny to stay out of it, but Penny is determined to prove her theory - and, of course, she ultimately does through a fateful night at a movie theater when she witnesses the exchange of a note between the woman and a young serviceman.  Penny is able to get a hold of that note, and its contents end up giving the Army everything they need to capture the woman and her accomplice, as well as to foil the damage these spies intended to do.

 

The second half of the book features Penny's return to New York with her sister-in-law (whose name just happens to be Carrol), where they stay at the lavish multi-bedroom apartment Carrol had inherited from her family.  A young woman by the name of Letty, whose husband also happens to be in the military and fighting overseas, joins them in the house, keeping Carrol company while Penny begins her rehearsals and eventually opens the show.  And, in yet another similarity with the Carol Page series, Penny ends up having difficulties with a stage manager who seemingly dislikes her, going out of his way to make things difficult for her - but she eventually learns the truth behind his gruff attitude, and the two develop a friendship of sorts.  In addition (like Carol Page), she happens to personally know the big-name actress who is headlining the play, and because of that, the other actors try to get in her good graces - all except one actor, Miltern Wilde (what a name!), who makes every effort to upstage Penny in every scene they share.  Penny's courage grow, however, to the point where she turns the tables on him one night when he purposefully steps on her toe, causing it to bleed, and she steals the scene from him, getting a thunderous ovation (p. 157) that leads to her gaining his respect.

 

The book ends on a rather sad note, with Penny receiving news that a young man she knows was shot down in a plane over Germany, and it is uncertain whether he survived or not.  There is also uncertainty regarding her growing friendship with the stage manager, and no resolution whatsoever about her feelings for Terry Hayes.  Instead, the book ends with Penny putting on her makeup for another performance of the play, sighing to herself, "It doesn't matter about me - the show must go on" (p. 189).  That ending alone is enough to make me want to hunt down the next book in the series to see where Penny goes from here. 

 

While I had a bit of disappointment in the fact that entire book was not focused on the theater, I did rather enjoy that spy/mystery part in the first half of the book.  The second half that did feature the theater - well, I wish we could have gotten an entire book on that, so the reader could get more fleshed out characters and feel more of the drama and tension among the cast.  As it is, we only get touches upon each of the characters, and I, as the reader, do not really know enough about them, nor spend enough time with them, to really care about how they interact with Penny and how she treats them.  I will be curious to see if any of the other books in the series follow Penny's acting career.  Definitely not a bad read, and one that has me curious enough to read more.

 

RATING:  7 large cokes with lots of ice out of 10 for an unexpected combination of war, spies, theater, and drama - like getting two books for the price of one! 

Meg and the Mystery of Black-Magic Cave - Mystery #5 in a series

The penultimate book in the "Meg" series is the best one of the first five books.  One has to wonder if the ghostwriter for the previous book also wrote this one, as both books definitely have more mature themes to them than the first three books.  That, of course, is one of the reasons why I wish these book publishers back in the day had retained one author to ghostwrite a series of books, so that they stories would have a certain consistency to them, both in characterization and in tone.  Some series did (such as the Penny Parker series by Mildred Wirt Benson), while other employed any number of writers (such as Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, etc.).  While having a series bible may help the writers remain consistent with character names, occupations, hair and eye color, settings, etc., the rotation of writers is still noticeable in the way a story is written and how a character talks and acts.  Now, one could argue that Meg and Kerry have grown some since the first book, and therefore, after solving several mysteries, they might have matured in the way they handle them, but that is stretching it a bit, I think.

 

Meg and the Mystery of the Black-Magic Cave takes Meg and Kerry out of their home state of Virginia and places them in Merrybones, Maine, where Meg's Uncle Hal vacations each summer.  This year, he offers to take them along with him, partially to enjoy the locale, but also because there is a mystery to be solved, and he knows how much the girls enjoy solving mysteries.  And, in case you are wondering, no, "Merrybones" is a made up township in Maine, although it perhaps draws its name from Marylebone, which is in the city of Westminster in London, England.   The mystery surrounds a schoolteacher friend of Uncle Hal's by the name of Emily Hawthorne (p. 16), who has asked for his help.  Now, I have to think that the author specifically chose the name "Hawthorne" for several reasons:  (1) the name is the same as that of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the famous author who hailed from New England, and (2) Nathaniel Hawthorne's great-great-frandfather (John Hathorne) was one of the judges during the famous Salem witch trials.  And, since this particular book deals with witches...

 

The author delves into a world of witchcraft and black magic, as the girls learn from Miss Hawthorne that someone has threatened her with a curse, and her black cat, Melissa, has gone missing.  Someone wants her out of Merrybones, and it's up to Uncle Hal, Meg, and Kerry to figure out who it is.  As if right one cue, Meg and Kerry learn about a nearby cave that is referred to as "Black-Magic Cave," and while picking blueberries near the cave, the girls find a makeshift altar with a candle burning and a pentagram drawn on the floor in front of it!  This begins the girls' quest to uncover the truth about the cave, the witches' coven operating in Merrybones, and whether the women who make up the coven are responsible for threatening Miss Hawthorne and stealing her cat.   

 

The witches' coven and black magic aspect of the story are played up well, and Meg and Kerry even manage to witness a gathering of witches in what they suspect is a meeting in which the women will attempt to cast a spell to rid the town of Miss Hawthorne once and for all!  But the girls are clever, and while the witches are in the cave, Meg, Kerry, and their new friends gather up the shoes the women left outside the cave and take them with them (so that, like Cinderella, they can identify the witches by having the women try on shoes to see if they match!).  It's quite a climactic confrontation between the defeated women and the police, alongside Meg and her friends.  And the author holds back one particular surprise, which a careful reader will pick up on earlier in the story as to the identity of the specific person that wants Miss Hawthorne gone and why!  Overall, the book offers a well-plotted mystery that is very entertaining reading.

 

I did find it rather amusing that when the girls find a book of black magic in the attic of the house where they are staying, they discover the words are written rather uniquely - in Old English, where the s's are written like f's, and some words have "e" at the end, which is pronounced like our current "y" (p. 75).  And there is even a paragraph written in that styles, with Old English font!  Definitely a great way to introduce young readers as to how much the English language has changed in the last couple of centuries!

 

The paperback cover art, by Olindo Giacomini, is definitely my favorite of the two, as it has Meg and Kerry hiding behind an old tree, spying on the witches as they are marching out of the cave, holding lit candles.  Of course, the scene is in the reverse in the story, as they watch the witches go into the cave, not out of it.  The cover art on the original hardcover version of the book, by Cliff Schule, depicts the witches heading in the proper direction  (and it even accurately shows 13 witches!).  Interestingly, both covers show Kerry wearing a blue top and Meg with a red/burgundy top, thus maintaining some consistency between the two.  And for those of you who are Nancy Drew fans, you might think this cover hearkens back to the cover art for The Secret of Red Gate Farm, in which Nancy is hiding behind a tree, watching hooded figures going into a cave.

 

I have been really enjoying this series, so it's somewhat disheartening to realize I only have one Meg book left to read, and then I'll have completed the series.  It almost makes me want to put off reading that final book ... almost ... 

 

RATING:  9 stones with oddly carved pentagrams out of 10 for a menacing tale of witches, curses, and black cats!