The Mystery of the Tolling Bell - A Book By Any Other Name, No. 2

Way back in 1946, Grosset & Dunlap first published the twenty-third Nancy Drew mystery, titled The Mystery of the Tolling Bell.  About twenty years later, Christian Literature Crusade, with permission by Pickering & Inglis, Ltd., published a book written by Ellen Jane MacLeod by that same name (The Mystery of the Tolling Bell), which I happened across by pure chance at a local used bookstore.  Now, here we are a year later, and wonder of all wonders, I come across yet a THIRD title by that same name!  Now, I realize that some titles have a tendency to be used over and over (such as common phrases like "Double Indemnity" or "Web of Lies" or such); but for this unique of a title to be used not once, not twice, but three different times by three different authors in three different decades - well, the coincidence is uncanny!

 

This version of The Mystery of the Tolling Bell is written by Alan E. Losure, is an Indiana writer who enjoys writing historical fiction.  Unlike the previous two stories, Losure's tale is a murder mystery written for an adult audience, nor for children.  That does not mean it has sex, violence, and foul language; rather, it means the subject matter (murder!) is not something normally intended for children to read.  Additionally, while the two books for young adults were set in the present time (well, "present" as far as the date when they were originally published), this story is set back in 1898, just before the turn of the century.  Thus, there are no motor cars that would enable to characters to speed from one place to the next, and telephones are about the only technological advance - we're talking about "old west" style living, with saloons, general stores, and such.  However, as the title would suggest, the mystery does involve the mysterious tolling of a bell - in this case, warning the citizens of Gas City, Indiana that death is about to come to their small town!

 

Losure does write an interesting story that is multi-layered and not as clear-cut as one may expect.  In fact, the book is broken up into two parts - the first part being "The Mystery of the Tolling Bell" and the second part being "Doctor Death."  While the underlying mystery is threaded through both parts, they actually have very distinct factors driving the plots.  In the first half, the story centers around Herbert Ainsworth, a young man graduating from the local high school, who, at his graduation ceremony, announces to the townspeople how he has suffered at the hands of three other young men in his class for the past four years and warns them that their time is coming - theirs, as well as the school administrators who allowed the bullying to continue unchecked.  The second half of the book is focused on members of the mob who come to Gas City to begin an "insurance" racket, forcing the businesses to pay part of their profits for protection from ... well, protection from the very people to whom they are being forced to pay the insurance!

 

 "The Mystery of the Tolling Bell" is the mystery that asks - who tolls that school bell before each murder (or attempted murder)?  The bell is high up in a tower, behind locked doors, and no one is ever seen anywhere near the scene at the time.  Yet, each time that bell tolls thirteen times (made me think of the Penny Parker mystery, The Clock Strikes Thirteen), and each time, there is a murder, or an attempted murder, at least.  All clues point to poor Herbert, who threatened the other boys in his class, since the two who are murdered were two of the three boys who bullied him, and the one who was nearly burned to death in his own outhouse was the school superintendent. Herbert claims he is innocent, and it is not until the last remaining bully is caught trying to torch Herbert's small shack that the town realizes it was actually that third boy - or was it?

 

This is where "Doctor Death" begins.  With the third bully hauled out of town to face criminal charges at the county seat, the citizens of Gas City think the horrors have ended.  But then the bodies start to pile up again, each one with a note signed by "Doctor Death," warning of more to come!  While this is going on, some out-of-town mobsters have made their way into Gas City and have set up an "insurance" scheme to force businesses to pay for their protection - and when they find out about Herbert's amazing mathematical skills, they threaten him into helping them.  Ultimately, Herbert comes up with a plan to outwit the crooks, while, unbeknownst to him, the real killer has entered the wrong house to do his next killing.  As the story reaches its climax, some startling secrets are revealed (including the REAL reason behind all of those killings) and a statewide criminal organization is finally brought to its knees.

 

Losure writes a great mystery that is fast-paced, yet still has time to fully flesh out all of his characters so that the reader actually feels for each and every one of them.  In addition, Losure includes considerable photographs of people that he identifies as the characters from the story, as well as vintage photos of various sites from around Gas City during the 1890s. At the end of the book, Losure explains about his use of the Cabinet Cards to "enhance the story" by giving a physical face to each of his main characters.  As far as the use of the tolling bell, this was likely taken from the old expression that "when a bell tolls, someone is going to die," which expression is said to be rooted in the tradition of churches ringing bells to announce that someone has passed away.

 

Overall, a pretty good read, even though there were a number of spelling errors and mixed up names (at one point, Herbert is sent to the telephone company to review the books and try to correct the payroll ledgers - when he enters the building, the story says "Wilbert assured them that it was his top priority" [p. 234], when it was actually Herbert who assured them), leaving me to wonder if any editing was done before the book was published.  I enjoyed the revelation as to the killer's identity and motive, and the pictures scattered throughout the book DID enhance my reading of the story.  At the end, Losure breaks the fourth wall to ask the reader "what will the future hold in store for them and a few other characters?" to which he informs the reader that such "answers will be contained within the pages of my next book" (p. 238).  Those two lines gave me a nostalgic feel of the old children's mysteries from the '30s, '40s, and '50s when each book would give a small tag at the end, letting readers know what the next book would be.

 

RATING:  9 helpings of salted meats, breads, and pickles out of 10 for a great mix of history and fiction with the superbly plotted murder mystery at its heart!

The Mystery of the Tolling Bell - A Book By Any Other Name, No. 1

Okay, so this post will start a series of posts (not in any particular order, mind you) of books that I read, which share the same title.  Over the course of collecting books for as many years as I have, I've discovered that there are a number of titles that seem to be reused, particularly when it comes to children's mystery series.  Off the top of my head, I can think of 20 or so titles that were used in multiple series (sometimes just two different series, but there are instances where three or more series used the same title).  So, I figured if I were going to read one book with a title, I'd go ahead and read the sister book as well, then compare them to see if the stories bear any similarities.  I'm hoping this turns out to be a fun adventure, so we shall see...

The Mystery of the Tolling Bell is likely instantly recognizable by Nancy Drew fans as the 23rd mystery in the "Nancy Drew Mystery Stories" series.  Heck, if you do a search online for just the title, you will get page after page of results showing the Nancy Drew book.  What you may not realize, though, is that there is another children's mystery book by the same title.  In the 1960s, a book with this title was published by Christian Literature Crusade with permission by Pickering & Inglis, Ltd. (and for those who read this blog, you may remember I reviewed another book from the P&I publishing company, The Crooked Signpost).  I happened across this book in a local used bookstore, where it had been placed with the Nancy Drew books, likely because without a dust jacket, the book has yellow boards and would seem to the casual eye to be the Nancy Drew book of the same name.  Of course, my eye caught the name of the author and realized immediately it was not Nancy Drew - so my search began to find the book in its brightly colored dust jacket, which I eventually found on eBay.

This book is written by Ellen Jane MacLeod, who wrote more than several children's mysteries, all of which have a Christian theme to them.  Some of the titles, such as The Ski Lodge Mystery, Mystery Gorge, and The Vanishing Light, all sound rather intriguing just by the title alone.  There are several mentions online that Ms. MacLeod also wrote under the pseudonym of "Ella Anderson," which, if there is true, means she also wrote The Crooked Signpost which I read a few months back.  Based on the writing style of the two books, I could easily believe her to be the author of both.

This version of The Mystery of the Tolling Bell features three young men - Paul Maxwell, Phil Leighton, and Pat Riley (funny how all those names begin with "P") - who are returning from a weekend of camping on their own when they are forced to take shelter in an abandoned cottage overlooking a cliff during a torrential rainstorm.  One of them recalls an old story that has circulated through town about the cottage, and how is poses a danger to anyone who approaches it and hears the tolling of a bell in the distance.  Well, as fate would have it, they begin to hear the tolling of a bell - which leaves them ready to run home, despite the raging storm!  They manage to wait out the storm until the morning, and upon returning home, they find another mystery that pulls their attention - a dog named Prince has been stolen from on of their town's wealthy residents, and the boys decide they are going to find it for the reward.  The search for the missing dog and the boys' desire to help a local young outsider become the focus of the book until near the end, when the boys (along with the outsider) make another trip to the abandoned cottage, where they not only learn the secret of the tolling bell, but they come face-to-face with some dastardly criminals who are using the bell and the folk tale to scare people away from the cottage, which they have been using for their base of operations.

It is odd that the tolling bell only plays a small part at the beginning, and then in the climax of the book, and is otherwise ignored throughout the rest of the story.  The main focus seems to be more on the boys' attempts to help young Ben Anderson and his friend, Leo Alexander.  MacLeod uses the story as an opportunity to share the message of the Gospel, as the boys share their Christian faith with Ben and Leo, invite them to church, and encourage them to accept Christ as their own Savior.  The events at the end of the book are what lead to both boys putting their faith in Christ, and the book ends on a very happy note for everyone involved (well, maybe not so much for the four criminals, who are ultimately arrested and thrown in jail!).  While The Crooked Signpost had elements of Christianity woven into the story, this book relies much more heavily on the boys' faith and their attempts to share their faith with Ben and Leo.

 

Since this book is copyrighted 1960 by Pickering & Inglis, it was not published until 14 years after the Nancy Drew story, The Mystery of the Tolling Bell.   That book was written by Mildred Wirt, based on an outline by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams.  In the Nancy Drew version, Nancy and her friends (three girls instead of three boys) travel to Candleton to solve a mystery involving a client of Mr. Drew's, who has been swindled for a lot money.  Turns out others in the coastal town have also been swindled by a woman and man claiming to be selling stock in a successful cosmetic company. While there, Nancy also tries to solve the mystery involving a tolling bell that is hear every time a cave is flooded with water, where a ghostly apparition appears, scaring people away.  While there are definite differences between the books, there are some surprising similarities - (1) both stories have three protagonists; (2) both books deal with an empty cottage overlooking a cliff; (3) both mysteries deal with thieves who are using the cottage as their base of operations; (4) both stories feature a hidden room beneath the cottage; (5) book books obviously deal with a tolling bell that is not easily seen by the hearers; (6) both mysteries feature an urban legend / folk tale that keep people away from the area; and (7) both stories appear to be set somewhere along the New England coast.  Since the Nancy Drew book was published over a decade before MacLeod's book, if there were any "lifting" of ideas or plot elements, it would have been MacLeod from Wirt's mystery.  Certainly, it could just be a complete coincidence, but seriously - how many coincidences like this do we really see outside of series books?

Overall, both books had their good points, and both stories had their drawbacks; however, I did rather enjoy both of them for what they were, and it was fun to read them with the idea of comparing the stories / plots.

RATING:  7 loose-leaf albums of stamps out of 10 for taking something as simple as a tolling bell and turning it into two different (yet similar!) mysteries more than ten years apart!