Victoria Winters - the 2nd Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama (Dark Shadows)

I am having a thrilling time re-reading these Dark Shadows novels from the late '60s (which continued into the early '70s, well past the end of the television show).  It has been so many years since I originally read them, it is like I am reading them again for the first time.  And the author, W.E.D. Ross (writing under his most popular pseudonym, Marilyn Ross) does a pretty decent job with the characterization, capturing some of the nuances the actors instilled in the characters on TV.  I especially like the fact that these early books, like the early episodes of the TV show, focused on Victoria Winters, as she was by far my favorite character from the show.  Thankfully, Ross manages to instill her a bit more strength and awareness than she was given by the writers on the daytime soap.  It breathes a little more life into her, and definitely makes me love the character all the more!

 

Victoria Winters is the second book in the series, and the story picks up some months after the events in the first book (which depicted Victoria's arrival, her meeting the Collins' clan, her romance with Ernest Collins, and the terrifying events that led to Ernest leaving for an indefinite period of time).  Now, as summer has arrived, Carolyn and David are gone on a vacation, leaving Victoria behind to act as a personal assistant to Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.  The Collins' attorney, Will Grant, is still around (still trying to woo Victoria), and we meet his sister, Nora, with whom Victoria has developed a close friendship.  Burke Devlin makes a few quick appearances in this novel, and Matthew Morgan is his usual grumpy self.  Roger Collins continues to be the ultimate spoiled playboy.  The new characters who are introduced in this book are Paul Caine, a visiting artist who takes an instant liking to Victoria, as well as Henry Francis and his two daughters - the gorgeous Rachel Francis (who becomes entangled with Roger) and the invalid Dorothy (who is recovering from major brain surgery and is confined to a wheelchair in a near catatonic state).  It turns out Henry was an old classmate of Elizabeth's back in the day, so she welcomes the man and his daughters into her home unlike she would anyone else.  And now, with all the characters in place, the mystery unfolds...

 

 One might recall in the first book, it turned out Ernest's first wife did not really die as everyone believed, but was being kept secreted away in the dark halls of Collins House, as she had gone mad. It was revealed that she had murdered a woman Ernest had later fallen in love with - Stella Hastings, and she would have killed Victoria as well, if fate had not intervened.  Well, it seems that story was not quite over, as Victoria begins to see the face and ghostly apparition of a woman who she eventually finds out is none other than Stella Hastings!  Did the woman not die, as everyone thought?  Or was her spirit haunting the house where she had been killed?  As Victoria tries to figure this mystery out, she must also fend off a would-be killer, someone who is following in the footsteps of the silk-scarf strangler who Henry Francis tells her killed several woman back in Pennsylvania.  Did the killer follow the Francis family to Collinsport, stalking Henry's daughter?  Is Victoria simply another in a long-line of victims?  Or is there something much more sinister going on in the Collins' great house?  

 

We spend a bit more time outside of Collinwood (or Collins House, as Ross repeatedly refers to it) in this book.  Victoria and Nora head into Collinsport on several occasions, frequenting the Blue Whale, as well as Will Grant's office and the general store and post office.  Victoria and Nora also spend some time on the beach - after all, it is summer.  These interludes are nice reminders that there is an entire world within the Dark Shadows mythos, and the characters are not limited to the great house. It is also nice to see that Burke Devlin continues to make his brief appearances.  This book has a first printing date of March 1967, and by that point in the television show, viewers were treated to the final revelations regarding the mystery surrounding Mr. Devlin and his animosity towards Roger Collins.  Fans were also in the middle of the story where BIll Malloy is murdered and the phoenix, Laura Collins (David's mother and Roger's ex-wife!) shows up to claim her son.  While there are passing references in the books to Roger's ex-wife, there are no details given, and from what I can recall, the books never actually address who she is or her supernatural essence.

 

Ross once again gives strong hints at the supernatural, with the ghostly appearances of Stella Hastings, but as with your standard Gothic tale from this period, the haunting is explained away with real-world circumstances (in this instance, a look-alike who is mistaken for Stella).  Each of the continuing characters (Elizabeth, Roger, Will) are still exhibiting odd quirks and mood shifts that hint at secrets being withheld from poor Victoria, leading one to understand that Ross was likely hedging his bets, keeping their actions mysterious, yet not direct, so that if anything major was revealed on the television show, he could incorporate it into his stories.  I do like that he keeps Victoria true to form, in that she is not a Nancy Drew-type mystery solver, but rather, someone who seems to fall into these situations and is forced to go along for the ride until they resolve themselves.  I laughed at one line in the book, where Victoria was overwhelmed, and she realizes "[s]he had reached the stage where things when on around her and she simply sat in a kind of daze and allowed them to happen" (p. 100).  Many fans would say that is a pretty accurate description of how Victoria was always written on the TV show.  Thankfully, Ross does give her a bit more fortitude, so that even as she is forced into these situations, she has the mental acuity to reason things out.

 

As with the first book, this novel featured two different covers.  The first, which appeared on the early printings, was a painted cover (above), showing Victoria, in her overcoat, running away from Collins House.  This scene is taken from early promotional photos for the show, which shows Alexandra Moltke in that same position (also above).  For later printings, Paperback Library reprinted the book using a still photo from the television show, once again with Alexandra Moltke as Victoria and Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins.  As Barnabas did not make his first appearance on the show until April 18, 1967, a month after this book was initially released, and considering his character does not appear in the story at all, I find is somewhat misleading that the later printings used such a photo.  No doubt, Paperback was simply cashing in on Barnabas' popularity (since, by the time these books were reprinted, Barnabas had gained his success on the show, and the books were featuring Barnabas as their principal character).  Still, there were plenty of images of Victoria with other characters that do appear in the stories, which the publisher could have used.  Unless, of course, it was a mandate from Dan Curtis Productions, in which case, they would not have had much of a choice in the matter.

 

 This second book definitely takes the story of Victoria Winters further away from the direction she was written in the television show, and as such, it makes for some great reading.  These are new and unique stories, a "parallel time" of sorts, and it is a shame Ross was forced to write Victoria Winters out when she left the show.  This forum would have been the perfect place to reveal Victoria's true parentage, the one mystery that never got solved on any version of the television show (although, for the 1990's remake, that question was answered in Innovation Comics' Dark Shadows' comic book series, which picked up where the TV show ended and ultimately revealed Victoria really was Elizabeth's daughter...)

 

Only 30 books left to read in the ongoing saga of the Collins family!

 

RATING:  10 tiny silver earrings shaped like a leaf out of 10 for great Gothic suspense and ghoulish ghostly scares, with some well-written misdirects to keep the twist ending (somewhat) a surprise!

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories # 141 - The Wild Cat Crime

"Nancy faces a dangerous threat when danger is uncaged!'  (cover blurb)

 

"A hunt for missing cougar cubs leads Nancy into a sinister trap!" (back cover blurb)

 

It is interesting that Simon & Schuster would publish two Nancy Drew books back-to-back where Nancy and her best friends, Bess and George, are holding down jobs of sorts.  Since the series inception back in 1930, Nancy and/or her friends having an actual job, or even an internship, has been seen only on rare occasions; here were are, though, at the beginning of 1998, and Nancy and her friends can be found working - volunteering for an after-school program in the previous book (140 - The Door-to-Door Deception), and now interning at a local television station (Nancy and George) and at a zoo (Bess) for this book.  Although both volunteering and interning are jobs that normally come without any salary (it's not like Nancy needs money!), it is rather unique to find the girls doing something other than simply solving mysteries in their leisure time.

 

The Wild Cat Crime, published in February 1998, lets readers know from the very first page of the story that Nancy and George are interning at Channel 9 news (p. 1).  I believe this is the first reference we have ever seen of an actual television station, and it is further identified as "WRVH-TV" on the next page (p. 2).  The mystery, however, has little to do with their work at the television station; instead, the mystery comes from Bess's own summer internship at the River Heights Zoo - an endangered cougar successfully gave birth to four baby cubs, and shortly after one cub is thought to be missing (but is thankfully found having somehow gotten beyond the door into the habitat area), all four cubs disappear!  When Bess's boss, Sally, finds out Nancy is a detective, she asks her to look into the matter and find the cubs quickly, as they were still newborns who needed to be fed on a strict schedule or they could be irreparably harmed!  Needless, to say, Nancy is on the case.

 

What gives this story a bit of a twist - or should I say WHO gives this story a bit of a twist - is the investigative news reporter for whom Nancy and George work, one Christy Kelley.  Christy is not the easiest woman to work for, and Nancy and George have spent most of their internship doing menial jobs, barely saying one word to the girls since they started.  When Nancy shares the news of the cubs' birth with Christy, thinking it might make a good story, Christy takes it out of Nancy's hands, deciding it is best to do it with just her camera and sound men.  George believes Christy is jealous of Nancy, as she was hired because of her fame as a detective.  "Christy seems pretty ambitious," George tells her.  "She might be worried you do a better job investigating stories" (p. 4).  Thus, from the get-go, the reader knows that Christy Kelley is going to be a foil during the investigation.  One might say she is the "Brenda Carlton" character in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series (Brenda, for those who do not know, was a recurring character in the Nancy Drew Files series, which ended in 1997, and she was a reporter who was constantly causing problems for Nancy during her investigations).

 

The ghostwriter for this book definitely throw Nancy into one dangerous situation after another.  She and George face off against a deadly Cobra snake;  Nancy and Bess are on a monorail that derails right next to a hyena pen; Nancy is held by knife point by a store owner who mistakes her for the kidnapper; and Nancy is pushed into a cougar habitat with a deadly male cougar ready to attack!  Whoever stole the four cougar cubs is definitely not playing games!  There are suspects galore: Christy (who is said, more than one, bears a striking resemblance to Nancy) seems a little too determined to find those missing cubs before Nancy; Hawk, the cameraman, goes a little overboard in his defense against locking up animals in cages; Joey, the sound man, is evasive and acts very suspicious every time Nancy questions him about the day of the kidnapping; Eduardo Vallejo, the cat trainer who knows more about the cougars than anyone; Randy Thompson, the assistant vet, whose position gives him easy access to the cougars at any time (and he would know how to sedate the mother to nab the cubs!); and even Sally Nelson, the main zoo vet and the woman for whom Bess works.  While Sally seems to be the most unlikely suspect, we all know that in a good mystery, anyone can be the culprit!

 

While the story is very fast paced, due to the limited page count (149 pages with the not-so-small font), the mystery actually develops nicely, and the clues are somewhat subtle, so as not to be glaringly obvious to the reader.  It make for a pretty good read.  One of the things that did annoy me was the number of times George and Bess referred to Nancy as either "Drew" or "Nan."  I realize by the time this book was published in the late '90s, using nicknames, such as a last name or a shortened version of a first name, was a long-established thing, the Nancy Drew series has always, for the most part, given Nancy Drew a level of respect by having everyone refer to her by her proper name.  Calling her by a nickname may modernize the story somewhat, but I think it also takes away from the strength that her name gives the character.  I mean, even the director of the zoo, when he meets her, asks, ""Are you, by any chance, the Nancy Drew - the detective?" (p. 46).  This is a prime example of where the name really matters!

 

(On a side note, the author does manage to throw in a Sherlock Holmes reference, when Nancy first notices the monorail track, which lead "to a quaint, old-fashioned-looking train platform and station.  It looks like a station where Sherlock Homes might catch a train, Nancy thought" [p. 8].  Nice to see one great detective make mention of another!)

 

The gorgeous cover art is provided by Ernie Norcia, who, as fans of the digests know, provided the art for a large majority of these half-white covers.  The scene captures the climatic moment near the end of the mystery, when Nancy is pushed into the cougar habitat and must find a way to escape before a deadly male cougar makes a meal out of her!  Not so sure the outfit Nancy is wearing matches the clothing she had on in the story, but that black dress does work perfectly with the dark, night scene pained by Norcia, and her expression captures her realization of just how much danger she is in!

 

I would go so far to say that this is one of the better digests, as it provides a well-plotted mystery with characters who are not just cookie-cutter stereotypes.  I'd recommend this one.

 

RATING:  9 missing B-rolls of film out of 10 for a really wild mystery set in one of the most unlikely of places (let's face it - how many crimes really happen in a zoo?) - and Nancy had to match wits with a criminal who seemed to always be one step ahead of her! 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #29 - You'll Die, Darling

After an eight-book break, author Martin Grove (a/k/a Marjorie J. Grove) returns to this series with his sixth murder mystery featuring gossip columnist-turned-sleuth Maxine Reynolds.  But this book marks more than just the return of Grove and his spunky columnist.  This is the first book to feature the completely revamped cover format!  Gone are the full cover painted scenes, and in their place, the publisher instead placed the cover art within the glass portion of a large magnifying glass, which lay diagonally across a colored box, with a white outline surrounding it all.  In the top right-hand corner, the number of the book in the series now appears in white against a different colored background.  Thus, the cover illustration has considerably less space within which to display a clue to the mystery, and there is now a much less chance of catching any artist signature that might give a clue to the identity of the cover artist.  I'm not sure why they chose to go in this direction, unless it was simply to set the series apart from all the other mystery novels on the shelves at the time and give it a distinctive look that would set it apart from the rest.

 

You'll Die, Darling has Maxine Reynolds hunting for the killer of a country-western singer who was preparing the change direction with her career by leaving behind her former singing partners and entering the rock-n-roll realm. Max may have been the last person to see the singer alive, as Cindy Chester went missing just as she was about to head to San Francisco to put on a show that would start her new direction.  But the story does not open with her murder; rather, it opens with her kidnapping, as her agent, Kevin Belvedere, calls Max to see if Cindy said anything to her during the interview that would explain her failure to appear in San Francisco for her scheduled concert.  A ransom demand, a scramble to get together the money, and a police stake out to capture the kidnapper lead to even more questions when the man who ultimately picks up the cash is only an intermediary - and the post office box number to where he is to mail the money does not exist!

 

Grove gives readers a twisting tale of murder, mystery, jealousy, bitterness, and revenge as Max digs deeper into the kidnapping, only to discover the songstress dead in her garage from apparent suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning.  The police inspector is satisfied, but Max is not.  The only clues she has are a few strands of blond hair in the dead woman's fist, as well as a specially made key that has the logo scraped off.  With those two things to get her started, Max sets out to question everyone involved - from the dead woman's manager, to her two former singing partners, to the singer's abusive boyfriend, to one of the former partner's drug-dealing boyfriend.  One or more them wanted  Cindy Chester dead, but the questions remain - who and why?

 

The identity of the killer is not exactly obvious, but it is not too difficult to spot.  Only a couple of the interior illustrations hold clues to the killer; the rest have to be gleaned from the story itself.  And since we are on the topic of those internal illustrations, Sanford Hoffman is once again the one providing the framed drawings in this book.  However, despite how much I normally enjoy his framed illustrations, the ones in this book seem a bit off.  For example, the first illustration (on page 65 - see below), the middle-man who is arrested for picking up the package filled with money - if you look carefully, you will see that his left hand has two thumbs!  The second picture, on page 78, shows one of Cindy's two singing partners holding a round object in her hand; however, there is nothing in the story that indicates she is holding anything, and the circular object in the illustration is no plain there is no telling what it actually is.  In the third illustration on page 113, Cindy's manager is drawn holding a drink in his right hand - but the hand itself is oddly elongated, way longer than any human hand could possibly be.  The fourth and fifth illustrations are normal, but the last one, on page 173, shows three men who show up at Max's door uninvited, and the one in front is clearly holding up a gun in his right hand; yet, in the story, the man has no gun, and there is not even any mention of a gun anywhere in that scene!  Definitely not Hoffman's finest work in the series, that's for sure!

 

The cover art, limited as it is, has no identification as to the artist.  The scene nearly describes the moment when Max comes across Cindy Chester's dead body in the car in her garage, except in the story, she slides into the seat next to the singer, she is not standing outside the car looking down at her.  The artist does manage to sneak in the strands of blond hair in Cindy's hand, which I'm assuming is meant to be the clue on the covers, as promised in the cover blurb.  What is a little weird is it appears the car in which she is sitting had two gear shifts.  Perhaps one is meant to be an emergency brake, although I will admit, I've never seen any car that has an emergency brake so far behind the gear shift as the one in this painted cover.

 

While this particular story is not Grove's best work in the series, it is still a fairly good read.  As expected the obvious suspect is not the culprit (and in fact, that particular person winds up dead themselves!), and the real culprit is not really a big surprise.  I do like, though, that Grove always has his sleuth talk through all of the clues that led her to figure out whodunnit, so that the reader knows exactly what they should have seen (if they didn't) while reading the story.  Plus, Grove's books are always fun because of Pamela Tooth, better known as "Toothy."  Her quick wit and sarcasm make the whole thing worth it!

 

Sadly, there is only one more Grove mystery left in this series (book 39), so I can't wait to see what Maxine Reynolds' final case has in store for us!

 

RATING:  7 apartment complex pools filled with green water out of 10 for attempting to mislead the reader (and poor Max) and hide the real killer's identity for as long as possible!

Time Police - Volume 2: Trapped!

 I had to literally force myself to read this book all the way through to the end.  The first volume in this series (Time Police Vol. 1 - Vanished) was not the best of books, and the fact that this type of book is far from my normal read did not help matters.  I knew nothing about the author, Warren Norwood, when I picked up these two books at a book swap, but his bio in the book indicates he grew up reading Tom Swift books - thus, as a series-book collector myself, I thought this might mean the story would be enjoyable.  Well, sadly, the first book was overly convoluted, highly repetitive, and not that interesting at all, despite its time-travel premise.  Since I had the second book on my shelf, I figured I might as well read it and get it out of the way, so I could move on to much better things.

 

Trapped! (with the explanation point, mind you) takes place a year or so after the events in the first book.  Jackson Dubchek had walked away from the whole time-travel business, not wanting to be involved in whatever it is the Time Police are doing and having no interest in aiding the Mnemosynes in their quest to preserve what they believed to be the real history of the world.  As can be expected, all of that time manipulation brings Jackson back into the thick of things, as his brother's wife has somehow disappeared, and no one remembers her at all - it's like she never existed!  Jackson's own memories of Ann are slowly fading, and with his brother going out of his mind with grief, Jackson knows he must do something.  As such, he winds up with the Mnemosynes again, and before they agree to help him, he must do some things for him, which includes going back in time to the 1940s to determine if the whispers about a second World War and the atrocities committed by the German people are true stories or just fairy tales created by someone's imagination.

 

This time around, there is no real characterization at all (except for the addition of Suzanne Brelmer's mother, who has apparently become addicted to pain drugs in order to relief the horrific pain she endures on a daily basis - a pain that neither her daughter, nor her husband - a high official in the ranks of the Time Police, who also happens to be Suzanne's superior!).  The story just jumps from one point in time to another, with only a flimsy plot thread holding them all together - Jackson's search for some clue about what happened to his sister-in-law, all while trying to evade the soldiers from the Time Police who want to capture him, or even worse:  kill him.  I will say, though, I do like that we get more of the costumer from the Time Police in this one - an unusual ally of Jackson and Suzanne. Paress Linnet is probably the shining star of this book, for me anyway, and I would absolutely love to have seen more of her.  Sadly, she is only used as a plot device, to whisk Jackson to safety when he is nearly captured by the Time Police, and later, providing Jackson and Suzanne with the necessary clothing and money for them to use when they travel back in time.

 

The time loop connected to Wheeling, West Virginia and a certain junk yard owned by two stereotypical redneck hillbillies rears its ugly ahead again in this book, not just once, but twice.  Poor Jackson finds himself thrown into that same location he was thrown into in the last book, only this time, instead of facing down the two rednecks at gunpoint, he inadvertently winds up in the back of their pick up truck and takes an unexpected trip to a local watering hole, where he faces a Time Police officer in the bathroom and steals a car in order to find his way back to the junk yard so he can charge up his machine and get the heck out of dodge!  These side trips feel unnecessary and more like padding to lengthen the story out - there is no real point to them at all.

 

Jackson's trip to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and Suzanne's trip to Woodstock in the hopes of finding drugs that can help her mother cope with the pain she is living with could have been built up much more than what they were - neither trip seems to have any lasting impact on the characters (other than introducing another time traveler who throws a wrench into Jackson and Suzanne's "will they or won't they?" relationship).  Again, some missed chances here to really flesh out the characters and let the readers see how these trips are impacting their lives.  Instead, they just jump from one time to another, with no time for reflection or even a chance to breathe.

 

This book ends on a cliffhanger, leaving poor Jackson stranded in the past with no time machine to take him home or anywhere else.  A third book was published, so I'm assuming Norwood figured out some way to rescue his character from being stranded (which, coincidentally enough, is the title to the third book); but, I will never know, as I have no intention of picking up the third book.  A fourth book was solicited, but it was never actually published, from what I could find. This series, for me, is lacking in any clear direction, and seems like nothing more than an opportunity for the author to throw his characters around in time in the hopes the readers will love all the back and forth.  The cover, once again with art provided by the Youll brothers, is less appealing than the first book.  The scene is something that does not even appear in the book, and the visual for the time machine is not at all what is described in the story.  Whether that is the publisher's fault for not providing the artist with clear parameters, or if it was simply the artist painting his own artistic vision for what he (they?) thought the future should look like - who knows...

 

This book was published in January 1989, just two months after the first one.  I would not recommend these books, even to those who like time-travel or general sci-fi adventure stories, unless you like stories that are overly convoluted, repetitious, and lacking in any in-depth characterization - in that case, these books are for you.

 

RATING:  5 Roman daggers of timeless design out of 10 for at least attempting to write a tale of time paradoxes and the dangers of messing with time. 

Lucifer Cove, Book 3 - The Devil's Virgin (Virginia Coffman's Thrilling Occult Gothic Series)

"Diane Deeth visited the Cove in innocence ... and was trapped in eternal evil." (cover blurb)

 

The occult Gothic series authored by Virginia Coffman continues in this third installment of the series.  The book was originally published in 1971, with this second edition printed in 1973.  I can't help but repeat how much I love these stylized covers, with the unique logo and the consistent cover art, each depicting a young woman standing in front of the tudor-style spa building. The occult aspects are definitely there in this book, but thankfully they are toned back a bit from the previous story.  Instead, we are treated to more of the continuing saga of the Deeth family - and although Christine Deeth, the protagonist from the first book, is not the continuing main character in the series, she does appear in each book (thus far), and her presence definitely has an impact on the characters involved in the stories.

 

The Devil's Virgin brings Christine Deeth's first born - her daughter, Diane - to Lucifer Cove. Diane is definitely a child of the '70s - a rebel, whose mindset is that the system must be bucked, and the new up-and-coming generation of young adults are the ones to do it.  That being said, she comes to the Cove to see her mother, concerned that her mother has not left and wondering if she really is happy there.  But what she finds is nothing at all what she expects!  It begins on a dark night, as she waits for a bus to take her to the Cove.  A mysterious stranger is watching her, and when she boards the bus, he boards right behind her.  The bus does not stop at the Cove itself, but it does have a stop on the lonely canyon road, not far from the hidden lane that leads to the Cove.  When she gets off, so does the stranger. She lets him head off first, and she is shocked to discover he is heading in the same direction she is.  Luckily, a gorgeously handsome man with dark hair and dark eyes pulls up in his fancy car and offers her a ride.  Once again, Marc Meridon is in the right place at the right time to save a damsel in distress...

 

Coffman gives readers a deeper feel for Lucifer Cove in this book, as Diane makes the keen observation that the Cove is set up to tempt even the most innocent of souls, as everything in sight is a temptation - from the gold plated silverware to the aphrodisiac being pumped in through the air vents.  While Diane is by no means the "innocent" girl that the cover says she is, she does manage to keep herself from giving into the temptations that surround her.  And the mysterious stranger, who turns out to be Bill Janocek, the brother of Nadine (you remember her, don't you?  the devil priestess who presides over the satanic rituals that take place in the Greek cathedral just up the side of the mountain that borders Lucifer Cove...), seems pretty much immune to any of the temptations.  In fact, he has an ulterior motive for coming to Lucifer Cove, other than just to see his sister, and that focus is what helps him see people and things for what they truly are.  That ulterior motive, of course, is something that does not sit well at all with Marc Meridon.

 

And speaking of Marc (should we call him by his real name yet?  Coffman hasn't revealed it at this point, but let's face it - by now, every reader knows exactly who he is!), Diane become instantly infatuated with the man, and she cannot figure out why her mother tries so hard to keep her from associating with the man.  As Diane develops a friendship with Bill Janocek and learns his true purpose for being there (after he rescues her from almost becoming the next victim of a group of murderers who are staying at the Cove to avoid going to jail), she finds herself becoming more and more curious about what is really going on at the Cove.  If her mother is so unhappy, as she seems to by, why does she stay?  Why does the Cove allow known murderers to stay at the spa, instead of turning them over to the police?  Do people really believe in the satanic nonsense spouted by Bill's sister?  And what is up with that annoying cat that seems to pop up at the most inopportune times - Kinkajou?  

 

It all comes to a head when Nadine is injured (conveniently after Diane tells Marc that Nadine was plotting with Christine to keep Diane and Marc apart!) and Diane agrees to take over as "priestess" for that night's ceremony, so that Bill can fulfill his purpose in coming to Lucifer Cove and Diane can see some real justice done.  But their secret plot is revealed, and Diane ends up in very real danger as a killer takes her off, ready to end her life for nearly betraying him and his friends!  (An interesting side note here - as Diane and Bill are finalizing their plans, a woman named only as "Miss Benedict" arrives with her suitcases to check in to the spa; it is only a very brief mention, where she has a short encounter with Nadine's Irish boyfriend, O'Flannery [p. 203] - but it is clearly a set up for the next book, where Miss Benedict is the main character.) 

 

Once again, this book was published in three different editions, each with their own cover art.  My copy of the book, with the light blue sky and the blond woman glancing back over her shoulder at the tudor-style spa that is the centerpiece of Lucifer Cove. The artist for this edition is not identified (as with the first and second books in this format), and once again, the main character is incorrectly portrayed.  In the book, Diane is described as having dark hair, yet the cover shows Diane with flowing blonde hair.  Not sure if all the covers were painted at the same time, and the publisher simply did not bother to properly match them with the books, or if the artist was not given any details about the actual characters in the book to know how to properly represent them on the cover.  The art is gorgeous, there is no denying that; I just wish they had gotten the details right!  The cover art for the Pinnacle Books edition (shown above) correctly shows Diane with her dark hair - just not sure if the man behind her is supposed to represent Marc Maridon or Bill Janocek.  Either way, this cover is a slight bit creepier, with the midnight black sky and the spa further back in the scene.

 

The third edition of the book, published by Lancer, is somewhat similar to the later Lancer "Easy Eye" edition that I have.  The light blue sky, the blond haired beauty (rather than dark-haired), and the tudor-style building; however, in this instance, the spa is depicted as desolate and somewhat dilapidated, with a thin fog rolling in front of it.  And the ghostly image of Marc Meridon looking down over the spa building seems to intimate the control he has over his "domain" at Lucifer Cove, that he is always watching, and you cannot escape him.  I would be hesitant to say which of the three book covers offers the most "Gothic" version - the edition I own is obviously my favorite, but the Pinnacle Books cover is definitely darker, even if Diane does not really seem frightened at all.  This original Lancer edition comes across too stilted to me, although this rendition of Marc is probably the most powerful and frightening to date.

 

It is definitely clear with this book that the Lucifer Cove saga is the ongoing story of Marc Meridon and Christine Deeth - all of the other women who take center stage in the books that have come after that first story are mere supporting characters that give the reader a greater insight into Lucifer Cove itself and more hints at just who Marc Meridon is ... although I am still waiting to find out what his endgame with Christine Deeth really is.  I hope Coffman resolves that by the end of the sixth book and does not leave the reader hanging!  These books are not strong in the Gothic elements, but definitely fall more into the occult category.  It was the 1970s, though, so every publisher wanted to cash in on the Gothic craze, and thus, Lucifer Cove became Virginia Coffman's "Thrilling Occult Gothic Series" (at least they had the decency to put occult before Gothic!).

 

RATING:  8 miniature spy cameras out of 10 for proving that some people are above even the strongest of temptations - no matter how enticing and beautiful that temptation may be! 

Jennings Follows a Clue - Second in the series of Jennings Books

This is one of those books I had a friend pick up on a lark, and it turned out to be surprising in a number of ways.  The title sounded like a fun read, and since the publisher was Collins, I knew it was a British book.  However, I was completely unaware that this was actually the second book in an on-going series of tales about a precious young boy named J.C.T. (John Christopher Timothy) Jennings and his best friend, C.E.J. (Charles Edwin Jeremy) Darbishire, who are students at the Linbury Court preparatory school.  The series is authored by Anthony Buckeridge (1912-2004), a British author who is best known for this series, as well as another about another schoolboy named Rex Milligan.  The Jenning series lasted for a total of 24 books, with the first book (Jennings Goes to School) being published in 1950, and the final book (That's Jennings) being published 44 years later in 1994.

 

As I began reading Jennings Follows a Clue, I began to wonder if this be a book a simply read and passed on, as it was not overly exciting.  It begins as simply another book about boys at a prep school and their misadventures as they look for ways to have fun and try desperately to avoid any kind of school work whatsoever.  Jennings and his cohort, Darbishire, are some extremely imaginative children, whether it be playing cops and robbers, spies and thieves, cowboys and Indians, or any other made up adventure.  When Jennings gets a little too rambunctious as a gyro-copter and knocks into Mr. Carter, the teach takes it upon himself to introduce Jennings and a couple of other students to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, reading aloud tales of the great detective.  Little does he know that the reading of this book inspires young Jennings to open up his own detective agency at the school, enlisting Darbishire as his very own "Watson."  Now, if they could only find a real mystery to solve...

 

 While the book has a slow start to it, the reader quickly begins to realize the story is more than just a tale of boys' life at a prep school - it is almost an Airplane! or Naked Gun or Scary Movie version of boys' life.  The number of crazy circumstances, the number of bumbling comedy of errors, and the number of Abbott-and-Costello-like dialogue exchanges will more than make you smile, and pretty often make you giggle and laugh out loud.  Jennings and Darbishire are right there at the middle of everything, and despite all of their best intentions, their over-active imaginations lead them into one big mess after another.  The Headmaster, Mr. Carter, and Mr. Wilkins all attempt to reign the boy in, but with Jennings, there is simply no controlling the boy!  He is determined to be a detective, and with Darbishire at his side, the Linbury Court Detective Agency (or Ln. Ct. Det. Ag., for short) is going to solve every mystery the school has to offer - and as luck would have it, one does fall right into their laps, even if no one believes them.

 

The boys make their share of mistakes trying to find a mystery, but when they spot the shadow of a man in the infirmary late at night, when no one is supposed to be there, they believe they are on to something.  They keep their suspicions under wraps, Jennings determined to get real evidence of a thief before they present it to the Headmaster; and with the big Sports Day games coming up, the Ln. Ct. Det. Ag. have very little free time to devote to their detecting.  One fateful night, they chance to see the intruder again, so they sneak over to the infirmary to catch the man in the act - only, the tables get turned, and they are the ones caught instead - locked inside a room while the thief gets away!  At first, the Headmaster does not believe their story, until they return to the school and find that someone has stolen all of the boys' Sports Day trophies from the library!  The game is now afoot, and unwittingly (or, perhaps we should say, dimwittedly!), Jennings and Darbishire follow up on their one clue - a button torn from the thief's shirt - to track down and ultimately unmask the crook.  (And if you pay attention while reading the book, you'll be able to spot the thief fairly easily - but blink, and you might miss it!)

 

Now, there are some things worth mentioning about the story, particularly the time of year.  On the very first page of the first chapter, the author describes "the grumbling February sky" (p. 9), yet, just before that, indicates that this takes place "[d]uring the first half of the Easter term" (p. 9).  This seems rather odd, since Easter normally takes place between March 22 and April 25, and it never falls in February.  So, perhaps the reference to "Easter term" is actually just another way of describing the "Spring term" for the school?  Next, the author makes a passing reference to "Dick Barton" (p. 50), when Jennings suggests to Darbishire that they will hail the next car and ask the driver to follow the one they are chasing, because "[t]hat's what 'Dick Baron' does anyway, and it always works" (p. 50).  I looked it up, and it seems Dick Barton was a radio-serial about a special agent that used to be broadcast on the BBC between 1946 and 1951 - and since this book was first published in 1951, it would have been right around the time that serial was coming to an end (but clearly, young boys like Jennings and Darbishire would still have listened to the stories and be familiar with the character).

 

In addition, readers get a brief lesson in Latin, when the boys are in class, using the pronouns hic, haec, hoc as sound effects for their imaginary plane battle - which comes to an abrupt end when the teacher enters the room, albeit Jennings misses the queue and keeps his "gun" firing:  "Hic-haec-hoc ... hic-haec-hoc ... hic-haec-hoc ... B-A-N-G!" (p. 181).   They jokingly utilize  the feminine ablative, accusative singular, genitive plural, and other variations of the words in their battle, naming their conjugations as they bleat them out in their fantasy battle.  I found this to be an ingenuious way of the author to insert a bit of actual learning into the story.

 

I am not sure who did the cover art  for this edition, but it is a beautiful, wrap-around scene that depicts the opening sequence, when Jennings and Darbishire are attempting to play a quiet game of chess while all the other boys in their grade (or "form," as it is referred to in the book) are wildly engaged in noisy activities, one of which sends a boxing glove right into the chessboard, knocking over all of our main characters' pieces.

 

While I ultimately enjoyed the story, and found a number of conversations to be very much along the lines of the 1980s and 1990s parody films, I am unlikely to search out any other books in the series.  A quick glance at the list of books on the back inside flap of the dust jacket reveals that this book appears to be the only one with any sort of mystery to it. All of the other books appear to be simply tales of Jennings' life at the boarding school and the various misadventures he and Darbishire find themselves in time and time again.  These are not my typical reading material, and so this is just a one-off that will find itself on my shelf of British children's books, never to have any of the other books in its series around it.

 

RATING:  7 Grossman Cine Camera de Luxes out of 10 for a slapstick style misadventure filled with plenty of misunderstandings, crack comments, and a touch of mystery. 

 

Journey to Jupiter - the Third Dig Allen Space Explorer Adventure

First, author Joseph Greene took readers to the moon and the asteroid belt.  Then he sent his characters to Mars and on to Mercury.  Now, in this third book of the Dig Allen Space Explorer Adventure series, Greene reaches even further, sending Dig Allen, along with his fellow Space Explorers Jim and Ken Barry, to the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter.  Looking ahead at the rest of the books in this series, it seems that with this book, Greene began his romp across the planets in this galaxy, as Dig goes from Jupiter to Venus to Saturn, and finally, in the last book, to Uranus.  Poor Neptune and Pluto never get visited (making one wonder if they would have been the point of interest, had the series had a seventh and eighth book - which leads one to further question, where would Greene have gone after he used up all the planets in our solar system?!).

 

Journey to Jupiter sends our three young Space Explorers on a mission to investigate the numerous "accidents" that seem to be occurring on one of the moons of Jupiter, where a new colony is being formed.  Engineers and scientists have been working to create a viable, breathable atmosphere on the moon, but it seems one incident after another has delayed the project.  Before Dig and his friends are able to head out, a mysterious spaceship rams into their own, creating a major breach in the hull that nearly costs the boys their lives!  From that moment on, it seems like there is one catastrophe after another.  On their way to Jupiter's moon, they have to rescue a transport ship that was sabotaged and left stranded in the dangerous asteroid belt.  Once they arrive at their destination, there are multiple acts of sabotage, fights among the workers, destruction of food supplies, and despite Dig, Jim, and Ken's best efforts, they mission seems to be a complete failure.

 

Greene writes a tale of intrigue and betrayal, with characters who are not always what they appear to be.  The boys end up with some unlikely allies and are surprised when one particular man they thought they could trust turns out to be the one behind all of the sabotage - all so he can get his hands on the plethora of diamonds that are buried beneath one of the mountains near the human settlement.  Greene raises the stakes, as the traitor and his men are set to leave the moon behind with their treasure in hand, willing to strand the scientists, workers, and colonists behind to die!  A last ditch attempt by Dig and his friends is the only thing that stands between the people and certain doom.  It is quite a suspense-filled ending to the story, but, as can be expected (especially since there are three more books after this one!), Dig, Jim, and Ken manage to save the day.

 

The moon Greene chooses for his Earthlings to try and terraform and colonize is Ganymede, which, in the real world, is the largest of Jupiter's moons.   It is said that Ganymede was discovered back in 1610 by two astronomers - one German, the other Italian.  It was first approached by Pioneer 10 in 1973, and again by Pioneer 11 in 1974.  These fly-bys would have been more than decade after this book was published, which would explain why Greene described the planet as having mountains and an "earthy" ground.  Later exploration has revealed the moon, which is larger in size than the planet Mercury, has a surface composed primarily of water/ice; while it does appear to have mountains, valleys, and craters, the mixture of rock and ice on the surface acts as a frozen crust overlaying what astronomers believe to be a deep internal ocean.  Thus, Greene's descriptions of the moon, and the colonists attempt to terraform it are pure science fiction.

 

I did find Greene's machine to create an atmosphere for Ganymede to be fairly ingenious - the nuclatomizer (p. 37).  As the twins' father explains, "It takes any matter - any material like stone, earth, sand - and breaks it apart.  First into molecules, then into atoms, then into electrons and protons and neutrons.  And finally it breaks up even the electrons into bits of free energy" (p. 37).  He goes on to say that "Tremendous heat and energy is released as the particles of free energy boil in a sort of thick, unclear soup ... " (p. 38).  The machine, using magnetic currents, alters the tiny bits of energy to "form into the element we want" (p. 38).  Yes, it is certainly imaginary in nature (at least so far - who knows what the future holds?!), but at the time the book was published, it would not have been any more outlandish than a lot of those science fiction movies and televisions shows that flooded the movie screens and television sets in the '50s and '60s.

 

There was a glaring error in the book, which I'm surprised the editors never caught before publication.  On the top of each right hand page of the book is the title of each chapter (seen only on the pages of that particular chapter).  Chapter 9 is titled "Valley of Hope," while Chapter 10 is titled "The Fire."  All of the right hands pages of Chapter 9 rightfully show "Valley of Hope" - however, of the three right-hand page of Chapter 10, the first two still show "Valley of Hope," while it is only the third and final right hand page of Chapter 10 that shows the correct chapter title, "The Fire."  A minor snafu that certainly does not affect the reading of the story in any way, but it was just something I could not help but notice. 

 

With this third book, we get a third artist for the series - Walter Dey. He provides a gorgeously painted cover for this third book - the image above comes from the John Hunz Art Collection (Walter Day - Dig Allen 3), and as you can see, the original is much more vibrant in color than what was actually reproduced for the published book cover.  Dey also provided the interior illustrations, which are considerably fewer than the first two books.  There are no small illustrations at the top of the first page of each chapter, as there were in books one and two, and the six internals had four printed in blue, while two of them are printed in black.  I can only guess that Golden Press dropped the small illustrations at the start of each chapter as a cost-saving measure.  I could not find any real information about the artist, Dey - to be honest, the only things I could find about the man is that he provided the cover art for Trappers of Venus, another book in this series, as well as the art for a Brains Benton mystery, The Case of the Stolen Dummy.  All three books are copyright 1961, which gives rise to the supposition that Dey was either an in-house artist for Dey that particular year, or he was hired through an agency or as an independent contractor for simply the one year to provide art for several books published by Golden Press.

 

The back cover to this book offers yet a third variation, completely different than the backs of the first two books.  While the first book featured merely a listing of various series, and the second book featured the covers of the first books in a number of Golden Press series, this third book offers up a brief synopsis of the story on the top half, while the bottom half, in different colored blocks, provides books in three different series (Kathy Martin, Brains Benton, and Dig Allen), while the fourth block simply mentions other titles (such as Trixie Belden, Wells Fargo, Rin Tin Tin, Fury, and Lassie).  Since the Dig Allen block only lists to this particular book - Journey to Jupiter - one can speculate that this is a first, or at the very least an early, printing of the book.   (I love seeing the price referenced on here:  "Each Volume, $1.00" - hard to imagine today that these hardcover books, at nearly 200 pages, only cost $1.00!)

 

The story was fairly thrilling, with the intrigue and the danger increasing with each chapter.  Greene's stories seem to get better with each book, and it definitely gives me high hopes for the remaining three books in the series!

 

RATING:  8 squirting plastubes of chocomilk out of 10 for an exciting tale of space exploration, adventure, and danger to keep the reader turning page after page to reach the thrilling conclusion of the story!