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!

Short Lived Comics Series #36 -The Young Lawyers (Dell Comics)

This 2-issue comic book series is something I chanced upon some time ago at a local convention.  I happened across the second issue for a relatively cheap price (the comic was not in perfect condition, mind you), and I could not pass it up.  As a paralegal myself, having worked for lawyers for some time, I am always drawn to comic books set in the legal realm.  With the photo cover, the identification of the actors on the cover, and the copyright to Paramount Pictures Corporation and Crane Productions, Inc. down in the bottom right corner, I assumed it was based on a television show - and I was right!  So, after some time, I finally found the first issue at a comic shop.  With both issues now in hand, I sat down to read them, and was pleasantly surprised to find out how much I really liked the stories.  With that in mind, I had to go back and see what I could find out about the old TV show...

 

The Young Lawyers was issued in late 1970, early 1971 with cover dates of January 1971 (issue 1) and April 1971 (issue 2).  It was based upon a vintage television show that ran on ABC from September 21, 1970 to March 24, 1971, for a total of twenty-four episodes.  The comic, like the television show, centers on a legal aid center in Boston, called the "Neighborhood Law Office" (or NLO for short), established to help those in need who cannot afford legal help.  The three central characters are David Barrett (as portrayed by Lee J. Cobb), an established lawyer who gives guidance to young law school students who gain experience by representing real cases while they are going to school; Aaron Silverman (as portrayed by Zalman King),  a zealous student with lofty ideas of helping all of the underprivileged and always rooting for the underdog; and Pat Walters (as portrayed by Judy Pace), an African-American woman studying law in an effort to break stereotypes and do some good in the world.

 

As with pretty much all of the Dell Comics published at the time, there are no credits given for writers, artists, colorists, letterers, editors, or anyone else associated with the comic series; however, the Grand Comicbook Database website (The Young Lawyers) indicates Jose Delbo, who is probably most recognized for his work on DC Comics' Wonder Woman title for quite a long run in the 1970s and early '80s, as well as Thundercats and Transformers for Marvel Comics.  The art does strongly resemble Delbo's work, and it is clear the same artist did both stories in both issues, because the characters appearances are consistent throughout.  I would love to know who the writer was, though, because the stories are very much in sync with the stories from the television show - very topical and very much in line with the "buck the system" thinking of the time.

 

The two stories in the first issue are "Team Spirit" and "Kids are People."  The first story is about a young football player (whose name happens to be Jimmy Carter - who was not our President until seven years after this comic came out!) who is injured during a game and may be paralyzed.  The boy who tackled him is being accused of purposefully injuring him the previous day so that he can get the spotlight with the talent scouts who are at the game.  Aaron goes to bat for the accused boy, and with Pat's help (since the injured boy happens to be African-American), they are able to broker peace between the boys and get them both back on the field.  The second story involves a young boy named Angel Rivera who is accused of stealing a typewriter by a store owner.  The boy's reputation is being ruined, and his chance at getting into a prestigious school is lost because of the rumors.  Barrett, Aaron, and Pat all learn a lesson in this story, as they are not so quick to believe the boy's story, and when the truth does come out, it is the three lawyers who are eating crow!

 

The second issue features two more stories:  "Under the Skin" and "Explosive Justice."  In the first tale, a biker is unjustly and unfairly treated by everyone, no matter where he goes, and he comes to the NLO with the hopes of suing "the People of the United States" for denying him his rights under the Ninth Amendment.  Aaron goes for a bike ride with the man who calls himself Captain Freedom, and he sees first hand the way he is treated, merely because of his appearance - long hair, sunglasses, biker clothes.  Even the police are seen to hassle the man.  Aaron believes there is some cause for a lawsuit, but before it can be filed, Captain Freedom takes off, thanking the NLO, and Aaron specifically, for proving there were still good people in the world.  In the second tale, the NLO is the victim of a vicious bomb attack (thankfully at night, when no one was there), and our three main characters must sift through the firm's history to determine which client may want to seek vengeance.  Aaron is attacked one night when he goes back to the office, and the next day, a file is missing - the file of a former client who the NLO defended for allegedly bombing a government office!  As it turns out, that was a red herring, and the real culprit is someone much closer to home!

 

After reading these two issues, I was curious about the television show, so I did some searching and found some episodes available on YouTube.  The original pilot movie aired in October 1969, a year before the actual series began, and it featured Jason Evers as Michael Cannon, a corporate lawyer who leaves his firm to become the director at the NLO.  Zalman King plays Aaron, but Judy Pace's character is named Anne, and there is an additional law student, David Harrison (played by Tom Holland - no, not THAT Tom Holland).  The set up for the show is pretty much the same, but the story definitely gives ample time to both the legal story and the individual characters' characterization.  By the end of that pilot film, you actually have a feel for all four of the main characters.  In the first episode of the ongoing show, which aired in September 1970, Evers and Holland are gone, and Lee J. Cobb is in as new director, David Barrett.  There is absolutely no explanation for the change in characters, no reference at all to Cannon or Harrison.  Comparing the two, I honestly liked the initial pilot film far better than I did the first episode of the ongoing series.  The show is available on DVD on Amazon, so I'm going to buy that and watch the remaining 23 episodes to see if the characterization gets better as the series progresses (I know at some point a fourth main character is added to the series - Chris Blake, as portrayed by Philip Clark.

 

The comic series only features the main three characters from the regular series - Barrett, Aaron, and Pat.  However, in the second story of the first issue, someone got confused, because Barrett refers to Pat as "Anne," which was the character's name in the original pilot film.  They only use that name once, and, in fact, they never call the character by her name again in the entire story.  By the second issue, both stories refer to her as "Pat," her given name in the television series.  Otherwise, I thought both issues were pretty much flawless, capturing the feel and the look of the TV show, and providing some interesting, thought-provoking stories that today may seem dated, but back in the early 1970s would have been considered quite progressive. 

 

Definitely a series worth reading, and it's a shame it only lasted two issues.

 

RATING:  10 tell-tale band-aids on the chin out of 10 for well-written, beautifully drawn comic stories based on a little-known show that is definitely worth a second glance! 

The Fortune Hunters - A Bantam Gothic Novel

This is a couple of "firsts" for me when it comes to reading Gothic novels.  It is my first Bantam Gothic Novel that I've read, and it is also the first Gothic I've read by author Joan Aiken (1904 - 2004).  Unlike many Gothic authors, Aiken is actually the author's real name.  An English author, Aiken wrote more than 100 books in a variety of genres, although many were children's books and Gothic thrillers.  According to Elsa Radcliffe's annotated bibliography of Gothic novels, Aiken enjoyed writing, and that she admitted "[t]hinking back over my children's books and my adult thrillers ... I honestly can't recall difference in the writing process ..." (cited from Contemporary Authors, Vol. 9-10, p. 14).  In that aspect, I have to wonder if that is why I have grown to love these Gothic novels so much - to a certain degree, they follow a number of the same patterns as children's mysteries (well, the mysteries of yester-year, at least...).

 

The Fortune Hunters was originally published by Doubleday in 1965, and this Bantam Gothic Novel edition was published a year later in 1966. Set in a small fictional town of Crowbridge, along the coast of England, the story centers around young Annette Sheldon, the editor of the Eyewitness magazine who has purchased a small bungalow in the tiny village, so that she can get away from it all and recover from a debilitating illness that has left her completely drained.  Not to mention, the time away will give her time to come to terms with her father's death, as well as her recent windfall of winning 500,000 pounds (which would equate to over 12,000,000 pounds in today's value!).  While she comes to Crowbridge with high hopes, her ideal getaway turns into a nightmare of unseen terrors, as the front cover blurb cries out!

 

The story is a bit convoluted in the beginning, with a lot of disjointed information being throw at the reader without much explanation (but, give it time, as Aiken eventually gets around to explaining everything by the end).  One of the big questions is this windfall that Annette "wins."  At first, I thought it might be the inheritance from her deceased father, but she keeps referring to "winning" the money - and eventually, it is revealed that is is from a football pool (p. 51).  I have to say, that's quite a huge sum of money to win from a simple football pool, but who's to say how big they get over in England?  Another unexplained happening involves Annette suddenly forgetting things that have just happened.  The book opens with Annette driving to Crowbridge during a dark and rainy night, when she picks up an elderly woman with her wheelchair bound ward - and unexpectedly, the bundled up ward reaches out and begins to choke Annette!  After dropping them off, when she reaches her cottage, she has no memory of the woman or being choked!  A few more instances of sudden amnesia occur throughout the story before it is finally revealed that she has been suffering these blackouts since her illness.  (As one might expect, poor Annette has a blackout near the end of the book, which makes her, and I'm supposing the reader is expected to as well, believe that she has killed someone during the time she cannot remember!)

 

Aiken introduces a number of quirky characters.  Joanna is the self-absorbed false friend who is the editor of a sister magazine, and who has taken over duties of editing Annette's magazine while she is recuperating.  It is pretty clear from the beginning that she is not looking out for her friend's best interests.  Philip is Annette's ex-fiance, who turns out to now be engaged to Joanna for reasons Annette cannot fathom.  Crispin James is the famous artist who has only recently moved back to Crowbridge, and who happens to be Joanna's cousin - giving Annette (a budding artist herself) the opportunity to meet the man.  Noel Hanaker is the archaeologist from New Zealand who is excavating some old ruins in the area, and who is also vying with Crispin for Annette's attention.  Mrs. Kundry is the elderly next door neighbor who is a bit of a recluse, who knew the previous owner of Annette's home (the previous owner being Joanna's deceased aunt) and seems very nervous and withdrawn most of the time.  Mrs. Fairhall is the housekeeper that came with Annette's new home, and she seems overly fussy about making sure Annette gets her complete and necessary rest so that her health with improve.  With so many differing characters, it is hard at the beginning to see where the story is going to go.

 

Eventually, the Gothic elements start to creep in, as we get more dark storms, shadowy figures in Annette's back yard garden, a collapsing chunk of a castle wall, a misty bog that holds unseen dangers, and a sinister plot to steal Annette's fortune - a plot that leads to multiple deaths and a house set on fire with Annette still inside!  The further one gets into the story, the more the pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, and the reader is left to wonder how Annette herself cannot see what is going on about her. 

 

The cover art (which I was beginning to wonder if the scene even existed within the story!) actually does appear eventually, when Noel takes Annette to visit the ruins of Poyns Castle (pp. 51-53) and a thick mist settles over the grounds, leaving it difficult for them to see anything.  When the pup Noel gave Annette disappears, the two separate to search for him.  As with many Gothic covers, there is no signature to identify the artist, and no credit given within the book.  I do love the cover art, even though you can't see Annette's face at all, as she is looking back at the opened door to the castle.  We do not get the typical "light in the upper floor window," but instead, a crumbling castle that seems so lonely and desolate in the green mist, with that front door half-opened, as if beckoning you to come in to whatever horrors wait inside!

 

One thing I thought rather humorous was Noel and Annette's discussion of a "violent pink comic called 'Spiffer' which, it seemed, had circulated in New Zealand too" (p. 61).  The two reminisce about characters they read about, such as Plato and Tato, the Galloping Greeks; Whizzbank Wilkins, the Wacky Wizard; boys who drove a tracker down Mount Vesuvius; and the prehistoric animals that appeared in so many of the stories.  Britian used to boast a number of weekly or monthly magazines aimed at boys and girls (such as The Boys' Owne Paper, Schoolgirl, Hotspur, Girls' Friend, and numerous others) - but I found no reference to a real comic called "Spiffer" - which is a shame, as I would love to have found some with stories about that crazy named characters Aiken has them reference in this discussion.

 

While the book gets off to a rather peculiar and awkward start, it does build momentum, and as it raced to the conclusion, I admit I got caught up in what was going to happen and could not put it down until I finished the story!  Thus, I would have to say it was worth the read.

 

RATING:  8 bodies found in a pear tree out of 10 for stretching the Gothic tropes beyond dark, foreboding mansions and giving our heroine dangers to face from pretty much all directions! 

Agatha, Girl of Mystery #5 - The Eiffel Tower Incident

Well, I didn't wait quite as long between reading the installments of Agatha, Girl of Mystery this time (last time, there was a year gap between books!).  This time, I managed to only let five months pass before picking up the next book in the series.  I cannot say enough just how much FUN this series is!  Yes, it is aimed at young readers, and yes, each book is relatively short (only 120 or so pages, with large font and plenty of illustrations); but the stories and characters are unique and whimsical, and the mysteries are so wonderfully plotted, with clues to their solution placed right there for the reader to pick up on, you can't help but enjoy yourself reading them!  I am thankful that Grosset & Dunlap picked up the series and translated it from its original Italian into the English language for us to read.

 

The Eiffel Tower Incident takes Agatha and her crime-solving cohorts into new territory - solving a murder! Agatha and her cousin, Dash, are off to Paris to visit with Dash's older brother, Gaston, who is a painter - and, of course, Chandler (the butler) and Watson (the cat) are along for the ride.  Dash gets delayed, though, due to one of his detective classes, and he inadvertently causes a severe injury to his teacher who is headed to Paris as well to solve the mystery of a murdered Russian diplomat - so with no other choice, he sends Dash in his place.  Poor Dash doesn't know what to do, so he immediately seeks Agatha's help, and she is more the ready to step in and save the day.

 

Author Sir Steve Stevenson does create  rather crafty little mystery here.  Boris Renko, a 60-year old Russian diplomat was having dinner at the famous Jules Verne restaurant, located more than 400 feet above the ground on the second level of the Eiffel Tower (which, as it turns out, is an actual restaurant located exactly where the book says), when he suddenly choked and fell to the floor in a faint.  By the time he reached the hospital, he was pronounced dead.  The police discovered traces of poison in his wine and arrested the sommelier (otherwise known as a wine steward) who had been serving him.  But Agatha finds this too convenient and sets about solving the crime and uncovering the identity of the real killer.  But the only clue she has is the phrase, "red rose," which were the dying man's last words.  This leads them to three possible suspects.

 

Gerard Clouseau is a boxer with a red rose tattooed on his neck.  He had a sour confrontation with the diplomat in the elevator riding up to the restaurant the night of the murder.  John Radcliffe was a brilliant New York attorney having dinner with his girlfriend that night; but when he proposed, she left in tears, leaving behind the engagement ring and the red rose he had given her.  Madame Roxanne Pigafette is a  food critic whose brother owns a restaurant in competition with Le Jules Verne.  Any one of the three had a motive, yet, Agatha has to figure out which of them had the means and opportunity.  As it turns out, the real killer set up an entire faux scenario, and as revealed through the interviews with the suspects, stumbled out of the restaurant just before the diplomat was poisoned - knocking into some patrons, as well as a waiter, and stopping for a moment at the bar where the wine glasses were waiting for the steward to deliver.  With the means and opportunity cleared up, Agatha, Dash, Chandler, and Watson (that cat goes everywhere!) had across the street from the Russian embassy in Paris to confront the killer!

 

Readers are treated to an exciting roof-top chase, as well as an unexpected rescue from the most unlikely source.  And, once again, the case is wrapped up nicely, the criminal is brought to justice, and Dash is pulled out of the frying pan and not kicked out of school - all thinks to the quick-thinking and analytical skills of Agatha, Girl of Mystery! 

 

Artist Stefano Turconi provides plenty of illustrations throughout the book, and his stylized art provides readers with a fun romp through the streets of Paris and the Eiffel Tower at twilight (with a gorgeous two-page spread in the middle of the book).  Turconi captures the character descriptions provided by Stevenson so nicely, and while they are a bit cartoony in nature, it fits the feel of the book. I would so love to see this done as an animated series, with Turconi's art as the basis and style for the animation!

 

From Egypt to Bengal, from Scotland to Niagara Falls ... Agatha Mistery travels the world to solve what appear to be impossible crimes!  Sure, the stories are short, easy reads (an hour at most to read one book), but they are well worth it for the entertainment value alone!

 

RATING:  9 bottles of cockroach poison out of 10 for giving young readers a chance to enjoy a carefully crafted murder mystery that even they can solve! 

Dorothy Dixon and the Double Cousin - the fourth (and final) Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Story

With this book, we reach the final adventure in the Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Stories.  First, our young heroine had to learn how to fly (Dorothy Dixon Wins Her Wings), after which she stopped some smugglers (Dorothy Dixon and the Mystery Plane, and then she had to help find a young man find his stolen inheritance (Dorothy Dixon Solves the Conway Case).  I was curious to see what type of flying would lead Dorothy into her final mystery; what I discovered, however, is that the author (Noel Sainsbury, Jr. writing under his wife's name of Dorothy Wayne) must have run out of flying tales, as our title character never sets foot in a plane in her last adventure!  Instead, readers get a tale that is yet another twist on the whole "twins switching identities" trope in an outlandish adventure involving the United States government, spies, international thieves, and a deadly invention that could kill millions! 

 

Dorothy Dixon and the Double Cousin begins with what appears to be a simple case of mistaken identity.  While purchasing a Christmas gift for her father, Dorothy Dixon is accosted by a young man who wants to know "[h]ow in the world did you escape?" (p. 15).  Dorothy tries to ignore the man, but when he finally addresses her by the name "Janet" (p. 16), she has no choice but to set him straight.  What is rather odd is that without knowing who this man is, or ever hearing Janet's last name, Dorothy somehow knows he is referring to Janet Jordan, her first cousin (p. 17).  The author explains that Janet's and Dorothy's mothers were twins, which could account for how closely the two cousins resemble one another (p. 18), and Dorothy admits she has been mistaken for Janet before (p. 18), although this must have happened "off-screen," so to speak, since there has never been any mention of a cousin, or of the fact that Dorothy's mother had a twins sister.  In any event, this sets the stage for the latest mystery, because Dorothy learns her cousin is in serious trouble, and, of course, she is only too willing to jump in and help.

 

This final story is a departure from the previous three books.  While the first three stories involved Dorothy flying (albeit only briefly at the beginning of the third book), this book does not see Dorothy go anywhere near a plane.  Instead, she agrees to aid her cousin's fiance rescue Janet Jordan from the dilemma in which she has found herself!  Janet awakes from sleepwalking in her apartment home to find herself strategically hidden behind a screen in the room where her father is meeting with a number of business associates - unscrupulous business associates, that is!  When they discover her, she pretends to still be asleep, but the crooks do not believe her, so her father (Dorothy's uncle!) is forced to keep her locked in her room until they can determine what she knows.  Dorothy's friend, Bill Bolton, enlists the aid a Secret Service agent (Ashton Sanborn) to help them.  He immediately comes up with a plan that involves Dorothy switching places with her cousin, so she can be taken captive to the home of a professor who is creating a formula for the United States government - and who is, unwittingly, housing two foreign agents in his home who plan to steal that formula once it is complete!  It is up to Dorothy to play the innocent young Janet, who purportedly knows nothing of what is going on, while at the same time, work undercover to steal the formula before the foreign agents do!

 

This is far from your typical girls' series book mystery.  The danger is considerably greater, as Martin and Laura Lawson, the foreign agents, are murdering thieves who will not hesitate to kill anyone who keeps them from their objective (p.135)!  Dorothy is kept on her toes, especially with Mrs. Lawson, who is constantly trying to trip up "Janet" to reveal what she knows.  But Dorothy is too smart, and she eventually pits the Lawsons against one another, accusing Mr. Lawson of making overtures to her, which starts the accusations flying between the two crooks!  Meanwhile, Dorothy makes a friend in a young made named Gretchen who recognizes Dorothy as the aviatrix who she once met and got an autograph (forcing Dorothy to reveal herself and enlist Gretchen's aid).  She also has the help of the major domo of the house, Mr. Turnbridge, who, it turns out, is a Secret Service agent himself!  Dorothy has to use her wits to escape being revealed when Mr. Lawson captures her in the library right as she is about to get away with the formula!  It's a deadly showdown, with the cavalry (including Bill Bolton and Ashton Sanborn) arriving at just the right moment to save the day!

 

The book offers up some fodder for discussion, that's for sure.  First, the entire "twin cousins" premise makes me think of The Patty Duke Show (1963-66), which featured cousins, Patty and Cathy Lane, who were identical in appearance.  In more general terms, it reminds me of Mary and Marilyn: Double-Trouble Twins, published five years after this book came out, in which twin sisters that were separated at birth switch places to experience once another's life.  Then, there is the more easily recognized story, The Parent Trap, which also features twin sibling separated at birth who switch places.  This idea seems to be a common trope for children's stories.  Second, the book features some very high-level vocabulary, with words that even an English-major like me did not recognize - such as "equinoctial" (p. 31), which in this case, refers to strong storms, usually experienced in autumn; "demitasse" (p. 39), which refers to a small cup, typically of ceramic or porcelain, used to serve strong coffee; "legerdemain" (p. 62), which is the skillful use of one's hands, normally when performing conjuring tricks; "trousseau" (p. 65), which is a collection of clothing, linens, and personal items a bride assembles for her marriage; and "somnambulistic" (p. 174), which refers to the actions, characteristics, or state of being one who sleepwalks.  The book definitely offers some interesting new vocabulary!

 

There is one particular scene of dialogue that made me do a double-take (no pun intended) and had my laughing out loud.  When Janet's fiance is describing the trouble his bride-to-be faces, he informs Dorothy, Bill, and Ashton that she is to be moved from her apartment to the professor's house at midnight that very evening, to which the Secret Service agent replies, "It is now one-thirty.  That gives us exactly eleven and a half hours in which to get her out of their hands" (p. 29).  Now, I may not be a fan of math, but even I know that eleven and a half hours after one-thirty would be one in the morning, not midnight!  Apparently, not only could the author not count, but neither could the editor nor the publisher, since no one caught the error before the book went to print!

 

And with this, we've reached the end of the Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Series (although this book had no airplane flights or mysteries in the air!).  There is a possibility that Dorothy appeared in at least one of Bill Bolton's books, as this one has a reference to Bill Bolton and the Winged Cartwheels (p. 24), and a quick glance through the pages of that book reveals several references to "Mr. Dixon" - so, at some point, I'll have to read that one and see if our adventure-loving aviatrix appears there.  I would be curious to know if this series ended due to low sales, due to lack of interest by the publisher, or due to Sainsbury's own lack of interest in continuing the series.

 

RATING:   8 shivering fox terrier puppies out of 10 for sending Dorothy Dixon off with one wild tale of spies, deadly weapon formulas, undercover work, and cousins ... identical cousins ... two of a kind!

Dark Shadows - the 1st Paperback Library Gothic Novel based on ABC-TV's suspense drama

It has been so many years since I first read these Dark Shadows series of novels based on the television soap opera from the 1960s and '70s, that I decided it was time to go back and re-read them.  While I remember them being different from the show itself, I did not recall just how different.  The series was published by Paperback Library, with this first book being released in December 1966, nearly six months after the premier of the television show in June 1966.  The series continued for 32 books, not including the novelization of the House of Dark Shadows film, as well as the Barnabas Collins in a Funny Vein, Dark Shadows Cookbook, Book of Vampires and Werewolves and Jonathan Frid Photo Album.  The last five books in the series were published after the TV show went off the air.  While my favorite character, Victoria Winters, features heavily in the early books, when she was written out of the show, the book series followed suit (and, sadly, neither the television show, nor the book series, resolved the mystery surrounding Victoria's true parentage!).

 

Dark Shadows is the aptly titled first book in the series and provides readers with a very different version of Victoria Winters' arrival in Collinsport, Maine and her introduction to the Collins family.  The backstory remains the same - Victoria was raised in a foundling home, money was sent for years from Bangor from a mysterious, unnamed benefactor, and Victoria is offered a position at Collinwood (referred to as Collins House in the book) as governess for the young David Collins.  There is even a scene where Victoria meets Maggie Evans briefly, although in the book, Maggie is not quite as negative about the Collins family. Here, the story deviates, as Victoria takes a taxi up to Collinwood, but on the way, the taxi has a flat tire (in the show, Victoria is unable to get a taxi, because she is told the only taxi in town has a flat).  Along comes the Collins' family attorney, Will Grant, who helps get the tire fixed, and Victoria is soon brought to Collinwood, where the first person she encounters is an entirely new character, never mentioned in the television show!

 

Ernest Collins is Elizabeth and Roger's cousin (there is no definite explanation of how they are related; however, since he bears the name Collins, it can only be assumed his father and Roger and Elizabeth's father are brothers - unless the "cousin" is merely a casual reference, and they are actually more distantly related), and he surprises Victoria when he grabs her unexpectedly, only, as it turns out, to save her from stepping onto the rotting wood covering an old well.  Ernest is a concert violinist who has returned to live at the Collins' house after suffering some devastating losses - the death of his first wife, as well as the death of a young woman with whom he was becoming close in Collinsport.  Victoria has sympathy for him, but she soon learns Ernest has some dark secrets, and it's quite possible the death of the young woman was not an accident!  Is he mad, having had an emotional break after his wife died, or is there something else going on?

 

While Victoria tries to sort out her feelings for and thoughts about Ernest Collins, she must also deal with the secrets of the rest of the family.  She is warned that David is a "monster" and very difficult to handle, but she soon learns that his problem stems from his anger at being taken away from his mother.  When she broaches the issue with Roger and Elizabeth, she is told it is not her concern and to stay out of it.  As far as Roger is concerned, Victoria experiences his alcohol-induced womanizing first hand and must forcefully assert herself to him in order to avoid his advances.  With regard to Elizabeth, the woman is stern and secretive, clearly hiding something she had hidden in the basement of the great house (which,, I'm guessing, was taken from the whole mystery in the television show surrounding the disappearance of Paul Stoddard that left Elizabeth a recluse for eighteen years), and she is so quick to write off the mysterious happenings in the house, even going so far as to blame young David, even when Victoria knows the boy is innocent!  It seems Carolyn is the only "normal" person in the family, but even she has her moments, leaving Victoria to wonder.

 

The story throws in a number of nearly supernatural moments, when Victoria hears horrific scratching noises, sees moving shadows, and is frightened by a horrific mask in her room.  It all culminates in a dark, stormy night when the terrifying secret that has been haunting the house makes its presence known, and Victoria faces a life-and-death situation as everything (well, related to this story, anyhow) comes to light and a specter of the past comes back to seek revenge!  The author, W.E.D. Ross writing under the pseudonym of Marilyn Ross, does a fantastic job of building the suspense throughout the story, but as with most of his Gothic tales, the climax always happens a little too quickly, wrapping up usually in a few pages in the final chapter.  William Edward Daniel Ross (1912-1995) was known for the plethora of Gothic novels he wrote under various pseudonyms - Marilyn Ross, Clarissa Ross, Dana Ross, Leslie Ames, and others.  The Dark Shadows series was the longest series of Gothics that he wrote.

 

The book is thoroughly enjoyable in spite of (or maybe because of?) its deviation from the plotlines in the television show; yet, there are some glaring errors in the book that really stand out.  For instance, Elizabeth's daughter, Carolyn, is referred to as "Caroline" (p. 11), with even Carolyn referring to her name with that spelling (p. 34).  In addition, Victoria is told to stay away from the east wing, as it is closed off and in disrepair (p. 73); but, in the TV show, it as the west wing that was closed off and alleged to be haunted.  What I found even more surprising, however, is when Carolyn convinces Victoria to join her at The Blue Whale, Joe Haskell sits down at the table with them, placing three beers on the table - which they all drink (p. 88)!  Carolyn is only seventeen, and Victoria not much older - so Joe was basically serving alcohol to underage girls (as the drinking age in Maine at that time was 21 years old).  Some things did stay true to the show (at least, at that time), such as Elizabeth's reference to Jeremiah Collins as her great-grandfather (p. 23), which matches what she says in the second episode of the television show.  There is also a reference to Isaac Collins as being the one who founded Collinsport (p. 26), although the book indicates he arrived prior to the Mayflower, which is inaccurate - the Mayflower landed in 1620, and Isaac Collins did not arrive until 1690.

 

The book has two covers.  The first is a painted scene featuring Victoria Winters holding tight to her overcoat, with the wind blowing, while behind her is the stately house of Collinwood, the moon shining overheard.  The bare tree branches around Victoria give the scene a sense of loneliness and foreboding.  Later printings of the book featured a photo still from the television show, oddly enough showing Victoria (as portrayed by Alexendra Moltke) standing next to Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), who is not even in the book - in fact, at the time the book was first published, his character did not even exist!  Most likely, Paperback Library was simply trying to cash in on Barnabas' popularity in the later years, so covers were re-issued with his image on them to increase sales.

 

A good start to an alternate timeline for the series (and let's face it, the television show did plenty of altering its timelines - with trips to the past and the future, and even trips to parallel time!).

 

RATING:  10 bent steering rods out of 10 for offering fans of the television show some different takes on the same characters they had come to love!