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! 

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories # 140 - The Door-to-Door Deception

 "Nancy's on a crash course with crime!"  (cover blurb)

 

"A very good cause puts Nancy in the middle of some very bad business!" (back cover blurb)

 

It's been quite a while since I've read any of the Nancy Drew digests (those paperback books published by Simon & Schuster as a continuation of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories started by Grosset & Dunlap back in 1930).  Over the years, I have heard many fans of Nancy Drew make disparaging remarks about the digests, claiming they lack the quality of the original series, and that the stories are nowhere near as good as "the first 56 books" (which certain die-hard fans claims are the only true Nancy Drew canon).  However, having read (thus far) books 57 through 139 (and now, with this one, 140), I can say that a number of these digests have some very well-written mysteries, some of which I would consider superior to the last five or six mysteries published by Grosset & Dunlap. However, as the series progressed, the stories did start to become more hit or miss, with some not quite hitting the mark.  This, I would have to say, is one of those.

 

The Door-to-Door Deception is not your typical Nancy Drew fare.  This is more of a story about embezzlement and burglaries.  Nancy and Bess agree to join George, who has been volunteering with a local after-school program for junior high students (called "CARING"), unaware of the trouble they will soon find themselves facing.  It seems not only does CARING have another organization, known as "YES," that is competing with them for funding from the community, but one of the counselors and one of the teenagers are not too fond of Nancy and her friends.  When some incidents take place - such as hot sauce being put into Bess's water bottle and the brake on Nancy's inline skate being tampered with - Nancy suspects that the counselor and student may be pulling such stunts to get them to stop volunteering.  When George is accused of stealing some of the organization's funds, Nancy realizes things are much more serious than she realized.

 

Meanwhile, after Nancy is stopped by the police while trying to sell energy bars to raise money for CARING, she learns from her father that there as been a string of burglaries in River Heights, all during broad daylight.  Every home had belonged to wealthy families, and somehow the alarm systems had been bypassed by the thieves.  Of course, Nancy begins to suspect that her two cases might be connected (and let's face it - when has Nancy ever had two cases in the same book that were not connected?), and soon enough all of the clues lead her to the same place.  And while one suspect is clearly involved, I will say the ghostwriter for this book gives readers a bit of surprise with the other culprit - quite frankly, it was the last person I would have suspected being involved in the whole scheme!

 

This is another one of those books that seems to place River Heights in or around Chicago, Illinois.  The CARING center is said to be located "on the South Side, across the street from Washington Park" (p. 4).  In the real world, there is a Washington Park, which is a historic neighborhood and park located on the South Side of Chicago.  Later in the book, Nancy is selling energy bars on Markham Lane (p. 26) - while there is no Markham "Lane" in Chicago that I could find, there is a Markham "Avenue."  Thus, one can assume that either the ghostwriter is from or familiar with Chicago, or specifically chose identifying places from that area to keep River Heights central to the part of Illinois.

 

Food-wise in this book, Hannah is said to have prepared a dessert she calls "raspberry fool" (p. 87), which, as it turns out, is a real thing.  A little searching online reveals it is a traditional English dessert that is easy to make - you simply stir the berries, sugar, and liqueur together and let it sit for 15 minutes; whip up some cream with powdered sugar until soft peaks form; mash the berry mixture until the liquid and fruit are mashed together; spoon half the fruit into the cream, fold once or twice with a rubber spatula, add the remaining half of the fruit, and fold again - serve in glasses with crumbled cookies on top!  (Recipe taken from:  Pioneer Woman - Raspberry Fool).  Sounds mighty tasty, I might have to try this myself!

 

Something else I learned in this book is all about the game of "newcomb," a sport which the author spends pretty much an entire chapter going over how the kids played it (pp. 45-50).  Newcomb ball is similar to volleyball, in that two teams are on either side of a net and hit the ball over the net to each other - the major difference being, in newcomb, you catch the ball and throw it back - you don't hit it back.  I had never heard of this before, and perhaps that is because newcomb is not widely played today (although it appears to still be somewhat popular in some northern New England states.

 

The cover art for this book was provided by Ernie Norcia (who provided art for 21 of the 31 covers during this particular era of Nancy Drew).  The scene is drawn from the moment where Nancy discovers, to her chagrin, that someone has tampered with her skates, and the brake part has come loose, causing her to be unable to stop herself as she speeds downhill toward a riverbank (p. 99).  For me, this cover has always appeared awkward, not really providing the reader with any idea of what the mystery is about - I mean, let's be serious for a moment: Nancy stumbling while on skates does not truly scream "embezzlement" or "burglary" at all.  The only reason I can come up with as to why the publisher chose this scene for the cover is that the book does not really have any cliffhanger moments or spooky scenes; rather, this is one of those cerebral mysteries that depends more on Nancy's analytical side than any actual physical detecting (although there is a moment where someone grabs Nancy around the neck from behind and holds her in a headlock - p. 117 - but that might have been too much for a Nancy Drew cover).

 

This was not an overly exciting mystery, was not fast-paced at all, and the introduction of little Dino (a young boy who persistently wants to help Nancy solve the mystery) is rather annoying - he sort of reminds of Midge Watson, the little detective wannabe who attaches herself to Nancy in book 73, Enemy Match.  The character is not an integral part of the mystery, but rather, is used for nothing else other than to feed Nancy clues that she could have otherwise discovered through her normal detective work.  I applaud S&S and the ghostwriter for attempting to give readers a different type of mystery (hey, it's not sabotage!), but I feel like this one simply did not read like a normal Nancy Drew mystery - no suspense, no real danger, no truly dastardly villains.  But, here we are at book 140, so I supposed with this many mysteries in the series, they can't all be winners!

 

RATING:  6 shopping bags filled with dozens of CDs out of 10 for at least trying something different and introducing readers to a tasty new dessert to try! 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #28 - Who Killed Me?

There are several important things to point out about this Zebra Mystery Puzzler, the 28th in this series of murder mysteries that allows the reader the opportunity to solve the crime before opening that final, sealed chapter.  First, this is the final book in the series to sport a full-cover painted scene.  The format of the cover changed with the next book in the series, reducing the cover art to a small circle inside a magnifying glass (thus, limiting the amount of space for the cover art to provide a clue to the crime).  Second, this is the first book in the series authored by Joan Allan (more on the author below), and the first to feature advertising account executive-turned-sleuth Valerie Lambert.  Third, it offers up what turns out to be a very well-crafted mystery, with clues so subtle you do not even notice them until they are pointed out at the end!

 

Who Killed Me? is taken directly from the note that is found on the dead body of  Nelson Bishop, an up-and-coming executive in the Associated Cosmetics company who has managed to make an enemy of pretty much everyone who knew him.  Thus, the question printed out on the back of a theater ticket and left on his corpse for the police to find is most appropriate.  The suspects include pretty much everyone who is involved in the photo shoot for the ad campaign for the company's new line of cosmetics named after the actress, Meri Milton.  Now, it is up to Valerie Lambert (whose name is included on that ticket, indicating the police should ask her who did it) to figure out which one of the likely suspects actually did the deed.

 

Something that came across as too unrealistic is how quickly Inspector Haverstock was willing to allow Valerie to become a part of the investigation.  Now, any real police detective who has a dead body with a note that specifically identifies one person on it would NOT partner with the person to find the murderer, but would more likely take that person as a suspect until evidence would show otherwise.  (And, yes, evidence does clear Valerie by the next day, since she was having dinner with the commercial director that night, then took a taxi back to her hotel at the time the murder took place - but still, that inspector did not know this when he agrees to let Valerie help with the investigation!).  Putting that aside, though, it is only through Valerie's persistence that the real murderer is revealed.

 

Allan gives readers a truly puzzling mystery with this one.  The knife used to kill Bishop is a left-handed knife (with the grooves on the handle made specifically for a left-handed person).  The note left on the body is written on the back side of an unused theater ticket and written with specialty ink.  The rare button missing from his suit jacket was cut off, not torn.  And there just happens to be a specialty store in London that sells only items for left-handed people.  And there is a shop in London that specializes in the kind of ink and pen used to write the note.  And an antique store in the area happens to reveal that someone Valerie knows purchased a set of those exact buttons not long ago - a set that was short one.  All of these clues lead directly to one specific suspect, all nice and tidy.  And when that suspect winds up dead, an apparent suicide by jumping off a bridge into the frigid waters of the river below. the Inspector is sure the case is resolved.  Valerie, however, is not satisfied.  It is all too convenient.

 

The clues to this crime are so very subtle, I was getting frustrated by the time I reached that final chapter trying to figure out whodunnit.  I took a stab in the dark based on the idea that the least likely suspect will turn out to be the killer - and boy, was I wrong!  When Valerie unmasks the killer at a party she hosts in her lavish hotel room (very Agatha Christie-like!), and she starts walking Inspector Haverstock through all the clues that led her to the realization of the killer's identity, I could only shake my head.  Sure enough, the clues were there - on the cover, in several of the illustrations, and in the story; but my keen eyes simply glossed over them and did not pick them up for what they were.  Which, in my book, made this a SUPERB story!  While I do enjoy being able to figure out who the killer is before the end, sometimes it is nice to be taken completely off-guard, especially when the author points out that all the clues were there if I had simply paid closer attention along the way.  So, kudos to Allan and the publisher for making this one so crafty! 

 

As with a number of the books in this series, there is no identification of the artist for either the cover or the interior illustrations.  While I do love both, as the artwork is beautifully rendered, I am disappointed that the publisher failed to give the artist a proper description for Valerie Lambert.  In the book, she has "long ash blond hair that spilled over her shoulders" (p. 6); yet, on the cover, she clearly has a dark, reddish-brown hair, and on the only internal in which Valerie is seen (p. 58), she is again depicted with dark colored hair.  I realize this is being a bit nit picky, but I do not think it can be that difficult for an artist to be given an accurate description of the main character in a book!  That being said, I love the internal artist's depiction of actress Meri Milton on page 17 - very "Marlene Deitrich" in appearance and pose.

 

"Joan Allan" wrote only three books in this series - this one, volume 33 (Who's Next?) and volume 47 (Who's on First?).  I can find absolutely nothing about this author anywhere, other than the fact that she (he?) wrote the three books in this series.  There is something in the front of the book, however, that raises a question as to the author's identity - on the copyright page, there is a dedication to "Marjorie, Martin and Geoffrey Eric Grove."  As fans of this series might recall, Marjorie Grove is the named author of a number of books starring Maxine Reynolds - but "Marjorie Grove" is actually Martin A. Grove (and there was a sly reference in the first book in this series to Martin Grove, his wife Marjorie, and their son, Geoffrey!).  Thus, is "Joan Allan" simply another pseudonym for Grove, allowing him to create another sleuth for this series? Or is "Joan Allan" someone who knows the real Grove family, and gave a nod to them, perhaps as a word of thanks for helping him or her get their work published in this series?

 

A couple of things worth pointing out from this book.  The author elects to avoid the "555" telephone exchange when giving numbers in the book; instead, the author puts forth potentially real numbers:  "836-4343" as the number to call for Valerie Lambert (p. 34); and "286-6010" as the number of the taxi service (p. 41).  I wonder how many people, back in the day, called those numbers just to see who would answer!  The other item of interest is the reference to the exchange rate between the United States and England.  The shopkeeper informed Valerie the cost will be "two pounds sixty-six" (p. 102), to which Valerie quickly figures out the American equivalent would be "$5.32" (p. 103).  According to what I could find online for 1979, the exchange rate was 0.4713 British pound to one American dollar.  A quick search online shows the exchange would have been closer to $5.64 in American dollars; however, the rate fluctuates, so at any given time, depending on when the book was actually written, that exchange rate given in the story could have been accurate.

 

Overall, a really great read, and I look forward to Allan's other two books in this series!

 

RATING:  10 stubbed out cigarette butts out of 10 for a wonderfully written, excitingly engaging, perfectly puzzling murder mystery well worth the read! 

Time Police - Volume 1: Vanished

This is not a normal type of read for me, but I picked up the first two books in this series for free at a book swap last year while I was attending a book camp (yes, that's a real thing - it was a lot of fun, enjoying a retreat with other book lovers like myself!).  Since I do love time travel stories (Doctor Who, Dark Shadows, etc.), I thought I'd give these a try.  There is a third (and final) book in this series, but that was not there, so I don't have it.  The tagline on the front cover - "He had to enter the past to save the future!" - is a great hook, especially for fans of time travel, such as me.  Of course, anyone who has watched Back to the Future, The Butterfly Effect, or other time travel films will know that one has to be very careful when one meddles with time - so I was very curious to see just how this book would play out...

 

Vanished is the first volume in this "Time Police" series, written by Warren Norwood. Oddly enough, the organization that is the title of the series are not the protagonists - in fact, they turn out to be the bad guys (or at least, they are doing things that some might not think of as "good").  The protagonist is a simple librarian by the name of Jackson Dubchek, who hails from the Midwest and who agrees to help the Time Police with a special project, all because a beautiful woman asked him to.  I mean, isn't that the way it always goes - a beautiful woman somehow entices a man to do something, and the man ultimately winds up in deep trouble.  Well, in this case, it's no different.  The year is 2249, and time travel is common place for the government of the Second Republic.  Dubchek is honored to be selected to go back in time to help with a mission - back to the year 2183.  But, as he is ready to use his interpreting skills, the ambassador next to him is shot and killed, chaos explodes, and suddenly Dubchek is being hunted by both the police of that time period and the very same Time Police that brought him back in time.  What is going on?  How did he wind up in this position, and how is going to get back to his own time?  Enter the Mnemosynes, an organization dedicated to preserving history - the REAL history, not the one being changed and created by the Time Police in order to gain control over all life on Earth.  Wait, what?

 

From the first explosive page and the murder of an ambassador in the past (our future maybe, but it is Dubchek's past!), the book is non-stop action, non-stop time travel, and non-stop confusion.  Norwood definitely keeps his readers on their toes, as they try to follow Dubchek from one time to another and back again before bouncing around the time stream in an effort to uncover the truth about what is going on.  Along with Suzanne Brelmer, the daughter of a high ranking officer within the Time Police and an employee with her own agenda, Duibchek uncovers a huge conspiracy that reveals some of what the agency is doing - displacing people in time in order to wipe them from the minds of people in the present; tweaking points in history to change historical alliances and the outcome of wars in order to "guide" history to a point where they can control it all; and wiping certain people out of the timeline altogether, as they have done with some of their own agents who knew too much about what the agency is really doing.  Ultimately, Dubchek and Suzanne learn the real reason why the Time Police is trying to hard to displace Dubchek - because intel from the future has revealed he will become the biggest threat to the Time Police and their power-hungry goals!

 

The story is extremely convoluted, and unless you are a huge fan of time travel and familiar with stories like this, it may become too confusing at points, making it difficult to follow.  While I enjoyed the actual time travel elements themselves, I grew a it weary of the repeated "let's throw him into a different time, put him in immediate danger, and have him jump back home" trope that happened over and over and over again.  There was no variation, other than setting and time.  Plus, the fact that everyone Dubchek tried to save in each of his trips back and forth in time resulted in that person dying, which left me very disappointed.  What is the point, if everyone he tries to save dies?  And while the ending could have basically ended the series, had there been no more books, it still felt somewhat anticlimactic.  I expected more out of the "hero" of the story - perhaps the fact that I'm not a huge sci-fi fan may taint my opinion of the book somewhat.  Hopefully the second book in the series will be an improvement over this one.

 

Warren Norwood (1945 - 2005) was not only a science-fiction author, but also a teacher and musician, as well as a veteran of the Vietnam War.  He wrote two series other than this one, The Double-Spiral War series (consisting of three books) and The Windhover Tapes (consisting of four books).  In researching Norwood online, I discovered he had a fourth, unedited manuscript for this Time Police series titled Refugee, that is currently in the Special Collections at the University of North Texas. Thus, it was clear he had intended to tell more stories of Jackson Dubchek.  And I did smile at the fact that his author bio at the front of the book indicated he grew up reading Tom Swift books!  A fellow lover of children's series books!

 

One interesting thing I did take note of in this first book is the reference to a "painting by Dell Harris III, a picture of an alien creature..." (p. 24).  That name seemed familiar to me, so a quick look online revealed the fact that Dell Harris is, indeed, an award-winning artist, whose sci-fi illustrations appeared in Amazing and Analog magazines, as well as on the cover of any number of science-fiction novels in the 1980.  It makes one wonder if Norwood did not purposefully choose that name as a way to honor the artist.

 

And speaking of art, the cover to this book was provided by twin brothers, Stephen and Paul Youll, who collaborated on a number of commissions in the late 1980s.  When Stephen moved from England to the United States in 1989, their partnership ended - but the two continued to do their own individual art for various publishers in both England and the U.S.  This book was published in November 1988, which would have been during the height of the brothers' collaboration.

 

RATING:  6 rows of stacked high junk cars out of 10 for introducing readers to a reluctant hero having no idea what he's doing as he bounces around through time!