The Baseball Boys of Lakeport - the Second Volume of the Lakeport Series

This book is definitely not a usual one for me.  However, it is a book I could not pass up when I saw it up in Cooperstown, New York a couple of years back when my friend, Pam, and I went up there to explore all the sites that actually existed and were used in the Nancy Drew mystery, The Secret of Mirror Bay.  After all, Cooperstown is famous for its baseball, and this book happens to be authored by none other than Edward Stratemeyer, the same man who created Nancy Drew (and whose daughter authored Mirror Bay!). Thus, even though I'm not a sports fan at all, and even though I'm not normally a fan of series books for boys, I picked this up for no other reason than to have a collectible from my visit to Cooperstown.  However, as I was chatting with another friend recently, he was asking me about books written by Edward Stratemeyer, and I had to admit I have never read one.  So, thanks to his prompting, I picked up this book and gave it a read.

 

The Baseball Boys of Lakeport is the second volume in a series of books set in the fictional town of Lakeport. What I find amusing about that is the fact that another Stratemeyer series, The Bobbsey Twins, is also set in the town of Lakeport.  The first volume of The Bobbsey Twins series, written by Stratemeyer and published in 1904, featured the two sets of twins having adventures in their hometown of Lakeport.  The first books in this Lakeport Series were published in 1908 (see below for questions regarding publication and copyright dates), and while they did not feature the Bobbsey family, they did feature a group of boys who managed to form clubs of some sort involving a variety of activities.  The boys went hunting in the first book, formed a baseball team in this book, then went on to form a boat club, a football team, an automobile club, and at the end, an aircraft club.  There was very little mystery to this book - it was more about the adventures of the boys and they trouble they faced from local bullies, and based on some of the recap of the first book in this one, I would hazard the guess that all of the books were the same.  This series only lasted six books, being published from 1908 to 1912:

 

1 - The Gun Boys of Lakeport, or The Island Camp (1908)

2 - The Baseball Boys of Lakeport, or The Winning Run (1908)

3 - The Boat Club Boys of Lakeport, or The Water Champions (1909)

4 - The Football Boys of Lakeport, or The Champions of the School (1909)

5 - The Automobile Boys of Lakeport, or A Run for the Mountains (1910)

6 - The Aircraft Boys of Lakeport, or The Rivals of the Clouds (1912) 

 

While the "boys" in the book are quite a few in number, Stratemeyer seems to focus on four or five main boys, with a number of supporting characters that have minimal dialogue or action.  The main characters are Joe Westmore and his older brother, Harry, and their good friend, Fred Rush.  Other boys who share the spotlight are Link Darrow and Paul Shale.  Rounding out the cast are the minor players, such as Frank Pemberton, Walter Bannister, Matt Roscoe, and a few others whose names only appear once or twice throughout the story.  On the other side of the tracks, you have the bullies/villains of the story, which include Dan Marcy, a carry-over from the previous book who caused the boys considerable problems when they were out hunting; Si Voup, the captain of the opposing baseball team who will do anything to win the championship; Sidney Yates, another player of the opposing team who pulls some nasty tricks that get him punished severely by his father; and then there is Montgomery Jaddell, the school principal who is quite the stick in the mud, and who seems dead-set on making life as difficult as possible for the boys during their last weeks of school for the year.

 

While there is the main story involving the formation of the Lakeports amateur baseball team and their struggles to earn money to buy uniforms and equipment, as well as their games against various opposing teams from the surrounding towns, there are a couple of smaller adventures along the way - such as a stolen boat that leaves the boys stranded on Pine Island and the kidnapping of the Lakeports' two strongest players just before the final championship game. The boys also come up against some vagrants who think they are going to report their activities, as well as a bull that somehow gets loose and runs rampart through the main street, and a stolen cash box (that Harry and Joe's father mistakenly believes Harry took!).  Again, there are no major mysteries, and most everything centers around the boys' baseball activities.  Again, the subject matter of the book is not necessarily my cup of tea, but the writing is actually well-done, the story nicely paced, and the characters are varied enough to avoid a cookie-cutter cast.

 

The internal illustrations are by Max Francis Klepper (1861-1907), who was a German-born artist who immigrated to the United States in 1876 and grew up in Indiana before working in Illinois and New York.  He contributed illustrations to a number of magazines, such as Collier's, Harper's Monthly, Cosmopolitan, and others, as well as providing illustrations for several books during the early 1900s, one of which was this particular book.  More information about the artist can be found here:  Max Francis Klepper.

 

Something I found rather interesting is the copyright page.  Pretty much all references to this book I was able to find online provides a copyright and publication date of 1908.  However, the copyright page for this book lists the original Copyright as 1905, by A. S. Barnes & Co., under the title "The Winning Run."  The Copyright of the Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. edition is 1908, under the title "The Baseball Boys of Lakeport, or The Winning Run."  I was unable to locate any information regarding that earlier copyright, or even a book (or magazine serial) published under the name "The Winning Run" by A. S. Barnes & Co., leaving me to wonder just where that copyright originated.

 

Another surprising fact about the book is its length.  The story is 315 pages, which is nearly 100 pages more than most of the children's series books I am used to reading from the first half of the 20th century.  This must have been somewhat the standard in the very early 1900s, as ads in the back of the book indicate the first three Dave Porter books were 312, 286, and 304 pages, respectively.  Other series listed in those ads show books of various lengths - from 300 pages to 310 pages to 320 pages to 330 pages, and even one book at a whopping 431 pages!  It's actually rather sad that the decades passed, the length of these books aimed at children and young adults gradually decreased to just a little over 200 pages, and ultimately down to just 180 or so pages per book.

 

Overall, not a bad story, and while I may not be rushing out there to hunt down the other five books in the series, if I do happen across any of them at some point, I'm likely to pick them up just to read the further adventures of these Lakeport boys!

 

RATING:  9 silk hats with the top knocked in out of 10 for a wholesome story of sportsmanship, friendship, and adventure, with a lot of sports and a bit of mystery thrown in for good measure. 

Flashing Mountain - a Children's Press Mystery

It's been a bit since I last read a mystery from The Children's Press, and this one was picked up for my by a friend of mine from a library in Canada.  I don't often see many of The Children's Press books here in the States, and most of the ones I have came from beyond our borders.  This one is authored by Edwin Johnson, who wrote a couple of other books for this publisher, with titles such as The End of Project 38 and The Devil of Bruges.  With these kind of titles, one would think the books were aimed at adults, rather than young adults or older children; however, all three of these books were published by The Children's Press, and as such, were marketed for young readers.  I did find a number of other books by "Edwin Johnson," but I have a feeling this name is associated with different authors, as the topics range from Christianity and the origins of the Christian religion to poetry to books about sexy Asian girls.  I cannot, for the life of me, imagine all of these varied subjects were written by the same Edwin Johnson!

 

That being said, Flashing Mountain follows the adventures of fifteen-year old Charles "Chip" Wood, an orphaned young lad living with his already overworked aunt, who has her hands full with her own family.  Despite attempts to stay under the radar, Chip ends up on the run from a gang of bullies and ultimately finds himself saving the life of one Dr. Mandrake, an archeologist with a special mission, to assist a physicist friend who needs to borrow some specialized electronic equipment for a discovery he has made.  Chip joins Mandrake on a ship bound for an island off the coast of South America - to an island known as "The Island of the Four Apostles" (p. 26), or as it is referred to in French, "L'Ile des Quatre Apotres."  This is likely based upon the Ilots des Apotres (Apostle Islets), which in the real world are some uninhabited rocky islands located in the southern part of the Indian Ocean (south east of the southern tip of Africa - they are nowhere near South America, as the island in the book is).  In the book, Johnston indicates the name "comes from four hills at the north of the island," named by a shipwrecked Frenchman who was so thankful for not perishing in the wreck that he named the hills for the apostles (p. 26).  Of course, the mission turns out to be much more dangerous than originally anticipated.

 

Before they even arrive at the island, they learn the man Mandrake is supposed to meet is dead.  They also discover there are two men on the boat with them who are determined to learn what the scientist's discovery was and get to it before Mandrake can.  Thus, from the beginning, the reader knows it is going to be a race to see who can solve the mystery of what the scientist discovered first.  Mandrake and Chip must not only deal with the president of the people on the island, but they must also contend with a wealthy treasure-hunter who has basically taken control of the island in the hopes of uncovering the scientist's secret, as well as a group of revolutionists who want the interlopers gone and also want to overthrow the president!  With the help of some unexpected allies, Chip and Mandrake manage to escape after being captured and make their way through the jungles to the area known as "flashing mountain" - and they learn exactly what the scientist discovered and why that mountain has the name it does!

 

This is definitely a boys' adventure story, as it is chock full of adventure and danger for our main characters.  It also does not shy away from violence and death - even some very gruesome deaths that involve melting faces!  There are also deadly natives on the island, and mysterious legends regarding the formation of the island and the hills.  The climatic scenes where Chip uses his ingenuity to destroy the flashing mountain, ensuring that no one would ever be able to mine what the mountain was hiding (and trust me, considering what it was, Chip definitely did the right thing!) - and in the process, he causes the deaths of two of the bad guys.  Certainly not something you would ever read in a Stratemeyer series book, that's for sure!

 

Sadly, there are no internal illustrations (in fact, I don't believe any of the books I own that were published by "The Children's Press" have internals), and there is no identifying information for the artist who painted the cover.  The scene depicted on the cover is somewhat misleading - it comes from that final chapter, where Chip sets off explosives to cause the destruction of the flashing mountain, however, Chip and the man helping him were wearing considerable protective gear (otherwise, they would have been melted down, just like some of those natives had been!).  I guess showing the main character completely covered from head to toe would not make a great cover, so they simply placed Chip at the scene in his regular clothing.

 

As someone who much prefers mystery stories to adventure stories, this book was not overly captivating to me.  Sure, it had plenty of adventure and chapter cliffhangers; but the lack of mystery just made me want to speed through it and get finished with it so I could move on to another book.  This book would probably be enjoyed more by those who like Tom Swift, Rick Brant, Ken Holt, or series such as that.

 

RATING:  6 small ticking boxes out of 10 for an adventure story filled with more danger and death at ever turn than most young adult stories I've read!

Short Lived Comic Series #34 - The Big Prize (Eternity Comics)

Before I get started with this post, let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room. The author of this 2-issue comic series published back in 1988 got into trouble in 2016 and ended up being sentenced to six years in prison for a horrible crime.  This post is not about the author, and it's not about my thoughts of the crime he committed.  This post is about the two-book comic series that was published by Eternity Comics (a division of Malibu Comics) back in 1988, and how much I enjoyed the story.  I'm not looking to discuss the writer; rather, I'm looking at discussing the work itself, and quite frankly, it was worth the read.

 

The Big Prize (The Timedrifter's Odyssey) was intended to be a six-issue mini-series, the first of several mini-series that would tie together to tell the story of Willis Austerlitz.  Unfortunately, "best laid plans" and all that ... Eternity, for whatever reasons, decided to not move forward with the planned series, and the comic ended after its second issue.  Which is a shame, as the premise was fun, and the set-up in these first two issues definitely provided some wonderful fodder for future stories to come.  It is kind of a mix between Quantum Leap and Back to the Future, and it features some fun characters.  Although the author indicates in that second issue his hope to find a way to bring the series back under another title or a different publisher, sadly, that never happened.  Thus, we are left with only these two issues to tease us with the time-traveling odyssey of Willis Austerlitz.

 

The first issue introduces readers to our main character, a data entry clerk who daydreams about his favorite era - the 1930s.  Unfortunately, that daydreaming causes problems at his job.  He is an insecure, glasses-wearing nerd who has trouble with girls.  Walking home from work one day, his destiny literally falls right on top of him in the form of a plastic credit card with a full color hologram of a grinning man.  Approached by a man desperate for change, Willis stuffs the card in his pocket and rushes home.  He sits down to watch an old film, but falls asleep.  He awakes to discover he missed recording a show, and to make matters worse, he finds that card in his pocket.  And that is where things start getting weird.  While talking to his mother on the phone, the man whose face is on the card suddenly materializes right before his eyes, congratulating him as the "lucky winner!"  Willis learns this is his chance of a lifetime, as this three-dimensional hologram says his "Big Prize" is one 24-hour journey to any point in space and time.  He could actually go back in time to the 1930s and experience his favorite era live and in person!  Only, the trip back is not what he expects.  As soon as he and Glint Sparkle (roving emcee for The Planetary Lottery) reappear in his apartment, albeit in 1934, things go from bad to worse.  A woman is being threatened in the next room, but when Willis goes to her aid, he finds himself at the mercy of men with guns!  Glint disappears, Willis takes off running, and the adventure in time begins!  Matters become even more complicated when, on the last page of this issue, Willis finds out Glint has been killed - and he is now stuck in the past with no way home!

 

The excitement does not let up with the second issue.  Willis is driven by these fanatics up to where the Hollywoodland sign looks down on Los Angeles, where they are preparing to dump Glint's body and silence Willis permanently.  Willis manages to come to his senses and convince the men he is from the FBI, and that he is looking for bigger fish then them.  Once they take off, Willis ponders his predicament - only to have Glint come back to life (after all, he is only a hologram, and as such, he cannot really die).  Willis convinces his benefactor to allow him to stay in 1934 for the full 24 hours before returning to his own time, so he can experience more of life in the '30s.  He hopes to aid a certain damsel in distress, meet an actress who was involved in a huge scandal back then, and unintentionally gets involved with some very mob-like men who have plans for him.  Willis gets more than the experience he was hoping for, and once he has had enough, he heads for the place Glint told him holds the jump point for them to return home - Union Station.  There's only one problem - in 1934, Union Station is still under construction and will not be completed until the next year!  And Glint Sparkle is nowhere to be seen!  "It finally begins to sink in," Willis thinks, "I was going to be here for a long time..."

 

The art for the two issues is provided by Bryon Carson and Mike Roberts, who do a great job of creating a sense of that 1930s film style for the book.  The black and white pages, the shading, the action sequences, the looks of the various characters.  I think I actually prefer the interior art to the full-color covers by Tim Hamilton and Scott Bieser (issue 1 colors) / Brooks Hagan (issue 2 colors).

 

This comic turned about to be a surprising little gem, as I had never heard of it prior to stumbling across both issues at a local toy store that had a few boxes of comics in the back.  It is a shame the story was never allowed to continue, even with another publisher. I, for one, would like to have seen where Willis Austerlitz would have gone from here.  (Plus, loved his excitement at being able to pick up first printings of some now-valuable pulps and magazines when they were first hot-off the presses!)  But, I suppose like Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap, he will be forever left without an ending.

 

RATING:  9 time-drifting, 1930s-loving nerds out of 10 for a different kind of time-travel tale with some great art and fun geek-loving antics!

Berryhill - an Old Fashioned Blood-Curdling Gothic

This book definitely borderlines more on the horror side of things than it does the Gothic side.  Published back in 1979 by Manor Books, just two years before the publisher ceased its activities (the same publisher who put out the "King Size Gothic" line, ripping off Popular Library's line of "Queen Size Gothics"), the book promotes itself as "Editor's Gothic Choice," and claims to be "An Old Fashioned Blood Curdling Gothic."  This is one of the very few Gothics that I have read that actually crosses over into the supernatural and delves into witchcraft and ghosts.  It is also one of the few that puts forth very detailed descriptions of some gory and horrific deaths.  The author was Barbara Curry Bennett (1938-2024), and this appears to be her one and only Gothic novel.  Bennett lived in Tennessee, so it should come as no surprise that her story is set deep in the woods of the southern state.

 

Berryhill takes its title from the house in the story, which is set at the bottom of a hill where berries once grew in abundance.  Unfortunately, the ground upon which the house was built has a horrific background, as it was the site of a terrifying massacre of some outcast Indians, the last of whom put a curse on the land - a curse that managed to endure from year to year and generation to generation.  The author takes readers from the time of the early settlers in America in the opening prologue to the current time (well, current when the book was written!) in the epilogue, telling a terrifying tale that lasts over a century.  It opens with a young boy coming across a group of Indians while he is playing in the woods - a group he mistakenly believes are a threat to his family.  He is unaware that the Indians are merely a rag-tag group of misfits, kicked of other tribes for one reason or another and banded together to live a peaceful existence away from everyone.  But the young boy's family, and the other settlers that are with them, come back with blood-thirst in their veins, and they viciously wipe out all of the Indians, from the youngest child to the oldest woman - an old woman who puts a curse on "all white men who dare to walk on this land where the blood of the innocent is shed!" (p. 8),  Half a century later, a man by the name of Aaron DeGault comes across this clearing and decides it is the perfect spot to build a home for his wife and newborn son.  Unfortunately, the curse begins, as Aaron and his wife are tragically killed in a wagon accident, leaving their six-year old son to be raised far away by distant relatives...

 

Until Jason DeGault grew up, married Abigail, and returned to his family's homestead to start a family.  They had two sons, but the War Between the States claimed Abigail's husband and oldest son, and her youngest son, Paul, was missing in action.  That left Abigail to run the farm and care for her sickly daughter-in-law and her grandchild, Alicia.  The horrors of the Indian curse continue when a vile Union soldier shows up, forces his way into the house, brutally rapes and kills Clarice, throwing the infant child across the room in the process.  Abigail finds an inner strength to fight back and takes an ax to the soldier's head, killing him instantly.  She has just enough time to bury the man in the basement before the nearest neighbor, Harry Hunnicutt shows up.  From here, the story moves forward with the Default family, the years pass, and Paul returns home with a wife, step-daughter, and son, moving in with his mother and niece.  The only problem is, Alicia has been raised alone by Abigail, and she is not happy about these people intruding upon what she feels to be her home.  She pushes her new Aunt Sarah down the stairs, killing her without remorse.  You see, little Alicia has discovered the secret in the basement ... and for her, that dead soldier has suddenly become her closest friend and confidant ... someone who is more than willing to help her rid the house of these unwanted interlopers!

 

After Sarah's death, the girls are sent to a boarding school, from which they do not return until they are teenagers.  Alicia's malevolent nature continues, as she not only scares her grandmother to death using the skull of the dead soldier in the basement, but she also seduces her uncle and leads him to commit suicide.  One by one, Alicia removes the obstacles out of her way so that Berryhill can her hers, and hers alone.  All that remains are her cousins, Julie and Michael.  And never you fear, as she has plans for them as well.  Dark, malicious plans that stem from the very evil of the house itself - evil that only Abigail's slaves, Belle and Sally, have the sense to see.  The curse remains within the halls of Berryhill, and that curse has taken complete control of the soldier's spirit and the once-innocent baby that was so casually thrown across the room by his violent rage.  The two form a symbiotic relationship to carry out that Indian woman's curse, and it seems no member of the DeGault family is safe.

 

Flash-forward some more years, and Julie returns to Berryhill with her husband, Phillip Hunnicutt.  It does not take long, though, for Alicia to frighten Julie to her death, which, in turn, leads to Phillip's depression and his ultimate death.  Which leaves only young Michael, who is far removed from the horrors of that house, taken by his grandparents on his mother's side to be raised away from the memories that could scar him forever.   Michael - who has no real memories of the terrors and tragedies that have overtaken his family for generations.  Michael - who is all grown up and ready to return to Berryhill as a married man, to take over control of the farm and start a new family, bringing joy to a house with a history of darkness and sadness.  Michael - who Alicia is none-too-happy to see, and who she is determined to force out of her house.  It all comes down to these last two DeGaults, and the suspense rises to its highest level yet, as readers wait to see whether good will win over evil, or if the dark curse that has held Berryhill and its inhabitants in its sway for so long will have the ultimate victory.

 

Of course, Bennett gives readers a teaser at the end, with a four-page epilogue, set in the present, in which a new generation of DeGaults arrive in a Porsche, set to take over this land that no one in the family even knew existed until a member of the family died, and a long-hidden deed reveals ownership of the land.  Thus, a new family is ready to take over the farm - is the curse gone, or has it simply lain dormant, ready to spring to life again when these latest white men dare to walk the land where innocent blood was shed?

 

Bennett has no qualms introducing the supernatural into the story, and the spirit of the Union soldier gradually taking more and more control of Alicia's decisions (at one point even interacting with her sexually!) is startling to read.  She is a girl-turned-woman without a conscience, and her systematic destruction of her own family is hard to watch. The house is simply filled with evil, and one has to wonder if Abigail had never buried the soldier in the basement, would all of those horrific deaths still occurred?  Was that one incident - the killing and burying of the soldier - the catalyst that released the curse upon the DeGault family?  Or was it merely the means to an end for that dying Indian's curse?  Either way, the story is extremely sad, and there is no happy ending for anyone in this book!

 

No identification of the artist for the cover art, so I have no way of knowing who painted the cover.  It is as creepy as the story itself, with the foreboding house superimposed over a slowly melting candle, while the young woman in the forefront is running away, her long gown flowing in the wind as she runs.  It is sort of an eerie foreshadowing of the story inside - as the candle slowly burns down, so do the lives of those who live inside Berryhill.  It is also a symbol of those rituals that take place in the basement, as Alicia, and eventually the old witch woman who comes to live with her, perform rites over the grave of the long-dead soldier by candlelight - a picture of the evil being released in the house and on the family that lives within it.  This book, by far, as the darkest one I've read to date.

 

RATING:  8 long strands of glimmering pearls out of 10 for an aptly described "blood-curdling" Gothic tale of terror! 

Secret of Pirates' Cave - a Thorne Twins Adventure Book

This is a book I picked up for a couple of reasons.  First, the title is reminiscent of the second Bobbsey Twins mystery published back in 1980 under the Simon & Schuster "Wanderer" imprint, with even the cover art bearing a slight resemblance to that book.  Second, the book features twins (a brother and sister), and I'm always picking up books about twins - although, unlike the Bobbseys, this series features only one set of twins, not two.  Now, normally, I would not pick up just one book in a series - my OCD would force me to go find all of the other books in the series, so I can have a complete set!  In this case, however, I made an exception, since my main reason was the similarity in title and cover art - the fact that it features twins is merely a bonus.  I could not find out anything about the author, Dayle Courtney, and it appears this series is the only books written by the author.

 

Secret of Pirates' Cave is the 19th, and from what I could find, final title in the Thorne Twins Adventure Book series. Interestingly, the book opens not with the title characters, but with one of their ancestors, Eric Thorne, and his family, who are sailing along the California coast, preparing to settle and start a new life in America in the year 1850.  Their ship inadvertently runs into a pirate ship, and the band of pirates - led by one known only as Scarab - take over the ship, stealing all of the family's belongings, as well as those belonging to the Roberts family, who has joined them in their adventure to the New World.  It is not until the second chapter where we flash-forward 130 years to the present, where young Eric Thorne and his twin sister, Alison, are sitting down to dinner, and Eric is telling his father about a boy in his class that shared a story about his ancestors having been robbed by pirates along with another family by the last name "Thorne."  It is here that the twins learn from their father the history of Eric's namesake, and how the stolen good were never recovered - however, the pirate reformed later in life and wrote a letter that he sent to both the Thorne and Roberts families, giving each half of the directions as to where they could find their stolen valuables (hmmm, what other story have I read where there are two pieces of a "map" that must be put together to lead the sleuths to a lost treasure...?).  The two families never found each other, and so the treasures were never recovered.  Until now...

 

As with all good series books, it's a series of coincidences that puts Terry Roberts in Eric Thorne's class, and provides them the opportunity to join forces to locate their family's heirlooms.  As Mr. Thorne is heading to Africa for his work, he sends Eric and Alison to California with Terry to visit Terry's aunt and cousin, who live in a large house on a hill, just outside of Monterey.  While the Thorne family had kept and preserved the pirate's letter and half-instructions, those sent to the Roberts family had been lost over the years, and no one knew where to find them.  Thus, the children plan to inspect every inch of the Roberts' ancestral home in the hopes of finding the other half to those instructions so they can find the treasure. The house is filled with plenty of hidden compartments and secret passages, and after some false starts, they happen across the missing half of the instructions in the pocket of a pair of pants they find inside an old trunk hidden away in a cave far beneath the great house.  Now, armed with both halves of the instructions, Eric, Alison, and Terry firmly believe they will find their families' missing heirlooms!

The author does not make it easy on the kids.  With a letter written over a century before, the places mentioned in the letter are certain to have changed considerably.  The old church was long destroyed after an earthquake.  The stained glass through which the light points the way is no longer there.  The walled fort, the boulder in the shape of a lion's head ... such cryptic clues made all the more hard to decipher, since the landscape has changed so much over the past hundred years.  But the twins are determined, especially Eric, whose growing desire to find that treasure and become rich seems to increase in strength the closer they get to finding it.  He refuses to give up, even if that means breaking a few laws to find the lost heirlooms - such as sneaking into a cemetery at night, breaking into a caretaker's shack, and opening a long-sealed crypt, all in the hope of recovering the Thornes' and the Roberts' stolen belongings.

 

Astute readers will begin to pick up on some subtle clues along the way that someone is working against them - someone wants the kids to find the treasure only so they can take it away from them.  There's the sudden appearance of the "ghost" that haunts the cemetery.  There's the odd reluctance of the elderly caretaker to provide the twins and their cousin with any information regarding the old pirate and his family (as it seems the pirate changed his ways, turned to God, and worked hard to make amends for his old life - including sending that letter to the two families, in the hopes they would forgive him if they got their heirlooms back!).  There's the strange feeling that someone is always watching them, following them, always just out of sight.  But, as with any good teen detectives, these three persevere, ultimately finding the missing treasure - which discovery also brings to light some secrets about the two families that have repercussions on a number of members of the families!

 

From what I have been able to learn about the Thorne Twins series, this is the last book in the series.  It is a rather unique series, in that it is a Christian-based series, with the main characters devout in their faith; yet, the mysteries involve chasing UFOs (book 17), saving a captive girl from a drug ring (book 16), finding a foreign dignitary (book 15), chasing down bigfoot (book 13), outwitting terrorists (book 12), and even fighting to stop a civil war on an island in the Aegean Sea (book 11)!  These are some rather adult themes for a young adult series, and definitely some themes I am surprised to find in a Christian-based series.  Although, if the rest of the series is anything like this book, right always conquers wrong, and any temptations the twins may face (such as the idea of riches in this book), by the end of the story they see the folly of their ways and realize their faith in God is more important than anything else.

 

As indicated above, I picked up this book because of the similarity in title and cover art to the second Bobbsey Twins books published back in 1980. Since this book did not come out until four years later, one is left to wonder if the Courtney, or the cover artist for this book (who is unidentified, although could be John Ham, who provided the interior illustrations), was influenced by the earlier Bobbsey Twins' book.  The stories are not overly similar, since this book is set in California and the Bobbseys travel to Bermuda in their book.  However, both stories involve pirate thieves and hidden caves under a property that is used for smuggling.  It is the covers that are more similar, with the boat heading for a cave, and the girl standing/seated above the boys, looking toward the dark entrance of the cave ahead of them.  What's funny about this is that the Bobbsey Twins' book, Secret in the Pirates' Cave, is actually taken from an even older book written by Andrew Svenson (using the pseudonym Alan Stone), The Mystery of Pirate Island, which was the second of the three-book Tollivers series published back in 1967.  When the Stratemeyer Syndicate needed new titles for their new Bobbsey Twins series being published by Simon & Schuster, they simply took the three Tollivers books and replaced the names of those characters with the names of the Bobbsey Twins and published them as "new" books in the Bobbseys' series!  Thus, we have one basic story, and three books...

 

While I did enjoy the story for the most part, it was not engaging enough for me to want to go out and hunt down the entire series.  I'll simply put this with my Bobbsey Twins collection as a knock-off of one of their books.

 

RATING:  7 broken lanterns out of 10 for combining pirate legends, hidden treasures, secret passages, and torn maps into a fun little mystery! 

Dorothy Dixon Wins Her Wings - the first Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Story

It was time to start a new (well, technically it's vintage, but it's "new" to me, since I've never read it before!) series, and this time around it's the Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Series by "Dorothy Wayne."  And, yes, I put the author's name in quotes, because that name is nothing more than a pseudonym.  As it turns out, "Dorothy Wayne" was actually Noel Sainsbury, Jr., who wrote a number of children's adventure and mystery stories during the 1920s and '30s.  A former naval aviator during the first World War, it would only make sense that his stories tend to involve aviation.  Sainsbury authored the Billy Smith series, as well as the Bill Bolton series, both of which had pilots as their protagonists.  The inside front flap of the dust jacket for this book advertises the series as a "new series of mystery books for girls - the stories are told by Dorothy Wayne, wife of Lieut. Noel Sainsbury, Jr., author of the famous Bill Bolton books."  It seems Sainsbury used his first wife's name when authoring the books, likely because it would have appeared odd to have a girls' series written by a male author.  All four books in this series were published by Goldsmith in 1933, and no more appeared after that.

 

Dorothy Dixon Wins Her Wings reads like a spin-off of Sainsbury's Bill Bolton Naval Aviation Series, which also ran for four books, and were all published in 1933.  On the first two pages, readers are not only introduced to sixteen-year old Dorothy Dixon, but the "famous" Bill Bolton as well!  Dorothy meets him while preparing to head out into the waters in her skiff, and when she realizes who he is, she exclaims, "I've read about you in the papers - and I know all about the wonderful things you've done!" (p. 16).  So, it's clear from the start that the young man had already made a name for himself as an accomplished aviator by the time this story begins.  Dorothy, on the other hand, knows nothing about aviation and quickly proves herself not so capable in the water either when her boat capsizes in the middle of a horrific storm by the end of the first chapter.  It's Bill Bolton who saves the day, however, when he pulls her out of the raging waters with his Loening amphibian (p. 33).

 

Sainsbury clearly knows his stuff, as the Loening amphibian was a real seaplane that could land on ground or water, designed by Grover Loening and first taking flight in 1923 (Loening Amphibian).  And the author definitely shared his knowledge of aviation and planes throughout the entirety of this first book, as Dorothy immediately wants to learn how to fly, and Bill graciously agrees to teach her (with both of their fathers' permission).  Sainsbury, through Bill's lessons, goes into painstaking detail at times about the various parts of the plane, the instruments and their different purposes, and pretty much everything one would need to know before taking a plane up into the air.  I have a feeling the author fudges with the timing a it, as Dorothy learns to fly in just a matter of days, while in the real world, as quick search online reveals it can take a month or two of regular, consistent training for someone to learn how to fly sufficiently to gain their private pilot's license.  I suppose, however, in a fictional tale such as this, learning to fly in a just a few days is relatively easy - especially for someone like Dorothy Dixon, who also is skilled in jiu jitsu (George Fayne, eat your heart out!) and was trained by her father in "running, boxing, fencing, swimming..." (p. 192).  Why, it seems there is nothing Dorothy Dixon can't do once she sets her mind to it!  (Gee, sound like another female teen detective?)

 

And speaking of similarities, I did find it interesting that Dorothy is the daughter of a one-parent home, yet her relationship with her father was not an affectionate one.  The author indicates that although the bond between father and daughter was strong, "especially since the mother's death some years earlier, neither was particularly demonstrative" (p. 103).  It made me stop and think that a number of these girl sleuths had only their father to raise them, although some had live-in housekeepers.  Perhaps this is why the young detectives are so strong-willed and, more often than not, well-versed in any number of physical and mental capabilities - because they were brought up with a male perspective and strong, masculine influence, which made them more capable and independent than most girls their age.

 

While a large portion of the story focuses on Dorothy's education in aviation, there is a mystery involving a robbery at the bank of which Mr. Dixon is the president.  Honestly, it's pretty obvious from the get-go who aided the thieves, but no one (including Bill and Dorothy!) seems to catch on.  The mystery takes a back-burner to the flight lessons, but once Dorothy starts to get the hang of flying, Bill suddenly reveals a hunch about there whereabouts of the thieves (in an isolated house on a hill, some miles away from town).  Rather than tell the police, the daring duo make their own way to the house and end up captives of the criminals.  It's actually a fairly exciting climax to the story, as Dorothy reveals her jiu jitsu skills, and she proves just how much she has been paying attention to her flying lessons as she takes the amphibian from the water and flies it right up to the front porch of the house where the criminals are hiding!  (Oh, and one of those criminals is not exactly who he appears to be, which made for a good twist in the story.)

 

Sainsbury is not shy about his female detective using guns (something Harriett Adams would NEVER allow for Nancy Drew!).  When Bill offers Dorothy a Colt .32 to protect herself and asks if she knows how to use it, her response is, "Certainly.  What do you expect me to do - release the safety catch and pull the trigger to see if it works?" (p. 159).  Near the end, when she flies the amphibian up to the front of the house, she does not hesitate to turn "the Browning [machine gun] into action and [send] half a belt of bullets whipping through the door," careful to "aim high [as she] had no desire to play the part of executioner" (p. 245).  Definitely not a Stratemeyer sleuth! 

 

I found the constant banter between Dorothy and Bill rather humorous, and loved that Bill playfully referred to her as "Miss Sherlock" (p. 85).  He even goes so far as to refer to himself as "Doctor Watson" (p. 89) to her Sherlock!  And I was surprised at the blatant use of brand names such as "Silvertowns" and "Goodyears" when Dorothy and Bill are discussing the kinds of tires the getaway car had (p. 90).  It's not often you see specific brand names used in a series book.

 

Finally, Sainsbury had a bit of fun at his own expense in the story.  When Bill asks Dorothy to go see a movie, she declines, informing him she has a writing club meeting that night.  She invites him to join her, but he quickly turns her down - until he learns the advisor for the group is none of than ... "Noel Sainsbury, the writer ... He was a naval aviator during the war ..." (p. 143).   How many authors have the fun of immortalizing themselves in their own stories?!

 

All four books in this series feature the same cover art, which is a scene taken right out of the second chapter, where Bill shows up to rescue Dorothy after her boat overturns.  There's no signature on the art, and like most series books of that time, no cover artist is identified on the title or copyright pages.  There are also no internal illustrations, which is typical of a lot of the Goldmith books.  The paper is also considerably cheaper, as this nearly 100 year old book has pages that are very brittle, meaning it had to be extra careful when I was reading it to make sure the pages did not crack or fall apart under my fingers.

 

While I did find the abundance of technical instructions about flying to be a bit tedious at times, the characters' banter and the mystery did more than make for it.  I found that I really enjoyed the story, and I'm looking forward to reading the next three books.

RATING:   10 pairs of yellow beach pajamas out of 10 for giving readers a spunky, new aviatrtix who is daring, adventurous, courageous, fearless, and loves to solve mysteries!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #25 - You'll Be The Death of Me

It's been ten books since the first of Miriam Lynch's entries into this series, and now I've reached the second (and final) offering by Lynch.  This book was a far cry better than her first Zebra mystery, so either she honed her mystery-writing skills between the time she wrote Time to Kill and this one, or that first book was merely a fluke (since online reviewers all seem to have nothing but praise to sing for Lynch's writing).  Either way, I found this book to be much more engaging, with a well-plotted mystery and plenty of misdirect and red herrings!

 

You'll Be The Death of Me takes small-town reporter Nell Willard  to the Belltown High School twenty-year class reunion, where long-time teacher Sarah Plunkett is being honored as she retires after years of service and Nell is there to cover the story.  Love her or hate her, everyone agrees that Mrs. Plunkett was strict, but she loved her students and only wanted to see them succeed.  But as the retiree prepares to give her speech, she suddenly collapses over the front table, dead!  Needless to say, Nell has an eyewitness account of the tragic event, and when it comes out the teacher was poisoned, Nell knows it's a mystery she must solve.  Police lieutenant Gerold Holbrow, Nell's somewhat boyfriend, is on the case, and although he warns her to stay out of the investigation, she cannot help herself.  After all, the woman had once been her teacher, and for the life of her, Nell cannot understand who would have reason to kill her.

 

Lynch gives readers a number of suspects, all with secrets and possible motives.  First, there is the chairperson of the reunion, Marion Hallison.  The woman is a mystery herself, with no known background, no photographs, and no friends.  Who is she, and how did she land the position of planning such an important event?  As Nell digs into her past, she learns that Marion may be holding a very fierce grudge against the teacher - but is it one that would give her cause to kill her?  Second, there are Stuart and Samuel Corbett, twins who served as co-presidents their senior year of high school, and who married the Bisbee twins (Grace and Gertrude).  The two couples became recluses after their marriages, and moreso after Samuel's wife died.  What secret did Sarah Plunkett uncover about the twins, and was it worth killing her?  Third, there is Suzanne Dixon, the beautiful young wife, married to the richest man in town (a man who could not bother to show up at the reunion, perhaps because he was too drunk!).  Why has she been making early morning visits to a local doctor, and what secret would make her want to leave her husband?  Finally, there is Dr. Harmon Gregory, one of the more successful members of the class, whose sole concern seems to be to care for his sickly wife, who also acts as his nurse at his office.  Is he having an affair with Suzanne Dixon, and if so, how would that justify killing a retiring teacher?

 

The mystery is definitely a puzzling one, and I admit, it had me stumped up until the very final chapter.  All of the suspects had dark secrets, but only one of them had a real motive for murder.  It is when an attempt to commit a second murder takes place (and the big clue is in that final internal illustration) that the killer's identity is finally revealed - and the motive is not all what you suspect.  It certainly took me by surprise, but it definitely made sense looking back at everything else Nell learns throughout the book. 

 

The cover art is provided by Mel Greifinger, who has provided the art on three prior Zebra Mystery Puzzlers. I love his work, as his visuals are stunning.  Sadly, I could not find any real clue on the cover (unless it is simply supposed to be the glass in front of her, which was poisoned.  The internal illustrations are drawn by Sanford Hoffman, marking his fifth book in the series.  As with all of his prior illustrations, he always outlines his scene, and he often has one part of the scene break through that outline (such as in the one to the right, where the gun is raised, breaking through the line).  This scene strikes me as odd, though, as the story indicates the person comes up behind Nell and strikes her on the head.  The object that strikes her is not mentioned, and it is not until later in the story we find out it was a gun - so to have it displayed so vividly here sort of gives away something (unless this picture on page 75 is meant to connect to the illustration on page 159; yet, the guns in each drawing appear different!).  I also find the gun and hand to be very out of proportion to the scene, since, if the person is behind Nell, wouldn't the perspective mean the hand and gun should be smaller?  Yet, in the drawing, they are considerably larger! Oh, well, I suppose that's just me being nit-picky!

 

This is definitely on my list of the top Zebra Mystery Puzzlers.  Loved the mystery, loved the characters, and loved the resolution.  It's just a shame this was the last offering by Miriam Lynch, meaning no more reporter Nell Willard solving murder mysteries...

 

RATING:  9 bottles of Silver Mist hair coloring out of 10 for a crafty, puzzling mystery that really does keep you guessing up until the end!