Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen

This is a book that I debated about getting for several months before I finally took the plunge and bought it.  As I've said in other posts, I am a huge fan of series books, so I very rarely pick up a "one-off" book that is not a part of a new series.  This book, however, caught my eye for several reasons: (1) it featured a young female lead that is forced to solve a mystery; (2) it was set in 1914, well before cell phones, computers, and other technology that makes solving crimes that much easier; and (3) the main character is an actress in silent film serials of the early 20th century.  "Cliffhanger" style stories, whether in book form or on television or film, have always piqued my interest, so after haggling with myself for a number of weeks, I finally picked it up.

Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen features young Darleen Darling, a perky little silent film star of a series of cliffhanger-style serials in the early 1900s when moving pictures were the newest big thing.  As a younger child, she was known as "Darling Darleen," but as she grows close to her teenage years, the format of the films changed, and "Darling" was changed to "Daring," as Darleen began to do a lot of stunts that left movie-goers gasping with each weekly installment of her adventures.  Her father helps develop and edit the film strips, and her mother ... well, her mother was a former circus star, dancing on tightropes, who gave up the high life to settle down once she had Darleen.  When her mother died, Darleen promised her father to always keep her feet on the ground, so she would not be taken away like her mother was ... except the life of a movie star, particularly one in cliffhanger serials, does not always lend itself to keeping one's feet on the ground.

Particularly when she is supposed to be kidnapped as a publicity stunt, but instead, she is mistaken for an orphaned heiress and kidnapped for real!

Author Anne Nesbet, a professor at the University of California (Berkley) who teaches film history, clearly has the knowledge of the world of silent films.  Her descriptions of the filming process, the sets, the production, the actors, the directors, and everything else so vividly brings to life the story and truly takes the reader into the world of Darleen Darling.  And she tells a whirlwind adventure of a twelve-year old actress who is thrust into a desperate situation where not only must she save herself, but she must help an orphaned girl her own age who is being taken advantage of by her supposed distant cousins who have been caring for her.  Both girls are kidnapped - Victorine Berryman on purpose (she's the heiress) and Darleen by accident - and the must make a (dare I say it?) daring escape if they hope to make their get-away from the kidnappers who intend on throwing them into the river!  Darleen suddenly becomes a star of her own cliffhanger story in "real life," and she must not only break her promise to her father by taking some very dangerous chances, but she must also figure out a way to rescue Victorine from her dastardly cousins and restore the young girl's fortune before the cousins steal it away from her!

The mystery is superbly plotted, and there are some definitely surprising twists when it comes to the kidnappers and the cousins (not the same people, by the way).  And while there are a few hair-raising moments when Darleen and Victorine must escape the apartment where they are being held captive and, later, when Darleen is trapped in a runaway hot air balloon - but honestly, I was hoping that with the book based upon the whole serial silent film gimmick, that each chapter (or at the very least, every other chapter) would end in some death-defying cliffhanger that would force the reader to keep reading to find out how our brave young hero would survive whatever challenge is thrown her way.  Instead, we get very few real cliffhangers, and many of the chapter endings are rather lackluster.  Now, don't get me wrong - the story is still very engaging, the characters extremely likable, and the mystery not overly easy to solve.  I still enjoyed the read and am hoping for more adventures of Daring Darleen in the future - but the lack of real "cliffhangers" kind of left me feeling like the book was missing a little something.

Nevertheless, Daring Darleen, Queen of the Screen is definitely a book I recommend, and I'll be keeping my eye on Anne Nesbet in the hopes she provides readers with more stories of this new sleuth in the future!

RATING:  9 matches, cigarettes, and cigars out of 10 for bringing merging the worlds of girl sleuths and silent film serials to create a fun new way to enjoy mysteries!