Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen - Book Three: The Dead Man in the Garden

Young Aggie Morton and her cohort in crime-solving, Hector Perot, are at it again in this third volume of the Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series for children.  First, she discovered a body under the piano.  Then she found a body in the library.  Now, she and Hector come across a body in the gardens behind a posh resort and spay.  Author Marthe Jocelyn has definitely shown she has the Agatha Christie-like skills to create some very ingenuous murder mysteries, with plots that are definitely on par with some of the finest adult mystery writers.  While I still wish our protagonists were a bit older (I just don't see the fascination of children's mystery writers making their young sleuths even younger, these days - back when Nancy Drew and friends were popular, the amateur sleuths were anywhere from 16 to 18 years old - something for young readers to aspire to!  Now, it seems all the books feature protagonists who are 12 or 13 years old, pretty much the same age as their readers - which brings to question how such young children, particularly those in books set in the past, have such enormous amounts of freedom to be out and about solving crimes!), I enjoy the mysteries so much that I can forgive the young age.

The Dead Man in the Garden takes Aggie, her mother, her grandmother, and her best friend, Hector, out of London once again and to the Wellspring Hotel and Spa in Yorkshire, where it is hoped that Aggie's mother will find some healing in the spa waters there.  Aggie and Hector run into - LITERALLY - a young boy in a wheelchair who nearly gives an older guest a heart attack.  George is there in the hopes the spa will help revive life into his legs; while the gentleman is there to help him remain calm, as he has a weak heart.  Aggie and Hector make friends with George and his nurse, and Hector takes up playing croquet with George while Aggie chats with the nurse each afternoon.  But, this is Aggie and Hector we are talking about, so soon enough, a dead body turns up and the two youngsters are on the case!

Mr. Hart (you know, the man with the "heart" condition - so perfect choice of names!) is found dead in the gardens, sitting on a bench.  Aggie and Hector happen across the body while strolling with Mr. Hart's niece, Josie Upton (who is there on her honeymoon with her new husband).  There does not appear to be any readily apparent cause of death, and Dr, Baden, who runs the spa connected with the hotel, pronounces he died of a heart attack.  Aggie and Hector are not quite ready to accept this theory, since (a) Mr. Hart had been called away from the dinner table by an unexpected phone call telling him his niece had been injured, when clearly she had not been; (b) there were signs of a struggle on the back of and next to the bench; (c) a croquet mallet was missing; and (d) Aggie had noticed that Mr. Hart reacted strangely the first time he entered the spa, leading her to believe there was more to this story.  Which, of course, there is.

Jocelyn weaves a well-crafted tale that is intended to keep the reader guessing up until the very end.  She introduces a number of red herrings that keep Aggie and Hector (along with the reader) side-tracked, and she provides some fun characters, including a female undertaker, a slick hotel owner, a questionable nurse, and the return of the ever-so-nosy Augustus Fibbley (and if you remember who that is, then you'll know that his appearance results in some very interesting confrontations with Aggie and Hector!).  There are definitely a number of suspects - the niece's husband, who was upset his uncle-in-law refused to look at his work; the niece, who was set to inherit quite a bit of money upon her uncle's death; the nurse at the spa, who seems to have quite the mean streak; George's nurse, who has a few secrets of her own that she has been hiding; the doctor at the spa, who has now lost two patients in the span of just a few months; and the hotel owner, who will do just about anything to keep his hotel from facing bad publicity.  And just how does the death of poor Mr. Hart connect to the death of the elderly woman who was previously a patient at the spa (and had left the spa and hotel after becoming more ill, before finally being found dead on a park bench a few days later)?  Is there a connection, or it is pure coincidence?  Well, that's something Aggie and Hector (oh, and George, too, for he seems determined to insinuate himself into the crime-solving duo) have to figure out before another body turns up!

Now, as an adult reader, it was not really too difficult to spot the killer pretty much from the get-go - even the motive was pretty easy to see.  But I'll admit, the stolen items from the hotel guests certainly left me wondering, and the final confrontation with the killer was a thrill-ride to read!  Jocelyn definitely knows how to play up the suspense at just the right moments.  Can't wait to see what she has in store in the next book!

RATING:  10 strands of hair and a few fingernails out of 10 for another Agatha Christie-worthy tale of murder, secrets, lies, and sleuthing!

The Mystery of the Mysteriously Missing Brother (The Hearty Bros # 1) - a Hardy Boys parody

I'm always up for a good parody, especially when it pokes fun of everyone's favorite teen detectives, Nancy Drew and/or the Hardy Boys!  In this latest find, Frank and Joe Hardy - oops!  I mean, Frank and Joe HEARTY (after all, in order to constitute a parody, the names have to be changed!) are all grown up, and Frank's two sons are now set to carry on the family tradition.  But these are the Hardys ... er, I mean the Heartys ... that you may remember from your youth!  Joe is troubled, Frank is a has-been detective trying to follow in his father's footsteps, Callie is now Frank's wife and nothing like that spirited young girl of her youth, and Frank and Callie's two sons - Fenton II and James - are nothing, and I mean NOTHING, like their father and uncle!  Well, they may have more in common with their uncle...

The Mystery of the Mysteriously Missing Brother opens with Frank Hearty starting a search for his brother, Joe, who has been incommunicado for way too long.  Frank is used to Joe dropping off the grid for a while - usually when he is hiding out from the police or people he has swindled or dealers to whom he owes money - but this time, his silence has lasted way too long.  Frank is beginning to worry.  Sheriff Colic is none to eager to help, because with Joe gone, that's less crime he has to deal with.  His wife is too large and too lazy to be concerned with her brother-in-law's whereabouts.  And his sons?  Well, they are either too high or too wrapped up in their own lives to be bothered.  So it falls upon Frank to begin the search for his mysteriously missing brother, even if that means going undercover in the absolute worst part of Bayporch to find him!

But don't count Fenton II and James out of the picture.  They may seem unconcerned, but in reality, they are just as determined to find Scoops (their affectionate name for their Uncle Joe).  But they have their own ways of searching for clues - so after smoking a few bowls, Fenton II manages to remember a few details from the last time he hung out with his uncle, and so beings the Hearty Bros. search for their mysteriously missing uncle.

The book definitely takes the Hardys ... er, the Heartys ... down a dark and twisted path.  The criminal element of Bayporch is considerably worse than that of Bayport, and the amount of drugs and other crimes going on in Frank's own family is something the Stratemeyer Syndicate would have never ever allowed in their series!  But there are some humorous elements to the story and the characters, and the obliviousness of Frank to the things his family is involved with (Fenton II's "herbal" garden, Callie's special brownies, etc.) gives him a slight air of innocence in a dark underworld type of tale.  There are pointed references to the actual books, with the house on the cliff, Shore Road, the secret of the caves, the hidden harbor, and others, so fans of the Hardy Boys will enjoy those Easter eggs.  And while the author did not fill the book with explicit sex (as many authors of parodies seem wont to to do), there is a considerable amount of vulgarities, including the "f---" word, that many times feels forced for no particular reason.

I will say there is one supporting character introduced into the story that, when he is killed off near the end of the book, I was rather disappointed.  I hadn't even realized how much I liked the character until the climactic battle in the drug dealer's sanctuary that resulted in this death.  I won't spoil it by telling you who the character is, but let's just say that no one is very safe in this book.  

Now, about that cover art ... I am surprised that they can get away with using the actual cover art from The Flickering Torch Mystery by Rudy Nappi.  Sure, someone took a marker and drew things all over the art, but it's still without a doubt the same art that Nappi painted for the revised 22nd volume of the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories.  Perhaps they can claim it is a "parody" of the original cover by the addition of the sharpee-drawn bong, smoke, and God-knows what else on the cover.

And, although this is touted as book 1 in a series,and there is a reference to the Hearty Bros' next mystery at the end of the final chapter ("They didn't know it yet, but they would in The Case of the Muff Diver's Muff Cave), there does not appear to be any second book in the series, at least not on Amazon or anywhere else that I can find.  Which is not necessarily a bad thing, since, although I did get a chuckle or two out of this book, I don't know if I could sit through another one.

RATING:  5 fresh glasses of water with lemon wedges out of 10 for giving fans a parody that is NOT focused solely on sexual situations.

Short Lived Comic Series #22 - The New People (Dell Comics)

This two-book series was a totally unexpected find at the recent Daytona Beach Comic Book Convention.  I was combing through a box of vintage Dell and Gold Key comic books when I came across this series titled The New People.  The two covers were photos rather than art, and with a copyright showing 1969 "Thomas/Spelling Productions," I assumed it must be based on a television show of which I had never heard.  I did a quick search online and discovered there were only two issues of the comic, and since this dealer had both issues in beautiful condition for only $5 each, I snatched them up.  Not wanting to be spoiled, I wanted until after I read the two issues to go online and read more about the actual television show - that way, the stories would not be tainted by any knowledge of what happened in the show.

The New People was published by Dell Comics in 1970, issues one and two bearing the cover dates of January 1970 and May 1970, respectively.  The cover to the first issue is what actually caught my attention, as it shows a crashed plane in the background, with a man and a woman burned and scarred in the foreground (although the man and woman appear more like mannequins than actual people).  The cover to issue two features a photo of six of the cast members from the show, with the actors' names placed directly below each one.  The tag lines for each issue were clearly meant to grab the readers of 1970:  "Teenagers ... Marooned Forever - Survive or Die! Which Will It Be?" on issue one and "Their Chance to Change the World.  Do They Dare?  Would You?" on issue two.  Definitely a product of its time, as the late '60s and early '70s were a period of counterculture for teenagers, and this comic (and obviously the TV show) capitalized on that.

Each issue contained two stories, and the characters varied in the four stories.  Susan, Bob, Gene, George, Ginny, and Stanley were the six main characters (and the six actors featured on the cover of issue two) - yet, not all of them are in each story.  In the first story in issue one, Bob is the only main cast member to appear, as the story centers around a young man named Jamie who spots a ship floating offshore and is determined to take it and escape the island - but ultimately with devastating results.  There are a number of people in the story, but only "Ned" and "Larry" and "Hank" are the only named characters, none of whom actually appeared in the television show.  The second story features a young man named Alf, who can't stand the thought of living out his life stranded on the island and starts acting crazy.  Sue appears, and Bob is mentioned, but again, the rest of the main cast are not present.  

If I were expecting to see any of the same characters in the second issue, well, such was not the case.  The first of the two stories features Phil, a character who appeared in only four episodes of the TV show, while the rest of the characters in this tale were all new.  Rather than focusing on someone who wants off the island, this story gave us the tale of Tom, who was determined to sabotage any chance to get off the island, as he saw the island as a way to start a new society in what he deemed to be "the right way."  The second story has nothing to do with staying or leaving, but instead is a bit of a "horror" story, with a "thing" that attacks poor Carol (again, another character not in the TV show).  While there are plenty of guys and gals in this story, only three are named - "Ivan" and "Paul" and "Bob," with Bob being the only one from the TV show, and who also appeared in the first issue. 

Now - once I had read the two issues, I went online and researched a bit about the TV show.   It aired on ABC from September 1969 to January 1970 (with only 17 episodes) and told the tale of a group of college students returning from Southeast Asia when their plane goes down.  As fate would have it, all of the adults die, as do several of the students, and all who remain alive are college students.  The island turns out to be an atomic testing site for the military, but it was never used and abandoned, so the buildings are still in tact and, oddly enough, there is plenty of food and supplies (how convenient).  The island is filled with mannequins (which explains the cover to issue one of the comic!), and the college kids ultimately decide they can create a new society - a better one than the one they had with all of the adults.  Of course, this creates plenty of drama, since everyone has a different idea on what constitutes the "new" society.  The show dealt with a number of topical issues, including death, pregnancy, sexism, racism, drugs, and violence - and the six main cast members appeared in all 17 episodes, while supporting cast members, such as Jack and Laura only appeared in 6, Rube appeared in 4, Ben appeared in 3, and a few others appeared only in two each through the show's run.

 

From what I could find out, there were originally 40 college students, and since a few died from the plane crash, that only left a little more than 30 on the island.  I find it odd that the two Dell comic book issues not only avoided using all of the main cast (in fact, Susan and Bob were the only two to appear - Gene, George, Ginny, and Stanley never made an appearance in any of the stories - only on the cover of the second issue), and the remaining characters in the stories, for the most part, went unidentified.  And in two of the stories, the "villain" (if you can call them that) is killed off.  Having not seen the show, I can't say whether any of the college students died (other than those in the plane crash).  However, the whole concept for the show seems a bit dark for the times, with so much death from the plane crash.  (Of course, how many years later, ABC created another tale of a plane crash stranding people on an island with Lost., although that was not a group of rebellious teenagers and the island was definitely not your typical island.)

The interior art for the stories is actually pretty good.  Like many of the comics of that day, there are no credits to reveal who wrote the stories and who provided the art.  A search online indicates that possibly Joe Gill wrote the stories in the second issue and Frank Springer provided the art for that issue - can't say whether that's true or not, and if it is, don't know if they also wrote and drew the first issue.  However, what I can say is, the stories are decent enough - very fast-moving, since they are only 16- pages each (the only ads in the comics were on the inside front and back covers and on the back cover itself), and the art is nicely defined - the characters are distinct, the backgrounds provide the perfect settings when necessary to remind the readers that these characters are on a remote island.  Not sure why the show was cancelled, since I found a number of blog posts from people who had fond memories of watching the show.  Perhaps it was just too expensive for its time, or maybe the fact that it was a 45-minute show instead of a half-hour show turned away some viewers.  In any event, at least viewers had a few more stories after the show ended (even if they did not actually star the cast of the show).  

While not necessarily the best comics I've ever read, I am certainly glad I picked them up.  The stories did spark enough interest that I intend to hunt down episodes of the show (hopefully there are some preserved on YouTube or other online sites, since the show has never been released commercially on DVD) and see how it compares with the comic tales!

RATING:  7 bowls of poisoned soup out of 10 for expanding on a unique television show that barely had a chance and providing some interesting tales in the spirit of Lord of the Flies!

Tom Swift Inventors' Academy, Book 8 - Depth Perception

Well, it seems this month is the month of endings.  The last book in the League of Secret Heroes series - the last book in the Blackwater saga - and now the last book in the most recent Tom Swift series (Tom Swift VI, I believe ... the original series, the "Jr" series, the Wanderer series, the Archway series, the Young Inventor series, and now the Inventors' Academy series).  I always seem to put off reading the last book in a series because I know that once I read it, that is it - the end.  No more stories with characters that I have grown to love (or merely like, as the case may be).  But putting it off indefinitely won't change the fact that sooner or later I have to pick it up and read it.  And so it goes with this final Tom Swift, Inventors' Academy book.

To date, I have pretty much enjoyed the series, even though Tom is a lot younger than any of the previous series.  But Depth Perception is probably my least favorite of the series.  Previous books had at least some level of mystery mixed in with the technological aspects of the story, but this book seems more about the technology and less about any real mystery.  There is a background mystery of sorts surrounding an armored trunk that was stolen years ago and driven into a quarry that has now been turned into a lake - the truck lies at the bottom of the lake, but a legend claims the money that was in the truck was never recovered, and the thieves never made it out to tell where the money went.  However, very little time is spent on that mystery.  The focus of the book seems to be more about the submersible that Tom and his friend Noah have created and their excitement about testing it out over Spring Break when a group of students from Swift Academy is taken to a local park to show off their latest inventions for keeping the environment clean.  Of course, that also happens to be the same park where the lake now is that holds the sunken armored truck.

While it is definitely nice to see Tom Swift focused on the technology and inventions (which has been a staple of Tom Swift since the first iteration way back in the early 1900s, unlike the recent television show that seemed to forget what Tom Swift was truly about), I much prefer when there is a mystery mixed in with the tech.  Tom Swift, Sr. plays a larger role in this story, as does Mr. Swift's friend, J.J. Jefferson, who is a famous engineering genius.  It's rather cute to see how Tom and Noah are so star-struck around Mr. Jefferson (no, not THAT Mr. Jefferson - he's a dry-cleaning tychoon, not an engineering genius!), and it reminds readers that no matter how smart Tom, Noah, and their friends may be, they are still young men and women, barely in their teens, who are easily awestruck by their so-called idols in the tech world.

There is a sort-of mystery surrounding Mr. Jefferson and what he is really doing at Lake Carlopa, but even that is minor and very quickly resolved.  In fact [AND THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED ABOUT THE END OF THIS BOOK, READ NO FURTHER!!!], there are actually no bad guys whatsoever in this story and no crimes are committed.  The ideas that Tom and Noah get in their head about the boat of scuba divers anchored in the lake next to the small island there is completely off-base, and it turns out that the sinking of their sub reveals just how wrong they were about what is going on at the lake.

It's truly a shame this series didn't make it past eight books (although that is two books more than the last series in the early 2000s).  While this book may not have been the best in the series, it was still a good read, and the ghostwriter(s) have managed to develop some very fleshed out characters in Tom, Noah, Sam, and Amy.  It has been a lot of fun reading their adventures, following their camaraderie, and rooting them as they ferreted out the villains and solved the mysteries.  Perhaps at some point, Simon & Schuster will give Tom Swift another try, and when they do, I'll be here, ready and waiting.

 

RATING:  7 bag of Boldero Bandit's money out of 10 for keeping the series lighthearted and fun and giving readers a Tom Swift that they could really enjoy.

Blackwater, Part VI: Rain

And so, after two years, I have finally managed to reach the final book in the Blackwater series.  With this sixth book, the story of the Caskey family comes to its conclusion.  What began in book one, set in 1919, reaches its climax in book six, set some fifty years later, and the horrors that came to Perdido, Alabama on that Easter Sunday are finally laid bare.  Author Michael McDowell, in these six books, has created a world that, on its surface, appears to be a typical wealthy, Southern family story - but beneath that surface is something dark and sinister.  Elinor's appearance in Perdido back in 1919 started a chain reaction and introduced the Caskey family to unspeakable terrors that they have had to face for five decades - and now, with this sixth book, we are suddenly faced with the realization - was the Blackwater series really a story about the Caskey family - or has it truly just been Elinor's story all along?

Simply titled Rain, the sixth and final book, picks up a bit after the "death" of Frances Caskey.  Of course, readers know that Frances did not die; rather, she embraced her supernatural side and went with her daughter to live beneath the murky waters of the Perdido River.  But, as they have done for more than forty years, the Caskey family simply moves on, never questioning the strange events that have overtaken their lives since Elinor first came on the scene and insinuated herself into their lives.  The family members have aged, and the years pass quickly in this final chapter.  This book starts off in 1958, as Sister Haskew remains bedridden, her health (both mentally and physically) deteriorating more and more every day.  Miriam has become more and more like her grandmother, now determined to take Elinor's surviving granddaughter away from her, as payback for Elinor giving away Miriam when she was a baby.  The beginning of the end starts with the wedding of Miriam to Malcolm Strickland - while the Caskeys and half of Perdido celebrate this unusual pairing, Sister passes away upstairs in her room, the first of many deaths to come.

Queenie Strickland is the next in line, as she finds herself haunted by the ghost of her dead husband, Carl.  She is terrorized by the dead man, and it is only when her grandson, Tommy Lee Burgess, comes to live with her that the attacks seem to subside.  When Tommy Lee goes away to college, Queenie finds herself once again alone in that big house, and it is one of Ivey Sapp's relatives who finds Queenie's lifeless body on the floor of her home, two quarters (each bearing the date 1929) pressed over her eyes and the key to her house stuck in her mouth.

Oscar Caskey, now old and nearly blind, finally succumbs to the terror that is his wife's legacy, as he must face the consequences of his wife's actions.  Haunted by the ghosts of both Mary-Love and John Robert, both of whom died at the hands of Elinor's true self, Oscar is brutally murdered in his own home, found the next morning by his wife.

With the original Caskey family members now gone, that leaves only one final death, which has the most impact on not only the Caskeys, but on the entire town of Perdido.  It is the final chapters of this book that the readers is faced with realization that this series may have featured the members of the Caskey clan as they aged, married, had children, and died, it was never truly about them.  This was really the story of Elinor.  That young woman who was sitting on the bed in the hotel in Perdido as the flood waters rose.  That young woman who just happened to be seen by Oscar and rescued from her supposed fate.  That young woman who managed to not only marry Oscar Caskey, but eventually become the head of the Caskey family in pretty much every way.  Sure, Miriam took over the lumber mill, and Grace established a life in the panhandle of Florida, where her property eventually was revealed to be rich in oil.  Sure, Lilah took off for New York and created a life for herself.  But when it all boiled down to it, everything the Caskeys did, every plot they hatched, every scheme they put into motion - it all somehow involved Elinor.  And none of them - save Billy and Zaddie, who weren't truly Caskeys at all - ever knew the frightening truth of just who, or what, Elinor truly was and how her entrance into that family put into motion all of the horrifying events that resulted in so many deaths and so much destruction.

The series started with a flood that nearly destroyed Perdido and it ends with a flood that accomplishes what the first flood couldn't do.  It starts with the "birth" of Elinor, and it ends with the death of Elinor.  Blackwater is a six-book series that shows readers that the supernatural horrors of monsters and creatures from the deep are not necessarily the darkest monsters of them all.  Sometimes, it is the everyday machinations and actions of normal people that show who the true monsters in the world really are.

This has been a dark, yet enjoyable series to read, and I think I'm glad I read this as an adult - if I had read this as a 14-year old when the series was first published, I don't think I could have truly appreciated the nuances and underlying meanings of the story that I do as an adult.  Definitely a series worth reading for anyone who is a fan of horror and supernatural.

RATING:  10 exploding flame-shaped chandelier bulbs out of 10 for bringing the story full circle and providing a very satisfying conclusion to a story about the darker side of humanity.

Tom Brown's School Days - a Classics Illustrated comic adaptation

Sometimes I stumble across the most unusual finds while browsing antique malls, flea markets, and used book stores.  I've come across a number of book series that I have never heard of before, or found some rather off-beat comic books that pique my interest.  Well, on a recent trip to Kentucky to visit my father, I was wandering through Peddler's Mall (a chain of flea markets) when I happened upon an old issue of Classics Illustrated that gave me pause.  For those who may not know (since the series is not exactly as popular as it once was), Classics Illustrated was a series of comic books that gave readers some of the "greatest stories by the World's Great Authors" (or so the by-line said) in abridged, comic book form.  You can find pretty much any true classic published in this series - from Moby Dick to Rip Van Winkle to Alice in Wonderland to The Red Badge of Courage, and even a large number of lesser known books, such as The Spy, Lord Jim, The Hurricane, Kit Carson, and so many more.  Now, as a kid, I was never really interested in these comics, as I much preferred to read the actual book and get the whole story.  Even as an adult, the only Classics Illustrated comic I own (at least, up until I bought this one) is The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, which I purchased when I was doing a paper in college on the various comic book adaptations of that particular book.  Well, while I was combing through a box of comics at the Peddler Mall, I came across this particular book - and based on the title and the cover art, I knew I could not pass it up.

Prior to this, I had never heard of Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes.  The title alone was similar enough to any number of children's series books from back in the early part of the 20th century to catch my eye, but the cover, sporting a group of young men playing football, only clinched the deal.  I was pretty confident that this had to be an adaptation of yet another children's series book of which I had no knowledge.  So, I splurged the $2.00 to buy the comic and brought it home to read.  

Tom Brown's School Days tells the story of - you guessed it! - young Tom Brown, who was a spirited boy from the very beginning, and when the local school could not seem to give young Tom what he needed, his father decides to send him to a Rugby school for boys.  Once there, Tom quickly makes friends with an upper class boy named Harry East, who shows Tom the ropes.  He proves his worth at playing football and doesn't flinch when he's "initiated" by some of the older boys, and ultimately puts a bully in his place, freeing himself and some of the other younger boys from the oppression of some of the upperclassmen.  However, Tom was not exactly the picture of good behavior.  He and his friends caused their fare share of trouble, to the point where the headmasters decided something needed to be done to put Tom back on the right track.  Enter: George Arthur - a poor little fellow whose father had died, has no siblings, and is a pale, thin young boy.  Tom takes George under his wing and protects him from the antics of the older boys.  As the years pass, George grows stronger, Tom grows more stable and confident, and by the end of the tale, Tom has ended his term at Rugby and is preparing to return to London and begin his new life as an adult.

While there is no "mystery" at all in this story, which is what I normally enjoy in a children's book, the story definitely reads very much like the type of children's books that were written back in the early part of the 1900s.  It turns out, though, that Hughes actually wrote the book in 1857, and the story is set in the 1830s (which I did realize while reading the comic, as it does not indicate anywhere in the story what year it is).  The story is apparently based on the author's own experiences, with Tom being based on the author's brother and George Arthur believed to be based on Arthur Penrhyn Stanley.  The book has had both film and television adaptations (as well as this comic book adaptation), and it also had one sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford.  Thus, while it turns out Tom Brown's School Days was not actually a children's "series" book (unless you count two books as a "series"), it did turn out to be a quaint little read, and interested me enough that I am now hunting down the book version and its sequel so I can read the full story.

RATING:  7 bowls of curds out of 10 for opening my eyes to an even older children's "series" that I never knew existed!

Boots - Book Three of the League of Secret Heroes series

And so we come to the third, and final, book in the "League of Secret Heroes" trilogy.  I really don't understand this hesitancy of publishers these days to have a continuing series.  It seems pretty much every new series that comes out lasts only three books, with very few new series going beyond that.  If, like back in the day, all three books came out at once, as a "breeder" set as they have come to be known, in order to test the waters, that would be one thing.  But where only one book comes out a year, and after three books, the story is done and no more, it is a little disappointing.  Here, you grow to like the characters, you enjoy the stories, and you want to see what's going to happen next - but instead, it's "oh, here's these great three stories, and now that you know the characters and like them, we're done and moving on to the next series...."  But, it is what it is, so I guess I should just enjoy what I do have and be thankful we get some great stories for the short time they are here.

Boots is the conclusion to the League of Secret Heroes story, the follow-up to Cape and Mask (and, thus, completing the costume).  Kate Hannigan wraps up the series nicely with a story that once again mixes fiction with the real world and real characters.  This time around, Mae, Josie, and Akiko - otherwise known as the Violet Vortex, the Emerald Shield, and the Orange Inferno: the Infinity Trinity! - team up with some of history's most famous female war pilots to go overseas and rescue Zenobia and the multitude of other heroes who have been kidnapped and held captive by the evil Metallic Falcon.  But when the Falcon manages to remove the Infinity Trinity's powers, Mae, Josie, and Akiko are left with the all important question - what can three young girls without any super powers do to help save the world?

Hannigan's story provides readers with a lesson in what it means to be courageous, what it means to overcome one's fears, and what it means to rise above adversity and all odds to fulfill your dreams and accomplish your goals.  While the fictional tale of super heroes and villains and big "in the sky" battles may not be real, the historical realities of women in the war effort and the discrimination against not only women, but in particular women of color, during World War II are actual facts carefully woven into the story.  Willa Brown, Janet Harmon, the WASPs and Jane Baessler were all real life heroes who, in their own way, brought about change in the real world and the way women in the military were viewed back in the first half of the 20th century, and Hannigan flawlessly weaves these women into the story as they aid the Infinity Trinity in their mission to save the heroes of the world.

Once again, the book is interspersed with pages of comic art pages that provide visual storytelling, as drawn by artist Patrick Spaziante.  The pages are beautifully drawn, and quite frankly, I'd love nothing more than to see Hannigan and Spaziante continue telling stories of these three young heroes in comic book format (perhaps a series of graphic novels that let's readers enjoy tales of Violet Vortex, Emerald Shield, and Orange Inferno AFTER defeating the villainy of Metallic Falcon?).  

This three-book series has been a pretty fun read, and it's a shame that there won't be any more books in this series - but I guess, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end.  I would recommend this series to those who enjoy children's series books, super heroes, and/or comic books.

RATING:  8 scratchy pieces of material out of 10 for a fun mix of super heroes, historical fiction, and big battles that make reading this book "super" enjoyable!