So, this book appears to be the first "Mystery Stories for Girls" that Mildred Wirt (Benson) wrote for Cupples & Leon Co. Published in 1935, this book was not a part of the "Mildred Wirt's Mystery Stories for Girls," but rather, it appears to be one of the general "Mystery Stories for Girls" published by Cupples & Leon, which series also included books by Pemberton Ginther (such as The Jade Necklace, The Secret Stair, and The Thirteenth Spoon), Inola Forrester (The Door in the Mountain), and Frances Young (The Secret of the Dark House). Perhaps it was this book that prompted Cupples & Leon to create a separate line of mystery stories for girls solely by Wirt. After all, this book was actually pretty good, and I can imagine it sold pretty well back when it originally came out.
The Twin Ring Mystery is the story of Joan Bernell and her new friends, Gail Carrington (not of the Dynasty clan, mind you - this was nearly five decades before that show ever aired!) and Bob Bartley. It is a bit hard to discern just who Wirt intended the protagonist to be - Joan or Gail. The story opens with Gail waiting anxiously for Joan to arrive, concerned that Joan will not like Crystal Beach; but one Joan arrives, she somewhat takes the focus, as not only does she reveal herself (modestly, mind you) to be a fairly good swimmer, but she also takes an instant interest in the mysterious locket that is to be given as a prize for the winner of a swimming contest later in the summer. Perhaps Wirt intended the reader to accept both girls as protagonists - for while Gail, at first, has no real interest in trying to solve the mystery surrounding the locket, some of Joan's excitement and curiosity wears off on her and she begins to become just as devoted to finding out its secret history.
The mystery is a bit complicated - it involves a ship that sank in 1926 as a result of a hurricane that swept through Florida (***more on that later), an unclaimed trunk that was discovered when Gail's Aunt Ella purchased the boat and transformed it into an inn ("The Pirate Inn"), a locket that was discovered inside a secret compartment in the trunk, and a ring that the girls find hidden inside the locket (see? I told you it was complicated!). Gail and her aunt also discovered a diary inside the trunk, but it was difficult to read, so they did not look too deeply into it. Joan, however, is intrigued by the entire thing and encourages Gail and Bob to help her discover who the trunk, diary, and locket belonged to and whatever happened to her. This, of course, leads them to not only discover the girl's identity, but also, to their surprise, to learn that the ring is only one half of what is called a "gimmel ring" - two thin rings that fit together to form one ring when joined, usually used to express betrothal between a young man and woman. Needless to say, the three become more determined than ever to find out what happened to the owner - and, in true children's series book fashion, the answers lead them to someone right there in Crystal Beach and to a wonderful reunion of long-lost lovers!
Moving on to that reference to a hurricane in 1926 (p. 10), that is indeed a fact. The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 that caused devastation and catastrophic damage across the southern part of Florida, going up into the Gulf of Mexico. While the information I found online does not indicate any damage that may have occurred up around the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area, it does show that the hurricane crossed in northwesterly route, exiting land in the Fort Myers area (which is south of St. Petersburg). Now, having been through a number of hurricanes here in Florida, it could be that as it passed out into the Gulf of Mexico, the bands of the hurricane extended up into the Crystal Beach area (although whether they would have been enough to sink a ship or not, that is unknown). Regardless, it is interesting that Wirt referenced an actual event such as the hurricane and integrated it into the mystery.
Another interesting element to the story is the inscription inside the rings. The one-half of the ring found by Joan and Gail has a Latin inscription that reads "Quod Deus conjunxit" (p. 30), which, translated into English, means "What God has joined together."(And, yes, I looked it up to verify this, and it is indeed the correct Latin spelling and meaning.) Now, one would think that the phrase would have given the girls an immediate idea of what the rings meant, and what inscription the second half of the ring would have, but they don't seem to come to that conclusion until much later. Perhaps Wirt thought her readers would not readily recognize only half of the phrase, so she kept it a secret from her amateur sleuths until later in the story.
Yet another tidbit I enjoyed reading about was the play in which Gail played a role. Wirt utilizes the play to its fullest, not only in that the director and theater teacher has an integral part to the mystery, but also the play itself, "The Merchant of Venice" (p. 54). There are lines from the play that Joan hears recited (pp. 56-57) that provide her the clue she needs to realize the meaning of that Latin phrase inscribed in the gimmel ring (also spelled "gimmal"). And in case you're wondering (as I'm sure many readers of this book have wondered throughout the years), a gimmel ring consists of two rings. "One fits inside the other and is kept in place by a projection on the side of the exterior circle, so that when the ring is worn it gives the appearance of being only one instead of two" (p. 62). As Wirt has her characters relate in the book, the gimmel rings were actually popular back in the 16th and 17th centuries, often used as betrothal rings where the fiances would each wear one half of the ring until the wedding day, at which time the husband would join the ring to the one worn by the wife, and she would wear the whole ring from that day forward. Funny thing - Wirt had originally titled the book The Gimmal Ring, but the publisher, Cupples & Leon suggested it be changed to The Twin Ring Mystery (p. 63, Rediscovering Nancy Drew, ed. Dyer and Romalov, "Fulfilling a Quest for Adventure," Mildred Wirt Benson). Wonder how well the book would have done if the publishers had stuck with Wirt's original title?
One more thing to note is the emphasis on swimming in this book. As most fans of Wirt know, she was a skilled swimmer, so I guess it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that she would write about it in her books. A distraction for the characters in the book is a girls' swimming competition, for which Gail's aunt is offering up the locket as a prize to the winner. Bob offers to train Joan to enter the race, explaining the importance of building up endurance slowly (p. 79); Joan observes the form of Margery (a competitor) as she dives into the water (p. 85); Gail is taught how to perfect her leg kick (p. 99); and the girls even watch Bob, who is a lifeguard, rush into the water to save a man from drowning (pp. 113-14). Wirt provides some very detailed descriptions of these swimming efforts in ways that only someone intimately familiar with it would be able to describe with such ease.
While the ultimate ending does not truly come as much of a surprise (Wirt pretty much gives things away with the clues - but maybe that's just because I've read so many children's series books and so many mystery, and heck, even so many of Wirt's books, that I can pick up on the "tells" way ahead of time), it is still nicely told and very well written. In fact, the reuniting of the lovers separated all those years ago by a hurricane and misunderstandings has the feeling of a soap opera revelation (and I mean that in a good way!).
A final observation before I close this one out - this appears to be the first of Wirt's "Mystery Stories for Girls" written for Cupples & Leon, and it is funny the number of elements in this book that resemble those from the Nancy Drew series. There's the diary that holds such important clues as to the identity of the locket owner (The Clue in the Diary, 1932); there's the locket that holds the key to reunited loved ones (The Clue of the Broken Locket, 1934); and I would mention the whole "secret compartment in the old trunk," but that Nancy Drew book was not yet written at the time (The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk, 1940). Wirt wrote both Diary and Locket (as well as Trunk), so it leads one to wonder if perhaps she was thinking of those stories as she was writing this book (and perhaps she remembered this book when she wrote Trunk!), and the plot elements just sort of wove their way in. Only Wirt knew for sure!
At any rate, overall, this book was a really enjoyable read with a great little mystery to it. While all three of the lead characters were pretty strong, I would have to say that I preferred Joan to any of them, and I wouldn't have minded seeing her solving other mysteries. But, I suppose I will have to be satisfied with this one book, as Wirt never took these characters into any of her other stories.
(P.S. - forgot to mention - a super-wonderful friend gifted me an autographed copy of this book, signed by Wirt, which says, "This is the very first mystery I wrote under my own name!" - it is a book that I now treasure greatly and will forever be grateful to my friend for graciously giving it to me!)
RATING: 9 daring fliers from the world war out of 10 for a wonderfully plotted, well-written mystery that still holds its own today!
Now I gotta go back and read this again after MANY decades!!
ReplyDeleteI have this book but have not read it. Your review gives me the impetus to do so along with other Mildred Wirt books in my collection. I so enjoy your reviews. Thank you.
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