Shadow Cove Mystery - a mystery by Mary Constance du Bois

It seems I've been reading more and more books that are not a part of any particular series than I normally do - however, this book I can sort of shoe-horn into a "series," as I discovered after reading it that the same author wrote a previous book that actually featured one of the characters from this book - thus, I could consider this the second book in a "series" about this particular character (yeah, I know, that's probably stretching it a bit).  Anyway, I picked this up from a local antique mall a couple of years ago for several reasons - (1) it was a vintage mystery book aimed for young adults; (2) the cover art with the three girls reminded me of Nancy, Bess, and George (if you don't recognize those names, then you haven't been reading this blog!); (3) the description of the story on the inside flap of the dust jacket intrigued me; (4) it offered some very well drawn internal illustrations; and (5) on the title page, written in pencil along the left side of the page, were the words: "Review Copy - February 1940."  With all of those reasons, there was no way I could pass up this book (especially when it was priced at a mere $6.00!).

Published in 1940 by D. Appleton-Century Company, Shadow Cove Mystery is written by Mary Constance du Bois.  Personally, I have never heard of this author or this publishing house, but the back cover of the dust jacket lists eight other books written by the author and published by Appleton-Century, so apparently this was not a one-off book by the author.  As far as the publisher goes, a look online reveals this company published the first U.S. edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland back in 1865, as well as The Red Badge of Courage in 1895, along with a number of scientific and literary books over the course of its history.  So, apparently, this was no fly-by-night company that published a few things and then disappeared.  At any rate, let's take a look at the story and its characters, shall we.

The story features three main characters - "[t]hree girls, but not three sisters" as the author describes them - Patricia Goodwin (Patsy), Janet West, and Helen Elizabeth Nelson (Nelcie).  It is Nelcie's family who has rented the cabin in Shadow Cove.  The cabin is right on Lake Charney, which was named after the first Charney who discovered the lake so long ago - and whose descendant Nelcie is!  The mystery begins when the three girls go exploring and come across a deer park, where they meet a timid young girl who runs off before they can catch her name.  They later discover she is a waitress at a nearby Inn and learn her name is Nura - a nickname for Anna Voronkova.  She relates her sad backstory, telling the girls she and her younger brother and sister are orphans, their parents having died after coming to the States.  She was cared for by a family friend, but he married a woman who wants nothing to do with the children and wants to adopt them all out to separate homes!  So, Nura took her siblings and ran away, finding work at the Inn to support her little family - but, as fate would have it, she lost the job and is now faced with the threat of being forever separated from her siblings!

This turns out to be only one mystery in the book - the girls are also given a very special (and quite possibly expensive ring) from an old hermit (Dan Boone) who lives in the woods around Lake Charney.  No one knows who it belongs to, but when Nelcie loses the ring, the search is on!  It ultimately is returned to the girls under the most mysterious circumstances - a phantom appears in the early hours of the morning to leave it with the Nelcie as she is sleeping.  The phantom disappears as quickly as it appeared, leaving the girls to wonder who - or what! - it was.  Then, the girls and their friends are left with the task of finding Nura and her siblings when the three of them disappear without a trace!  It's a race against time, as they must find outrace a forest fire that has begun to spread in the area in order to find the missing family before it's too late.

The book is 310 pages in length and is, more often than not, rather slow moving.  du Bois spends a great deal of time describing the girls' treks through the woods, providing considerable exposition on the beautiful wooded area, the lake, and the Inn.  And when Patsy takes a job at the Inn to earn money to help Nura and her family, the story focuses on Patsy's adventures in waitressing, none of which has any actual bearing on the story or any of the mysteries.  The author seems to teeter back and forth between a mystery story and a simple "day-in-the-life" type of tale, and it's unclear whether the mystery elements are just incidental to the story, or if the day-in-the-life elements were included to lengthen the tale.  Regardless, there are a number of moments in the book that are less than exciting and seem to drag.

This is not the say the whole story is a loss.  I did rather enjoy the character of Dan Boone.  du Bois fleshes him out quite nicely - the girls are first warned that he is an odd character, one to be avoided; but after meeting him, they learn he is just a loner who happens to have a stutter, making it difficult for him to talk.  They make friends with him, and when they eventually learn he has been helping Nura and her brother and sister, it only endears him to the girls (and the reader!) all the more.  There is also J. Harrington Hart (Harry), a young man whose family owns the deer park.  He is a fun character, who take an instant liking to Nura, even though he can never quite seem to meet up with her (they inadvertently keep missing one another).  He provides the girls with plenty of assistance throughout the story, and his lighthearted nature makes him instantly likable.  

The forest fire element of the book, along with the fire tower where the ranger keeps a lookout for fires, definitely reminded me of those very same elements from Mildred Wirt's Timbered Treasure (1937), the third book in her Trailer Stories for Girls series.  That book was published three years prior to this one, making one consider that perhaps du Bois had read Wirt's story and those plot elements were on her mind when she wrote this book.  I also found it interesting that the story take place just south of the Canadian border (as there are many references to Canada and crossing the border in the book).  Wirt's books are often set close to the Canadian border, or even in Canada, and I found that to be an odd coincidence.  

 

One of the most interesting elements, however, is the Russian connection.  Nura a/k/a Anna (Anya) Voronkova is the daughter of Russian immigrants, who was born in France.  Nura's father was in the Great War in Russia, and escaped from the Red Terror to France, and ultimately to the United States (p. 93).  This has similarities to the original plot of the Nancy Drew mystery, The Clue in the Jewel Box, which was published in 1940, just three years after this book hit the shelves. Even though Jewel Box does not reference Russia, it is plainly obvious from that story involving refugees and lost treasures that the story is based on Russian events, just as this one is.

 

There is a fun little scene in the book where Chips does everything he can to encourage Patsy to attend the masquerade ball, and not just serve punch - even going so far as to offer "to strip his bedroom window of its curtain, aflame with scarlet poppies, that she might wear it as a domino" (p. 172)!  I found this humorous, because when Carol Burnette did a spoof of Gone With the Wind on her comedy show, her character took down the curtains from a window (curtain rod and all!) and turned it into a dress ("I saw it in the window, and I just couldn't resist it" she says!) - just as Chips wanted to do for Patsy!  And the fact the curtains in the book are "aflame with SCARLET poppies" makes it all the more amusing since Scarlett was the name of the character Carol was parodying in her skit!

While not necessarily the best book I've ever read, I would say it was worth the purchase.  And it did catch enough of my interest to make me want to find its precursor, Patsy of the Pet Shop, which is described as the "delightful story of a young girl whose love for dogs won her many friends in a strange city and placed her in the midst of a baffling mystery."  This is the same Patsy from this story, as she describes her job at the pet shop to the manager at the Inn when she applies for the waitressing job (p. 106).  I'm curious to read about Patsy's experience in the pet shop and what "baffling mystery" comes her way.

 

Before I take leave, I have to give credit to Elise Parks, who provided the wonderful illustrations in the book.  All seven illustrations (the frontispiece, plus six illustrations throughout the book) are beautifully rendered and remind me greatly of the Nancy Drew internals from the 1950s and early '60s.  The scenes are detailed, and the characters' expressions are dead-on (especially the one on page 157, where the customer at the Inn is more than angry at being served a most unexpected meal!).  

RATING:  7 hard brown mounds of dog biscuits out of 10 for confirming the fact that, when solving mysteries, three heads are always better than one!