I am amazed at just how unique and, often times, quite good these Whitman mysteries for boys and girls are. I spent years passing them over, because I assumed they were of inferior nature to the Grosset & Dunlap and Cupples & Leon series, simply based on their fragile paper and their less than stellar cover art. But as I've begun reading some of them, I'm learning that they are nowhere near as bad as I thought they were! Yes, the paper is very fragile, so I have to be very careful reading them (since many of them are well over 6o and 70 years old!), and the cover art is not necessarily as beautifully painted as some of the ones by G&D or C&L. But some of the stories have been just as well written, in a few cases more so, than the more popular series books. This one, however, is not one of those.
Betty Grable and The House with the Iron Shutters is one of the "Whitman Authorized Editions," which are mysteries featuring film stars who were rather famous at the time. The Bonita Granville book I read some time ago was rather enjoyable, and the Quiz Kids mystery was a lot of fun. So, when I picked this one up, I had fairly high hopes. Now, mind you, while I recognized the name Betty Grable, I honestly had no idea who she was. I just knew she was an actress back in the day. Thus, using that handy-dandy information resource otherwise known as the Internet, I looked her up. Betty Grable (1916-1973) was more than just an actress, it seems - she was also a pin-up girl, a dancer, a model, and a singer. In 1943, when this book was published, she would have been 27 years old and has starred in more than 40 films! That's quite a career. And she did plenty more movies afterward, so one can assume that this book came out during the height of Grable's popularity.
The story opens with Betty and her friend, Loys Lester, on a unique vacation, wherein they have no set plans, but just travel from place to place by pulling out a map and blindly selecting their next destination. I had never seen the name "Loys" before, and thought it rather unusual. I looked it up and discovered it is of Greek origin, and is equivalent to the American version of "Lois." At any rate, as they are preparing to leave the hotel, Betty realizes they are not far from a city where a friend lives, so she suggests going to visit the friend - but, first, she wants to find an antique gift to bring her friend. The owner of the hotel and his wife, who both act rather shady, inform Betty that an old woman and her sister who reside in a formerly grand house up on the hill are selling off their antique furnishings, and the wife agrees to take the girls there. The woman drops them off in front of the house (that has definitely seen better days!), but she refuses to go inside, saying something about a quarrel with one of the sisters. Betty and Loys are suspicious, but needing to find a gift, they go inside, where they meet one of the sisters, Miss Ardeeta Dewitt (a/k/a Miss Deeta), and her housekeeper, Mercy. The woman does not seem happy about selling anything, but she is willing to do so - at least, until her sister, Miss Cherry Dewitt, comes downstairs. Betty and Loys can feel the tension between the two. Finding the whole situation uncomfortable, Betty and Loys decide to leave - only, the wife of the hotel owner is gone, leaving them stranded at the house! And thus begins the mystery.
From here, the story becomes not only stranger, but a bit convoluted ads well. It seems the housekeeper is afraid a ghost seen on the premises - a women dressed in white - and the Dewitt sisters confess things have been taken from the house. When a treasured bowl (one that Betty was interested in buying) goes missing, Miss Cherry blames the girls and locks them in an upstairs bedroom that has iron shutters on the window so they can't escape! Betty and Loys do not want to stay trapped in the room, but they cannot convince the sisters that they did not steal the bowl. Through a trap door in the ceiling, Betty climbs into the attic, out through a small window, and down the vines on the side of the house. She thinks of taking the car in the garage, but not only does she not find a car, but she stumbles upon a strange and gnarled old woman (Betty thinks she is a witch!) who seems to be taking things from the garage. She sees Betty and things Betty is the ghost! There's a lot of back-and-forth, misunderstandings, near-misses, and the sudden appearance of a strange man who takes Betty back into the house through the basement and forces her to help him see Miss Deeta. The story drags considerably here as Betty tries to silently steal her way back up the stairs and find Miss Deeta, but nearly gets caught and has to hide in a closet - where someone nearly finds her when they reach in to hide the supposedly stolen bowl! Everything eventually comes out, the woman in white is revealed not to be a ghost, the thief confesses, and Betty and Loys learn the truth about what is really going on in that house with the iron shutters.
Perhaps the story would not have been so hard to read had Heisenfelt not taken literal chapters (and I mean a LOT more than one) to tell the adventure of Betty after she escapes through the attic. I had to force myself to keep reading, wondering when Betty would quit questioning everything, second guessing herself on every decision, and just bravely move forward. Usually, the title characters in these books are very strong-willed and determined young women, but Betty Grable in this book comes across in most instances as very timid and weak. That, coupled with the not-so-fantastic mystery of "who stole the bowl" (which really is not too hard to figure out), led to me not enjoying this book as much as I had hoped I would.
There was one line in the book that did bring a smile to my face, though. When Betty and Loys are first locked in the shuttered bedroom, Loys voices her opinion that Miss Deeta and Mercy are scared of Miss Cherry. "Well aren't they?" Loys pursued. "Don't you wonder why the two of them don't grab the old witch and throw her into the oven--?" (p. 115). This nice little nod to the fairy tale story of Hansel and Gretel and how they escaped the witch holding them captive was a cute reference. Unfortunately, that one moment did not make up for how much the rest of the story lacked. Hopefully this is an exception to these Whitman Authorized Editions, and other books will prove better.
Before I sign off, I must mention the interior illustrations. The line drawings, by Henry E. Vallely, are beautifully rendered. Vallely provided illustrations for a number of the Whitman books, and his drawings are very detailed - just look at the wallpaper in the background of page 63, even the ornate frame around the picture on the wall. And, for the most part, his people are very nicely drawn - but his rendition of Miss Cherry is - well, there's no polite way to put it. She looks like a man dressing up as a woman! Not sure if Vallely did that intentionally to try and define her character in the illustrations, or if he just simply wanted to draw her so drastically different from her sister. In either event, she is as horrible in the illustrations as she is in the story! It's interesting to note that the end pages (at the front and back of the book) set forth a scene that actually occurs pretty much at the end of the story - thankfully, there is no clue in the picture that reveals the identity of the ghost, the thief, or even the strangers. I just found it odd that is the scene the publisher would pick to display on the end pages.
RATING:5 genuine Amelung sapphire bowls out of 10 for a half-hearted attempt to put Betty Grable into a mystery, with its saving grace being the interior illustrations.
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