Whitman Mystery Stories - Joyce of the Secret Squadron (A Captain Midnight Adventure)

The Whitman Publishing Company definitely put out plenty of self-contained mysteries for children back in the day, and it's clear that quite a few of them were "authorized editions," containing stories about licensed characters and actual actors and actresses.  I have read several of them already, starring actresses such as Bonita Granville and Betty Grable, as well as fictional characters as such Tillie the Toiler, Boots, and Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, and for the most part, they have been pretty good.  So, whenever I'm out and about, and I see any Whitman books with fairly decent dust jackets (they don't have to be perfect), I pick them up.  This book is one of my more recent finds, and while it is no much of a mystery, it was still a fairly okay read.

Joyce of the Secret Squadron is based on the old radio show, Captain Midnight (as the tagline on the cover of the book indicates - A Captain Midnight Adventure).  While I had heard the name before, I had never actually listened to any episodes of the show, nor had I watched any of the televisions shows or films based on the character.  I also had never read any of his comic book adventures published by Fawcett Publications back in the day.  So, I went into this story with pretty much no knowledge of the characters.  Which is probably a good thing, as it gave me a fresh perspective on all of them.  What I did find interesting is that even though Joyce Ryan is toted as the main character, based on the title and the photo of one of the actresses who played the character on the radio show, she does not necessarily play a prominent part in the story.  In fact, none of the characters seem to be the "main" character - rather, Captain Midnight, Chuck Ramsay (the Captain's young ward), Joyce Ryan, and Ichabod "Ikky" Mudd (the team's mechanic) all seem to share some equal time in the story.  Thus, in effect, this really is more of a Captain Midnight adventure than a Joyce Ryan story.

As for the story itself, it is definitely more of a war tale than a mystery.  Set near the start of World War II (the book was published in 1942, after all), the Secret Squadron are engaged by the United States government to search for the missing Flying Wing - an experimental plane believed to have gone down somewhere in the Pacific, possibly near the islands where Captain Midnight and his team have their secret base.  The Captain and his team - Joyce, Chuck, and Ikky - are only more than willing to help out their government, but they find themselves first having to help Mrs. F. W. Bosmouth, who happens to be searching for her missing brother in the same area of the Pacific.  What the Captain and his gang do not realize is that Mrs. Bosmouth is actually Carla Rotan, an agent of the Barracuda, Captain Midnight's deadly nemesis.  She has been tasked with the job of not only finding the Secret Squadron's hidden base, but also to find out what they knew of the Flying Wing.  The Barracuda's forces descend upon the Secret Squadron while Carla is there, hoping to convince the Captain that she is sincere, but Joyce has her doubts about the woman - and let's face it, a woman's intuition is rarely wrong!

From here, the story becomes a search and (hopefully) rescue mission, as the Captain, Joyce, Chuck, and Ikky fly out to search the Pacific Islands for the lost Flying Wing.  They eventually locate an island, where they land and begin their search - only to face the arrival of Mrs. Bosmouth and her pilot, as well as a boat filled with some very rough men.  Joyce and Chuck come across a crashed plane, but it is not the one they are looking for - rather, it's an even older plane, whose pilot they discover has been living isolated on the island for fifteen years!  Between their distrust of Mrs. Bosmouth, their fight to keep the ruffians at bay, and their attempts to help the stranded pilot, the Secret Squadron team has their hands full.  Needless to say, all is revealed in the end, and there is even a surprising change of heart for one of the villainous characters, who provides much needed aid to the Captain and his team (this, thanks to the quick-thinking and persuasive talk of young Joyce Ryan).  There are a few air battles, ground battles, and even a battle on the ocean to keep the "excitement" in the story, and while Joyce is somewhat timid during these battles, she definitely proves her worth to the team throughout the book.

 

One thing that must be noted is that the story is definitely a product of its time, having been written not too long after the U.S. became involved in World War II.  There is some very "colorful" language used to describe the United States' enemies of the time, and the characters' references to them would certainly raise a lot of outrage in today's overly sensitive society.  But, when placed in the proper context, these derogatory names are actually appropriate, as it is what people would have called them back in the early 1940s.  Therefore, it's important to read the story with its setting and context in mind.

 

The author, R.R. Winterbotham (1904-71) was a newspaperman turned author, and he wrote several books for Whitman Publishing Company (apparently writing at least 60 books in the Big Little format, including a series of those books about a character called "Maximo, the Amazing Superman," which I will need to track down).  In addition to this Captain Midnight novel, he also wrote a Captain Midnight story in the Big Little format.  The art in this book is by Erwin L. Darwin (1906-77), which I discovered is a pseudonym for Erwin L. Hess.  Before illustrating books for Whitman, Hess was a comic book artist for Dell Publications.  While his art is not what I would call "beautiful," like some of the other artists I have seen in the Whitman books, I think his almost cartoon-style art fits for the characters.  And that is one thing I do have to say the Whitman books have going for them, at least in my opinion - they have plenty of interior illustrations and some truly great end pages.  I wish the books of today would take a page out of the books of yesteryear and give readers some great illustrations to compliment the stories!

While not really a mystery, I do think this book makes a great addition to the Whitman authorized editions and Whitman's collection of "Stories for Girls and Boys featuring your favorite characters."

RATING:  7 brand new Codographs out of 10 for