Mystery of the Laughing Mask - a Mystery Story for Girls

I finally got my hands on a copy of this book - one of the few Mildred Wirt (Benson) books that I didn't have yet.  This book, along with Wirt's The Twin Ring Mystery, is a part of Cupples & Leon's Mystery Stories for Girls, alongside Ginther's The Jade Necklace, The Thirteenth Spoon, and The Secret Stair, Forrester's The Door in the Mountain, Young's Secret of the Dark House, and Anson's The Dormitory Mystery.  Not to be confused with Wirt's own series of Mystery Stories for Girls, which included Ghost Gables, The Shadow Stone, The Painted Shield, among others.  This book was published in 1940, and according to Geoffrey Lapin, Wirt purchased the plot for this book from a rather famous author of science fiction books, Andre Norton (who, in reality, was Alice Mary Norton), which may explain why it is decidedly different from so many of Wirt's other published work.

Mystery of the Laughing Mask features young Gail Landreth, a sixteen-year old, dark-haired honor student at Cordell High School who works part-time as a secretary for Henry Allan, a naturalist who has taken her under his wing.  Gail and Mr. Allan interact more as friends than as employee and employer, which made me smile, since sometimes that is the relationship I seem to have with my own boss (for whom I have worked this past 15 years!).  Two mysteries fall into Gail's lap - the first involves a unique silver pin she and Mr. Allan find on the ground near a trading post in the Everglades, and the second centers around one Doctor Breckenridge, a man Mr. Allan was planning to meet in the seacoast town of Cordell Beach, who fails to appear and has mysteriously disappeared.  Neither seems to have anything to do with the other, but as any children's mystery story fan knows, they ultimately intertwine before the end of the book!

The "laughing mask" in the title of the book refers not only to the stranger carving on the silver pin, but oddly enough, it turns out to be the name of a criminal organization that is operating out of the Everglades.  Gail unwittingly stumble onto some of those secrets when she begins wearing the pin - the reactions from people she comes in contact with range from outraged to curious to suspicious.  She has no idea the importance of the pin, but when a woman tries to claim the pin, but strangely enough backs off when Gail tries to return the pain, she begins to suspect there is more to the pin than sentimental value.  

While she is dealing with this, Gail also must face one Madame Alexander.  Now, remember, this book was written in 1940, some three years before The Clue in the Jewel Box for the Nancy Drew series.  Fans of Nancy Drew may recall that there was a Madame Alexandra in Jewel Box, who played an important part of that mystery.  Well, Madame Alexander in this book plays an important part, but she is by no means as gracious as the Nancy Drew version.  In this mystery, Madame Alexander believes Doctor Breckenridge has defrauded her, planning to sell her a jade pendant, and then absconding with both her money and her jade!  (Let's stop a moment here and remember that jade jewelry also played a part of two other mysteries written by Wirt - The Deserted Yacht from the Madge Sterling series [1932], as well as The Shadow Stone from Wirt's own Mystery Stories for Girls series [1937].)  Anyway, Madame Alexander warns Breckenridge's daughter, Sara, that if her father does not provide the pendant, she will have the police arrest him and throw him in jail!  Needless to say, Gail takes an immediate interest in the matter, believing Sara's story that her father is innocent and something has happened to him.

As you can imagine, Gail stays pretty busy trying to figure both of these mysteries out, and Wirt doesn't give the poor girl a moment's rest.  Unlike so many of Wirt's mysteries, Gail is not the daughter of a widower father, nor is she an orphan.  Gail does not have a friend (or friends) who join her on the mystery - she must solve this mystery on her own, although she does have companionship in the form of Sara Breckenridge, who she is helping find the girl's missing father.  There are no real Gothic elements to the mystery, as there are in many girls' mysteries of that era; rather, this story feels almost like an adult mystery, with the secret organization, the very real threat to Doctor Breckenridge's life, and the adventures in the Everglades.  And the relationship between Gail and Mr. Allan is certainly unique, as I can't recall any other of Wirt's books that featured a secretary/boss relationship like this.  In fact, not many - if any at all! - of Wirt's protagonists actually have a job.  The very last line has Gail remarking, "I could even learn to love your old swamp, Mr. Allan, if only it would bring me another grand adventure" (p. 203).  That certainly left it open for Wirt to revisit this character in the future, had she wanted.

Another interesting element to this book (at least for me!) is that it is set in Florida, my very own home state.  However, the cities named by Wirt throughout the book - Cordell Beach and Oronto - are entirely fictional, as there are no real cities in Florida by those names.  The second one, though, made me instantly think of Toronto, and every time I came across it, my mind kept reading "Toronto" instead of "Oronto."  Not really sure where Wirt came up with these cities, but considering how close they were to the Everglades, they are likely to be situated somewhere along the southern coasts (although whether on the East or West coast, that is not so easily discernible).  

The story is not a bad one by any means, and I actually liked the character of Gail - she was very personable, somewhat cautious, but definitely curious and independent.  She makes a strong protagonist that is enjoyable to read.  

RATING:  9 exposed rolls of film out of 10 for giving readers something completely different, yet definitely readable!