The Mystery of Carlitos - the second Mexican Mystery Stories for Girls

It's been more than a year since I read Helen Randolph's first mystery stories for girls set in Mexico, and after reading that book, I was not sure if I would ever find the other two books in this series.  But not so long ago, I managed to pick up the second book in the series for a very small price!  Once again, this book is the Saalfield edition, as is the first book that I own, so it doesn't have the higher quality paper or the glossy internal illustration; but it does still have the same great story as the original A.L. Burt edition, so I'm happy with that!

The Mystery of Carlitos continues the adventures of JoAnn, Peggy, and Florence during the stay with Florence's parents in Mexico.  In the first book, Peggy and Florence helped JoAnn solve a mystery surrounding a window in the house where they are staying that has no visible way to get to, and it leads them to uncover a long lost treasure.  In this mystery, the girls have climbed up into the mountains with Florence's mother to help revive the mother's health in a clean, calm environment.  The girls encounter an extremely poor family, and JoAnn is convinced that one of the young boys in the family has blue eyes, which the others scoff at, claiming she is just looking for another mystery to solve.  Of course, it turns out the boy does have blue eyes, and there is, indeed, a mystery involving his true identity and why this family is trying to hide him up in the mountains.  They learn the boy's name is Carlitos (hence, the title to the book), and the family is protecting him from someone that is merely referred to as the "mean boss" of the coal mine where Jose works.  The girls learn that the boy's father disappeared in the mines, and the boy's mother fell sick not long thereafter and died.  Her dying wish was that Jose's wife, who was her nurse, take the boy and protect him, which they did.  But the question on the girls' minds is - protect him from what?  Why did the coal mine's boss want the boy so badly?

The excitement of the mystery is very slow to build, much like the last book, with more than the first half of the book spent in JoAnn, Peggy, and Florence meeting the family, helping provide the family with food, and even saving the life of the real son (in a somewhat incredulous way, where Florence provides CPR to the boy who has basically collapsed from both malnutrition and sunstroke).  JoAnn's questions about the boy's identity are repeated quite often, until they finally gain the family's trust, and the mother reveals the truth to the girls.  It is here that the girls determine to find any remaining family Carlitos may have in America and restore him to his rightful family.  Randolph provides a few side-stories, such as a bear that has attacked the ranch of a nearby family, taking their pigs, as well as stealing the girls' own store of bacon they had kept near a creek in order to keep it cold.  Unlike other children's mysteries of the day, Randolph has no problem with her protagonists carrying and using a gun, because JoAnn ultimately proves herself to be quite the sharpshooter, taking out the bear in the dead of night!

The climax of this mystery is actually rather exciting, as JoAnn and Florence are kidnapped by the boss, along with Carlitos, and are taken along a dangerous, steep trail during a horrific storm, destined for an unknown fate at the hands of the villain.  Of course, rescue arrives just in the nick of time, and the girls are able to unite Carlitos with an uncle he never knew he had.  

Once again, as with this first book, this one is replete with stereotypes and racism when it comes to the native Mexicans.  The girls often refer to the poor Mexicans as "peons," and continually discuss how "ignorant" the people are, and how they must rescue Carlitos from these people.  At one point, when Carlitos shows up all dirty and covered in soot after helping his father with the charcoal, Peggy remarks, "Say, Jo, your little blue-eyed Mexican seems to have turned into a little nigger" (p. 176).  I actually took a double-take on that line!  But, again, this book was copyrighted in 1936, just one year after the first book, so one must take into consideration the attitudes and beliefs of that day and not judge the author based on today's standards.  I had to remind myself of this many times while reading the book, to avoid disliking the main characters based on these disparaging views of the people of Mexico.

One interesting thing I noted about this edition of the book - the cover depicts the scene where JoAnn and Florence discover little Carlitos and his kidnapper hiding in a small cave during the storm.  The line drawing frontis piece, which is supposed to depict the same scene taken from page 215 of the story, shows Florence and JoAnn peering into the cave, like on the cover, and it shows the back of the kidnapper the same as the cover.  However, where young Carlitos is shown sitting in the background, behind the fire, on the cover, a rather seductive, villainous woman seems to have taken his place on the internal illustration (even though the line below reads "Jo Ann could see that the man and Carlitos were still crouched around the fire").  Not sure why the internal artist substituted a woman for Carlitos in that drawing, and even more confused as to how the publisher let that slip through for publication!

Overall, other than the stereotyping, it's a pretty good story.  Now, I just have to track down that third book to see how the girls finish up their stay in Mexico!

RATING:  7 candy and cake-filled pinatas out of 10 for a mystery filled with liars, kidnappers, and bears - oh, my!