The Crooked Signpost - a Sunshine Series story book

This book came as a complete surprise to me.  I stumbled across this at a Half-Price Book store in Indiana while visiting my friend Geoffrey, and the title alone intrigued me (considering its similarity to the Hardy Boys' title, The Sinister Signpost).  The book was a little pricey, but a search online revealed very little about the book, other than the fact that the price was not really far off from what you could buy it for online.  The inside front flap of the dust jacket describes the story as "[a] typical Canadian foursome, our four heroines set out to spend a winder holiday in the country..." and ultimately become involved in "an exciting chase after a gang of picture thieves."  A mystery involving four Canadian girls, a title similar in name to the Hardy Boys, and a hint of mystery surrounding some art thieves - I was sold!  But what I encountered while reading the story was far from what I was anticipating!

The Crooked Signpost is written by Ella Anderson.  I was not able to find anything about this author, other than some of the other books she wrote (such as The Vanishing Light, The Talking Mountain, and a few others).  However, based on the content of this particular mystery, it is clear Ms. Anderson was a Christian author. This was the first surprise that I came across while reading this book.  The Crooked Signpost is replete with references to God, Christ, and Christian living in general, and two of the four main characters are devout believers who take the opportunities presented to them to share the Gospel with their friends.  Anderson is not hesitant to have her characters explain the plan of salvation, and the prayers spoken by those characters are heartfelt and sincere.  While not the focus of the story, the two girls' desire to see their friends accept Christ fits seamlessly into the story.

The story centers around the four girls - Beatrice ("Bea") and Marcia Roberts, sisters who are traveling to visit their Aunt Joan out in the country.  With them are two of their friends, Irene Jarvis and Frances ("Fran") Kenton.  Irene is somewhat timid, as an only child whose parents are not the most loving, while Frances is much more outgoing and spunky - yet, despite their differences, they are good friends.  The four start their journey just as it begins to snow, and soon enough, they are driving in a blizzard, worried lest they get lost.  A fork in the road gives them pause, wondering which direction to go, and the signpost there is unclear as to which direction will lead to the town where they are headed.  They choose to go to the right, which is what leads them to the strange, dark house at the end of a long, winding road (and a bridge that gives way just after they cross it, leaving them stranded at the empty house).

The mystery has a familiar theme to it - the girls find the house empty and unlocked, so they let themselves in to get out of the storm.  While inside, they discover the house contains some valuable items, and Fran, whose father is an art gallery owner, recognizes, hanging on the wall, an artwork by the famous painter John Constable. (A quick look online reveals that Constable was a real painter, known for his landscapes, and as Fran describes in the book, he used a palette knight to create sharp lights in his work - Constable's Art.)  The artist's name obviously gave Anderson an opportunity for some joking among the girls, as Marcia asks, "What's a Constable?" to which Irene snappily replies, "A village policeman" (p. 26).  Even I will admit, the name Constable in the synopsis of the story threw me for a bit, because I was not aware there was a painter by that name.

The mystery kicks into gear when the girls see a man peering in at them, and later that night, chase him out of the house, where it turns out he has stolen that very painting, leaving behind a copy in its stead!  The girls try to follow the man, but quickly lose him in the storm.  The storm subsides the next day, but with their car covered in snow, the girls hike to the nearest town, intent on telling the police what happened - but upon their arrival, they find the owner of the house already there, complaining about how she was tricked into leaving her home by a fake telegram.  The girls share their story and soon learn there has been a rash of art thefts along the Maine coast recently.

That familiarity returns in full force (as a reader) when the girls' faith is revealed to the woman, who then shares her own sad story of how she has become estranged from her only son, who left some time ago and who she lost touch with over the years.  The girls have sympathy for the woman, but it is Irene who actually comes up with an idea to try and reunite the mother and son.  (Personally, I was beginning to suspect it was perhaps the son who had committed the theft, in order to obtain something he could sell in order to gain money he felt he was entitled to - after all, I've read that same plot in some other books not so long ago...)  Eventually, the girls happen across the man they saw in the window and make the mistake of following him, where he leads them into a trap that finds them being held hostage in an isolated shack!

The second surprise in this story is the fact that the front flap synopsis describes the quartet as a "Canadian foursome" - yet, in the story, the girls make mention of having come up from the south to head for their aunt's house in the country.  Since the author specifically refers to them being in Maine, unless those "Canadian" girls were going to school here in the States, I'm not sure how they could be considered Canadians.  And interestingly enough, Anderson makes a point of saying the girls are traveling on Highway 39, yet there is no such Highway in the State of Maine.  And while we are on this topic, near the end, as the girls are following the man they believe to be the art thief, the girls wonder if they will have to follow him clear to New Hampshire, to which they laugh, thinking "...it would have taken two or even three days to get there, although it was the next state" (p. 74).  I have to wonder just how slow these girls are traveling, since there is only a distance of about 215 miles from Maine to New Hampshire, which, even at only 35 miles per hour, would only take six hours - not two or three days!  (Since this book was originally published in England, I am wondering if the author was wholly unfamiliar with North American geography, which would explain these geographical errors.)

What did make me smile, however, is that when the girls are trapped inside the shack near the end of the book, they overhear their captors talk about driving them up to Canada and leaving them stranded (p. 83)!  The girls are dismayed, because "[e]ven if they did get help in Canada, these men would have the painting and be too far away to be caught. Probably going south to Florida" (p. 84).  I find these references amusing, since I live in Florida, and a very good friend lives up in Canada - so to find both of places referenced in the same paragraph in this mystery was quite a coincidence.  And what would a children's mystery be without coincidences?

The book is a relatively short one - the story begins on page 5 and ends on page 95, making it only 91 pages in length.  It has only ten chapters, with an average 9-page count for each chapter.  Yet, there is plenty of story, and it does not feel rushed at all.  The characters are nicely fleshed out, and the mystery itself, while not overly exciting (outside of the bridge collapse and the kidnapping at the end), holds up fairly well.  I enjoyed this one enough to seek out some of Anderson's other books to see if they are just as good.

RATING:  7 eighteenth century oval mirrors out of 10 for having the courage to share the message of Christ through a children's mystery story.