Fran Frazer, Girl Reporter - an Archie Comics girl detective

It would seem the Golden Age of comic books actually had more interesting characters than I ever believed.  I'm aware there were some female characters from back in the first half of the 20th Century who were popular enough to headline their own titles, no matter how short lived - such as Jane Arden and Brenda Starr, just to name a couple.  And while I knew there are any number of male detective characters who made their comic book debut back in the '30 and '40s, I was not aware that there were some female detectives who also appeared back then, as well!  One of those happens to be a young photographer named Fran Frazer.  I was completely unaware of this until I glanced at one of those Archie digest-sized comic books in the grocery store recently (World of Archie Jumbo Comics no. 136, to be exact!).  The very first page of the first story inside was a tale belonging to Fran Frazer!

"One Shot Worth a Million" is a five page story written by Ian Flynn and drawn by Holly G! (yes, with an explanation point after the "G"), and it introduces readers of the 21t Century to the red-headed freelance photographer / journalist, Fran Frazer.  I was intrigued enough to pick it up.  The story obviously plays into the fun and humor that is Archie comics, but it also tells a brief, not too complicated mystery of how a crime syndicate is raiding Lodge industry shipments.  Archie is aiding Fran in her investigation (with hearts in his eyes), when along comes Veronica Lodge, who is assisting a reporter named Hal Davis, who is following up on the same scoop.  Of course, Archie and Veronica fight it out, since they each cancelled their date to "help" their respective reporters, and while they have a lovers' quarrel, Fran and Hal uncover the identity of the one helping the crime syndicate.  Again, it's a short, fun story, but it piqued my interest in this character, and I wanted to know if she is someone new, or if she were perhaps an old character being brought back into the limelight (such as Archie Comics did not long ago with Young Dr. Masters, who has been making appearances in various Archie digest comics).  

As it turns out, Fran Frazer is not someone knew; rather, she made her first appearance back in the October 1940 issue of Top Notch Comics, no. 9.  In an untitled story beginning on page 28 of that issue, Fran Frazer is described as a beautiful girl photographer who "lives in a constant whirl of romance, excitement, and danger ... caught in a maelstrom of Europe-at-war, Fran is given a roving assignment, by the famous magazine 'Strife,' to cover the tumultuous events of future history!"  Speeding into a war zone aboard a train that gets derailed, the fearless young woman jumps out with determination, telling herself, "I"m going to get some shots of this!"  As she stands amid the explosions and fire-fights around her, she snaps shots with her camera, reveling in the fact that "Sure as I'm a foot high, I'll get a bonus for these pix!"  A reporter by the name of Hal  Davis happens to be on the scene, and he hurls himself at Fran, knocking her out of the way of oncoming danger - to which she responds with indignation, of course, because he ruined one of her best pictures of the year! She tricks a local into driving her into town, leaving Hal behind, in the hopes she can scoop him - but instead finds a telegram waiting for her, telling her if she does not come through with "sensational news," she can find another job! In quick fashion, she sends a report that the troops have stormed a castle - something that has not yet happened!  Yet, with her womanly wiles, she convinces the general to "storm the palace like the knights used to do," and soon enough, that's exactly what they do, giving Fran a sensational scoop (even if her story was sent in BEFORE the storming actually took place!).  The credits for the four-page story are given to Irving Novick and Joe Blair.  Interestingly, the writer actually receives secondary credit, as Blair authored the tale. He was a regular writer for MLJ Comics (the publisher), and he created some popular Archie super-hero characters such as Fox and Inferno, besides his co-creation of Fran Frazer.  Norvick, who received the top credit, was a comic book artist who apparently worked for more than 50 years in the industry, serving as the primary artist for MLJ's superhero characters, such as the Shield, the Hangman, Steel Sterling, and others. 

The unstoppable photographer appeared again in the very next issue of Top Notch Comics, cover dated December 1940.  In another untitled tale, which begins on page 29 of this issue, this time attributed to Irving Norvick and Harvey A. Biern, Fran is described as having "proven that, in spite of her sex, she is a better man that any of her male revivals."  For this story, Fran is sent off to Murania to get a picture interview with King Farol, only to discover that her competition, Hal Davis, is also heading to Murania - "for his health," he claims.  By pure coincidence, Fran saves a dog from being run over by a plane taking off, and it turns out the dog is the favorite dane of the crown Prince Miklas.  Upon meeting the prince, he offers her a ride to the palace, leaving a frustrated Hal behind!  At the palace, the prince confides in Fran that one Madame Mupescu has been wrongfully influencing the king to turn over his country's oil fields to the Nazis! Before you know it, Fran finds herself kidnapped, right along with Hal - but through a fortunate hole in the floor of the cell where she is being held, Fran manages to snap some pictures of the enemies plotting against the king!  She tosses the film out the window, where Prince Miklas' dog is waiting - who then carries the film to the prince, who shows the photos to his father, and the criminals' plans are thwarted!  All thanks to Fran Frazer and her photographs!  Once again, she saves the day in a simple, four-page story that packs more story in it than four issues of today's comics!  As far as the writer goes, I could not find much information on Biern, other than the fact that he is credited with writing a number of stories for Top Notch Comics, and at least one story in Blue Ribbon Comics (another MLJ title of that time).

Fran Frazer continued to take photos and stop criminals in every issue of Top Notch Comics from October 1940 through issue 25, published with a cover date of March 1942.  This final four-page story starts on page 25 of this issue, and it provides no credits as to writer or artist.  The art, however, is plainly different from that of the earlier stories, leading one to believe that Norvick was no longer providing the art by this point.  This tale opens with a German military man parachuting down behind Russian lines - where, it just so happens, Fran Frazer and Hal Davis are bicycling back from the war front, where they failed to get any story.  Hal spots the parachute, and the two race to intercept him.  Sadly, they don't find him, but wehen they report the incident to general headquarters, Fran is observant enough to spot the mud on the general's boots - and soon enough, the two are being arrested! Thinking quick, Fran tricks the general, and she and Hal sneak into the general's office, where they find a secret staircase into the cellar - where they discover a German about to do away with the real general! Hal dukes it out with the German, and Fran uses her wits, and a pair of tongs to pull a coal from the furnace and drop it into the back pocket of the German's pants, giving him a real hot seat!  Hal and the real general quickly overcome him, where Fran reveals it was clear the German intended to kill the general and take his place!  This last story ends with no final caption and no tagline as to seeing Fran Frazer in any future issues.  Thus, Fran Frazer's career seemingly ended in 1942...

Flash-foward 82 years (literally! from March 1942 to March 2024!), and Fran Frazer was given new life (and a fresh new look, to boot!), as she was brought into the modern world in that issue of World of Archie Jumbo Comics discussed above.  But she did not stop there.  The very next month, Fran Frazer made her second modern appearance in the April 2024 issue of Betty & Veronica Jumbo Comics issue no. 322.  "Only Mysteries in the Building" is the name of the story, obviously a take-off of the popular television drama, Only Murders in the Building.  The writer and artist for this second modern tale are not the same as the first, as this time, Tom DeFalco provides the story and Bill Golliher provides the pencils.  DeFalco is a long-time comic writer, usually associated with his tenure and work at Marvel Comics, having written long runs on titles such as Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, and Fantastic Four.  I did not realize he did work for Archie Comics, but doing a bit of quick research reveals that he has provided stories for Archie going back as far as 1974!  Golliher is an unknown to me, but apparently he has been doing work for Archie for several years now.  His art is definitely the standard Archie-style, with the characters looking like what you would imagine Archie and his gang to look.

Strangely, DeFalco changes Fran's occupation from a freelance photographer to a young woman who "beautiful, brave, and resourceful, she lives in a whirlwind of excitement, solving mysteries for her true crime podcast."  Which is quite odd, considering the history of the character as a news photographer, and her appearance just one month prior as a freelance journalist and photographer.  The change is jarring, but the story is still full of silliness that is Archie Comics.  The mystery begins when Ms. Grundy is unable to find her English final exam - who took it and why?  Betty and Veronica trail along with Fran as she questions suspects - Reggie Mantle, Simon Silverstein, Principal Weatherbee, Coach Clayton, and even Big Moose!  But none of them have any information on the missing final exam - leaving the girls only one final suspect, Mr. Svenson, the school custodian, who happens to be dumping trash that he has collected from all of the classrooms into the garbage compactor.  It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it, and Fran Frazer is never afraid of getting her hands dirty if it means solving a case!  Of course, digging through all that garbage leaves them with quite a mess to clean up after.  

I haven't seen any indication of any Fran Frazer stories in any of the upcoming Archie Comics releases, but I'm holding out hope that this is not the last we've seen of Fran Frazer.  In fact, I wouldn't mind seeing an entire comic devoted to our intrepid journalist / photographer / podcaster!  This is too good of a character for Archie to let fall by the wayside.  After all, they brought her back after 80 years, so surely she deserves more than just two stories!  (And let's see some friendly competition between her and Hal Davis - after all, he's had 80 years to sit around and think about all the times she scooped him on stories back in the early 1940s!)

 

 ***A special acknowledgement to The Digital Comic Museum, who has preserved the Golden Age issues of Top Notch Comics and made them available for readers like me who could otherwise never read the stories contained therein!  You can find the Fran Frazer stories in those issues at their website (Fran Frazer in Top Notch Comics).

RATING:  9 episodes of a true crime podcast out of 10 for breathing new life into a Golden Age character that deserves a second chance in the comic world - and introducing new readers to a female crime-solver worthy of attention!

The Dornstein Icon - an Avon Gothic original

I have to make a confession about this book before I even start this blog post.  The sole reason I bought this book is because a friend of mine had shown me the cover to the book, and we laughed about the comparisons it has to the second cover art to the Nancy Drew mystery, The Hidden Window Mystery.  Yes, the similarities are slight, but there are enough common elements that when I happened across the book in my local used bookstore, I went ahead and picked it up.  It has been sitting on my shelf for several years now, and I finally decided it was about time I read it.  

 

The Dornstein Icon provides that tagline that "[a] young American becomes a terrified prisoner and an unwilling bride in a castle in Austria" on its cover.  It tells the story of Caroline Dudley, who work for an American art dealer, Greg Alpert.  She was a student of art in college, and she has just started in her career with Greg.  The two are in Vienna, where Greg is hoping to return some very valuable art objects to their rightful owners, including an extremely old "icon" to a prominent Austrian family.  Now, I'll admit, I wasn't sure what an "icon" was in art world terms, so I had to look it up.  It turns out an icon is a religious work of art, usually a painting of a sacred image - in this instance, it is a small painting of the Holy Mother, Mary.  Caroline is excited about being in Vienna, and she is anxious to meet the Graf Rudolf von Dornstein, whose home they will be visiting so Greg can show him the numerous items in the hopes of returning some of the lost items to their rightful owner.

The mystery that presents itself as soon as Caroline and Greg arrive at the Dornstein manor is actually pretty dark.  There's a strange old man who seems to dance erratically in the garden and around the grounds' fountain.  Soon enough, he attacks Caroline, nearly choking the life from her.  He is revealed to be Rudolf's uncle, who became mentally unstable after the war with the Turks.  Then there's Rudolf's mother, the Countess von Dornstein.  She is friendly enough, yet when shown the Dornstein Icon, it is clear that she recognizes it immediately - so why does she deny its authenticity after her son sternly tells her to reconsider?  And then there is Rudolf von Dornstein himself.  Like hot and cold running water, he switches from the kind and considerate lord of the manor to the brash and domineering despot who demands obedience from those around him.  Caroline is not sure what to think, but she and Greg begin to realize something is wrong when Rudolf sends Greg's car down into the village to be "repaired," leaving them stuck at the castle.  Are they truly guests, or have they become captives with something much more sinister in mind?

 

I recently read some commentary about the author, Janet Louise Roberts, who was dubbed "The Mistress of Romantic Mystery," and who wrote quite a number of gothic and romance novels under her own name, as well as under pseudonyms such as Louisa Bronte, Rebecca Danton, and Janette Radcliffe.  According to an interview she gave to Publishers Weekly, Roberts used pseudonyms "to avoid embarrassing her father, a missionary in a rather conservative church."  Another blog I discovered gives some background information on Roberts (The Compleat Janet Louise Roberts), including a quote from essayist Barbara E. Kemp from the book, Twentieth-Century Romance and Historical Writers, in which Kemp opines that Roberts portrays women in her novels "as ineffectual beings, subject to much degradation," and that the men are"rough and overbearing..."  I have to say, that is a pretty apt description of the characters in this book.  

The manner in which Roberts writes poor Caroline is extremely submissive.  In the beginning, I thought Caroline was going to be a strong character, who would prove herself by overcoming and solving whatever mystery lie ahead at the Dornstein's estate.  Instead, she gets drugged repeatedly, to the point where she willingly subjects herself to a very unusual wedding in the family's crypt under the house.  And yet, despite Rudolf von Dornstein's actions, she still wavers back and forth between loving him and distrusting his action!  I mean, c'mon, seriously?  What woman is going to be knowingly poisoned by a man who is holding her captive and still believe he is a good person?  I think that takes the whole "suspension of disbelief" way too far.  And the overbearing, controlling manner in which Rudolf treats poor Caroline, I just can't imagine any woman falling for that kind of man (or, at least, if she does fall for him, why would she continue to accept such treatment?).  Thus, based on this story, I'd have to say Kemp gives an accurate description of Roberts' portrayal of women and men in her novels.

Regardless of the characterizations, however, I will say the mystery does resolve nicely.  Are the treasures truly the Dornstein's missing heirlooms, or are they fakes?  How does Rudolf's actions tie into the answer to that question?  And what is Greg's part in this whole drama?  The final revelation results in a rather tense cliff-side battle where two of the characters meet their untimely demise!

The cover art is beautifully rendered, with Caroline running through the Dornstein's manor, the only lights streaming through a stained-glass window behind her.  The emptiness and gloom of the manor, with its rock floor and walls, the empty dining room in the background, and the look of desperation on Caroline's face give the reader a clue as to the intensity of the story that is held behind the cover.  I'm not really sure the import of the stained glass, though, as the only mention of stained glass in the story is the fact that one of Caroline's artist friends actually did work with such glass. It does not really play into the mystery at all, particularly since the "icon" in question is a painting of the Virgin Mary.  I guess it was simply used to make a beautiful cover.

RATING:  6 pairs of sapphire drop earrings out of 10 for creating a dark and sinister mood of fear, dark motives, and desperation - all necessary elements of a good gothic tale!

Mystery in Hollywood - A Cassandra Mystery #3

It's been a bit since I read the second Cassandra Best mystery, so decided it was time to pull down the third book off my "to be read" stack and see whether it measures up to the previous books in the series.  I have been enjoying the series more than I anticipated, and I find the character is a bit of an in-betweener - somewhat in-between Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew.  She's not as perfect as Nancy Drew, but she's not quite as down-to-earth as Trixie Belden.  She's somewhere in the middle, hailing from a midwestern town, without the financial resources to just go taking off whenever she pleases to solve a mystery.  Hence, author Jennifer Austin provides her with a wealthy best friend (a/k/a Alexandra Bennett, whose name I still love and have to wonder if it comes from two of the main stars of Dark Shadows...), who is not only the source of the mysteries Cassandra loves to solve, but she also provides all the necessary finances for Cassandra to go where she is needed!

Mystery in Hollywood ... well, the title pretty much gives away everything you need to know about this one.  Cassandra Best (actually, for those who do not recall, it's Cassandra B. Jones, but she calls herself Cassandra Best when she's solving crimes!) is called out to Hollywood by her friend, Alex, who is there on assignment for her father's newspaper.  She is there to get a story involving rock superstar Rod Taggart, who is acting in his very first film - but if the accidents keep happening, it may also be his last!  Yes, it appears to be a case of sabotage, which apparently was already becoming a trope of mystery stories even back in the early 1990s.  Thankfully, the author does give it some interesting twists, because all of the "accidents" seem to be focused on Rod himself, making Cassandra and Alex wonder if someone is truly out to end the star's career.

At only 157 pages, it's not like we can have a lot of details, so sadly, we don't get a lot of in-depth description of the Hollywood sets and soundstages, nor of the majestic homes of the rich and famous; yet, the author does not leave out all details.  We do get some limited descriptions that do remind the reader just how "fake" the movie sets are - such as the styrofoam grave stones, the mock streets from various time periods, and the hustle and bustle of the crew working on a film.  Plus, with a shorter story like this, the action moves along pretty quickly - so we get overhead lights that fall down unexpectedly; poisoned tea; a prop gun loaded with real bullets; a warehouse set on fire; a near-drowning in a jacuzzi; and a stand-off where Cassandra has to prove just how good of an actress she can be.  As such, you can definitely say the story is a page-turner, as it keeps you moving from one chapter to the next, just to see what could possibly happen ... well, next!

And lest we forget about him, Peter Wentworth makes an appearance (albeit via telephone), when Cassandra calls him for aid in getting information about the rock star and his ex-girlfriend. I suppose the author wanted to keep Cassandra's love interest in the picture so that readers did not get the mistaken idea she might be falling for Rod Taggart or any of the other Hollywood types.  His appearances are basically plot devices used to provide Cassandra with the information she needs to move the mystery forward to its conclusion; although, without the internet and handy-dandy cell phones, I suppose Cassandra would have needed someone else to find the information, since it's not like she had easy access to a library while investigating the sabotage on the set.

Now, as those who recall my post about the second book in this series, Race Against Time, that book seemed to mirror elements regarding the stolen horse from Nancy Drew's 66th mystery by the same name.  Oddly enough, this mystery pulls elements from the same Nancy Drew book, only with regard to the movie being filmed.  Both mysteries deal with a horror movie being filmed; both stories have jealous ex-girlfriends; both cases involve sabotage; both tales have a deadly fire set by someone to cover their tracks; and both books have a famous individual (a cinematographer in the Nancy Drew story, a rock star in the Cassandra Best story) who helps move the mystery along.

Nancy Drew's Race Against Time was published in 1982, while this series was not published until 1990, so it is feasible that the author (or whomever created the outlines / plots for these books) may have read the Nancy Drew novel and some of those plot elements stuck in their mind.  Then again, it could be written off as mere coincidence, which we all know plays heavily into the children's mystery series world, so why not in real life as well?

 

On a final note, this book has a special thanks given to Robin Stevenson, just like the first book did.  At first I wondered if this was the same person as the author of the "Murder Most Unladylike" series that I read, but it turns out that author is Robin Stevens (less the "on" at the end).  So, not sure who this person is, but apparently the author appreciated them enough to give them a nod on the copyright page!

Overall, I enjoyed the story, although probably not as much as I did the first two books in the series.  There's only one book left to read, so here's hoping the final book in the series ends on a high note!

RATING:  6 black terrycloth bath robes out of 10 for at least sending Cassandra and Alex to a locale that is a perfect setting for a good murder mystery, as in Hollywood, you never know what's real and what's not!

Carnival in Peyton Place - the second Peyton Place novel by Roger Fuller

Okay, it's time to return to that small New England town that has more drama going on within its city limits than every soap opera on TV put together!  This is the second book in author Roger Fuller's continuing stories of the townsfolk of Peyton Place. These stories give readers a chance to see some of the other people in Peyton Place, outside of the main characters from Grace Metalious's original two novels.  As with the first of Fuller's books, there are a few of the original characters who are mentioned or make a quick appearance, but this is not their story.  Also, as with Fuller's first story, this one is not really a sequel to Metalious's books, but rather, a story that runs concurrent with the events from those books.  And so, with this second book, we get a look at a new family who has some secrets of their own...

 

Carnival in Peyton Place is the story of the Welles family.  Unlike the Romeo/Juliet story of the Bramble and Welsh children from the prior book, this story takes a close look at four of the five members of the Welles family.  Lew Welles is the father, driven by a mad desire to be successful and a better man in the community than anyone, including Leslie Harrington.  Kathy Welles is his wife, who lost her arm years prior in a carnival fun house accident (more on that later).  Jim Welles is the only son, who has decided to follow his calling to be a minister.  Dina Welles is the oldest daughter, who has managed for years to keep every boy at bay and never once letting them get to even "first base."  And then there is Roberta, the youngest daughter and youngest of the three children, who, by the end of the story, is the only one in the family not keeping secrets.  It seems this one Labor Day weekend, when the carnival has come to town, all of the Welles' secrets are about to explode...

Let's start with Kathy Welles, shall we?  Formerly Kathy Ellsworth, we last saw her in the original Peyton Place novel by Grace Metalious.  She was friends with Allison MacKenzie, and she suffers a terrible trauma when a fun house accident results in the loss of one of her arms.  Of course, Leslie Harrington manages to win the lawsuit, paying out a miserly $2,500 to the young girl, despite her life being forever changed.  With this book, Fuller goes into considerable more detail as to what led to the incident, including Kathy first pregnancy, her doubts about whether Lew truly loves her, and her post-accident ability to rationalize anything to avoid dealing with the possibility that her own boyfriend may have been the one who pushed her that night at the carnival!  It's easy to sympathize with Kathy, as throughout the story, she proves herself capable of not only taking care of herself (despite having only one arm), but of also taking care of everyone around her.  You begin to realize, though, that she is overcompensating, and that she is not as oblivious to her husband philandering as others might think.

Which leads us to Lew Welles.  Lew is a man on a mission.  Coming from a poor background, Lew proved himself quite the pharmaceutical salesman, quickly working his way up in the company until he made a name for himself.  He fell in love with Kathy Ellsworth, but he did not want to start a family until much later in life - until fate intervenes, and Kathy ends up pregnant at 16, despite their use of protection (which, interestingly enough, is carefully talked around without actually saying it).  After her carnival accident, she loses the baby, but Lew feels guilty, so he marries her over her parents' objections.  Their life seems good at first, but Lew is drafted into the war, and everything changes.  He finds his desire for a "whole" woman leads him to cheat on his wife again and again, even after he returns home and they have children.  His latest affair - with the woman who plays the organ at their church! - may be his undoing, as it is not the secret he thinks it is.

And poor Jim Welles.  He has wondered through high school and college, unsure of what to do with his life.  At odds with his father over his political and social beliefs, Jim eventually believes he has been called to become a minister, and so he settles down and begins studying hard to do God's work.  But even that does not seem to satisfy his father.  On the night before the carnival opens, Jim makes his way down to the carnies, where the pre-opening night shenanigans include gambling, drinking, and some ladies who are more than willing to offer services that would never be permitted during the day!  Jim partakes of the taste of sin, only to stagger home full of regret and shame.  How can he be a minister if he falls prey to a sinful life so easily?  Is he truly called to be a minister, or is this simply another in his long list of failures that he calls a life?  Perhaps a confrontation with his father is what he needs to truly find himself once and for all.

Last, but by far not least, we come to Dina Welles.  A brilliant student at school.  Always courteous and well-mannered, and a symbol of virtue and propriety, never once letting any boy take advantage of her the way they do other girls her age.  In fact, she is called frigid, and the boys find her a challenge, hoping to be the "one" that opens her up (in more ways than one!).  But what none of them knows - in fact, only one person other than she knows - is that she has a horrific reason for being the way she is.  You see, her Uncle George ... the man she looked up to most in the world ... the man she admired and sought to please more than her own father ... the man that took her under his wing and taught her how to fish ... he also is the one that took her virginity by the most vile act a man can commit upon a woman, and that was when she was only fourteen-years old!  She has held that secret for years, and when her Uncle George kills himself (accidentally, the townsfolk believe, but Dina knows otherwise), will she finally be free of this cursed memory that has kept her from finding and experiencing love?

Labor Day arrives, the carnival opens, and all the walls in the Welles household come tumbling down.  While the book starts off at a slow pace, feeding the reader background information on each of the characters piece-meal by switching back and forth between the "present" and the past, it does gradually pick up speed, and by the final act, the story becomes a real page-turner that can't be put down.  Despite their flaws, Fuller creates characters that you come to not only care about, but that you can sympathize with and, to some degree, understand their actions.  That final confrontation between Lew and his son, Jim, is worth the read just by itself.  I honestly thought Fuller was leading in one direction with Jim, and he even hints at it, but perhaps because of the time period this was written, he could not go down that path (the same path I thought Metalious was taking with poor Norman in that first Peyton Place novel). 

I am definitely enjoying this series and how Fuller is building upon the characters and situations that saw little to no time in Metalious' two books.  Now that we've seen the Bramble, Welsh, and Welles families, I am anxious to see what families will face drama in the next book in this series...

RATING:  7 bottles of liver and iron tonic out of 10 for creating fresh drama for the denizens of Peyton Place to face.

The Girl Flyers on Adventure Island (The Girl Flyers Series, Book 2 of 2)

This second book in The Girl Flyers series was a gift from a wonderful friend who found out I had bought the first book, so he graciously gave me this book so I would have a complete set.  The first book was a fairly decent read, so I had expectations that this one would be just as good.  The inside front flap of the dust jacket provides the exact same blurb that was used with the first book, so going into the story, I had no idea what to expect from it, as the blurb only gave a general overview of the series as a whole (and, surprisingly, gives away the identity of the culprits from the first book).  

The Girl Flyers on Adventure Island picks up very shortly after the ending of the first book. This is a rare occurrence in series books, as they usually do not connect with one another so closely.  Terry and Prim Mapes are flying down to South America on a mission to purchase the land on which their father, Dick Mapes, had established his flying field.  The option to purchase the land is just about ready to expire, and the girls must make it to the wilds of Peru to get the money to Peter Langley before their father's competition, Joe Arnold, convinces Langley to sell it to him.  Now, I did find it rather odd that the author makes several references to the events of the last book, yet fails to answer the question of how Joe Arnold and his lackey, Bud Hyslop, escaped their fate from the end of the last story (those that may recall, Joe's plane was crashing towards the water in a fog bank, where they were believed to have lost their lives!).  I guess that is one mystery that will remain unsolved...

From the stops along the way, the author has the girls travel down the East Coast, and they eventually make a stop in Miami before heading on to Havana - readers even get a too-brief mention of the "keys and reefs of the Florida coast spread out flat on the blue water" (p. 29).  Then, upon arriving in Havana, they sign "the grim old Morro Castle, the Spanish fort" (p. 29), which is actually a real place - Castillo del Morro, a defense fort located at the etrnce of the Port of Havana.  It is here where the girls are forced to wait for the arrival of their father's students, Allan and Syd - a fact that displeases Terry very much (as she believes her father thinks the two girls cannot handle the job without the boys there to watch over them!).  It turns out, though, the boys just want to join the fun as a bit of vacation and have no intention on interfering with the girls' task - but when they find out Joe Arnold is tailing them, the four decide it is a good thing they are all together to face the enemy.

It's not until Chapter III - Tropic Storm that the story takes on the more dangerous elements.  Terry and Prim in their Skybird, and the boys in their Fleetwings, try to escape a horrific storm in the Caribbean but end up flying right into it.  Their planes are put through the worst of tests, and by the time they come out of the other side of the storm, the girls are forced to land at the first island they come upon.  Before they even have a chance to think about repairs to the plane, they come face to face with Joe Arnold and Bud Hyslop, who are engaged in some rather illegal activities on the island - using the natives of the island as their slave labor!  Needless to say, they have no intention of letting the girls leave and reveal their location to the authorities, so Terry and Prim are taken captive while Bud takes off with the Skybird!  But, as is usually the case with situations like this in series books, the natives befriend the girls due to Joe Arnold's horrific treatment of them, and they eventually help the girls escape the clutches of the villains!

"Adventure Island" is an apt description of the island, for there is plenty of adventure that the girls experience while there.  The author has them traipsing through the jungle, hiding in native huts, exploring hidden caves, and doing everything they can to outwit their enemies.  The manner in which they signal for help is rather creative, but it's all too convenient that the boys happen to fly over the island and see it at just the right time.  Once again, coincidence is the go-to trope for series book authors.  

While there was never any third book published in this series, the end of the story does indicate that the girls would "face grave dangers and many times would escape with their lives only be a hair's breadth" in the Land of the Incas, leading one to think the next book might have been titled The Girl Flyers in the Land of the Incas had one been published.  And since Terry and Prim outwitted Joe and Bud by getting to Langley and paying him for their father's land before the option expired, it can be speculated that the two dastardly men would have appeared once again in the third book to compete against the girls in searching for the lost Incan treasure!

Something else I noticed in these books is that like nearly all Goldsmith books I've read, the first chapter begins on page 11 - however, unlike the other books, this one actually has 10 pages prior to it (most of them simply being blank pages).  That came as a surprise, since most of them only have 8 pages or less before that first page of the first chapter - so it was a refreshing surprise to see the page number actually match the number of pages.

The cover art, again provided by "F. Rigney" and, like the first book, features a very unexciting scene of the girls with a man who readers can assume is either their father or perhaps one of the men who serviced the plane at any one of the stops along the way down to Peru.  There is no sense of danger, no sense of mystery, and honestly, no sense of adventure to the cover at all.  Perhaps if the cover art for these two books had featured scenes with a little more drama, the books may have drawn more readers to them and sold well enough to warrant at least one more book.  But, alas, the Girl Flyers only had the two adventures - in Canada and in the Caribbean - before hanging up their flying togs.

RATING:  8 silver necklaces with bright pendants out of 10 for adventure, danger, and a nice send-off story for the Girl Flyers!

Gypsies of the Air (The Girl Flyers Series, Book 1 of 2)

This book is the first of a two-book series that I have heard about for many years, but which I had never had any real interest in picking up.  I know there was discussion about the real identity of the author (as the name Bess Moyer is considered a pseudonym, like so many others used for children's books back in the day); but I'm unaware of anyone actually uncovering Moyer's true identity, although there has certainly been speculation.  Nevertheless, when I happened across this book at Atlanta Vintage Books last year, I decided to pick it up.  Since the series only consists of two books (which is surprising, since most series of that time at least managed to open up with three books - even the short-lived Madge Sterling series had three books!), I figured they should be easy reads.  After all, they were published by Goldsmith and consisted of only 110 pages of story (similar to the Madge Sterling books, also published by Goldsmith).

Gypsies of the Air is the first of the Girl Flyers series.  As described on the inside front flap of the dust jacket, the series is about Terry and Prim, "two high spirited and adventurous girls, who have been taught to fly by their father."  Their father, Dick Mapes, was proud of his daughters and encouraged their flying, but their mother, Alice Mapes, was not quite so thrilled about their adventures in the sky.  Fortunately for her, though, Terry was the truly adventurous one, dedicating her life to learning all she could about airplanes and flying, while her sister, Prim, who did learn to fly a plane, was more than happy to stay on the ground.  Sort of like George and Bess (and you KNOW who they are!), the girls are described in the book as opposites - Terry is "tall for her age, slightly built, high-strung, and nervous, while Prim was inclined to be plump and rosy" (p. 17).  It is said that Prim "was easy-going, practical and diplomatic.  She could get along with any one, while Terry with her quick tongue was always getting into trouble and making enemies" (p. 17).  Yet, despite all of these differences, the two sisters are the best of chums.

The story centers around the disappearance of Allan and Sydney, two young men who Dick Mapes is teaching to fly.  They head off in a plane to fly across the Atlantic, but they disappear before their planned stop in Newfoundland.  Terry convince her father to let her and Prim go off in search of them, and the story takes off (no pun intended!) from that point.  The girls locate a downed plane, but it turns out to be one that was taken by their father's right-hand man, Bud, who had said he was heading down to Florida.  Why was his plane up North?  And why was Bud nowhere to be found?  The girls soon find the answers to that, and those answers lead them into a whole heap of trouble!  Joe Arnold, who is a neighbor and Dick Mapes' biggest competition, is willing to do anything necessary to put the girls' father out of business and take over the land Mapes' currently leases.  That includes kidnapping Allan and Sydney, and now Terry and Prim!  But the girls find aid in a newfound friend, a young girl named Alice, who is instrumental in helping them escape and rescue the two young men.

Despite how short the story is compared with most children's mysteries of the time (this book being published in 1932), it is actually rather engaging.  The descriptions are not necessarily as flowery as other series books, and the action moves along at a much quicker pace - but it makes for a quick, easy read that is, ultimately, enjoyable.  Terry is definitely the more quirky of the two sisters, and her character gets fleshed out considerable more than poor Prim.  Prim's purpose seems to be for no other reason than to keep her sister in check.  We do get some backstory on their father, Dick, who is confined to a wheelchair due to an injury sustained in a plane crash (which they suspect was a result of sabotage by Arnold), but we see very little of the girls' mother.  Allan and Sydney are the "gentlemen in distress" for the book, because it is the girls who have to save them, not the other way around as is usually the case.  It's a nice gender flip to see the girls presented as the stronger characters, not needing the men to bail them out. 

What is surprising is how the story ends - with the girls rescuing the boys, leaving Arnold and his cohort in crime believed to have crashed into the sea in a swirl of fog, lost to the waters below.  Not many children's series books end with the crooks believed to be dead!  But, of course, it doesn't come right and say they crashed and died, so it does leave it open for them to return...

 

Part of the story takes place in Harbor Grace, which is an actual town in Newfoundland.  Information found online indicates the town has roots going back all the way to the 16th century, making it one of the oldest towns in North America!  The town currently has a population of less than 3,000 people, so who knows what the population would have been 90-plus years ago.  In the story, the girls also travel down to a place called "Fish Cove" - and it turns out that is a real place as well, located in Newfoundland.  Thus, either the author was familiar with that area, or he/she did some research to integrate actual places into the story (to ground it somewhat in reality - again, no pun intended).

The cover for the book is not a very thrilling scene, showing Terry and Prim simply cooking over a fire next to their plane. This scene takes place just after they locate Bud's plan (p. 48) and does not portray any of the dangerous situations in which the girls find themselves over the course of the story.  Odd they did not pick a more "mysterious" scene than this.  The art is provided by "F. Rigney," who provided art for other books published by Goldsmith, including, but likely not limited to, the Madge Sterling series and a sports book titled His Olympic Feat.  Rigney also provided the cover art for the second book in this series as well (which, by the way, is mentioned on the last page of the story, nicely integrated into a sentence for readers to know the title of what was being offered next!).

While not exactly the best example of series book writing from the era, the story is enjoyable, and I'd recommend it for anyone wanting a fast read.

RATING:  8 jaunty flying suits out of 10 for giving girl aviators a chance to shine in their own little mystery - and ensuring they were the strong heroes of their own story!

Wonder Woman - the Earth Two Adventures (DC Comics, 1977-78)

Okay, I know I don't normally do reviews of any ongoing comic book series, as it would take quite a bit of time and space to review hundreds of issues of the same series.  However, back in the late 1970s, DC Comics made the decision to take the Wonder Woman comic book in yet another new direction (let's face it - the character of Wonder Woman has had more face lifts than every actress in Hollywood combined!).  At the end of 1975, ABC aired a television movie, The New Original Wonder Woman, featuring Lynda Carter in the title role.  The movie was set in World War II and featured Wonder Woman/Diana Prince, Steve Trevor, Etta Candy, and General Blankenship.  It did well enough that in April 1976, two more specials were aired.  They did so well, ABC ordered more episodes, which aired during the 1976-77 television season.  So, DC Comics changed the direction of their comic book to mirror that of the television show, and returned Wonder Woman to World War II.  How did they do that, you may ask?  Well, easy - they shifted the focus from the Earth-1 Wonder Woman (present day) to the Earth-2 Wonder Woman (set during the second World War)!  And if you don't under the Earth-1 / Earth-2 references, well, I'm not going to explain them here - go look it up on the internet (true comic fans will understand easily what I am taking about...)

The saga began with Wonder Woman 228, in which the present day Wonder Woman of Earth-1 is suddenly faced with a Nazi plane being piloted by the mysterious Red Panzer.  When the Panzer uses a strange ray to return his ship home, he inadvertently brings Wonder Woman with him - to Earth-2 in the past!  There, we get the obligatory hero vs. hero fight due to a misunderstanding, until they stop long enough for the Earth-1 Wonder Woman to explain who she is and how she got there.  Together, they defeat the villain, and while Earth-1 Wonder Woman returns home, the comic stays on Earth-2 with the "golden age" Wonder Woman who battled Nazis in the second World War.  Written by Martin Pasko and beautifully drawn by Jose Delbo and Vince Colletta, the issue provides readers with a smooth transition to this alternate Earth and time, giving readers a brief, but easily understood description, of the differences between the two Earths (Earth-1 featuring the modern Justice League, Earth-2 featuring the golden age Justice Society).  Being a huge Justice Society and Earth-2 fan for as long as I have been reading comics, this jumping on point was pure excitement for me!

 

While the next issue concludes the Red Panzer story, issue 230 features a one-part tale starring the Cheetah as the villain of the story - and not just any Cheetah, but the original, Golden Age Priscilla Rich Cheetah, wearing her signature yellow and brown-spotted costume.  Only, this time, Cheetah is sporting some new claws that could do serious damage to Wonder Woman!  The story by Pasko, with art still by Delbo and Colletta, hearkens back to those Golden Age tales of woman vs. woman, where Wonder Woman must use her wits to defeat the villainous Cheetah (who has learned her secret identity in this issue).  It's a solid story with beautiful art.  I must say, the Delbo/Colletta collaboration truly was the perfect teaming for Wonder Woman, and while some other amazing artists have come and gone over the years, I still think Delbo/Colletta's issues are some of the best to appear in the pages on this comic.

The next two issues guest-star members of the Justice Society (after all, the book is now set on Earth-2 during World War II, which is the time when the JSA truly shined).  Sadly, Delbo had stepped away from the art chores and the new ongoing artist was to be Bob Brown, who penciled issue 231 with Colletta still inking. Brown's art was not that far off from Delbo's, but Wonder Woman just did not have the same appearance (partially, I think, due to the way Brown drew her hair).  The story centers around an Egyptian goddess, who turns out to be an alien from beyond the stars and who has her heart set on turning Steve Trevor into the man she once loved.  In order to do so, she has to eliminate anyone who can stop her, which includes the members of the JSA, as well as Wonder Woman.  It was great seeing the JSA in these issues, even if they only played in short scenes (after all, this is WW's comic, and so she as to be the focus of the story).  Sadly, though, Bob Brown took ill after the first issue, so artist Mike Masser stepped in to pencil thee second part of the story in issue 232.  There is a distinct difference in the art style, but I think my joy in seeing the JSA helped me overlook that difference.  Sadly, though, this was the last story written by Martin Pasko, as he moved on to other titles.

With issue 233, Gerry Conway took over the writing chores, starting off with a two-parter involving a villain who could control sea-life.  Kinda makes me wonder why Wonder Woman didn't simply call on Aquaman to help her out (although, in the 1970s, I'm not sure if DC was even acknowledging an Earth-2 Aquaman).  What is interesting about this tale is the fact Conway introduces two children - a brother and sister - who Wonder Woman rescues (their father is the villain who redeems and sacrifices himself at the end to save Wonder Woman).  They show up briefly in the next story (beginning with issue 235), but there is no real follow up with them after that.  I wonder if Conway had some plans for them that fell by the wayside, or that were derailed by editorial dictates, or if they were simply throw away characters that carried on farther than most.  I suppose we will never know at this point.  In any event, this two-part story also had a new artist in Don Heck, as it was revealed that Bob Brown had passed away due to his illness, and thus, the book would need a new artist.

Fortunately, Jose Delbo was available, and he returned to the art chores beginning with Conway's second two-part story beginning in issue 235. Not only does this two-parter see the introduction of a new villain named Armageddon, but it also guest stars Dr. Charles McNider (otherwise known as the JSA member, Doctor Mid-Nite!).  The doctor helps out Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor in both his medical persona and his superhero persona, which was rather nice to see, since we rarely saw the JSAers during that time outside of their costumes and heroics.  Conway continued his run with a third two-parter, this time bringing back a blast from the past - the REAL Diana Prince!  (Huh?  You mean you didn't know Wonder Woman was not the REAL Diana Prince?  Go back and read her original stories!)  Yes, Conway played off of the Golden Age origin of Wonder Woman by bringing back Diana Prince, who thinks Wonder Woman's alter ego is a spy who has stolen her identity.  Thus, when they meet, Wonder Woman has to reveal her origin (a nice way to integrate the Earth-2 Wonder Woman's origin into the run) and explain why Diana Prince has no recollection of giving Wonder Woman her identity to use.  The villain in the story, Kung the Assassin, was pretty much a throw-away villain who, as with the villains in the previous stories, redeems himself by the end.

Beginning in issue 239, Conway looks back at more of Wonder Woman's roots by bringing back the Roman gods, particularly Mars, the god of war!  Delbo and Colletta continue their run as artists, as Conway has Wonder Woman face off against Mars' lackey, the Duke of Deception - who makes Wonder Woman see things that are not there, leading the U.S. military to believe Wonder Woman has turned traitor to America!  Only the Flash (Jay Garrick, not Barry Allen - remember, this is Earth-2 still) is on the scene and once he figures out what is happening, he has to help his fellow JSA member before she does real damage to her reputation and the country!  I have to wonder if Geoff Johns didn't take a queue from Conway's story here when he wrote the Power Girl mini-series in the early 2000s (which featured Power Girl being taunted by the Psycho-Pirate into remembering her Earth-2 past by creating false visions around her, causing her to react against people no one else could see).  That would sort of make sense, since Conway helped revive All-Star Comics back in the mid-'70s, and he co-created Power Girl, and to mimic this story written by Conway would be a nice homage.  In any event, it was great seeing the Golden Age Flash in the story, and quite frankly, the cover to issue 240 by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez is probably one of my all-time favorite Wonder Woman covers.

By issue 241, with a cover date of march 1978, the television show had already entered its second season, in which Wonder Woman was updated and brought into the present.  Thus, there was debate raging in the letters columns of Wonder Woman as to whether the character in the comic should remain the Earth-2 Wonder Woman during World War II, or whether they should return to stories of the Earth-1 iteration in the present.  The story in issue 241 would be Gerry Conway's last story, and it features guest artists Joe Staton and Dick Giordano.  I've always loved Joe Staton's art (his run in All-Star Comics during the late '70s, as well as his work on the Huntress back-up stories in Wonder Woman during the '80s are some of the best), so I enjoyed seeing his take on Wonder Woman.  The story is a bit different from the previous tales, as it is narrated by the Spectre and finds Wonder Woman fighting not only a super-powered thief named the Bouncer, but unknowingly evading a killer named Sumo - formerly known as the Super Samurai, who she battled in the Superman vs. Wonder Woman giant tabloid-size comic from around that time.  Again, like so many of Conway's stories during his run, Sumo redeems himself, sacrificing himself to save the life of an innocent.

DC made the decision at that point to return Wonder Woman to the present, and so the tales of the Earth-2 Wonder Woman would come to an end.  Issues 242 and 243 saw Jack C. Harris step in as the new writer on the series, with Delbo on pencils still and new inkers Joe Giella (issue 242) and Frank Chiaramonte (issue 243).  His first issue was a special tribute to the end of World War II, which immediately took off in a completely different direction by having alien spaceships show up, kidnapping and transforming humans - starting with Steve Trevor! - into carbon copies of what they deem to be the "perfect" human.  Wonder Woman, of course, has to convince the aliens that humans are better with the unique, individual natures, and by the end of the issue, she is able to return everyone to their original forms.  The last page provides a send-off for General Blankenship, Steve Trevor, and Etta Candy, as they reveal what they will be doing now that the war is over ... and it also gives a sneak peak at the villain of the final issue of this Earth-2 run:  the Angle Man!  Thus, issue 243 sees the Angle Man, an adversary of the Earth-1 Wonder Woman, accidentally transporting himself into Earth-2's past, and it's up to the Wonder Women of both Earths to stop him!  The Earth-1 Wonder Woman, of course, must make everyone forget her presence (as the World War II versions of these characters had no knowledge of the multiverse), and she takes the Angle Man back to her own Earth, where the final page shows Wonder Woman in the Justice League satellite, reading a newspaper from Earth-2 that she inadvertently brought with her, revealing that her Earth-2 counterpart managed her life pretty well after the war and wondering if she can do the same on her own Earth...

I thoroughly enjoyed this 16-issue run of Wonder Woman, as it allowed me to revisit the original Earth-2 that I sorely miss.  The fact that DC followed the television version in some aspects (such as using General Blankenship instead of General Darnell, and the fact that Etta was not a short, chubby sorority girl) did not bother me, as the military personnel could easily change, and Steve and Diana could have been reassigned to work under a different general during the war.  Yes, Etta's appearance is a little more difficult to explain away, but hey!  I was just happy to see Earth-2 in print!  Of course, talking about Etta, there is one subplot involving her becoming engaged to a slippery character named Pierre Machand - a man Wonder Woman did not trust at all - that was dropped when Harris took over as writing.  Not really sure where Conway was going to go with that, but with the time jump between issues 241 and 242, that story simply disappeared without even a quick sentence or two to explain why Etta never married him!

 

Even after the Silver Age stories revealed the existence of the Golden Age characters still living on Earth-2 (as well as the Crime Syndicate on Earth-3, and the Freedom Fighters on Earth-X, and the Shazam family on Earth-S, and so on), other than the short-lived revival of All-Star Comics, we did not really see any ongoing series that featured Earth-2 characters on a regular basis.  And once Crisis hit, and the multiverse was destroyed (albeit temporarily, since it was reopened with Infinite Crisis and the countless crossovers DC has had over the last 40 years), we have yet to see any ongoing series focusing on the characters of Earth-2 (other than the short-lived Earth-2 series that came out with the "New 52" books, which quickly disappeared and has never really been mentioned since).  So, these World War II stories by Pasko, Conway, and Harris thrilled me to no end, and left me nostalgic for the "glory days" of comics from the 1970s and early '80s, which to me were some of the best comic book stories every written.

RATING:  10 super-secret vials of life-saving liquid out of 10 for taking me back to a time when comic stories were truly fun to read and satisfying a long-waited need for stories from Earth-2!

The Headland Mystery - a Children's Press Mystery

This book is the third, and final, book that I brought back with me from Ireland.  Sadly, I found very little in children's mystery series in the used book stores I visited while touring Ireland, but I did manage to pick up three books that caught my eye - The Three Spaniards, Kit and the Mystery Man, and this one.  The other two books were not bad at all, so I went into this one hoping the same would be true.  Not only was it true, however, but it actually exceeded my expectations.  After all, the main reason I bought this book was for the cover, which has a very gothic feel to it (the two girls in the foreground, and a castle-like structure high atop a cliff in the background).  And while the story is not gothic in nature, it has a well-written mystery filled with suspense and plenty of danger!

The Headland Mystery is written by Arthur Groom (1898 - 1964), who, from everything I can gather online, was quite the prolific children's author, writing more than 100 books for children during his lifetime.  He is not to be confused with the Australian author by the same name (1904-1953), who was also a conservationist, journalist, and photographer.  The book was published by Children's Press under their "The Boys' and Girls' Library" of titles, and it features one glossy internal frontis piece.  (According to one source I found online, there is a later reprint of this title published by Collins, which has a glossy black and white frontis.)  The inside front flap for the book indicates that Groom (the first one) is a "newcomer" to the Boys' and Girls' Library, but indicate he "has written a really thrilling story, which will grip the reader from start to finish."  Well, not sure about how gripping the start of the story is, but I can attest to the fact that once it does get going, there's literally no stopping!

Jean Wensley and Patricia ("Pat") Bolton are the two lead characters in the story.  The girls are the best of friends, and the story opens with them heading off to Cliffside Cottage to spend their summer holiday with their godmother, Mrs. Bertha Heal.  Now, before I go on, I must make an observation here.  The girls' mothers are referred to as Mrs. Wensley and Mrs. Bolton, and of course, their godmother is referred to as Mrs. Heal.  At no time during the story is there any reference to any "Mister" for any of these older women - the girls' fathers are never mentioned, and nothing is said about Mrs. Heal's husband.  Thus, readers are left with the impression that Mrs. Heal is a widow, and the girls' fathers are simply not invested in their daughters' summer vacation.  Okay, enough about that.  Cliffside Cottage is situated in the peaceful village of Somerset, which is fine with Pat - but Jean is looking for excitement.  What's the old saying?  Be careful what you wish for...

The mystery begins when the girls arrive by train and try to make their way to Mrs. Heal's cottage - they take a wrong turn and end up at a rather large house "practically on the point of the headland ... it contained at least ten bedrooms, probably three or four sitting-rooms, and other accommodation in accordance with its quite imposing appearance" (p. 18).  The girls find a way into the great house when a storm breaks upon them, and while no one is there, it is clear someone has disturbed the furniture inside.  When they eventually make their way to Mrs. Heal's, they are warned to stay away from the house - it's owner, one Mr. Pink, would be arriving soon to re-open the place.  But Jean can't get enough of the place, and keeps convincing Pat to go back - which ultimately leads to them discovering a man tied up in the basement!  (More on that later...)  And here is where the story really heats up - three men show up and kidnap not only the man that the girls rescued from the basement, but also Jean and Pat!  The entire second half of the book deals with the girls' attempts to escape the clutches of these criminals, and just when you think they are free - BAM!  Right back in the crooks' clutches again!

Groom definitely knows how to write suspense, because once those girls get kidnapped, there's not one pause in the action, and there is literally no way to put the book down until the very end.  The danger for the girls is very real, and even innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire.  Groom holds nothing back, and we even get a fog-filled get-away on the side of a cliff, where one wrong step could mean death for Jean or Pat - or both!  But these girls are not helpless by any means - Pat may be a bit timid, and Jean may be a bit spunky, but together, they make quite a good team.  And before the end of the tale, even Mrs. Heal gets a moment to shine (and I have to say, I really enjoyed her character - wish there had been more of her in the book!.

Now, back to that man in the basement.  As mentioned earlier, the girls do rescue Mr. Pink's right-hand man, who they find tied up in the basement - and that entire scene is rather dramatic, with a dark basement, broken stairs, a dangerous fall, and a shocking reveal.  But the most interesting part of it all (to me, at least) is the fact that the frontis art is VERY reminiscent of the frontis from the revised text of Nancy Drew's The Bungalow Mystery (go check it out, if you don't believe me!).  Both pictures feature a man tied up in a basement, discovered by the young sleuth(s) who have descended the stairs.  Sure, there is a bit of a difference (Nancy Drew is actually walking down the stairs, while Pat and Jean are already at the bottom of the stairs); but, the entire scene is so similar, it could be a knock-off.  The revised version of The Bungalow Mystery was published in 1960, and this book appears to have been published somewhere around 1949 or 1950 (depending on which site you look at), so The Headland Mystery would have come out first.  It could just be pure coincidence (after all, children's mysteries depend on those coincidences!), but then again...

 

A few points worth mentioning.  I find it interesting the use of the word "ass" in the story, as Pat refers to her best friend as a "blessed ass" (p. 46) when they are discussing why someone would build a fire in the fireplace in the middle of summer.  I can only assume the term does not have the negative connotation that it does here in the States. Another term I was not familiar with was when one of the crooks tells Mr. Pink's man that, "I reckon you're potty" (p. 93).  Took me a bit, but discovered a British encyclopedia of slang online that indicates "potty" means silly, crazy, or eccentric.  The final thing was the hidden room that Mr. Pink's man discovers in the upstairs of the old house - which is described as a "three-cornered recess with a filthy dirty window..." (p. 110).  Needless to say, that description immediately brought to mind a certain Dana Girls book (if you know, you know), and since there is a Jean here and a Jean there ... well, my mind made the connection instantly.

Of the three books I brought home with me from Ireland, I would have to say this is by far my favorite.  Love the characters, love the writing, love the suspense, and love the setting.  Too bad poor Pat and Jean never got a continuing series of books.  Or, maybe Pat changed her name to Louise and they crossed the ocean ... nah, never happen!

RATING:  10 swiftly rising tides out of 10 for a fantastic tale of a mysterious house high atop the cliffs of the English countryside with two very likable young sleuths!

The Virginia Mysteries, Book 11 - Danger on the Stage

It's been a year since I read the previous book in the Virginia Mysteries series, so it was about time to pick up the most recent book.  For the most part, I have enjoyed this series, each book not only set in a particular part of Virginia (or its surrounding area) but also chock full of historical facts about the State and its rich history.  Author Steven K. Smith not only provides young readers with fun stories of mystery and adventure, but he teaches them about Virginia's colorful past along the way.  And this particular book was one I was looking forward to reading, as it centers around an historic theater - and since I spent some years acting in local community theaters, I could not wait to see how Smith would merge the mystery and theater into one story!

Danger on the Stage takes place in Abingdon, Virginia, where the historic Barter Theatre is located.  And yes, Abindon is a real city, and yes, Barter Theatre is a real place!  As Smith relates in the story, the theater got its name from the fact that when it opened back in the 1930s, patrons were told they could either pay the 35-cent admission in coin or by bringing "an equivalent amount of produce" - basically bartering for their ticket!  The concept became known as "ham for Hamlet," and today the theater still has at least one show a year in which patrons can bring canned or dry goods to help local charities in exchange for a ticket to the show.  The history of this theater can be found at their website, Barter Theatre.  Again, this is one great thing about this series - actual, historical sites are integrated into the stories, with a mystery centering around them.

The mystery this time involves the aunt of the boys' best friend, Caitlin.  Her Aunt Ginny, who is the current artistic director for the theater, has invited Caitlin and her family (and by extension, Sam and his older brother Derek) to come visit and see the production of Red Riding Hood - which, coincidentally enough, stars the famous actor, Jake Greensboro, as the big bad wolf.  Sam can't wait to meet his favorite actor - but when they get the chance to meet him backstage before the first performance, they learn he has been getting threats from someone ever since he arrived back in town (Jake used to act in the theater years ago, before he left for Hollywood after being "spotted" on stage during a performance).  Sam is concerned, but Jake shrugs it off, saying it is something he is used to as a star.  After all, the show must go on...

 

And here's where the mystery really heats up.  Sam spots a mysterious man in a white suit in the balcony across the way - a man who seems to be warning of something.  Sam catches on and cries out to the actors on stage, but it is too late - a swinging sandbag knocks over a wall, which falls directly on Jake Greensboro!  He is injured and taken to the hospital, leaving Aunt Ginny to deal with the show's backer - a real estate mogul who Sam, Derek, and Caitlin see in several places around town.  With Jake in the hospital, and the "accident" revealed to be sabotage, the show must be shut down, leaving Ginny concerned about the future of the theater (which is in financial straits).   The three little crime solvers decide to do what they do best and figure out what is really going on in town.

This is actually once of Smith's best mysteries to date (and I'm not saying that just because of the theater connection).  There's a bit of a ghost tale, there's an unscrupulous real estate developer, there's a blackmailer, there are plenty of secrets, there's a secret underground tunnel, there's a wronged individual out for revenge, and there are unresolved feelings between some star-crossed lovers.  There's mystery, there's supernatural (is there?), there's history, and there's romance, all rolled into one great story.  And, of course, there's Derek's mischievous and somewhat rebellious nature that leads the kids into trouble more often than not. I can honestly say there is not one dull moment in the entire story - each chapter leaves you wanting to keep reading to find out what's going to happen next!

As usual, the mystery does get all wrapped up nicely by the end, and the kids prove their worth by uncovering the truth and revealing the culprits behind everything - and at same time, save the theater, and pretty much the entire historic district, from being gobbled up by a real estate developer set on turning the entire area in a 21st century money-grab!  Smith's stories remind their readers just how important history and the landmarks that preserve it, are to our culture and our country.  Such a fun way to learn, much in the same way Harriet Stratemeyer always incorporated real world learning experiences into the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books back in the '60s and '70s.

 

I do not find any solicit for a 12th book in this series, so I have to wonder if this book is the concluding chapter of The Virginia Mysteries.  I hope not, as I'd like to see more adventures of Sam, Derek, and Caitlin as they continue to age and learn more about their home state of Virginia!

 

RATING:  9 lightning round games of chess out of 10 for proving that there is always way more drama going on back stage / behind the scenes at a theater than is actually on the stage!

Florida Antiquarian Book Fair - 2024 - Day Three

Well, the third and final day of the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair (Florida Antiquarian Book Fair) has come and gone.  It was a truly fantastic weekend, and it was so good to see so many friends I have made over the years at this show!  I wish the show could last longer, but, then again, I don't think my bank account could handle it.  While not as crowded as yesterday, there were still a good number of people there, browsing through the thousands upon thousands of books or sale.  I was right there with them, wanting to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Today, I made a new connection and new friend with a book dealer I didn't even realize was right in my backyard (my backyard being DeLand).  Richard Oates of Blind Horse Books was set up right there next to Kerry (also of DeLand!), and he was offering up a variety of vintage and antique books, particularly ones associated with travel exploration and geography.  Richard was great to chat with, and I learned he even runs a daily blog, sharing information and history about authors and their works, which for avid readers like me presents a whole new doorway to knowledge (check it out at Blind Horse Books).  Will and I browsed through his amazing display of books, magazines, pamphlets, and other paper ephemera, and quite frankly, I'm still in awe thinking about all he had there.  But there was one book in particular...

Based on the cover, I immediately thought that perhaps The Log of the Flying Fish by Harry Collingwood was part of a children's series, or at the very least, written by an author of children's books.  Well, I was half right - turns out Collingwood is a pseudonym for British author William Joseph Cosens Lancaster, who wrote more than 40 boys' books of adventure, most of them nautical in nature (think Jules Verne).  Published in 1886 (more than 100 years ago!), the copy of this book at Richard's booth was beautiful - one would never guess it is more than a century old!  And the "flying fish" is not an actual fish, which I first thought when I saw the title, but it is about a ship that goes under water and also flies in the air.  Hmmm, maybe a precursor to Stratemeyer's Tom Swift series, eh?  Oh, and one must not forget the 12 beautiful full page illustrations by Gordon Browne, who illustrated a number of children's books in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

 

One of my finds this year was Molly Brown's Orchard Home by Nell Speed (in dust jacket!!!!).  I had never heard of this series until Friday, when Will and I when antique mall shopping in St. Petersburg before the Book Fair started.  At one of the malls, we found a copy of Molly Brown in Kentucky (without dust jacket, unfortunately), and since I'm originally from Kentucky, I picked it up, curious to see what parts of my home state would be featured in the book.  So, imagine my surprise when we were looking at the various books in one of the booths and I came across Molly Brown's Orchard Home!  To go from having never heard of the series to stumbling across two books in the series in the same weekend - well, the odds are astronomical!  Needless to say, it's yet one more series I now find myself collecting!

Another awesome dealer at the show this year was Heartwood Books and Art out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  This is the dealer from whom I bought those two pulp novels I mentioned in yesterday's blog post.  They specialize in vintage mystery and detective fiction, sci-fi and fantasy, as well as horror and supernatural books - and, of course, old pulp magazines.  They had quite an amazing display of first edition hardcover books from authors such as Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, Sax Rommer, Alan Moore, William Irish, Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Wyndham, Rod Serling, and many others.   The books are in utterly superb condition, and it's anyone's guess how they have survived the years in such beautiful shape!  They also had a shelf filled with more pulp novels of all genres - from sci-fi to detective to fiction to risque - among them, I saw two different versions of Night Nurse by David Charlson.  I already have this book, but I only have one of the covers - I was so tempted to buy that other cover, but I managed to restrain myself.

What did interest me, however, was one of the books in their glass case - The Quest of the Sacred Slipper by Sax Rohmer.  The title definitely sounds like a children's mystery series book, and this title in particular brings to mind the Nancy Drew book, The Scarlet Slipper Mystery.  This particular book in Heartwood's collection was a first Canadian edition with its dust jacket in tact (not perfect, but still in beautiful shape considering it is over 100 years old!).  For those who may not be familiar with the author, he is known for his Fu Manchu series of books, which featured a supervillain as the title character.  Apparently this book has been reprinted a number of times in various formats, but this particular one is a very early printing.

Two other books this dealer had that caught my eye were anthologies from the early 1900s.  The first is titled Creeps (a collection of uneasy tales), which features a tagline that reads "Horror Stalking in Many Places."  As a fan of horror tales, I was immediately drawn not only to the title and the tag, but also to the very haunting cover itself.  The cover art appears to be by Nat Long (based on the signature and what I could find online to compare with), and it features a woman climbing to the top of a staircase with a candle lighting her way and an expression of fright on her face.  Does this sound familiar?  Well, any fan of Nancy Drew books would immediately realize the cover hearkens back to the original Tandy cover to The Hidden Staircase!  This book was published two years after the Nancy Drew book, so who knows - perhaps it inspired Long to paint this one!

The other book is titled Shivers, and this was a third collection of "uneasy tales" in the same series as Creeps.  This book features the tagline "Terrors and Ghouls of Night" and contains nine stories by various authors.  Also published in 1932, it features a strange and frightening cover (again by what appears to be Nat Long) of a blond young lady turning in fear to see an elongated creature behind her about to pounce off of a bed!  The pose of this young lady seems to almost be a mirror pose of that of Nancy Drew from her first mystery, The Secret of the Old Clock, as rendered by Russell Tandy - just sans the clock.  While neither book is an exact copy, there are certain similarities that leaves one wondering if Long perhaps saw those Nancy Drew covers and was influenced when he produced the covers to these books.  In any event, they both caught my attention and made me wish I could afford these copies!

 

One thing about this year's show that did stump both Will and me is the fact that so many booths had Edgar Rice Burroughs books - from Tarzan to John Carter to Jungle Girl to countless others.  The show was advertised to be celebrating the 120th birthday of Dr. Seuss (which it did on Saturday!), and yet we saw WAY more Burroughs books than Seuss books, and there was even one dealer that had nothing but books by Burroughs!  We don't believe the dealers planned it this way, but it was definitely a coincidence that so many brought them, and it left us wondering how we missed getting the memo!  This month marks the 74th anniversary of Burroughs' death, so perhaps that was the reason?

And once again, the three day event came to a close, and with a back seat loaded up with books, but for ourselves and others, we had to bid farewell to old friends and new friends.  It was a fantastic show, and we just wish we had more time to spend going through all those booths!  And while the show will not be back until next year, their Facebook page (Florida Antiquarian Book Fair - Facebook) allows me to follow along for any updates and to keep my anticipation going strong! 

RATING:  100 vintage pulp paperbacks out of 100 for giving me access to worlds that only books can provide and bringing together collectors from all over to share their love and enjoyment of books in one place!