Birthstone Gothic #12 - The Turquoise Talisman

You might notice that this is book 12 of a series of gothic novels in the "Birthstone Gothic" series published back in the mid-1970s by Ballantine books, and you may be wondering what happened to books 1 through 11.  Normally, I would never read a series of books out of order, particularly when they are specifically numbered.  However, in this instance, even though I do not have all twelve books in the series, I decided to go ahead and read this last book for two specific reasons:  (1) the books are not connected in any other way than the fact that each book centers around one of the twelve birthstones, and (2) the author is Sharon Wagner.  What's so important about Sharon Wagner, you may ask?  Well, it just so happens that not only did Ms. Wagner write gothic novels during their heyday in the '60s and '70s, but she also write four of the Nancy Drew books published by Simon & Schuster under the Wanderer imprint in the early 1980s (62 - The Kachina Doll Mystery, 68 - The Elusive Heiress, 70 - The Broken Anchor, and 76 - The Eskimo's Secret).  Thus, having enjoyed those four Nancy Drew books back in the day, I definitely had high expectations for this book.

The Turquoise Talisman was published in December 1975 and is based upon the traditional December birthstone, turquoise.  The story centers around nineteen-year old Juliann Fairchild, whose mother and stepfather have died in an unexpected accident, leaving the young woman with nowhere to turn.  Her half-brothers and half-sister are being taken in by her stepfather's family who want nothing to do with her and her half-Indian heritage.  Juliann's world is turned even more upside-down when the family attorney reveals her biological father is still alive and wants her to move to Arizona to live with him!  Juliann has no knowledge of her father, as her mother has never spoke about him and has never answered any questions about him, so she is surprised to learn he is alive and wants to meet her.  With no money to continue her college education, she decides to go out to Arizona and meet this man she has never known.  And, as we all know in any good gothic story, there's going to be some dark drama to come...

Wagner introduces the mystery elements to the story from the moment Juliann arrives in Arizona.  She is met by two ranch hands, Bentley "Ben" Welsh and Anson Verner, who inform her that her father has left on an undisclosed errand and he asked them to pick her up.  At the ranch, she meets Mrs. Peters, the cook, and her husband, Dean Peters, who has been assisting Juliann's father, Steen Deerman, with the horses and other ranch matters.  Before long, she is also introduced to Rex Hodges and Chuck Meecham, two more ranch hands.  And once we meet the cast, Wagner throws more mysteries our way - first, a silver box with a turquoise designed like a deer on the lid disappears from Juliann's room (a box that she was given by her aunt just before she left for Arizona), and second, her father's most prize stallion has disappeared, and no one knows what could have happened.  Which is made more odd by the fact that no one but Juliann's father was able to handle War Blanket (the horse), so if someone had made off with him, they would have had a very difficult time!

As the story progresses, the reader realizes right along with Juliann that not everyone in the household can be trusted.  While several of the young men seem to be vying for Juliann's attention, it's clear that someone in the house is not who they appear to be.  Before too long, Chuck meets with an untimely accident and taken to the hospital, unconscious and unable to tell anyone what happened.  Then Mr. Peters is run off the road, nearly injuring him.  And Juliann begins to have visions, seeing a strange Kachina doll that seems to be calling to her ... leading her ... and when a ransom note is received, demanding more money than anyone has the ability to pull together, that's when Mrs. Peters reveals the secret that Juliann's father has a special stash of turquoise and silver jewelry and other items he has made that would be worth a small fortune - but she doesn't know where he hid them.  As the Kachina spirits lead Juliann closer and closer to the truth, she finds her life in more and more danger - until the true evil reveals itself, and Juliann must trust her instincts if she wants to find her father, save her own life, and restore her father's treasure!

While I would not necessarily label this a gothic, per se, I would definitely say it is a great read and a fantastic mystery.  I can see why the Stratemeyer Syndicate had no issues with Wagner writing some of the Nancy Drew mystery stories.  The one drawback on this book was the fact it was written in first person, a point-of-view that I'm not really fond of when reading books.  That being said, I quickly got used to it, and after the first couple of chapters, I was not longer paying attention to that because I was so caught up in the story.

After finishing this book, I immediately picked up the first Nancy Drew that Wagner wrote - no. 62, The Kachina Doll Mystery.  Obviously, I was curious, since both books are set in Arizona, and both books feature Kachina dolls as a part of the story.  Thus, I wondered if Wagner took any elements of her gothic tale (published in 1975) and used them in her Nancy Drew mystery (published six years later in 1981).  While the basic plot was different, there were definitely similarities in the books:

Turquoise Talisman (TT):  Juliann's parents die, and she moves to Arizona to live with her father

Kachina Doll (KD): Heather McGuire's parents die, and she moves to Arizona with her brother to take over their ranch (p. 8)

TT:  the ranch owned by Juliann's father is near the Superstition Mountains

KD: the ranch owned by Heather's parents is near the Superstition Mountains (p. 23)

TT:  Mr. Peters is run off the road by a speeding car

KD: Nancy and her friends are run off the road by a speeding car (p. 25)

TT:  a pool is built in the middle of a lovely garden placed directly behind the main house

KD: a pool is built in the middle of a lovely garden placed directly behind the main house (p. 31)

TT:  an Appaloosa filly is missing from the stables

KD: an Appaloosa filly is believed to have been stolen by the cook's young nephew (p. 33)

TT:  the living room has furniture "arranged in several groups, making it clear that one corner could be used for private conversations while another was for watching TV or different conversations" (p. 25)

KD:  the living room  was "filled with sofas and chairs grouped for conversation or, in one corner, around a television set" (p. 36)

TT:  Juliann sees a Kachina spirit and follows it

KD: Nancy sees a Kachina spirit and follows it (p. 48)

TT:  Juliann rides a horse named "Dainty Dancer"

KD: Nancy rides a "bright chestnut mare Dancer" (p. 66)

TT:  Juliann has to help a young horse who gets tangled in barbed wire and injures its legs

KD: the horse Nancy is riding injures its legs sliding down into awash (p. 74)

TT:  a box is discovered behind some bricks around the fireplace

KD: a box is discovered behind a loose brick in the hallway wall (p. 80)

TT:  in Juliann's dream, the Kachinas formed a circle and seemed to call out to her

KD: in Nancy's dream, the Kachinas "circled and reached out to her in pleading ways" (p. 87)

TT:  Juliann's silver and turquoise box is stolen from the bedside table in her room

KD: the journal Nancy found is stolen from the bedside table in her room (p. 97)

TT: the box that Julianna finds behind the fireplace stone contains Kachina dolls

KD: the box Nancy and her friends find buried outside contains Kachina dolls (p. 182)

As you can see, there are way too many similarities for it to be a simple coincidence; clearly, Wagner used a lot of story elements from her earlier gothic tale to weave this mystery for Nancy Drew to solve.  And this does not even take into account the amount of silver and turquoise jewelry that play an important part in both stories.  That is not to say The Kachina Doll Mystery was not a good read, as it was.  But it is evident that Wagner simply retooled The Turquoise Talisman into a new story to write the Nancy Drew mystery.  It is even one of the few, if not only, Nancy Drew book to ever have a real ghost that is not explained away by the end!

Now that I've finished this last novel in the series, I'm more curious that before to track down the rest of the Birthstone Gothic novels and see what kind of tales other authors turn out for the series.

RATING:  9 chains of carved turquoise and worked silver beads out of 10 for a fantastically crafted mystery, with just a hint of gothic elements to make it more suspenseful!