The Darkness of Love - a Gothic novel of romance and terror

This is a book I picked up in a flea market in Kentucky earlier this year.  I had never heard of the author, but for only 50 cents, I figured why not.  As it turns out, this particular book is one of only three books written under the name of Vivian Stuart.  Vivian Stuart, as should not be surprising, is one of many pseudonyms used by British author Charles Roy Stuart-Vernon.  Oddly enough, this is revealed by looking at the copyright page of this book, which give copyright credit to Stuart-Vernon.  A little research reveals Stuart-Vernon wrote historical, romance, and other genre novels under a number of pseudonyms, including Charles MacKinnon, Graham Montrose, Barbara Lynn, Vivian Donald, Iain Torr, and others.  He was actually a hereditary chieftain and laird of Dunakin and of Dunakin Castle, Isle of Sky (Charles Stuart-Vernon); this, the Scottish backdrop to this story makes perfect sense.

The Darkness of Love is the last of three books written under the pen name of Vivian Stuart.  It tells the story of lovely young Kate Penrose who is about to live the dream of every young girl - she is off to Scotland, where she is going to marry the handsome Allan MacAllander, the thirty-third in a line of Scottish chieftans, and live in his stately family home, Gaildhu, set high atop the cliffs overlooking the sea.  Sure, the manor may be set far apart from its nearest neighbor, and sure, it may seem somewhat forlorn and foreboding - but Kate is in love, and she can't imagine anything other than spending the rest of her life with this amazing man.  But this is a gothic tale of romance and suspense, so we all know that perfect dream is about to be shattered...

Like shards of broken glass, Kate's dreams splinter and break apart one by one.  First, there's Allan's cousin who appears at Gaildhu without warning.  He seems happy and carefree, but Allan has questions about his veracity.  Is he really his family's cousin, or is he perpetrating a fraud for unknown reasons?  Then there is Mairi, the MacAllanders' maid.  From the moment Kate arrives, the young woman makes it clear she does not want her there; but when Mairi warns Kate away and tells her she does not belong there, Kate is left to wonder how far the maid will go.  There is also Allan's mother, Julia.  She is always calm and settled, always the voice of reason; however, to what length will she go to keep the family's secrets hidden?  And just who is that mysterious woman that Kate keeps seeing on the grounds, particularly around the charred remains of a gatehouse not far from the cliffs - and why does just mentioning her have such a strange affect on Allan and his mother?

When someone takes shots at Kate, and later, when someone beheads her two small dogs, the danger becomes all too real.  Then Kate is poisoned to the point of making her violently ill.  Someone is targeting Kate, and if she does not figure out who it is, she may wind up as dead as her dogs!  I give Stuart-Vernon credit, he knows how to build up some suspense.  Yet, this book definitely veers from the path of the standard gothic in several ways.  First, the truth about what is happening pretty much gets revealed just a little over half-way through the story - leaving the remainder of the book to deal with Kate's attempts to escape Gaildhu and the terror that lurks on its grounds.  The second is that the story contains some very brutal violence - between the beheading of the two dogs, the horrific way one of the characters is killed right in front of Kate, and the rough manner in which Kate is kidnapped, tied and locked in a pantry closet, and the plans with which she is to die - well, let's just say I have not read a gothic story yet that is quite this violent.

The third manner in which this book deviates from the "normal" gothic of the time is the cover.  Instead of the standard woman in the foreground and the castle with one light lit in an upper window in the background, we get a man and woman running, with the man in front, and a car chasing them along the cliff's edge.  There is a castle in the background, but it is completely dark, no light showing in the upper window.  And, even more surprising is that this scene is taken from the climactic fight scenes near the end of the book, with only a slight variation.  Published in 1977, it could be that the publisher felt breaking away from the norm might boost some of the sales, as this would have been near the time when the gothic paperback craze was starting to wind down, and sales were no longer what they were at the beginning of that decade.  In any event, there is no artist signature on the cover, nor any credit given on the copyright page, so no way to know who painted this car chase scene.

 

A couple of tidbits I took note of while reading -  (1) when Kate is asked to play a game of cards, the game of choice is Canasta (p. 36).  This is the first time I've actually seen this game referenced in any book I've read, that I can recall, and it made me smile, since I love playing Canasta! (2) Later in the story, Kate ends up playing another game, this time it is Scrabble (p. 78).  I'm surprised the author would pick specific games like this, rather than simply saying a "board game."  (3) This is a bit more obscure, but during a conversation between Kate and one of the male characters in the story regarding golf, and the conversation made me think of a certain author of children's series books:

...Kate was a competent golfer who had almost always played with men. She had realised [sic] from the outset that the average man was stronger than the average woman - in the muscular sense, at any rate - and that he therefore hits further, if he's good.  To compensate for this she had cultivated accuracy ... The other thing she had concentrated on was putting; points could be picked up on the green by someone who was otherwise outclassed.  (p. 87)

This description made me immediately think about Mildred Wirt Benson, who was known to be a better than average golfer, and who has been said to have beaten her fair share of male golfers in her time.  While the author was certainly not thinking about Benson when he wrote this scene, I did find it of interest that he clearly established the fact that Kate, as a woman, was skilled enough and crafty enough to figure out a way to beat a man at his own game without having to be a man herself!

Overall, a fairly decent read, although some of the elements are a bit obvious, so the ultimate reveal as to who is behind everything and why does not come as much of a surprise.

RATING:  8 pellets of weed killer out of 10 for giving readers a gothic heroine who is stronger than most, unafraid to speak her mind, even to the point of facing down an insane killer!

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories # 161 - Lost in the Everglades

Everyone's favorite teen detective has actually visited the State of Florida quite a few times over the course of her sleuthing career.  From the revised text of the Moss-Covered Mansion, to the Black Keys and Crocodile Island, as well as the Broken Anchor, the Orchid Thief, and others.  Thus, Nancy Drew is no stranger to the Sunshine State.  Now, this is one of the later books in the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories (which ran for 175 books), and I had not yet read this before - so this was actually a brand new story for me, despite the book having been published more than twenty years ago!  And quite frankly, I found it to be a very well-written story with a good mystery that had a surprising twist not normally found in the Nancy Drew mysteries.

Lost in the Everglades opens with a line that will make anyone who has ever taken a long trip before smile - "Are we there yet?" (p. 1).  Poor Bess Marvin is tired of the long drive from the Miami Airport to the entrance to the Everglades National Park.  And her cousin George Fayne's response is spot-on: "The Everglades is huge" (p. 1).  Because in the real world, the Everglades is, indeed, huge.  It literally covers more than 1,500,000 acres of land throughout three different counties in Florida - Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Collier (which are the three counties that make up the southern tip of Florida).  In the story, Nancy and her friends have made the trip down to the Everglades to visit Susan Bokan, who "used to be a good friend of the girls back in River Heights" (p. 2) and who had "moved to Florida a couple of years earlier to work as a volunteer for the Everglades National Park" (p. 2).  Once again, the appearance of a friend who has never appeared in the series to date comes out of the woodwork to ask Nancy for help - I sometimes wonder, if we counted the number of friends who appear in the series only once to ask Nancy for help, how long that list would be ... ?

The mystery involves Susan's roommate, Jade Romero, disappeared while back country camping alone up along the Whitewater Bay.  It was a dangerous trip to make alone, and when she never came back, a search was made by the park rangers, as well as the local police - but Jade was never found.  It is assumed that she died, but Susan is not sure.  She is sure that Jade would not have run away, and she can't shake the feeling that something bad happened; so she asked Nancy to come down to investigate (because, as we all know, Nancy can always uncover clues and find criminals that the police can't!).  The funny thing is - George just so happens to bear a strong resemblance to Jade, for when Mrs. Fitzgerald, the dorm mother in the dorm where Susan lives, first sees George, she screams in shock (p. 9)!  Any astute reader will immediately figure out that George's uncanny resemblance will be used by Nancy later on to help ferret out the culprit(s).  

The story features some typical Nancy Drew mystery elements - someone eavesdropping on the girls' conversation with Susan; a threatening note warning Nancy to drop her investigation into Jade's disappearance; Bess falling overboard after a speedboat causes waves around the girls' sunset cruise; a car nearly running their rental off the road; Nancy and Bess capsize into a river and are chased by an alligator; and even George disappearing while they are searching a small island for the missing Jade.  The danger is upped a notch when all three girls are held at gunpoint, tied up, and left to starve on the island; but, of course, Nancy finds a way to escape her bonds, free the others and go stop the culprit(s) from getting away.  All in a day's work for our titian-haired detective.  The one thing that did seem odd is that the synopsis on the back cover actually gives away  major plot point that is not revealed in the story until the twist at the end.  Not sure why the publishers decided to go with that, but it does spoil part of the ending.

A pleasant surprise in this book is the use of actual real places in the story.  Obviously, the Everglades is a real place, but so are Flamingo (a small area right at the bottom of the Everglades) and Florida Bay (which is a body of water located between the southern tip of Florida's mainland and the Florida Keys); Whitewater Bay, which is a real body of water just north of Flamingo that does, indeed, empty out into the Gulf of Mexico as described in the mystery; the Wilderness Waterway is a long water trail that connects Flaming with Everglades City and Cape Sable is the southernmost point of the US mainland in Florida).  It gives the story some firm grounding when it uses real locations and provides accurate descriptions and directions on how to get to them (because let me tell you - the drive from Miami to Everglades National Park is a long, tedious one along a lonely stretch of highway!).

 

The cover art for this book is by Frank Sofo, who sadly passed away in January 2024.  The scene depicts the girls canoeing along the Wilderness Waterway as they make their way to Whitewater Bay.  There is an alligator in the foreground, as a hint of what happens on page 115, when Nancy and Bess' canoe capsizes them into the water.  What is interesting is that the original cover art also featured a black leopard in front of Nancy, which Sofo told me when I spoke with him the publishers asked him to remove, as no leopard actually appears in the story.  Additionally, the publisher asked him to raise Nancy's top under her arm, as they felt too much skin was showing.  Otherwise, Sofo does a beautiful job rendering the mangrove trees, as well as the Spanish moss that covers so many of the trees here in Florida.  It's an absolute beautiful cover, probably my favorite of all the ones he did for the series.  Of course, I do live in Florida, so I may be a bit biased.

Considering how much flack I hear about and read online concerning these final digests in the series, I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery.  The author (can't find any clue as to the ghostwriter) did an excellent job setting up the mystery, providing some great chapter cliffhangers, and giving the cast some very good characterization, which is why the ultimate reveal at the end regarding some of the characters comes as a surprise.  I would say this one is definitely worth the read.

RATING:  10 baskets of fried conch fritters out of 10 for a great mystery that gives readers an actual taste of the Florida Everglades - Nancy Drew-style!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #6 - The Final Lie

Just as Marjorie Grove's second jaunt into the world of Zebra Mystery Puzzlers was better than her first, so is Marcia Blair's (or should I more accurately say Marc Baker's?) second mystery better than her first!  Perhaps as these authors start to get a better feel for their characters, they are able to focus more on crafting a well-written murder mystery and spend less time trying to give readers all the back-story on the protagonists.  Whatever the reason, it definitely gives me high hopes as this series moves upward and onward, that the stories will just keep getting better and better.  Now, if only the publisher had used the same artist as in the first Blair mystery...

 

The Final Lie returns us to the world of nurse Tory Baxter, and in similar format to the first of her tales, the reader is treated to the murder from the get-go.  No waiting around to see who is going to be murdered and how; no, in these Tory Baxter mysteries, the author gives us the murder pretty much from the first couple of pages, and Tory (and the reader!) has the entire book to sniff out the clues and make sense of everything we see in order to figure out who committed the crime and why!  And as this series progresses, I'm starting to get better at picking out the clues from the cover and the internal illustrations - either that, or the artists are making the clues more obvious.  In either event, it is rewarding to be able to notice something that plays an important part in figuring out exactly what is going on, because this mystery needed it (although, in all honesty, I picked out the killer pretty early on - not necessarily from any particular clues, but more because of the unassuming way this character was being presented in the story).

In this mystery, Tory must figure out whether her best friend's cousin, who died as a result of a hit-and-run, was killed by accident, or was it premeditated murder?  Her good friend, Kate Jeffers, who is also a nurse, is faced with the fact that her cousin, Ann Lassen, was run down coming out of a drug store and left for dead.  The police have no clues, and Kate is convinced that a mysterious man that Ann was dating is somehow at the root of it all.  When Tory and Kate uncover a large sum of money that was pulled out of Ann's bank account, as well as a strange love letter, they realize that Ann was murdered.  Now, if Tory could only get her friend on the force, Lt. Jay Thorpe, to agree.  Once again, Tory finds herself searching for clues, uncovering secrets, and putting herself in harm's way to get to the bottom of it all.

Blair (Baker) provides some great misdirects in the story, and also provides a number of good suspects.  There's Mr. Ross from the hospital's business office, who shows up at Kate's apartment just after Tory gets an anonymous call to go there.  There's also the nervous man with the dog who seems ever-so-anxious to get in touch with Kate and ultimately reaches out to Tory instead.  There's the mystery man that Ann was dating, who is believed to have been ready to marry Ann, yet he fails to appear at her funeral and no one can figure out who he is.  And there are a few other individuals who could potentially be considered suspects, if one only know which clues are important and which are nothing but red herrings.

I do love the relationship Tory has with her Aunt Tildy, who is the author of the Max Good mystery series. The two have a natural banter that is lighthearted at times, yet share some very serious conspiratorial moments.  And the relationship between Tory and Jay that they both insist is only friendship is clearly something much more than that - they are both just too blind to see it!  Oh, and it was fun to see Aunt Tildy's cook, Mrs. Jameson, play a very important part in the story!  (Speaking of which, this book was published in the late 1970s, so I have to wonder - how many middle-class, single women had the money to afford cooks back then?  Or was Aunt Tildy much more well-off than just middle class - the book is never really clear on that point...)

The artist for the internal illustrations of this book seems to be the same artist who provided the internals for the two Marjorie J. Grove books (books 1 and 5 thus far).  While they are not bad by any means, the drawings are done in very light pencil, and sometimes the details are hard to make out.  With no signature on any of the drawings, it's impossible to know who the artist is.  The cover art, however, does have a signature in the bottom right corner, just below he red car - unfortunately, it is very small, and even when enlarged, it is difficult to tell who it is - but with a little digging, I discovered the cover artist is actually Bruce Emmett.  And as it turns out, Emmett also provided cover art for the second Wanderer edition of Nancy Drew #68, The Elusive Heiress.  And speaking of the Stratemeyer Syndicate series books, this mystery has a cute reference when Tory makes a dinner date with resident Dr. Sandy Brockman, and they both mention they are still in their hospital scrubs, to which Dr. Brockman remarks, "We'll look like the Bobbsey Twins" (p. 33).

The fact that these mysteries are getting better and better as the series progresses definitely has me looking forward to reading the future Zebra Mystery Puzzlers!

RATING:  9 shards of headlight glass out of 10 for a crafty little murder mystery that has exactly the right clues to lead you down the path to the murderer!

Comic Book Implosion: An Oral History of DC Comics Circa 1978

I started collecting comics in 1979, and I remember the first comic books I purchased were 40 cents each.  I soon discovered there were a few $1 anthology titles from DC Comics (such as Superman Family, Detective Comics starring the Batman Family, Adventure Comics, World's Finest, among others), and I was excited to see comics with more pages and story.  In 1980, the regular line of DC Comics' 40 cent titles suddenly increased in price, going up to 50 cents - but with that 10-cent increase came eight extra pages of story and art, offering some unique back-up features that, quite frankly, I found more exciting than the actual main titles!  Wonder Woman offered a back-up featuring the Huntress, a character new to me that I immediately fell in love with and has since become my favorite comic character of all time; DC Comics Presents offered a back up asking the question, "Whatever Happened To ...?" that introduced me to a number of characters I had never heard of before!  The Flash had Firestorm added to its comic; The Super Friends had alternating stories of the Wonder Twins and the Global Guardians; and so many others in the numerous regular titles being published at the time.  I was in awe, having never seen an idea I thought to be so innovative!  Of course, years later, as an adult collector, I discovered that this was not the first time DC did this.  It seems back in 1978, DC expanded its books with an increased price and increased page count - an attempt that allegedly failed, resulting in what fans have called for decades the "DC Implosion."  I've only known what I've read and heard through the years about this so-called Implosion; heck, I even purchased copies of copies of the two Cancelled Comics Cavalcade that gave fans black-and-white reproductions of the various stories and comics that were supposed to be published in 1978, but ended up in desk drawers, unpublished, due to the Implosion.  But now, TwoMorrows Publishing has given fans a look back at that year (and the years surrounding it), to provide a more in-depth look at what really happened to DC Comics at that time...

Comic Book Implosion (Expanded Edition) is written by Keith Dallas and John Wells.  The original edition was published back in 2018, but this expanded edition came out this year, and I was quick to purchase a copy.  Dallas and Wells do not just give readers a narrative discourse on what transpired over those several years of ups and downs at DC Comics; no, instead, after a brief introduction and prologue that set the stage, they break down the saga into three sections:  the pre-explosion years (1976-78), the actual explosion (1978), and the implosion (1978-80).  In each of these sections, the authors provide a chronological look at what took place through the eyes of creators, editors, publishers, fans, and other various sources.  Each section is filled with quotes from fanzines, journals, magazines, interviews, books, and other various sources that allow the reader to follow along the journey - from the build-up to that big explosion, when DC wanted to try something different and expand the page-count to coincide with the necessary increase in price ... to the actual explosion itself, when many titles suddenly jumped from 32 pages to 40 pages, with the price increasing from 35 cents to 50 cents ... to the sudden implosion just three months after it began, with more than just the page count being cut at the comic company.  Rather than a simple narrative, readers hear it directly from the mouths of those involved:  Carmine Infantino, Jenette Kahn, Paul Levitz, Mike Gold, Tony Isabella, Steve Englehart, Bob Rozakis, Martin Pasko, Roy Thomas, Jim Shooter, Al Milgron, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Larry Hama, Len Wein, Jack C. Harris, Walter Simonson, and many others, including Mike Tiefenbacher, then editor of The Comic Reader fanzine.  I absolutely love this method of relaying the tale, as it allows those involved to relate it from their own perspective and experiences as it happened, and it also allows the readers to draw their own conclusions.

This book offers a lot of insight into not just the explosion/implosion, but it reveals considerable information about the publishing of comics themselves.  I learned quite a bit about why the prices increased in the way that they did, and how the sales of the books themselves did not always dictate a book's frequency or cancellation.  I never knew that at one point, the companies were limited in the number of books they could publish, which resulted in some titles being bi-monthly, so that they could still offer a large variety, alternating some of the books every other month so they could stay within the limit.  I also never realized the corporate ownership of DC played a big part of the implosion, that it was not necessarily to do with the sales themselves being low.  I was also surprised to learn that characters such as Bucky O'Hare and Ms. Mystic were originally considered by DC for publication, but after the implosion and the large layoff of creators, those characters went with their creators and eventually saw publication with independent comic companies.  Even Mike Grell's Starslayer, which I never even thought about the fact that it was basically a space-take on his Warlord character already being published by DC.

I also love the fact that Dallas and Wells intersperse some breaks in-between all of the quotes, offering up listings of the titles published in each year - from early 1976 offering up 47 different titles, to early 1977 increasing to 51 titles, to early 1978 (just before the explosion) with a slight decrease to 49 titles, to the summer 1978 explosion line-up that gave readers only 43 titles, but most of them with additional back-up stories that filled the additional eight pages (and listing nine titles that were cancelled or never saw publication at all), to the early 1979, post-implosion list of only 26 titles being published - talk about a huge cut!  And last, but not least, they provide a list of the titles being published in 1980, when DC once again increased the price from 40 cents up to 50 cents, offering eight additional pages of story and art (but not increasing the page count; rather, they reduced the ads inside to accommodate the new back-up stories), which, at the time, was a total of 30 titles.  This was shortly after I started reading comics, so I can still remember that excitement of seeing these additional pages (although not necessarily thrilled with the additional 10 cents I had to pay for each comic).

Another great thing the authors do in this book is provide a section towards the end devoted solely to indexing the Cancelled Comic Cavalcade (the two-issue, never-published collection of all the stories and art that were cut when the implosion took place).  Not only do they provide details about each issue and story of all the comics that were cut, but they also provide some of the unpublished pages of art.  There are also some preliminary cover art pages that show what some of the comic covers would have looked like had the 40-page comics not been cut (such as Wonder Woman 250, which would have had an ad in he bottom right corner for the extra "Tales of the Amazons" story, and Flash 268, which would have had a blurb about the Kid Flash back-up story planned for that issue).  There is also considerable information about the delays in the Superman: The Movie special magazine that had to be postponed every time the movie got pushed back; and also, the Superman vs. Muhammad Ali super-size comic, and the troubles that special faced.  And then, at the end of the book, Dallas and Wells provide readers with a chronological list of all titles cancelled by DC and Marvel both, from 1976 through 1980, and it is a bit jaw-dropping to see just how many wonderful books were cut during that brief period.

This book truly is a wealth of information, even if you are not at all interested in the DC Implosion.  There are tidbits about the Whitman reprints, information about the adaptation of Star Wars (which DC passed on!!!!), the controversy over Black Lightning in the comics vs. Black Vulcan in the Super Friends cartoon, details about DC's Direct Currents newsletter, the ongoing competition between DC and Marvel, how other smaller companies were affected by DC and Marvel and the price increases, and so, so, SO much more!  After having read this book, I have an entirely new take on DC Comics' history and understand now just how much the comics industry has suffered as a whole due to corporate ownership by people who truly have no appreciation for what the comic book medium is able to offer its fans.  I think we all owe a huge debt to Keith Dallas and John Wells for compiling all of these interviews, blurbs, quotes, commentaries, press releases, and other documented sources and organizing them in a logical order - the amount of time and research this much have taken is awe-inspiring - kudos to them both!

RATING:  10 of the most exciting super-heroes in comics out of 10 for giving readers the most detailed, most well-researched, and most informative history out there of one of the comic industries' biggest, and most infamous, "events"

The Happy Hollisters at Circus Island (HH8)

I remember reading The Happy Hollisters series when I was in elementary school.  The school library was small, and the books they had from this series did not have dust jackets on them, so at the time, I never realized they did have the colorful jackets.  As an adult, I rediscovered the series, but quickly learned that finding the books with dust jackets in really good conditions was not only a difficult task, but it was also an expensive one!  Fortunately, the Svenson family (author Jerry West was in actuality Andrew Svenson, a one-time partner of the Stratemeyer Syndicate who wrote all 33 volumes of The Happy Hollisters series) began republishing the books, first in paperback format, then again in hardback format with extra features at the back of each book!  Information about the series, the author, and how to purchase the books can be found at their website, The Happy Hollisters.  I count myself super-fortunate to have not only met, but made friends with Svenson's grandson and namesake, Andrew Svenson III, and his wife Callie, and they only re-invigorated my love of this series!

The Happy Hollisters at Circus Island is the eighth book in the series, and I pulled it out recently to re-read after all these years.  It was like reading an all-new story for the first time (we won't talk about how many decades have passed since I originally read this book!).  It was so much fun getting re-acquainted with Pete,Pam, Ricky, Holly, and little Sue, as well as Mr. and Mrs. Hollister and their pet collie, Zip.  And of course, we can't forget that troublesome bully, Joey Brill.  Reading the story definitely brought back those wonderful childhood memories of reading wholesome stories of family, adventure, and mystery full of fun characters, not-so-nice villains, and a variety of locales.  In this particular book, the family heads down to Florida, as Mr. Hollister must look into purchasing a houseboat for one of his customers and he decides to take his family along for a vacation trip.  As it turns out, the houseboat is owned by a clown who owns the Sunshine Circus on "Circus Island."

Now, before you ask, no, there is no such place as Circus Island in Florida; there is, however, a Circus Museum located in Sarasota, Florida, which provides visitors with a look back at the history of how Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey grew into some of the most well-recognized and world-famous circuses (Circus Museum).  Svenson never clearly defined where the fictional Circus Island is in Florida, but he provides only the smallest of hints when Pete asks where the island is - "In a small lagoon near the ocean, about thirty miles from the airport" his father tells him (p. 49).  Now, that removes the Sarasota museum from the picture, since that is on the Gulf side of the state, not the ocean side.  It also could not refer to Circus World theme park (owned, coincidentally, by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus), which did not open until 1974, nearly 20 years after this book was published, and was located in Haines City, Florida, not near the ocean (Circus World).  While I could not find a place comparable to what is described in the book, interestingly enough, I did find a now-defunct corporation called "Circus Island LLC" that was formed in 2021, but dissolved just a year later.  Not really sure what its purpose was, but I find it amusing that the owner chose that particular name.

The mystery, while centered around the circus in Florida, involves some missing dogs and a ring of thieves who are specifically stealing dogs who can perform tricks.  Needless to say, the mystery ties into all of the performers who are leaving Peppo's circus to join a mysterious new circus, also in Florida.  Pete, Pam, Ricky, and Holly are determined to not only find the missing dogs, but also figure out why all of the performers are leaving Peppo's circus, when they find him to be jovial and his circus a lot of fun.  While the mystery is not overly complicated (this series is aimed at younger readers, remember), it does have its share of mishaps and somewhat dangerous adventures (Ricky and Holly get lost in the woods overnight; Pete and Ricky get kidnapped by the thieves; etc.).  And in the midst of it all, the kids do get the opportunity to find out what it is like to be a circus performer, as depicted on the cover art for the book, rendered beautifully by the series artist, Helen S. Hamilton (taken straight from page 114).

I did happen to notice some very unique references throughout the story that made me wonder if perhaps Mr. Svenson was not having a bit of fun while writing the mystery.  The name of Peppo the Clown's missing dog is Nappy (p. 84) ... and isn't it a funny coincidence that the name of the cover artist for quite a few of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, starting in 1953 (just two years prior to this book's publication).  And while the children are exploring the circus, they are taken into the tent of one of the performers, where "off in one corner stood an open brass-bound trunk" (p. 142).  Odd, since Nancy Drew solved a mystery surrounding a brass-bound trunk... And then, just a few pages later, Ricky and Holly see one of the dogs head "toward a grove of moss-covered trees" (p. 149).  How interesting, since Nancy Drew also solved a mystery involving a "moss-covered" mansion.  Definitely makes one wonder, doesn't it?

RATING:  9 stuffed toy terriers out of 10 for good, clean family fun and mystery that is truly a great all-ages read!

Connie Blair Mystery No. 9 - The Brown Satchel Mystery

As I continue this journey through reading books from series I have yet to explore, I now come to the Connie Blair series.  I've had this series for some time - the twelve hardcovers with dust jackets, the photo-cover paperbacks, and the three painted cover paperbacks.  I only have one of the four picture covers - I figure eventually I'll come across the other three.  The series is written by "Betsy Allen," who in reality is Betty Cavanna.  According to Jennifer White's website, Cavanna wrote the first eleven books in this series, but one of the author's friends actually wrote the twelfth and final book in the series (Connie Blair). Not really sure why I have never started reading this series, but now seemed like a good time as any to do so.  I decided to start with book nine because it was set in Florida, and all my recent series books I've been reading have been Florida-themed.  Some have been just vague descriptions of Florida, while others (like the Vicki Barr book!) have been quite detailed with their Florida references.  Thus, I was curious to see how Connie Blair would fair...

The Brown Satchel Mystery takes our blond-haired, career girl sleuth down to the Fort Myers / Naples area to the fictional place of Pelican Island.  The island is said to be situated just off the Gulf Coast of Florida among the "Thousand Islands."  And this is a bit tricky, because there is an area referred to as the "Ten Thousand Islands" down in Collier County, off the coast of Naples, Florida, which is located on the Gulf of Mexico; however, there is also a "Thousand Islands" conservation area over near Cocoa Beach on the Atlantic Ocean side in Brevard County, Florida.   And if that weren't enough to confuse you, in the story, once the mystery is solved, there is a quick reference to the fact that on "account of the sudden gold rush to Pelican Island, renamed Treasure Island by one ingenious reporter" (p. 168).  Florida does have a Treasure Island, which is located in the St. Petersburg area, many miles north of the Naples area; there is no "Treasure Island" among the Ten Thousand Islands.  So, while I give the author props for using some Florida sites in the story, it is clear the locales were either not thoroughly researched or were purposefully confused to keep the story wholly fictional.

The mystery itself is somewhat odd, in that it is not clearly defined.  At the start of the story, when Connie and her twin sister Kit arrive in Florida and await the boat to take them across to the island resort where they will be staying with Connie's employer, they meet the mysterious Sterling Witherspoon, who has a brown leather traveling bag that he refuses to allow anyone to touch (p. 17).  They also witness two men working on a boat who see very out of place in the Florida sunshine (p. 5).  By the time the girls make it to the resort, they learn that Kulu, the owner's large chimpanzee, has escaped its cage and could potentially cause trouble (p. 24).  Before you know it, Connie faces danger when she is knocked unconscious while digging for shells in a secluded area of the island (p. 37).  The next few chapters deal with Connie trying to find her way out of the mess of trees, as well as Kit and one of the hotel's guides trying to locate the missing sleuth, and when she finally makes it back the next morning, it raises questions - was she knocked out by the mischievous chimp, or had someone deliberately knocked her out and moved her to a different location so she could not find her way out?

Readers are treated to a number of typical holiday excursions - we follow Kit as she enjoys fishing with the young guide, Chip; we tag along with Connie as she learns about shells and goes hunting on her own for rare finds; we go with the two sisters as they head onto the mainland in order to buy some authentic Seminole Indian skirts; and we read about the guests at the hotel as they enjoy a night of music and dancing.  It is difficult to figure out if the book is more about career girl Connie's holiday vacation or about a mystery that does not really seem to develop beyond "Who knocked Connie out?"  It is not until more than half-way through the story do we learn about the bank robbery in New York, and the two criminals who are on the run and headed to Florida (p. 94).  How this ties into the happenings thus far is only conjecture on Connie's part, but she is sure it is all connected.  And then the wife of Connie's boss disappears, which results in the sisters joining Chip on a late night search for the missing woman, with the idea that not only is Witherspoon somehow involved, but also one of the other guides (Chip's best friend) could potentially be participating in the crime!

It is interesting that the title to the book uses the "brown satchel" as the focus of the mystery, when the actual mystery inside is less about the satchel and more about who knocked Connie unconscious, who are the bank thieves, and who kidnapped Mrs. Renshaw.  The brown satchel plays both a red herring and a last minute reveal that ultimately connects poor Kulu to the overall mystery.  I supposed the satchel was used in order to keep the color theme going in the titles of the books in this series.  I think the painted cover on the paperback edition of this mystery actually provides a better idea of the mystery than the dust-jacket cover for the hardback.  The dust jacket depicts Connie digging for shells among the mangrove trees while Kulu watches in the background, while the paperback edition provides a collage of the trees, the speeding boat, the twin sisters, the stolen money, and the trouble-making chimp.

And speaking of twin sisters - I did find it amusing that Connie and Kit decide to switch places during the evening of dining and dancing, in order to give Connie a break from all of the questions being thrown at her surrounding her disappearance (pp. 75-80).  I've known several sets of twins during my life, and every one of them have talked about taking each other's place in order to fool people.  So, I thought it was a nice touch for the author to have them do this in the story.  I also thought it interesting that the author manages to throw in references to prior books throughout the whole story and not just in the first chapter or two.  Kit recalls that Connie's expert swimming "had once helped solve the mystery of The Ghost Wore White, at a haunted mansion..." (pp. 56-57); and later, the girls wear dresses they bought at the department store "where Connie had once worked and where she had helped to solve the mystery of The Clue in Blue" (p. 76).

One last thing to note - the FBI eventually make an appearance towards the end of the story, and they end up giving Connie considerable thanks for all of her sleuthing that results in the capture of the thieves and kidnappers and the fact that she finds the missing money, when no one else is able to do so!  It rather reminds of me of the Vicki Barr story I just recently read, where Vicki is in Tampa looking for thieves who stole gold coins, and she ends up receiving considerable praise from the FBI in that story for her work in solving the mystery.  Does it say something about the FBI, that young career women are able to solve crimes better than the FBI?

RATING:  7 secondhand cars out of 10 for stepping outside the norm with a career girl sleuth who solves cases with a twin sister in tow!

Mary Perkins, On Stage - Volume Seven

It's always a joy to jump back into the world of Mary Perkins.  I never really know what to expect with each of these comic strip collections, as Mary's creator, Leonard Starr, has proven that he is an amazing writer, managing to always keep the stories fresh and engaging, and to provide art that is absolutely stunning with each and every panel.  This particular volume has a forward by the creator himself, Leonard Starr, which gives some insight into Starr's own inspiration for getting into the field of art - his love of the Terry and the Pirates strip back in the day, and his fateful meeting with the creator of that strip, Milton Caniff.  There's also an introduction by Sal Amendola, who started his career in comics way back in 1969 at DC Comics.  Amendola discusses how the characters in Starr's strips are always fully human - neither all good, nor all bad, as particularly evidenced by the stories in this collection.  And he's write.  As I was reading this year-and-a-half worth of strips, I realized that is what truly draws the reader into Starr's stories - the characters are very real, even in some very unusual circumstances.

 

Volume Seven of Mary Starr, On Stage picks up with the October 12, 1964 strip that introduces readers to the Russian Major Volkov and re-introduces readers to Morgana D'Alexius (incorrectly identified as "D'Alexis" on the back cover blurb for this volume).  And thus begins the opening story for this volume, as Mary is informed one of her films is being shown at the Moscow film festival, and they want her there; while, at the same time, Pete (Mary's photographer husband, for those who may have forgotten) is told the Soviet government is opening new areas to the foreign press, and he has been personally invited to photograph them.  Mary and Pete both believe this is too much of a coincidence, and as they quickly find out, it is!  Morgana has enlisted the aid of Major Volkov in a plan to steal Pete away from Mary - by having the Major basically hold Mary captive at his castle home, while she leads Pete to another small country where she can seduce him away from his wife.  As you can expect, the plan fails, Mary and Pete figure out what is going on, and they find their way back to each other.   The one great thing about this story is the gorgeous backgrounds of Russia and its architectural beauty in Moscow.  The story has a very powerful ending, with the Major sacrificing himself during a horrific storm to hold Morgana out in the treacherous waters so she cannot get back to Pete.  Both are assumed lost at sea, but no bodies are found ... (gee, like with any good soap opera, you know what that means!)

 

As one story ends, so does another begin, and Starr takes us from international danger and intrigue to a May-December romance as Mary happens to meet up with Constance Heath, a former drama coach of Mary's who is aging somewhat gracefully.  A young up-and-coming actor gives up everything to be in her current show just so he can get close to the woman he claims to love.  Constance doesn't know what to think, and Starr plays with the readers emotions, as Constance and young Eric go back and forth - will they marry?  Will they part ways?  Will they be able to bridge the large age gap to find true love?  Mary just wants her former coach to be happy, but at what price comes happiness?  Starr actually touches on some very real issues here regarding the compromises and sacrifices that come with loving someone who is vastly older / younger than one's self.

From here, we slide right into an island adventure, as Mary heads south to film a television version of "The Tempest."  Little does she realize that she's going to be reunited with a face from the past - or rather, a faceless one!  That's right, Mary is startled at first, but then overjoyed to discover that Maximus is going to be playing the role of Caliban in the production.  The master of disguise is in top form, but the producer's assistant falls head over heels for him, not knowing of his deformity.  The young girl's brother, though, has other ideas, as he sees Maximus as a money ticket and his way off the island.  Blackmail gone wrong and a near-fatal fight at the top of a lighthouse lead to the origin of our faceless hero, as well as a marriage proposal that shows just how much heart and soul matter more than physical appearance!

The next story takes us back to New York, where Mary is preparing for her latest stage role, alongside two very different men - Claude Harper, a boy from the country who is thrilled to be working with Mary; and Rod Damian, an arrogant, self-absorbed star from Hollywood who sees only himself ... until he meets Claude's girlfriend, however, and decides he is going to steal her away.  This story gives readers the typical soap opera drama one would come to expect from a daily serial about a theater actress.  A young country girl comes to the big city to meet her actor boyfriend, only to be enticed away by a famous actor.  She loses her boyfriend, only to discover the famous actor has tossed her aside once has has driven a wedge between the two.  The question remains - has the damage Rod done driven the young couple apart for good?

Starr provides a pretty good lead up for the next story, as Mary notices a shifting mood in her husband, and sees numerous phone messages from his boss that have not been returned.  Something is up, but she can't figure out what - until he fails to show up after her opening night of the play, and she rushes home to learn Pete has left for an assignment, one that will keep him away for some time.  And it is at this point readers get a real change of pace, for the story leaves Mary in New York and turns all focus and attention on Pete Fletcher and the danger he faces in Vietnam.  Pete has been called to assist in getting a Chinese actor smuggled out of the country and safely to America - but the story has plenty of twists and turns, as he finds out the actor is one who plays females on the stage and is quite defensive about his art form.  Soon enough, though, Pete is given a shock to discover the person he is helping escape is not the actor, but rather, the actor's daughter - the actor refused to leave unless his daughter was taken safely out first!  Pete spends a number of weeks trekking through the jungles, avoiding armed natives, and having to seek first aid for the young girl after she is poisoned in a trap set in the reeds. I was actually surprised to see how many weeks go by without even one panel of Mary anywhere in the strip - I mean, after all, this is HER strip, and yet Starr keeps the entire focus on Pete and the girl he is rescuing (and her growing love for Pete!).  Of course, Pete eventually makes it home and has to face his wife, who is concerned that all the time spent with the girl may have changed his feelings for her...

This volume ends with a few hints of the next story to come, as Mary runs into an old friend, and while eating dinner together, they spot a famous producer who has just gotten divorced and begin to dish on the gossip about the divorced couple...

Starr's art is superb, as usual, with amazingly detailed backgrounds and the most accurate expressions I've ever seen in any comic art.  There were a couple of strips in this collection that were not quite as crisp and clear as 99% of the strips usually are, making me wonder if Classic Comics Press was unable to find really good scans of those particularly daily strips (ex., page 240, the 3-26 strip or page 237, the 3-19 strip).  Yes, both strips use a lot of shadows and shading, but they still seem a bit fuzzy to me, almost a bit grainy as of they are copies of copies.  Nevertheless, they are clear enough to read and do not truly take away from the enjoyment of the story.

I'm sure I've said it before, and I'll gladly say it again - I am so glad to be reading these strips in these collected editions, because I don't know if I would have had the patience to wait day after day after day to read these full stories when they were original published back in the 1960s!  

RATING:  10 stand-in hat racks out of 10 for keeping the strip fresh and interesting with a variety of stories and characters that leave the reader feeling like you never know what's going to happen next!