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!