And at long last, we've reached the seventeenth and final Penny Parker Mystery Story. It is a bittersweet feeling, because I've been anxious to see just how this series was going to end, while at the same time, I'm disappointed to have reached the final Penny Parker story. A seventeen-book series that was published from 1939 to 1947 at two each year (except for 1945, in which only one Penny Parker book was published), the series has offered up some very interesting stories that gradually became more and more dark and intense as the it progressed. This final book has probably the darkest story in it, and one has to wonder if perhaps the story is a reflection of everything the author had experienced in the years leading up to the printing of this last volume.
The Cry at Midnight opens with a somewhat cheerful winter scene, as Penny Parker and her (boy) friend, Jerry Livingston, are getting ready to ski down the slops of Knob Hill. Now, anyone familiar with series books from this era, and more certainly, anyone familiar with Mildred Wirt Benson's work is going to stop right here and say: Knob Hill? Where have I heard that name before? Well, it just so happens that the final book in the Penny Nichols series, written by Benson under her pseudonym Joan Clark, was titled The Knob Hill Mystery (you can read my review of that book by clicking on the link). The Knob Hill in that book was not a hill for skiing, however, nor was the mystery set in the dead of winter; however, it did feature a youngster who was being held captive in a house, similar to the captives in this book. I suppose it is fitting that Benson ended both of her "Penny" series with a mystery set on or around a place named "Knob Hill."
The story takes a darker, more gothic tone as Penny and her best friend, Louise Sidell, are walking back to their car when they pass by the supposedly haunted Abbington Monastery and they hear a "shrill, piercing scream" from inside the monastery (p. 7). This, of course, immediately piques Penny's interest, as she immediately sees there is a story to be uncovered here. The monastery is described as a "structure of moldy stone enclosed by a high brick wall" with a graveyard just inside the wall (p. 4), and that there is a "deserted garden beyond the gatehouse" where "several statues [are] covered with soft white shrouds" (p. 6), giving the reader an imagery of ghostly figures. When they discover the gate is open, Penny convinces Louise to go inside, where they meet "a grotesque, deformed human figure," and they see "silhouetted against the gray stone walls ... a hulk of a man with a large head and twisted back made unsightly by a hump" (p. 10). The man who now owns the monastery, when he first appears, is said to be a "very tall man" wearing a "dark hooded robe" (p. 12). These details are clearly intended to set the mood for the story - a dark, foreboding house inhabited by cloaked and grotesque individuals, which definitely provide the set-up for a good gothic tale!
Jay Highland, who calls himself Father Benedict (p. 14) tells Penny and Louise that he has no secrets within the halls of the monastery, and the only thing they will find are "serene faith and hope for a better world" (p. 14). Penny has seen enough charlatans by this point to recognize one, and it is obvious to her something is not right here. And one has to smile at the author's choice of names for the Father - "Benedict" could easily be a reference to the Benedictine monks who used to live in Abingdon Abbey (which is the name of the REAL abbey located in Oxfordshire, founded in 675 AD and dis-established in 1538 - like the Abbington Monastery in this book, the real Abingdon Abbey has some walls and buildings remaining, but a number of the buildings have only a few physical remains on the land).
From here, Benson introduces another character into the story, who may be a greater mystery than the scream at the monastery. As Penny and Louise are driving home, Penny nearly hits a young girl walking down the road with a suitcase (p. 16). They have to literally beg her to get her to enter the car and allow them to give her a ride (but not before they debate the safety of picking up a hitchhiker on page 17 - which is a funny coincidence, as part of the mystery in that last Penny Nichols book also involves a hitchhiker, only in that story, it is a male, not a female), and she refuses to disclose any personal information, including her own name. She insists she be let out on the docks in Riverview, and it is there that she disappears right at the river's edge (p. 23).
Well, yet another mystery falls into Penny's lap when she gets home to find her father meeting with James Ayling, an investigator for the Barnes Mutual Insurance Company (p. 30). It seems that one Mrs. Hawthorne and her granddaughter Rhoda have gone missing, and the insurance company is concerned about the extremely valuable star sapphire that they insure - they are afraid she may lose or give away the cursed jewel, leaving the insurance company to pay out! And, yes, the jewel does come with a curse. According to the story the star sapphire was set in a necklace worn by a king who met a violent death; since that time, every owner thereafter has had bad luck, with several of them dying in strange ways (p. 31). Mr. Ayling is worried the older woman may believe in the curse and get rid of the jewel. Now, this whole segment of the mystery definitely has some interesting things to point out. First, it is said Mrs. Hawthorne's husband was Nathaniel Hawthorne! You may recognize that name as the great American novelist and short story writer (1804-1864). What's more coincidental is the real Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote House of Seven Gables while living just outside of Lenox, Massachusetts, a city that was settled by one Jonathan Hinsdale, whose daughter's name was ... Rhoda! And if that weren't enough, a little digging reveals that the real Hawthorne had a cousin whose name was Rhoda Campbell Morgan (1819-1867)! Whether Benson used these names because she was aware of the connection, or whether it is simply one huge coincidence, I suppose will remain an unsolved mystery... And, with regard to the "cursed" sapphire, it turns out there really was a star sapphire with a supposed curse to it. The Delhi Sapphire is sad to have brought terrible misfortune and financial ruin to anyone who possessed it!
While the mystery is not really too hard to figure out (I mean, come on, who didn't immediately figure out that the young girl walking down the street, away from the monastery, was actually Rhoda?), it is following along with Penny as she figures it all out that is half the fun. And the gothic elements abound within the story - there is a closet that offers a peep hole that allows one to spy into the chapel room (p. 144); there is a secret tunnel from the basement to the graveyard (p. 81); a lift that lowers the canopied bed in the chapel room own into the cellar by secret mechanism (p. 113); and even a crazy old woman (p. 13) who continually warns Penny away from the monastery (p. 38), but who ultimately aids her in her quest to uncover the truth about what is going on at the monastery! This story could easily transition into one of the gothic novels published in the 1960s and '70s that populated bookstore shelves so heavily during that time. It has the perfect premise and setting, that's for sure!
One final observation in this book concerns the ceremony given by Father Benedict. While he starts the ceremony by chanting in Latin, he also recites a somewhat lengthy quote (p. 133) from The Monastery, a novel by Sir Walter Scott published in 1820. He is reciting a quote of the White Lady from the novel, a character that is a supernatural figure who guides some of the other characters in the story. Scott's novel, as clear from the title, is centered on a monastery that is based on the real Melrose Abbey in southeast Scotland. I would love to know what promptly Benson to use this quote for the story, and whether Scott's novel itself gave her some inspiration for the final Penny Parker mystery!
While not the strongest mystery in this series, I would have to say that The Cry at Midnight provides readers with a satisfying conclusion to the Penny Parker Mystery Stories. That final statement by Penny on page 207 pretty much sums up her future, had the series continued: "Writing this story will be duck soup compared to digging up the material. Just lead me to a typewriter!" And with that, the stories of plucky teen-sleuth Penny Parker came to an end, and we are left with a legacy of great stories by which we will always remember her!
RATING: 9 cheap silver colored rings with a red glass tone out of 10 for sending Penny Parker off into the annals of history with a solid, 17-book legacy that could truly be enjoyed by fans of any age in any decade!
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