Jack Armstrong's Mystery Crysal - Book 2 of the Jack Armstrong Series

This was one of those "impulse" buys - I saw it in dust jacket, I had never heard of the character before, and I thought the cover was creative and unique, so I said to myself, "Why not?"  As it turns out, this book is the second book in a two-book series written by Stanley J. Wallace. I could find absolutely nothing about this author online, other than the fact that he wrote both books in this series - so I have no idea if Wallace is a real person or yet another in a long line of pseudonyms used to write children's series books back in the first half of the 20th century.  And as far as the main character goes ... well, we'll talk more about that name later... 

 

Jack Armstrong's Mystery Crystal, while having its own strange story, carries some of the plot threads from the first book into this one. As the story opens, we find Jack Armstrong traveling with his Yogi, a "native of mysterious India" named Sher Dal (p. 1).  The reader is given some details about Jack, insomuch as his parents were missionaries who had gone out to reach some natives in the wild jungles of India, only to disappear.  Presumed dead, Jack was taken in and trained by Sher Dal in the strange powers of the mind, learning how to use this "natural force [that exists] in many persons yet known to but few" ... a "mysterious force" that is "in the mind, the will - the power of thought" (p. 49).  I found myself chuckling at this description, thinking how easily the Sher Dal and young Jack mirror certain characters from a space saga that first hit theaters in 1977 (some forty years after this book was published).  It even had me wondering if perhaps George Lucas had read this book as a youngster and the idea had stuck in his head.  Hey, you never know!

 

In any event, Jack and Sher Dal are in the States (although it doesn't specify where), traipsing through a forest, when they stop at a farm house to buy some food, only to get entangled with the family there, whose car has been stolen- and they mistakenly believe Jack is one of the gypsies who stole it!   The family's name is "Turnbull" - Hank and Jenny Turnbull (pp. 14-16), and, of course, my mind immediately went to the second Nancy Drew mystery, The Hidden Staircase, in which Nancy comes to the aid of the Turnbull sisters, Rosemary and Floretta. I know it's simply a coincidence that the names are the same, but since this book came out only six years after the Nancy Drew title, you never know that the character name might have influenced this one.  It's not like "Turnbull" is a common name, after all.  Jack ultimately uses this crystal ball that he has to find the car, and in so doing, reveals its powers to a handyman at the farm - a handyman who later steals the crystal and runs off with a neighbor's car!  Jack and the Yogi do track down the man and retrieve the crystal, but not without injury to Sher Dal.  While he goes into the hospital, Jack heads out on his own to continue the search for his parents.

 

Yes, that is the plot thread that continues from the first book.  It seems Jack's parents may very well be alive, but they simply don't know where they are.  The crystal gives Jack a vision of his mother possibly being held captive in a jungle - only not in India, but in the southern part of Florida known as the Everglades (p. 67)!  Yes, it caught me by surprise as well, since it seems so many children's books I have been reading from this era all end up in Florida at one time or another.  Florida must have been the happening place for these authors, since so many characters make their way down to and have adventures in the Sunshine State.  By pure chance, Jack runs into his old friends from the first book (a traveling magician, his assistant, and his cook), and two of them join Jack in his adventure down to Florida, along with a Seminole Indian named Sam who agrees to show them the way - after all, he happens to go to Florida to collect orchid buds to sell up north (p. 159).  Now, for those who read this blog, that might sound a bit familiar, and that's because it is.  In The Moving Picture Girls Under the Palms, the girls are hoping to find a rare orchid that grows in the Everglades.  It seems that over 39 species of orchids grow throughout the Everglades, many of which are now endangered (although, back in 1936, such might not have been the case).  Again, another funny coincidence between plots in series books.

 

The crew have quite the adventure in the wilds of the Everglades, with deadly snakes, wild Indians, and even a hungry alligator who sets its sights on Sam when he climbs a tree to snag an orchid (p. 163).  What is odd is that this very scene is depicted on the frontis piece, but the page number given for that scene is 156, some seven pages prior.  Not sure how this error occurred, unless an earlier draft of the story had this scene at page 156 and more story was added later to increase the page count of the book?  In any event, that frontis is signed by C.R. Schaare, who turns out to be Christian Richard "Dick" Schaare Jr. (1893-1980), who provided covers for quite a few pulp magazines between 1925 and 1940, as well as worked on some comic books and painted covers for the boxing magazine, The Ring.  More information about Schaare can be found here:  Pulp Artists - Schaare.  Schaare also provided the cover art, which was used for both books (with the only difference being the title).

 

What annoyed me about the conclusion to this story is that (a) the author uses the "twin" trope to give readers a curve ball at the end, a plot element apparently used in the first book where a Jack look-a-like caused all sorts of trouble for our hero, and (b) Jack does not find his parents.  Rather, the last page of the book informs readers that Jack's search for his parents will continue in the next book, to be called "Jack Armstrong's Magic Stone," in which book it "will be told the perils he encountered among dangerous beasts and reptiles in his search for his lost father and mother" (p. 206).  The problem with that is that this next book was never published - it is a phantom title that readers never got to see in print.  I'm not sure what caused the failure to continue the series; was it low sales, did the publisher decide this story about mental powers was too strange, or did the author simply decide he (or she) did not want to write any more adventures of Jack Armstrong?

 

And speaking of Jack Armstrong.  If that name seems a bit familiar, it's because there was another Jack Armstrong that existed around the same time as this: Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy.  This other Jack Armstrong was a radio adventure series that ran from 1933 to 1951.  This character was adapted into a movie serial in 1947, as well as a 13-issue comic book series and two Big Little Books.  There was also a short-lived comic strip based on the radio show, which lasted from 1947 to 1950.  In addition, an animated cartoon pilot was developed by Hanna-Barbera, but it never got past that pilot stage.  While the Wikipedia page on this Jack Armstrong lists this two-book series as an adaptation of the radio character, after reading this book, I can say that this Jack Armstrong is nothing at all like the one from the radio show, movie, or comics.  How Cupples & Leon got away with using that character name is a mystery...

 

The story, with its heavy emphasis on mystic India mental powers, is certainly off-beat for its time, when most series books books were simply filled with adventure or mystery or school-centric tales.  In fact, the publisher has a one page "Explanatory Note" before the first chapter that asks readers to not discount the inexplicable things that take place in the story - "we warn you not to disbelieve the story of Jack's magic crystal and his strange wand that killed with the silence of eternity..."  Yet, it has its own charm, and I wish Wallace (or whoever it was that wrote the books) would have at least written one more, so the reader could share in the joy of Jack Armstrong being reunited with his parents!  Hopefully, one day I'll be able to find the first book (Jack Armstrong's Mystery Eye) and read about the events that led to the story in this book.

 

RATING:  7 great rocks shaped like an elephant out of 10 for a uniquely different kind of mystery of mysticism and magic!