The Daughters of Ardmore Hall - an Ace Gothic by Dorothy Eden

This is a book that I picked up for a number of reasons:  (1) it is a gothic novel, (2) I enjoyed the last Dorothy Eden book that I read, (3) the cover art is gorgeous, and (4) the use of the word "Ardmore" in the title piqued my curiosity.  Dorothy Eden, author of Shadow of a Witch, a gothic that I read and reviewed last year, wrote quite a few gothic novels between 1940 and 1982, most under her own name (although she did write two books under the Mary Paradise pseudonym).  It is said that by the early 1980s, Eden was one of the 10 best-selling novelists in the world.  She was born in New Zealand, where she lived her entire life.  While her books are most well known as Gothic novels, they do not always follow all of the standard Gothic tropes.  This one certainly did not.

 

The Daughters of Ardmore Hall, originally titled The Schoolmaster's Daughter when it was first published back in 1946, or 1948 depending on which site you research, tells the story of two sister (and, no, they are not Mary Campbell and Jessica Tate, so don't go there!) - Charlotte Castle, the older sister, and Truda Castle, the younger one.  Truda is the main character, and it is through her perspective that the reader is told the tale of these daughters of Ardmore Hall.  What's interesting is that, despite the revised title, neither Charlotte nor Truda ever actually lived in Ardmore Hall.  In fact, of the two, only Truda ever visits the place.  As it turns out, Ardmore Hall is very tangential to the story - the Hall is actually the ancestral home of the sisters' mother, which was sold many years prior, and Mrs. Castle was forced to take all of her prized possessions and cram them into the small schoolhouse where she and her daughters now lived with Henry Castle, the school master for the small town in which they lived.  I was honestly hoping that Ardmore Hall would play a bit more of a role in the story, since the name has appeared before in other books I've read - Mildred Wirt's Ghost Gables, as well as her book Courageous Wings; in addition, Ardmore was the name of the college in the Ruth Fielding series, some of which were written by Wirt; and it was mentioned as a college attended by a character in the Madge Sterling series, also, coincidentally, written by Wirt.  Thus, with so many references to Ardmore, the title to this particular book definitely caught my attention.  All of Wirt's books appeared prior to the first publication of this story (under its original title); however, living in New Zealand, it is likely Eden's inspiration for using the name more likely came from the fact there is a large, rural town named Ardmore in New Zealand.  As for Wirt's reason in using that name so often?  Well, there are several cities in the United States by that name...

 

In any event, when reading this book, do not expect to find any gloomy mansion or large castle with hidden rooms or falling cement gargoyles.  While the cover art depicts a rather large house, the story makes it clear the house is not very big, and the furniture Mrs. Castle brought with her from Ardmore Hall makes it cramped.  From the beginning, the reader gets a clear sense of Truda's relationship based upon how each of the members of her family and close circle of friends are addressed.  Mr. Castle is referred to as "Father," while Mrs. Castle is referred to by her proper name, "Fanny."  Right away, it is obvious there is tension between Truda and her mother.  Charlotte, Truda's older sister, seems to be the focal point of all that tension - her mother dotes on her, loves her, protects her, so much that Truda is merely an afterthought, brushed aside or insulted if her actions in any way interfere with her sister's glory.  Mr. Castle, on the other hand, sees the injustice and often comes to his younger daughter's defense, as does Miss Angel, the school teacher who is a very close friend of the family.  Charlotte, with her beauty and her strong personality, demands the attention of everyone around her, and as she has matured, she has learned how to manipulate people and situations to give the appearance that she is innocent of anything other then being in the right place at the right time.  Truda sees this, but she cannot seem to help herself and repeatedly gives in to her sister's wants and demands.

 

 Until the fateful night of the big dance, when Charlotte is sick and must stay home, and Truda has a chance to go without her sister, where she meets Evan Wright.  For the first time, the world seems to be opening up and giving Truda a chance to shine and have a life of her own, apart from Charlotte.  Fate, however, has other plans.  While the synopsis on the back of the book describes how three years have passed since Evan left and Charlotte returns without a word of where she has been or what she has done, in actuality is is Truda who does the leaving, and it is actually four years that pass before Charlotte returns to the small schoolhouse.  Father has died, Truda's marriage to Evan fell apart (when she caught Evan kissing Charlotte), and Truda is raising her daughter, Honey, on her own (neither Evan nor Charlotte knows about the child).  But now Charlotte is back, and with her return (more than half-way through the book!), we finally start seeing some of those Gothic elements appear.

 

Truda meets the new town doctor, Luke, who seems to be attracted to her.  But Truda is still married to Evan, with whom she shares a child.  Charlotte, even from her sick bed, begins to shower Honey with attention, making it clear she wants to steal the child away from Truda just like she did her husband.  On the night Evan is supposed to arrive by train, a horrible storm hits.  Mrs. Castle's sister, Aunt Letty (and with that name, how could I not think of the Dana Girls' nemesis, Lettie Briggs? Thankfully, this Letty is nothing like that one!), arrives, saying she saw no sign of Evan on the train.  Mrs. Castle, Aunt Letty, Miss Angel, and Truda are all caught out in the rain and come back to the house (separately!) with muddied boots and wet clothes.  No sign of Evan.  But more odd, there is no sign of Charlotte, who everyone believes left to meet Evan on the train.  After the storm passes, Charlotte's fate is discovered - she is dead, having been forcefully drowned in a pond, formed by the rain, behind the house.  Who did it?  Evan shows up the next day, but Truda finds clues that indicate he was there the previous night.  All of the women were out, by themselves, when the storm hit, and none of them have anyone to give them an alibi.  It's actually a very well-crafted mystery, although astute readers will likely pick up on the identity of the killer pretty quickly.  I will give Eden credit for trying to play up the various suspects, but there is one that stands out as somewhat obvious, based upon that particular character's actions just prior to the murder.

 

While we do not get the typical "two men - one appears good, but is really evil, while the other seems not nice at all, but turns out to be the real hero" trope of Gothic novels, Eden does give poor Truda two men in her life (although Luke does not come into the picture until nearly three-fourths of the way into the story). There is also the small clue in Mrs. Castle's diary that raises questions in Truda's mind regarding Charlotte and why she is so important to their mother.  Throughout the entire story, it is easy to sympathize with Truda, and you quickly finding yourself rooting for her, hoping she will eventually stand up for herself and not tolerate all of the catering to Charlotte - and when she does, you will no doubt cheer like I did!

 

The cover art to my copy of the book was painted by Harry Barton (1908 - 2001), whose illustrations can be found in a number of old magazine and pulps.  His largest body of work, however, are found on the covers of books published by a number of recognizable publishing houses, such as Dell, Ace, Dial Press, and others.  This particular cover shows Truda, with the wind blowing against her (obviously just before the storm hits on that fateful night), and the house behind her with just one light on in an upstairs window (typical Gothic fare). While not completely accurate as far as the house goes, the scene appears to be straight from the opening two pages of the book, where Truda is contemplating what has happened and her mind prepares to go over everything that led up to that moment (and thus, the entire story from that point is a flashback).  What is interesting about this cover is that the copy with the glossy gold lettering has Truda heading to the right, looking back over her shoulder to the left; however, there is another copy of the book with plain white lettering which features the art reversed - or so I thought!  It turns out, by looking at Barton's signature on the painting, it is the one with the white lettering that shows the art in its original form, and it is the cover of my copy that has the reversed art (as Barton's signature appears backwards in the lower right corner).   There is yet another edition of the book which features a completely different cover, the artist of which I am unsure, since there is no signature on the cover art.  That cover (shown up above in this post) departs even further from the description of the house, making it more of a castle, and it shows one sister holding tightly to a man (presumably Evan), while the other sister stands back in the mist watching.  Honestly, I think I prefer Barton's cover better, as it not only depicts an actual scene from the book, but it definitely has a stronger Gothic feel to it.

 

Although it is not a typical Gothic tale, I did really enjoy the story (relating somewhat to Truda's position, not with regard to my parents, but with regard to my grandmother).  This book confirms my like of Dorothy Eden's work, and I need to track down more of her stories.

 

RATING:  9 fair daffodils out of 10 for family drama, dark secrets, soap opera reveals, and a good, old-fashioned murder mystery worth reading!

Courageous Wings - a New Prize Guild Library mystery

This book is the second of two flying stories that Mildred Wirt (Benson) wrote under The New Prize Guild Library banner of books.  The first was The Sky Racers (you can read my review here: The Sky Racers), indicated as book 10 of the collection on the back of the dust jacket for this book, while this book is listed as book 13 of the collection.  There are quite a number of classic books on this list, including some by Louisa May Alcott, Robert Luis Stevenson, Charlotte Bronte, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and others.  Thus, Wirt must have felt some level of honor to have her books placed in the same category as such great writers.  It's just a shame these two books about young aviators were not on par with those other stories.

Courageous Wings is very similar in subject matter and plot to The Sky Racers, a fact I did not realize until I went back and looked at my review of that first book (which was nearly four years ago).  Both books deal with a young girl who is learning how to fly.  Both stories center around a competitor who is trying to sabotage the new invention of the girl's father.  Both books also feature a plane crash in the mountains.  The main differences are in the actual protagonists (in the first book, Jane Grant is eager to fly her father's plane, while in this story, Cleo Bowman, wants to fly, but at the last moment, becomes fearful until she is put in a position where she must fly a plane in order to save her father's life!) and the details surrounding the flights (Jane's father has entered a race, while Cleo's father is trying to rebuild a failed business by doing stunt flying with traveling circuses).

Oddly enough, the book opens not with the main character, but rather with Jim Sherman and Shorty Dawes, an airplane pilot and his mechanic.  While they do play a large part in the story as the supporting cast to Cleo and her father, Martin Bowman, they are just that - supporting characters.  So, I found it strange Wirt would begin the story with these two men, telling the story from Sherman's point of view.  Even when Cleo does make her appearance (p. 8) in the first chapter, the POV remains with Sherman through the first and second chapters. It it not until the third chapter, when Sherman, Dawes, and Cleo come face-to-face with Marcus Reman, a man claiming to be a friend of her father (but who turns out to be a thief who tries to break into the Bowmans' home safe) that the point-of-view begins to change to Cleo, and she takes more prominence in the story.

As with Jane Grant in The Sky Racers, Cleo Bowman in this book is not a very interesting character.  She is nowhere near as determined as Jane from the first book, and her indecisiveness regarding whether she will dare to fly a plane on her own quickly becomes tiresome.  Her doubt and constant questioning of herself is not something most people want to read in a story - they want their protagonists to be strong-willed, determined, and daring.  Perhaps Wirt was simply playing Cleo in this manner, so that when she does take to the sky, in a plane with which she is completely unfamiliar to boot!, her ability to overcome her own fears is meant to be all that more impactful.  Unfortunately, for me, it did not have any impact at all; rather, it was sort of like reaching a point of "Finally!"  

I will give Wirt some credit for creativity, however, as Cleo ultimately unravels the mystery of what really happened between her father and his former business partner that caused the split between them and pitted them as bitter rivals against one another.  This reveal does not provide a bit of a twist, as the person you think is truly behind everything turns out to be just another victim of a criminal determined to get revenge on a perceived slight years prior.  

One interesting thing I must point out is the use of Ardmore City in this book.  Ardmore City is where Jim Sherman and Shorty Dawes run a private airplane company, and it is where Cleo first meets the aviator and his mechanic.  I raise this point because Wirt also used "Ardmore" as the name of the college that Ruth Fielding attended in her series, and it was also the name of the college the girls in Ghost Gables were attending.  Makes one wonder what importance "Ardmore" had to Wirt, that she would use it again and again in various books.

Overall, it's not one of Wirt's better books.  Despite her later love of flying, it seems to me that Wirt's early books that dealt with aviation just did not have the same quality of stories and characters that her mystery stories did, as neither The Sky Racers nor Courageous Wings were good reads in my opinion.  Having never read the Ruth Darrow series, which I know is one of Wirt's earliest series, I cannot comment on those.

RATING:  4 long-endurance engines out of 10 for giving us an Oriental servant (Lee Sin) that, while definitely a stereotype, offered some humorous (and in some instances ingenious!) moments in the story.

Ghost Gables - a Mystery Story for Girls

A gable, according to Wikipedia, "is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches."  Basically, it is the portion of a wall that is just below the point where the roof edges meet at the top.  Gothic and classical Greek styles of architecture used sharp gable roofs in their designs.  In America, houses with gables in the front were popular between the early 19th century into the early part of the 20th century.  Now, with that bit of information fresh on your mind, we can take a look at second of the last two books Mildred Wirt (Benson) wrote in her Mystery Stories for Girls series.  As with The Painted Shield, this book was published first by Cupples & Leon and later reprinted by The World Publishing Company in their line of World Junior Library books.

Ghost Gables utilizes a number of tropes common to children's series books - a ghost, a locked room, an abandoned house, a family separated, and a secret "treasure."  Wirt definitely goes all out with this story, and as with most of her Mystery Stories for Girls, there is more than one protagonist. Readers are first introduced to Lois McDonald, a senior in high school whose family lives in Big Bear River not far from Ardmore College.  Across the river is a house that has stood abandoned for as many years as Lois can remember - but someone is moving in to the old house, and Lois is thrilled at the idea.  Soon enough, Lois (and readers) meet Glenna Brockman, a young girl ready to begin her freshman year at Ardmore.  Glenna has rented the property with the hopes of turning it into a boarding house and earn money to pay her way through college.  Lois warns her this may not be easy, since the house comes with its very own ghost!

Thus begins the mystery, as Lois jumps in to help Glenna get the house cleaned up and ready for boarders, more out of curiosity to see the inside of the house than anything else.  Neither truly believe in ghosts, so they are soon able to get four boarders, all of whom are also freshman.  During the exploration of the house, however, Lois and Glenna come across a locked room on the second floor for which Glenna has no key.  The realtor tells them the owner of the house does not wish anyone in that room, and they are told to stay out.  Well, this only makes Lois more determined than ever to get into that room.  There's also the mysterious painting in the first floor library which goes missing not long after Glenna opens the house to boarders.  And there's the nosy neighbor who seems intent on causing problems for Glenna, complaining about the noise, her dog, and anything else that could potentially make Glenna want to leave.  Oh, and we can't forget that pesky ghost that is seen briefly from the windows now and again, walking through the gardens and heading off into the woods!

Wirt also gives the house a back story involving a family separated by a trail of misunderstandings.  It seems the owner of the house picked up and left just after the first World War started and never looked back.  Her heart broken by a son who picked up and joined the armed services and never returned, combined with her belief that the brother she trusted her encouraged her son to enlist, forced her to abandon her home to get as far away from the memories as she possibly could.  But Lois, who can't seem to let anything rest, believes there is more to the story, and despite the efforts of the nosy neighbor and a college professor who want to leave the past in the past, she persists in investing the history of the house and its owner.  Of course, as we can all easily expect, she ultimately unlocks the secrets to the past, discovers a shocking connection to events in the presents, and reunites a broken family.

Once again, Wirt integrates her love and knowledge of swimming into the story.  When two of the boarders capsize their canoe into the river (p. 42), Lois does not hesitate to jump in to save them.  "Lois dived feet first from the pier, because she was unfamiliar with the water depth, and with a smooth, unhurried crawl stroke, swam out toward the overturned canoe" (p. 44).  She even acknowledges that "[e]ven for a strong swimmer, it was not easy to carry another person seventy-five yards in the river, especially one who wore heavy clothing" (p. 44).  I suppose with her expert knowledge of swimming, it was easy for Wirt to write some kind of life-saving swimming scenario into each of her books.

Something else I found to be interesting in this story is the fact that Lois is described as being only fifteen years old, yet she is said to be a senior in high school (p. 4), and she tells Glenna that she will be attending Ardmore as a freshman the next year (p. 7).  From what I could find online, it seems back in the 1930s, it was common for high school students to graduate after completing their eleventh grade of schooling.  But even then, one would think Lois would have to be sixteen or even seventeen to complete her eleventh year.  Either Lois was exceptionally smart and jumped ahead a grade or two, or if perhaps she simply took extra classes to gain enough credits to graduate early (as I found some blogs online from people that talked about graduating at fifteen when they skipped some elementary grades and took extra credit classes to get ahead).  So, graduating at fifteen may not have been the norm, but apparently it wasn't unheard of either.

There are some "non-mystery" elements to the story, including Glenna's having to deal with the antics of one of her boarders who insists on consistently breaking the rules, and her having to ready house and manage the day-to-day activities of caring for boarders while trying to keep up with her school schedule.  But Wirt manages to balance those elements of the story nicely with the mystery elements, making it a fairly good read.  I also appreciate the fact that there is some character growth when it comes to Lois, who is first described very firmly as a tomboy, and acts as such throughout most of the book; however, when graduation time comes and she begins to prepare for life after high school, she suddenly becomes more aware of her appearance and manners!  Another way in which the freedom from Syndicate restrictions allowed Wirt to develop her characters, rather than continually writing cookie-cutter characters who maintain the same characteristics book after book after book.

Oh, and one last thing - one may notice a bit of a story resemblance with a book Wirt wrote five years later for the Syndicate, involving a musical score that is discovered and ends up being quite valuable!

RATING:  9 plump strawberries picked for shortcake out of 10 for an engaging story and rather unique revelation regarding the identity (or, perhaps I should say identities!) of the ghost!