Treasure Beach - A Cassandra Mystery #4

Fist, she visited England.  Then she traveled to Kentucky.  From there, she went to Hollywood.  Now, in this fourth and final Cassandra Mystery, amateur sleuth Cassie B. Jones a/k/a Cassandra Best is invited down to the Florida Keys to help her wealthy friend's aunt solve a mystery involving strange accidents happening to a treasure hunter.  I did not intentionally choose to read this book because of the Florida connection, but it is a rather funny coincidence that this book is set in Florida, after the number of "Florida" series books I have read lately. I suppose it was fate or kismet or whatever you want to call it that drew me to this book to read.  As with the other books I've been reading recently, I went into this one wondering how many, if any, actual locales would make an appearance in the book.

Treasure Beach is set on the fictional island of Sand Dollar Key.  There is, however, a small stretch of land off of Siesta Key known as "Sand Dollar Island."  From what I could find online, this was originally just a large sandbar that appeared when the tide was low, but over the last several years, it has apparently grown to the point where it now rests above the high tide line.  (Sand Dollar Island).  I'm not sure if this "island" was actually visible or known back in 1990 when this book was published, but it does indicate the only way to reach the "island" is by boat (just like in the book).  However, since Siesta Key is actually located just off the shore of Sarasota on the west coast of Florida, it would unlikely be the same location, since Cassandra and Alexandra were down in the actual Keys at the bottom of the state.

Another Florida site from the book is Oyster Key, which is the place where the treasure hunter and the saboteurs are trying to locate the missing pirate ship and the fabled treasure.  While there are actual Oyster Keys in Florida, they are located just off the southern coast of the Everglades National Park, a bit southeast of Flamingo, Florida.  They are nowhere near the real Sand Dollar Island, and they are too far from the Key West area to reach it by boat in the short amount of time described in the book.  Yet, the name does exist, as does Sand Dollar Island (not "Key"), leaving one to wonder if the author simply lifted the real names and then simply fictionalized their locations for the story.

The title of the book refers to the stretch of beach on Sand Dollar Island, where Alexandra's aunt lives.  There is no actual "Treasure Beach" in Florida, although there is a Treasure Island off the coast of St. Petersburg.  It's a beautiful place, with white sandy beaches, which was first settled back in the mid-1800s.  It's name, funny enough, came from a land owner who wanted to generate interest in the area, so he and a friend pretended to discover treasure buried on the beach, and word swiftly spread about the treasure island just off of St. Petersburg beach (Treasure Island).  Since this book also deals with the search for a hidden treasure, it does make quite the coincidence.

The mystery revolves around Whit Bromfield, the man who owns the half of the island not owned by Aunt Owena.  Whit is a treasure hunter, and he has nearly located an old ship that went down centuries ago, aboard which is alleged to be a bountiful treasure, including a legendary golden jaguar, made with an emerald collar and two huge emerald eyes (p. 150).  He and his team are close to locating the wreck, but someone keeps sabotaging all of their efforts.  Cassandra agrees to help figure out who is causing the problems.  There are several suspects, including the son of Aunt Owena's housekeeper, whose brother died during a horrific storm while helping Whit search for the treasure.  Cassandra quickly learns how to scuba dive so she can not only solve the mystery, but also help with the search. She and Alexandra end up in quite a bit of danger, particularly when some unscrupulous men chase them with spear guns into a coral maze under the water!  Needless to say, Cassandra eventually reveals the identity of the saboteurs, and in the process, finds the sunken treasure!

One thing I found to be a bit humorous was the description of the cat statute made out of gold.  It was mentioned several times that it was emerald eyes, and at every mention, all I could think of was No. 75 of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, The Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery (published 1984).  In that book, published six years prior to this one, the mystery does involve a hidden treasure, but the emerald-eyed cat is a real one, and not a statue like in this one.  Yet, it is an amusing coincidence (and doesn't this book seem to have a lot of them?).

Finally, there is a scene in the book, nearly half-way through the story, where Cassandra walks into her bedroom to find hanging over her bed a dead chicken.  "The body was dirty gray, and the head, with its saucy red comb, flopped limply to one side.  Around its neck hung a string of ragged red cloth, shells, yellow feathers, and bleached bones" (p. 69).  Cassandra immediately recognizes it as a voodoo fetish.  I mention this only because I recently read the fifteenth Penny Parker book (Whispering Walls), and that also featured some voodoo paraphernalia, such as ouange charms, effigy dolls, and even a warning that contained two black feathers, the wing of a bird, unidentified herbs, a bit of bone, and some damp earth!  Again, we'll simply have to chalk it up to coincidence (and remind ourselves that without coincidences, these amateur sleuths would likely never solve their mysteries!).

Although the book ends with the statement that "Cassandra Best, detective, could hardly wait for her next case" (p. 155), the poor girl will have to wait forever, as this was her last mystery.  Whether it was sales or simply a lack of desire to continue the series by the author, I suppose we will never know.  But with this book, the adventures of Cassie B. Jones a/k/a Cassandra Best came to an end.  At least the mystery was a pretty good one, letting her go out on a high note!

RATING:  9 leaky pressure valves out of 10 for a fantastic finale to the crime-solving career of yet another amateur sleuth.

Mystery in Hollywood - A Cassandra Mystery #3

It's been a bit since I read the second Cassandra Best mystery, so decided it was time to pull down the third book off my "to be read" stack and see whether it measures up to the previous books in the series.  I have been enjoying the series more than I anticipated, and I find the character is a bit of an in-betweener - somewhat in-between Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew.  She's not as perfect as Nancy Drew, but she's not quite as down-to-earth as Trixie Belden.  She's somewhere in the middle, hailing from a midwestern town, without the financial resources to just go taking off whenever she pleases to solve a mystery.  Hence, author Jennifer Austin provides her with a wealthy best friend (a/k/a Alexandra Bennett, whose name I still love and have to wonder if it comes from two of the main stars of Dark Shadows...), who is not only the source of the mysteries Cassandra loves to solve, but she also provides all the necessary finances for Cassandra to go where she is needed!

Mystery in Hollywood ... well, the title pretty much gives away everything you need to know about this one.  Cassandra Best (actually, for those who do not recall, it's Cassandra B. Jones, but she calls herself Cassandra Best when she's solving crimes!) is called out to Hollywood by her friend, Alex, who is there on assignment for her father's newspaper.  She is there to get a story involving rock superstar Rod Taggart, who is acting in his very first film - but if the accidents keep happening, it may also be his last!  Yes, it appears to be a case of sabotage, which apparently was already becoming a trope of mystery stories even back in the early 1990s.  Thankfully, the author does give it some interesting twists, because all of the "accidents" seem to be focused on Rod himself, making Cassandra and Alex wonder if someone is truly out to end the star's career.

At only 157 pages, it's not like we can have a lot of details, so sadly, we don't get a lot of in-depth description of the Hollywood sets and soundstages, nor of the majestic homes of the rich and famous; yet, the author does not leave out all details.  We do get some limited descriptions that do remind the reader just how "fake" the movie sets are - such as the styrofoam grave stones, the mock streets from various time periods, and the hustle and bustle of the crew working on a film.  Plus, with a shorter story like this, the action moves along pretty quickly - so we get overhead lights that fall down unexpectedly; poisoned tea; a prop gun loaded with real bullets; a warehouse set on fire; a near-drowning in a jacuzzi; and a stand-off where Cassandra has to prove just how good of an actress she can be.  As such, you can definitely say the story is a page-turner, as it keeps you moving from one chapter to the next, just to see what could possibly happen ... well, next!

And lest we forget about him, Peter Wentworth makes an appearance (albeit via telephone), when Cassandra calls him for aid in getting information about the rock star and his ex-girlfriend. I suppose the author wanted to keep Cassandra's love interest in the picture so that readers did not get the mistaken idea she might be falling for Rod Taggart or any of the other Hollywood types.  His appearances are basically plot devices used to provide Cassandra with the information she needs to move the mystery forward to its conclusion; although, without the internet and handy-dandy cell phones, I suppose Cassandra would have needed someone else to find the information, since it's not like she had easy access to a library while investigating the sabotage on the set.

Now, as those who recall my post about the second book in this series, Race Against Time, that book seemed to mirror elements regarding the stolen horse from Nancy Drew's 66th mystery by the same name.  Oddly enough, this mystery pulls elements from the same Nancy Drew book, only with regard to the movie being filmed.  Both mysteries deal with a horror movie being filmed; both stories have jealous ex-girlfriends; both cases involve sabotage; both tales have a deadly fire set by someone to cover their tracks; and both books have a famous individual (a cinematographer in the Nancy Drew story, a rock star in the Cassandra Best story) who helps move the mystery along.

Nancy Drew's Race Against Time was published in 1982, while this series was not published until 1990, so it is feasible that the author (or whomever created the outlines / plots for these books) may have read the Nancy Drew novel and some of those plot elements stuck in their mind.  Then again, it could be written off as mere coincidence, which we all know plays heavily into the children's mystery series world, so why not in real life as well?

 

On a final note, this book has a special thanks given to Robin Stevenson, just like the first book did.  At first I wondered if this was the same person as the author of the "Murder Most Unladylike" series that I read, but it turns out that author is Robin Stevens (less the "on" at the end).  So, not sure who this person is, but apparently the author appreciated them enough to give them a nod on the copyright page!

Overall, I enjoyed the story, although probably not as much as I did the first two books in the series.  There's only one book left to read, so here's hoping the final book in the series ends on a high note!

RATING:  6 black terrycloth bath robes out of 10 for at least sending Cassandra and Alex to a locale that is a perfect setting for a good murder mystery, as in Hollywood, you never know what's real and what's not!

Race Against Time - A Cassandra Mystery #2

This Cassandra Best series has been a pleasant surprise.  I do not remember ever seeing these books back in 1990 when they were published, and I had never heard of nor seen any of the books up until just recently.  But I'm definitely glad I picked them up, as they are some well-written stories with some beautiful cover and interior art.  This second book in the series definitely caught my interest for several reasons - the title alone (which I'll get more into later) was enough to catch my eye, but the setting was also important to me.  This book happens to be set in my home state of Kentucky!  Not very often do I come across a series book set in my home state, so when I do, I read them with a keen eye, wanting to see just how accurate the portrayal of Kentucky really is!

Race Against Time has Cassie Jones a/k/a Cassandra Best once again coming to the aid of her British pen pal, Alexandra Bennett (that name still gets me!), only this time she only has to travel as far as Lexington, Kentucky.  Alexandra is there to do a story for her father's paper on the Kentucky Derby social scene, but she needs Cassandra's help solving the mystery of a stolen race horse.  The Felsinghams (the family with whom Alexandra is staying) own a prize-willing race horse named Magic Spell who was predicted to win the Derby this year - the only problem is, someone has stolen the horse, and the Derby is only days away!  The Felsinghams did not want to involve the police, so Alexandra, of course, recommended Cassandra.  Once again convincing her parents she is simply going to visit her friend, Cassandra hops on an airplane (the cost of which is paid for by the Felsinghams) to Kentucky!

The story is actually a well-plotted mystery, and the clues as to the identity of the thief are right there (but you don't realize it until the revelations at the end, which is a sign of a great writer!).  Just like Nancy Drew, Cassandra wants to keep her investigation a secret, so she pretends to be an heiress interested in buying a new horse, which opens the doors for her to speak with a number of rather wealthy horse owners and trainers.  There are a couple of very obvious suspects that the author tries to lead the reader into thinking might actually have kidnapped poor Magic Spell, but the mystery is actually much more involved than that.  Cassandra, along with Alexandra's help, has to discern who has the real motive and means to take a prized race horse and keep him hidden.  Is it the neighboring horse owners who are secretly in financial straits?  Is it a prior trainer, who was fired no so long ago by the Felsinghams?  Is it the female jockey, who will do just about anything to prove that she has what it takes (and who happens to be the ex-girlfriend of the Felsingham's jockey)?  Is it the wealthy businessman who will spend any amount of money to buy the horses he wants?  Or is it someone that is not even on Cassandra's radar?  There are plenty of suspects to sift through, and not a lot of time to solve the case!

Probably one of the most enjoyable things about this story, for me anyway, was the Kentucky aspect.  Having been born and raised in Kentucky, I'm familiar with its Derby history and the importance of that event each year.  The description of the high society parties, the women all dressed up with hats and gloves, the parades, the balloon race (which really was a big event!  I remember watching the race from our front yard, as the hot air balloons would fly right over our subdivision every year!), and all of the excitement leading up to the event.  While the author does not go into much detailed description of Churchill Downs, she (or he) does make mention of the two spires that are the trademark visual when anyone thinks of the Downs (p. 63).

And Cassandra's reaction to the grass in Kentucky is pretty much spot-on for people who have never visited the state.  Everyone knows Kentucky is "The Bluegrass State," but when people visit Kentucky for the first time, just like Cassandra, they say, "So where's the bluegrass? ... This stuff just looks like plain old green to me" (p. 14).  As Alexandra points out, the grass in Kentucky is not REALLY blue - in certain places in the state, it just has a blueish hue to it, that's all.  But it's nice to see the author actually acknowledge and explain this fact.

Now, let's look at that title.  Race Against Time is a pretty common title for books.  Countless authors have used the title.  Piers Anthony, Christy Barritt, Eric Brown, Sharon Sala, Claire Eckard, Sandra Neil Wallace, and many others.  But the one I thought of immediately is the Nancy Drew book.  Or, should I properly say BOOKS!  Yes, there are actually two Nancy Drew books that use this title - book 66 in the original series (1982) and book 2 of the Girl Detective series (2004).  It's the book published in 1982, though, that bears discussion here.  That book, written by James D. Lawrence (who also created and wrote the Friday Foster strip that I reviewed recently), also dealt with a stolen horse.  While not set in Kentucky or around the Kentucky Derby, the story did have Nancy tracking down a horse named Shooting Star.  And just like in the Cassandra mystery here, the Nancy Drew mystery also has a stable that is burned down, as well as a stampeding horse that nearly tramples the sleuth.  (This scene, funny enough, appears on the cover of both books - the first Minstrel printing of the Nancy Drew mystery, as well as the cover to this Cassandra mystery.)  So, all these similarities might lead one to wonder - since the Nancy Drew Race Against Time was published eight years before the Cassandra mystery, did the author of this book read the Nancy Drew mystery and get inspired?  I've seen nothing to indicate that James Lawrence ever used the pseudonym of Jennifer Austin or wrote this series, so I think it would be safe to say the same author did not write both books.  Another mystery behind the books that will likely never be solved...

As with the first book in this series, the second Cassandra mystery is a great read.  It actually stands up well against the test of time, and even without cell phones and the internet, the story would still be a strong contender in today's market.  The characters are very likable, the mysteries are well-plotted, and everything one would expect to find in a young adult mystery series is there.

RATING:  10 shattered jade statuettes out of 10 for giving my home state and the Kentucky Derby a chance to shine in a well-written mystery!

Ticket to Danger - A Cassandra Mystery #1

Sometimes you come across a series, and despite your promises not to pick up any new series, you just can't help yourself.  This series is one of those times.  I came across the first book at a used book store, and the cover art and the lettering of "A Cassandra Mystery" caught my eye, and the description seemed too good to pass up.  And after a quick search online revealed there were only four books in the series, I figured I might as well.  Needless to say, it didn't take me long to find the other three books on eBay, and I now have the complete series.  So, I figured it was time to start reading them.

Ticket to Danger is the first book and introduces readers to Cassandra Best - an eighteen-year old girl whose real name is Cassandra Best Jones.  "Cassandra Best" is the identity she has created for herself while writing to her pen-pal in England, a fellow teenager by the name of Alexandra Bennett (a name that we will look more into later).  Alexandra's family is quite wealthy, having their own estate, and Cassandra wanted to create a life where she was of similar stature in society - it's not like she was ever going to cross the ocean and meet her pen-pal face-to-face.  Until, of course, Alexandra invites her to England to attend her debut ball, set to take place in just a few weeks!  Cassandra is debating on how to tell her new friend the truth, that she can't afford the trip, when Alexandra sends her a round-trip ticket (first class!) to England, along with some cryptic messages about a possible mystery afoot!  Cassandra desperately wants to go, but she is afraid the truth will come out and her pen-pal will hate her for lying.  Her grandmother convinces her to take the trip, so off she goes, hoping she can pull off the performance of her life as Cassandra Best!

The mystery comes into play immediately upon Cassandra's arrival, when she learns that Alexandra has gone missing, not long after Cassandra talked to her on the phone to confirm she was coming!  Her father, grandmother, aunt, and cousin have no idea what has happened to her, and her friend, Peter Wentworth, who writes for Mr. Bennett's newspaper, is also concerned about her disappearance.  Cassandra finds herself suddenly thrust into this strange, new world, with people she's never met in a castle-like manor filled with hidden passages and bumps in the night!  Sound familiar?  (More on that later....)

The author creates quite a Gothic element to the story, with the young woman far from home, placed in a completely new setting where shadows and danger lurk around every corner, and where she has no idea who she can trust.  The book shows the author as Jennifer Austin, but nothing online verifies this is an actual person.  Jennifer White's blog lists the name as a pseudonym (Series Books for Girls), and since there seems to be nothing to be found on this "author," I'm likely to agree.  It would be interesting to find the creator and/or author of this series, as there are some elements to it that could potentially be homages to other series - such as the Inspector from Scotland Yard is "Inspector Crandall" - and Crandall is the last name of the headmistress from the Dana Girls series (another series for girls published by Grosset & Dunlap previous to this).  

 

But an even greater homage is the name of Cassandra's pen-pal - Alexandra Bennett.  In the original Dark Shadows television show, which was a Gothic soap opera in the late '60s about a young woman who travels to a place she's never been, to meet people she's never seen (see - I told you it sounded familiar!) and ends up in a castle-like manor with plenty of dark shadows around every corner, the main character was portrayed by actress Alexandra Moltke - and the matriarch of the family in that show was portrayed by actress Joan Bennett.  So, when I see the name "Alexandra Bennett" connected with a story about an old English manor where a young woman has shown up and must solve the mystery involving the disappearance of an heiress, well, it's only natural that I would question whether the author was a fan of Dark Shadows!

All of that aside, the mystery itself was quite engaging.  Like any good British mystery, there are secret panels, hidden passages, characters that take an instant dislike to Cassandra, a skittish groundskeeper, an Inspector who wants Cassandra to stay out of the investigation, and plenty of cultural differences to keep Cassandra just a bit off-balance as she tries to figure out what happened to Alexandra and how it connects to the family's heirloom - a ruby and diamond necklace that once belonged to Anne Boleyn!  The author manages to throw in some great misdirection, and with several possible suspects and motives, it is not an easy solve.  There are a number of typical foibles (Cassandra gets knocked out, she gets run off the road, she gets kidnapped, etc.) and plenty of danger and excitement (Cassandra drives a car directly into the path of an oncoming plane in the hopes of preventing it from taking off!) before she manages to find Alexandra, locate the stolen necklace, and bring the criminals to justice.

This series seems to follow on the footsteps of other attempts to create new female detectives around that time period, such as Susan Sand (eight books published from 1982-84) and Diana Winthrop (six books published from 1983-85).  But, as with the other two series, it was not destined to last, and it only managed to see four books published.  The writing is not bad, and the main character is actually rather unique (basically coming into being as a detective through a fantasy-life created for a pen-pal).  Unlike so many young adult detectives, who either have lost one or both of their parents, Cassandra has a full family - mother and father, as well as a younger sister and a grandmother - to support her.  But, for whatever reason, the series did not make it, and we are left to enjoy the ones that we have.

Something I did enjoy about the book is that there were internal illustrations (similar to the Susan Sand books).  Ann Meisel provided the cover art and the interior illustrations, and she IS a real artist, who is still around today.  The black and white penciled interior illustrations remind me of Ruth Sanderson's work in the Nancy Drew books from the early '80s, insomuch as they are very full and detailed, and there are no harsh angles or lackluster backgrounds that some of the later Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books published by Grosset & Dunlap featured.  

 

I'm curious to see if the remaining three books of the series are as enjoyable as this first!

 

RATING:  8 servings of Yorkshire pudding out of 10 for introducing readers to a unique, new amateur sleuth in a great first mystery!