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!

The Sherlock Society (Book One of the Sherlock Society mysteries)

This is another book that came to me as a recommendation.  I had it on my Amazon watchlist already, but I did not buy it until James Keeline gave me the heads up that the author, James Ponti set the book in South Florida.  I was aware Ponti was a Florida resident, but I did not know he was giving us a series set in my home state, so I went online and made the purchase.  I was even more excited to see that Amazon already had the second book available for pre-order!  Keeline told me that the writing of this book was "a cut above most juveniles," so I definitely went into it with high hopes.  I mean, how could it possibly fail - Sherlock, Florida, mystery, children's series - such a fantastic combination!  Well, as the old saying goes, don't judge a book by its cover...

 

The Sherlock Society introduces a group of three middle school children who are getting ready to spend their summer vacation doing the normal things to earn money - babysitting, moving lawns, etc.  Alex Sherlock and his two friends, Lina and Yadi, are not looking forward to the prospects; but they are enjoying the escape room that the school librarian created for them, giving them some fun puzzles to solve within a limited time in order to "escape" the library.  What they did not expect is for Alex's sister, Zoe, to show up and help them work together to "escape" before the time expired!  And even more shocking is Zoe's idea to form a detective club for the summer, to earn money doing something they love!  Enter: the Sherlock Society!

 

I was truly looking forward to an intricate mystery, filled with plenty of riddles and clues; however, what I got was a travelogue of South Florida with snippets of one mystery that gets dumped in exchange for another mystery half-way through the book.  Perhaps it is because I live in Florida, but I got quickly bored with all of the detailed descriptions of Miami,  Biscayne Bay, Alligator Alley, the Everglades, and the surrounding areas, along with considerable exposition about the history of these locations.  And when they made the decision to search for Al Capone's missing millions, allegedly buried somewhere in South Florida, I was actually rather intrigued.  The crew began following up on various clues they were uncovering - but when they reached the place where they believe the money was hidden away, suddenly the entire focus of the mystery changed - the search for Al Capone's treasure was dropped, and the Sherlock Society began searching for who was illegally dumping dangerous waste materials into the Everglades.  So, instead of searching for money that would make them wealthy (in their minds), they decide to save the environment and hunt down the men who are killing the animal and plant life of the Everglades.

 

Do you see the more than obvious morality lesson here?

 

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for saving the environment, and I do believe those who are illegally and purposefully dumping deadly waste into rivers and lakes should be ferreted out and punished.  What I do not particularly enjoy is when a good children's mystery is overtly written to push that idea.  At least Ponti did not have the kids completely give up on Al Capone's missing millions, as the very last chapter of the book has them stumble upon the possible location of the money - perhaps a lead-in to the second book?  (No, checking the description for Hurricane Heist on Amazon, which is set to be released in September, it appears that book has nothing to do with Capone's money.)  It simply feels like a bait and switch - here's a great mystery about missing money with some interesting clues to be discovered along the way - but wait, no, let's forget that mystery so I can teach you a lesson about caring for the environment!

 

With that being said, I did rather enjoy the characters - Ponti breathes life into them that makes them very readable and relatable.  Alex is your typical young teen, ready to jump the gun and get into the action.  Lina is the booksmart fish-out-of-water Midwestern girl, who knows how to research with a thirst for knowledge.  Yadi is the aspiring film maker, with some great devices to help the Society using modern technology (although the constant references to him being a "conspiracy theorist" because of some of his beliefs felt more like a political statement than a characterization).  Zoe is the not-so-stereotypical teenage girl frustrated with her parents for not allowing her to go to camp with her friends, but who learns what true friendship is within the Sherlock Society that she forms!  And Grandpa (the kids' mother's father) is a real hoot - helping the Society as their driver, but ultimately getting them into trouble by letting his own love of adventure take them into some very dangerous territory.  All of the characters (including Mr. and Mrs. Sherlock) play well off of one another, and Ponti creates a diverse, real-world cast that help save the story from being a complete failure.

 

Oh, and I must say - if you are hoping the book will have a lot of references to Sherlock Holmes, based on the title (which is actually a reference to the main characters' last name - Alex and Zoe Sherlock), you will be disappointed.  Sure, there are a few references scattered throughout, but not at much as one would expect.

 

Based on this book, I will not be picking up any further books in the series.  Perhaps the next book, and those that follow, will feature better stories than this one, and if that is the case, then great!  I certainly wish Ponti success with the series.  But I have enough ongoing mystery series, both children's series and adult series, that I find much more enjoyable and readable.  I gave it a shot, and it simply did not meet up to my expectations, particularly given the recommendation I received.

 

RATING:  5 well-loved books on botany out of 10 for creating a fun new cast of young sleuths who (hopefully!) will solve some great mysteries in the future.

The Moving Picture Girls Under the Palms, or Lost in the WIlds of Florida (The Moving Picture Girls No. 4)

The Stratemeyer Syndicate published a number of series under the pen name of author "Laura Lee Hope," and the Moving Picture Girls is just one of them.  The series ran from 1914 to 1916, for a total of seven books.  Original published by Grosset & Dunlap, like so many other series back in the day, it was later reprinted by other publishers, including World Syndicate (which is the editions I have).  Although I have all seven books (in dust jacket, which I consider myself to be fortunate!), I decided to pick up this fourth book in the series, since it is set in Florida.  It has been fun to read all of these children's series books set in Florida and see just how many real references are used and how many fictional settings are created.  Unlike the Outdoor Girls' adventure in Florida, which was littered with one fictional place after another, this series actually utilized a number of actual locations.

The Moving Picture Girls Under the Palms, or Lost in the Wilds of Florida tells the story of Ruth and Alice DeVere's adventures in the Sunshine State with the film company for whom they are employed, along with their father.  In the first chapter, the girls (and the rest of the acting troupe) learn from the company's manager, Frank Pertrell, that they will all be heading to Florida aboard a "steamer" to film their next dramas (p. 4).  Most everyone is excited about the prospect, and Ruth and Alice are even confident that the warm weather of Florida will help improve their father's health (which seems a bit familiar to part of the plot from The Outdoor Girls in Florida).  But right off the bat, things start to go wrong - first, one of the actors falls overboard from the ship, and then a fire in the lower decks forces all of the passengers to be ferried to another steamboat for the remainder of the journey to St. Augustine.

From the moment the troupe arrives in Florida, I perked up and started paying attention to everywhere the girls and their fellow actors went.  The mere mention of arriving in St. Augustine by way of Jacksonville - and their intended travel later down to Lake Kissimmee - well, I was anxious to see what real locales from these places would be mentioned.  Right off the bat, the girls hear about Fort Marion (Historic Fort Marion) and Fort Mantanzas (Historic Fort Mantanzas), two historic sites where the crew would be filming scenes for their movies (p. 66).  And when the girls go exploring, they decide to travel down St. George Street to see the Old City Gates (p. 67), which turns out to be exactly where the gates are located (St. Augustine Old City Gates).  The girls also pay a visit to an orange grove, said to be just a short distance from the city gates (p. 70).  While the Garnetts' orange grove was quite famous back in the day, it has since been sold off and is no longer there (St. Augustine Orange Groves).  And, of course, one cannot mention St. Augustine without mentioning the Fountain of Youth, to which the girls pay a visit (p. 73).  Of course, the book describes the fountain being located on Myrtle Avenue, when in reality it is located on Magnolia Avenue (Historic Fountain of Youth).  But let's not quibble about names...

There are a number of other factual descriptions on the story, from the old guard room and dungeon of Fort Marion to the alligator farm on Anastasia, and from Lake Kissimmee along the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee.  The only hiccup I found in the locales was the mention of Sycamore, which is said to be a small town near Lake Kissimmee (p. 102).  In reality, Sycamore is a town located up in the panhandle of Florida, and well over 300 miles away from Lake Kissimmee!  However, this is a minor detail, as we certainly can't expect the author to keep all points in the story exactly as they are in the real world!  And this slight discrepancy certainly does not take away from the enjoyment of the story.  I mean, after all, these girls and their friends and fellow actors are making silent films at the turn of the century right here in Florida!  And I will admit, it took me a minute to put the film making into context with the time period, because I kept wondering why the manager was yelling out directions while the cameras were rolling, until I remember that in 1914, films did not yet have sound!  Thus, it would have been natural for directors to be calling out things to the actors from behind the cameras to keep the action and story moving.

The story itself involved only a slight mystery - it seems that two young women that Ruth and Alice had previously met on a train (perhaps in a previous book?  this story is not quite clear on that point) have gone missing, and it just so happens that they went missing from Lake Kissimmee!  As the story goes, the two women went out to gather rare wild flowers and were never heard from again (p. 103).  The locals and even their own family believe they were lost in the everglades, and all hope was given up of finding the two.  Now, it is funny that they are said to be lost in the everglades, as a similar plot actually plays out many years later in the 161st Nancy Drew mystery, aptly titled Lost in the Everglades.  In that story, a young woman goes off alone backwater camping and disappears.  Was that story lifted from this one?  Who's to say...  But the fact the two girls in this story were hoping to find a rare orchid actually has a ring of truth to it, since the Vandeae orchid, which also has a part of its tribe the holy grail of all orchid-hunters, the "ghost orchid," is said to be local to Florida (The Ghost Orchid).  Thus, yet another touch of reality thrown into a fictional tale.

The overall story does have some resemblances to The Outdoor Girls in Florida (published just one year prior to this one, also under the pen name of Laura Lee Hope!).  As indicated above, both stories feature a character who comes to Florida in the hopes of improving their health; both stories feature boat trips through the everglades, with fearful encounters with alligators; both stories feature a man/boy in tattered/ragged clothes who comes to the rescue of the girls with a gun; both stories find the girls getting lost on the river after getting all turned around following a picnic amid the everglades; and in both stories, the girls do not really play much of a part in solving the mystery - they merely stumble upon the missing individuals.  In fact, there is even a humorous reference to the fact that the two missing girls are described as real "outdoor girls" (p. 106).  Perhaps that was a slight nod by the author to the actual Outdoor Girls, who themselves got lost while boating in the everglades.

I would be remiss if I did not also bring attention to the similarities to the frontis piece illustration of both The Outdoor Girls in Florida and this book.  In The Outdoor Girls, the scene depicted shows a manatee taking off with the girls' boat, having been caught in the anchor rope.  A man in a canoe stand ready to take a shot at the manatee in order to free the girls' boat.  In this book, we see Ruth and Alice in a boat with Paul Ardite, a fellow actor and love interest of Alice, and the boat is being pulled by a manatee who is caught in the anchor line, while in the background, Russ Dalwood, the film operator, is just filming away.  It is funny that both scenes feature a manatee tangled in the boat's ropes and unwittingly pulling the boat away from where it should be.  The only difference is, in The Moving Picture Girls' story, Russ tells them to let the manatee pull them as he continues to film it, believing it will make for good drama.  And in The Moving Picture Girls, instead of using a gun to shoot at the manatee, Paul uses his oar to simply nudge the manatee to go under and ultimately loosen itself from the anchor line, thus freeing it without any injury.  I find it too much of a coincidence that the same scene would basically play itself out in both books (and in both stories, the girls are fearful at first that it is an alligator that has snagged hold of their boat!), and even much more than a coincidence that both books, just a year apart, would have basically the same scene as their frontis piece!

Two final observations I wish to make on this book.  First, I find the presence of the omniscent narrator making his/her voice known throughout the book rather interesting.  Perhaps this was more common back in the early 1900s, but to have the narrator break the fourth wall and speak directly to the reader, thus breaking out of the story itself, is rather odd.  This occurs in a big way in Chapter Two, in which the narrator point blank addresses the reader:  "...may I take just a few moments to acquaint my new readers with something of the former books of this series?" (p. 12).  And with that question, the narrator proceeds to give brief synopses of the first three books in the series, providing not only titles, but also plot details and outcomes of those stories.  The narrator then goes on to provide brief descriptions of each character who plays a part in the story, from Ruth and Alice, along with their father, to all of the members of the film troupe!  This becomes a four-page break in the story that basically has the narrator speaking directly to the reader.  There are other moments in the book where the narrator breaks in to give reasons for jumps in time or to simply skip portions of the troupe's activities that the narrator does not believe to be important to the reader nor the story.  It gives the overall a book a sense of being told to the reader, rather than an adventure the reader is actually taking part with, and the closest thing I can compare it to would the television show, Young Sheldon, where the older version of the character narrates each episode, sometimes interjecting his own personal thoughts into the events of the episode.

The second observation I wanted to make is the reference in this book, as well as The Outdoor Girls in Florida, to orange blossoms.  In both stories, the girls make comments about orange blossoms in connection with their trip to Florida, and in both instances, the references seem to have a relation to thoughts of marriage (p. 69).  I did not realize this, but after a bit of research, I discovered that orange blossoms, "[l]ike the white gown, have been associated with weddings for centuries because the flower symbolizes virtue, love, and fertility" (Orange Blossom Brides).  I guess, as the saying goes, you learn something new every day!

I definitely enjoyed this story much more than The Outdoor Girls, and despite the similarities, the actual writing of the books appears different, leaving me to believe this book was not written by Howard Garis, who wrote The Outdoor Girls' adventure in Florida.  I was not able to find any identification as to the ghostwriter for this book, but perhaps someone out there has some information and can share it one day!

RATING:  8 dangerous bogs of quicksand out of 10 for a fun romp through St. Augustine and the Everglades, with a bit of historical film antics thrown in for good measure!

The Outdoor Girls in Florida (Book Five of The Outdoor GIrls Series)

My journey through series books set in Florida continues, this time with another series that I have yet to read before - The Outdoor Girls!  Another Stratemeyer Syndicate series which used the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope as the author (the same pen name was used for The Bobbsey Twins, the Bunny Brown series, the Moving Picture Girls series, the Blythe Girls series, the Six Little Bunkers series, and the Make-Believe Stories series), The Outdoor Girls is a 23-volume series.  According to Jennifer White's website (The Outdoor Girls), the first six books (which would include this one) were written by Howard Garis, while the remaining seventeen books in the series were written by Elizabeth M. Duffield Ward, both of whom were prolific authors of children's series back in the day.  I was not really sure what to expect with this book, having never read any of this series, but I definitely was expecting more than what I ended up getting.

The Outdoor Girls in Florida is the fifth book in the series, and it features the four main girls - Betty Nelson (sometimes referred to by her friends and the narrator as "The Little Captain"), Mollie Bilette, Grace Ford, and Amy Stonington (a/k/a Blackford - as she apparently discovered in an earlier book that she was adopted when her real brother finds her).  The mystery begins with Grace and her family receiving the news that Grace's older brother, Will, has gone missing from their Uncle Isaac's home in Georgia.  The story plays with the emotions of the Ford family, as well as the readers, as the roller coaster has everyone worried for the missing boy; then they receive a delayed letter from Will that indicates he went to Florida to strike out on his own; then they receive notification that is a cry for help, as the men he signed on to work for turned out to be contractor with a bad reputation and he has been kidnapped!  And while all of these exchanges are taking place, the girls are planning a trip to Florida with Amy's family, who are considering buying an orange grove in the Sunshine State.

Thus, readers anticipate the mystery will find the girls searching the Everglades of Florida in the hopes of finding Grace's missing brother.  Well, as it turns out, the girls do very little in terms of searching for Will; rather, it seems they get caught up in a number of escapades that eventually lead them to make contact with a young scamp who happens to be trying to help someone he refers to as "the other one" - who, of course, turns out to be Will Ford.  But the girls take no active role in actually seeking out Grace's brother, which surprised me.  I was expecting them to find clues, follow up on them, and eventually locate the evil contractor and save the day; instead, they are merely a conduit by which the young boy (referred to cruelly by the contractor and his men as "the Loon" because he has some mental disabilities!) is able to obtain help from Amy's father (or rather, her "uncle") to rescue not only Will, but also another young man who goes missing when he takes the girls on a trip along the river.  The only "danger" that the girls faced in the book is when they see an alligator in the river (it does not attack them, though); when their boat is nearly stolen by a manatee; when they find themselves stuck between two sleeping alligators and a stream filled with snakes (none of which make any attempt to approach the girls); and when they get lost trying to make their way home from the island where Tom disappears.  Otherwise, the girls have no real difficulties during the course of the story.

Other than passing references to Palm Beach (p. 26), Indian River (p. 26), and Jacksonville (p. 36), all of the locales the girls visit in Florida are fictional (they never actually visit the real cities/counties named).  The orange grove where they stay is located near the town of "Bentonville" (p. 45) on the "Mayfair River" that empties into "Lake Chad" (p. 45).  A contractor tells the girls he lives upriver about ten miles in a place called "Penbrook" (p. 97).  None of these fictional places are given a clear pinpoint in the state, other than the reference to the fact that the Everglades can be reached by taking the river further on.  This was disappointing, after reading several mysteries recently which were set in actual cities and referred to real sites within the stories.  Alas, perhaps Garis told when he was writing the story to stay away from using real locations in order to give the story more creative freedom with the descriptions and the events that take place.  The only indication of where the story might take place is the fact that the girls do get tangled up with a manatee (depicted on the cover and the frontis piece, taken from page 126 of the story) - and since this takes place during the girls' winter holiday, it gives readers a time frame within which to gauge.  According to the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission, the manatee head for warmer waters, usually found near springs throughout Florida - such as Blue Springs State Park in Orange City, the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge in Crystal River, and even Lee County Manatee Park in Fort Myers (Manatee in Florida). So, it can be guessed perhaps the girls are somewhere in Central Florida.

And since we are on the topic of the cover and internal - the illustration is the same.  My copy of the book has the duo-tone cover rather than the full color art.  The scene shows the young man in ragged clothes rescuing the girls' boat from a manatee that got tangled up in the anchor rope and was slowly pulling the boat away.  In the book, he takes a shot at the manatee with his gun (p. 127), something that would probably shock a lot of readers today, since manatee are considered to be an endangered species.  What I found surprising about the internal illustration is that the fronti piece is on glossy paper; however, the two internal illustrations are just plain paper illustrations (p. 76 and p. 153).  I don't believe I've ever come across a book that has mixed internals like that - usually they are all glossy or all plain.

A couple of final things to note: there is a moment early in the book,when it is discovered that Will Ford is missing, and the girls feel discouraged.  Mollie makes the comment, "Yes, girls always seem so - so helplessly at a time like this ... Oh, I wish I were a - man!" (p. 60).  This kind of statement is definitely a product of its time (this book was published in 1913), when girls were not thought to be of the same caliber or strength as men, and in fact, were thought to be more delicate and of lesser capabilities.  So, for Mollie to wish she were a man so she would go out and help search for Grace's brother would have been natural back then.  In today's world, of course, the Outdoor Girls would traipse off on their own without a second thought to search for the missing boy!  Another element of the story that dates the book is the "comfortable-looking" colored "mammy" who is named "Aunt Hannah" (p. 72).  Such a racial stereotype is highly offensive by today's standards; but back in 1913, readers would have read this line without even a second thought.  

Last, but not least, I must mention a comment made by Amy's brother, who makes a brief visit to Florida to see the girls.  He reports everything is fine back home in Deepdale, but also reports that "those old friends of yours, Alice Jallow and Kittie Rossmore, have started a sort of automobile club. I guess they're trying to rival you" (p. 115).  I find this line amusing, since there was a six-book published by Altemus from 1910-1913 (ending the same year this book was published) called "The Automobile Girls," written by Laura Dent Crane (likely a pseudonym, although I have no clue who the real author was).  In that particular series, there were four girls (just like the Outdoor Girls), and two of those girls happened to be named Mollie and Grace (just like the Outdoor Girls).  One has to wonder if the line was thrown into the book as a little jab at the then-cancelled series by Crane.

RATING:  6 orange blossoms and brides out of 10 for a somewhat fun adventure in Florida, albeit a very fictional one.

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories # 161 - Lost in the Everglades

Everyone's favorite teen detective has actually visited the State of Florida quite a few times over the course of her sleuthing career.  From the revised text of the Moss-Covered Mansion, to the Black Keys and Crocodile Island, as well as the Broken Anchor, the Orchid Thief, and others.  Thus, Nancy Drew is no stranger to the Sunshine State.  Now, this is one of the later books in the original Nancy Drew Mystery Stories (which ran for 175 books), and I had not yet read this before - so this was actually a brand new story for me, despite the book having been published more than twenty years ago!  And quite frankly, I found it to be a very well-written story with a good mystery that had a surprising twist not normally found in the Nancy Drew mysteries.

Lost in the Everglades opens with a line that will make anyone who has ever taken a long trip before smile - "Are we there yet?" (p. 1).  Poor Bess Marvin is tired of the long drive from the Miami Airport to the entrance to the Everglades National Park.  And her cousin George Fayne's response is spot-on: "The Everglades is huge" (p. 1).  Because in the real world, the Everglades is, indeed, huge.  It literally covers more than 1,500,000 acres of land throughout three different counties in Florida - Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Collier (which are the three counties that make up the southern tip of Florida).  In the story, Nancy and her friends have made the trip down to the Everglades to visit Susan Bokan, who "used to be a good friend of the girls back in River Heights" (p. 2) and who had "moved to Florida a couple of years earlier to work as a volunteer for the Everglades National Park" (p. 2).  Once again, the appearance of a friend who has never appeared in the series to date comes out of the woodwork to ask Nancy for help - I sometimes wonder, if we counted the number of friends who appear in the series only once to ask Nancy for help, how long that list would be ... ?

The mystery involves Susan's roommate, Jade Romero, disappeared while back country camping alone up along the Whitewater Bay.  It was a dangerous trip to make alone, and when she never came back, a search was made by the park rangers, as well as the local police - but Jade was never found.  It is assumed that she died, but Susan is not sure.  She is sure that Jade would not have run away, and she can't shake the feeling that something bad happened; so she asked Nancy to come down to investigate (because, as we all know, Nancy can always uncover clues and find criminals that the police can't!).  The funny thing is - George just so happens to bear a strong resemblance to Jade, for when Mrs. Fitzgerald, the dorm mother in the dorm where Susan lives, first sees George, she screams in shock (p. 9)!  Any astute reader will immediately figure out that George's uncanny resemblance will be used by Nancy later on to help ferret out the culprit(s).  

The story features some typical Nancy Drew mystery elements - someone eavesdropping on the girls' conversation with Susan; a threatening note warning Nancy to drop her investigation into Jade's disappearance; Bess falling overboard after a speedboat causes waves around the girls' sunset cruise; a car nearly running their rental off the road; Nancy and Bess capsize into a river and are chased by an alligator; and even George disappearing while they are searching a small island for the missing Jade.  The danger is upped a notch when all three girls are held at gunpoint, tied up, and left to starve on the island; but, of course, Nancy finds a way to escape her bonds, free the others and go stop the culprit(s) from getting away.  All in a day's work for our titian-haired detective.  The one thing that did seem odd is that the synopsis on the back cover actually gives away  major plot point that is not revealed in the story until the twist at the end.  Not sure why the publishers decided to go with that, but it does spoil part of the ending.

A pleasant surprise in this book is the use of actual real places in the story.  Obviously, the Everglades is a real place, but so are Flamingo (a small area right at the bottom of the Everglades) and Florida Bay (which is a body of water located between the southern tip of Florida's mainland and the Florida Keys); Whitewater Bay, which is a real body of water just north of Flamingo that does, indeed, empty out into the Gulf of Mexico as described in the mystery; the Wilderness Waterway is a long water trail that connects Flaming with Everglades City and Cape Sable is the southernmost point of the US mainland in Florida).  It gives the story some firm grounding when it uses real locations and provides accurate descriptions and directions on how to get to them (because let me tell you - the drive from Miami to Everglades National Park is a long, tedious one along a lonely stretch of highway!).

 

The cover art for this book is by Frank Sofo, who sadly passed away in January 2024.  The scene depicts the girls canoeing along the Wilderness Waterway as they make their way to Whitewater Bay.  There is an alligator in the foreground, as a hint of what happens on page 115, when Nancy and Bess' canoe capsizes them into the water.  What is interesting is that the original cover art also featured a black leopard in front of Nancy, which Sofo told me when I spoke with him the publishers asked him to remove, as no leopard actually appears in the story.  Additionally, the publisher asked him to raise Nancy's top under her arm, as they felt too much skin was showing.  Otherwise, Sofo does a beautiful job rendering the mangrove trees, as well as the Spanish moss that covers so many of the trees here in Florida.  It's an absolute beautiful cover, probably my favorite of all the ones he did for the series.  Of course, I do live in Florida, so I may be a bit biased.

Considering how much flack I hear about and read online concerning these final digests in the series, I thoroughly enjoyed this mystery.  The author (can't find any clue as to the ghostwriter) did an excellent job setting up the mystery, providing some great chapter cliffhangers, and giving the cast some very good characterization, which is why the ultimate reveal at the end regarding some of the characters comes as a surprise.  I would say this one is definitely worth the read.

RATING:  10 baskets of fried conch fritters out of 10 for a great mystery that gives readers an actual taste of the Florida Everglades - Nancy Drew-style!