Whitman Mystery Stories - Polly the Powers Model: The Puzzle of the Haunted Camera

This latest Whitman Authorized Edition that I read is a bit off-beat.  Of course, it is written by Kathryn Heisenfelt, and based on the previous Whitman books I've read written by her (Bonita Granville and Betty Grable), I suppose I should not have expected anything different.  Both of those stories were odd, to say the least, and this one follows their lead.  This book came out in 1942, the same year as the Bonita Granville mystery, while the Betty Grable story did not get published until the following year.  If I were to base all Whitman mysteries on these three books, I would likely stop buying and reading them; however, since I have read a number of them that do have enjoyable stories, I will simply chalk these up as exceptions to the rule.

Polly the Powers Model: The Puzzle of the Haunted Camera does not feature an actual model from the John Robert Powers modeling agency.  Instead, while nodding to the actual modeling agency in New York, Heisenfelt creates a fictional character to be the "Powers Model" of the story.  Polly Hartigan is the model, who is returning home after "making it big" in Ne York City.  She is met by her younger sister, Susan, who is not only eager to follow in her sister's footsteps, but seems to be hiding some secret about the family.  Soon enough, Polly finds that a mystery awaits her at home, as everyone is a bit "off."  Her father, Peter Hartigan, is more than just depressed about his failing hardware store.  Her Aunt Floss, who lives with them, seems more worried about things than ever before.  And her Aunt Vide, to whom Polly ad been sending part of her paychecks to help with family expenses, appears to have not told anyone about the money, leaving Polly to wonder what she has done with it.  A general sense of gloom hangs over the entire household, and no one will tell Polly exactly what is going on.

And this is the primary focus of the first half of the book, as Polly is constantly wondering what is wrong; yet, she never comes right out and asks anyone, other than Susan, who refuses to tell her and just keeps asking Polly to take her back to New York with her as soon as possible.  The constant conundrum of "what's wrong with my family?' gets weary real fast, and I had to force myself to trudge trough the story to hopefully reach a point where the story moved forward in any meaningful way.  It's not until Polly inadvertently takes a photo of her sister than has a sinister man in the background does the mystery start to unravel.  Aunt Vide sees the photo and collapses, leading Polly to finally start to figure out that her aunt is involved in something shady.  

 

After the halfway point of the book, Heisenfelt finally gets things moving, and Polly starts taking some affirmative steps to solve the mystery.  She questions the attorney who lives nearby, she pushes Susan to reveal what has her so anxious to leave home, and she engages the help of her father's assistant at the hardware store to keep watch on the house in case that mystery man makes an appearance.  The climactic face-off between Polly and the stranger is really the only exciting moment in the story, and it is here that Heisenfelt provides readers with something worth reading.  Polly's ingenuity and bluff leads the stranger to make a mistake that leads to his defeat and capture, and the whole truth finally comes out.  It's just a shame that it took so many pages in the book to reach a truly readable point.

 

I'm not familiar with the artist for this book, Hedwig Jo Meixner.  The only other book I've read where I've seen Meixner's illustrations was Nancy Craig and the Mystery of the Fire Opal, and the illustrations in that one were actually better than this one.  The line drawings in this book were not bad, per se, but I didn't find them as nice to look at as those done by Henry E. Vallely (who seems to have illustrated quite a number of the Whitman books I've read).

Something I noticed in this book (and other Whitman mysteries may be the same, but I hadn't really noticed before now) is that the chapters are exceptionally long for a children's mystery.  The story is 246 pages in length, yet it only has 13 chapters.  The chapters run anywhere from 14 to 23 pages in length, which is somewhat longer than the chapters in children's mystery series from Cupples & Leon, Grosset & Dunlap, and and other publishers.  I don't think that had any effect on the story, but I did find it interesting to note.

This is a Whitman mystery that I would probably not recommend.  Now that I've seen a semi-theme with the Kathryn Heisenfelt books (that theme being "odd and not that great to read"), I'll likely be a bit choosier when picking up the Whitman mysteries - if I see one that is authored by her, I will probably put it back on the shelf!

RATING:  4 games of find the hidden clothespins out of 10 for at least giving readers a mystery that is a bit out of the ordinary and not just standard fare.

Whitman Mystery Stories - Nancy Craig and the Mystery of the Fire Opal

Thankfully, this "authorized edition" Whitman mystery was a far cry better than the one I recently read with Bonita Granville as its star.  What is interesting though, is although the dust jacket, as well as the cover and spine show the title of the book as Nancy Craig and the Mystery of the Fire Opal, the title page and the list of available books from Whitman in the back show the title of the book as Nancy Craig and the Fire Opal of Guatemala.  I'd be curious to know exactly why there is a variation in the title of the book and what caused the change from the inside to the actual cover and dust jacket.

In any event, author Matilda Bailey provides a great little mystery here, with an interesting view of life in the Guatemala jungles.  And Matilda Bailey, by the way, is actually the pen name for Ruby Lorraine Radford, who was a rather prolific writer back in the day.  It seems she wrote a number of the Whitman authorized edition stories, and from what I've heard, some are better than others.  Thankfully, this is one of the better ones.

The mystery involves El Valle Prohibido (The Forbidden Valley), where the people of Guatemala are afraid to enter.  Nancy Craig and her friend, Dannie Marston, go to Guatemala as guests of their respective fathers, who are traveling to the country on an expedition.  Nancy's cousin, Kathy, already lives there, and Nancy will be staying with them while the men, along with Dannie, go out on the expedition.  Nancy is somewhat put off, but she is not permitted to go, as she is a girl (which definitely shows the book as a product of its time).  This is not to say that Nancy takes such a shun lying down - no, instead, she goes out and finds her very own mystery to solve!

I have to admit, I smile when I consider how similar this is to a Nancy Drew mystery of the '60s and '70s.  Nancy (choose one) goes on a vacation, stumbles across some strange superstitions, and suddenly finds herself thrust into the middle of a mystery that only she can solve.  Bailey (Radford) makes Nancy Craig a strong, independent female who, even during the late '40s, was determined not to let men - whether it be her father, her uncle, or any other man - tell her that she can't do something. And when it comes to helping someone in need - in this case, her friend Dannie - Nancy will not stop until the mission is complete.

As can be pretty much expected from the moment Nancy is told that there is something dangerous about the valley that keeps the natives from ever setting foot therein, it's pretty obvious to the reader that that is exactly where Nancy is going to end up.  And end up there she does, along with her friend Kathy.  They are searching for their friend Dannie, who mysteriously disappeared after visiting with the parents of Kathy's native friend, Maria.  Nancy is sure that it has something to do with the valuable fire opal that Dannie had been carrying, and she is also sure that the rather slick North American men ("norteamericanos" as Maria calls them) are somehow involved.

There are plenty of clues and dangers aplenty for Nancy and Kathy - from earthquakes to infections to horse hoof-prints to fire opals in the raw to butterfly nets with cobwebs and so much more.  And it certainly can't come as any surprise that the girls eventually find Dannie and also manage to stumble across an ancient native temple hidden in the Forbidden Valley, I found it rather amusing how the two girls manage to outwit the culprits in the end.

This book was definitely worth the read, and I am glad I purchased it.  I suppose this will keep my faith in these Whitman Authorized Editions enough to purchase others if I stumble across them in my book-hunting.

RATING:  8 hand-woven shawls out of 10 for providing yet another strong female amateur detective in a well-plotted mystery in an exotic land.