Jennings Follows a Clue - Second in the series of Jennings Books

This is one of those books I had a friend pick up on a lark, and it turned out to be surprising in a number of ways.  The title sounded like a fun read, and since the publisher was Collins, I knew it was a British book.  However, I was completely unaware that this was actually the second book in an on-going series of tales about a precious young boy named J.C.T. (John Christopher Timothy) Jennings and his best friend, C.E.J. (Charles Edwin Jeremy) Darbishire, who are students at the Linbury Court preparatory school.  The series is authored by Anthony Buckeridge (1912-2004), a British author who is best known for this series, as well as another about another schoolboy named Rex Milligan.  The Jenning series lasted for a total of 24 books, with the first book (Jennings Goes to School) being published in 1950, and the final book (That's Jennings) being published 44 years later in 1994.

 

As I began reading Jennings Follows a Clue, I began to wonder if this be a book a simply read and passed on, as it was not overly exciting.  It begins as simply another book about boys at a prep school and their misadventures as they look for ways to have fun and try desperately to avoid any kind of school work whatsoever.  Jennings and his cohort, Darbishire, are some extremely imaginative children, whether it be playing cops and robbers, spies and thieves, cowboys and Indians, or any other made up adventure.  When Jennings gets a little too rambunctious as a gyro-copter and knocks into Mr. Carter, the teach takes it upon himself to introduce Jennings and a couple of other students to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, reading aloud tales of the great detective.  Little does he know that the reading of this book inspires young Jennings to open up his own detective agency at the school, enlisting Darbishire as his very own "Watson."  Now, if they could only find a real mystery to solve...

 

 While the book has a slow start to it, the reader quickly begins to realize the story is more than just a tale of boys' life at a prep school - it is almost an Airplane! or Naked Gun or Scary Movie version of boys' life.  The number of crazy circumstances, the number of bumbling comedy of errors, and the number of Abbott-and-Costello-like dialogue exchanges will more than make you smile, and pretty often make you giggle and laugh out loud.  Jennings and Darbishire are right there at the middle of everything, and despite all of their best intentions, their over-active imaginations lead them into one big mess after another.  The Headmaster, Mr. Carter, and Mr. Wilkins all attempt to reign the boy in, but with Jennings, there is simply no controlling the boy!  He is determined to be a detective, and with Darbishire at his side, the Linbury Court Detective Agency (or Ln. Ct. Det. Ag., for short) is going to solve every mystery the school has to offer - and as luck would have it, one does fall right into their laps, even if no one believes them.

 

The boys make their share of mistakes trying to find a mystery, but when they spot the shadow of a man in the infirmary late at night, when no one is supposed to be there, they believe they are on to something.  They keep their suspicions under wraps, Jennings determined to get real evidence of a thief before they present it to the Headmaster; and with the big Sports Day games coming up, the Ln. Ct. Det. Ag. have very little free time to devote to their detecting.  One fateful night, they chance to see the intruder again, so they sneak over to the infirmary to catch the man in the act - only, the tables get turned, and they are the ones caught instead - locked inside a room while the thief gets away!  At first, the Headmaster does not believe their story, until they return to the school and find that someone has stolen all of the boys' Sports Day trophies from the library!  The game is now afoot, and unwittingly (or, perhaps we should say, dimwittedly!), Jennings and Darbishire follow up on their one clue - a button torn from the thief's shirt - to track down and ultimately unmask the crook.  (And if you pay attention while reading the book, you'll be able to spot the thief fairly easily - but blink, and you might miss it!)

 

Now, there are some things worth mentioning about the story, particularly the time of year.  On the very first page of the first chapter, the author describes "the grumbling February sky" (p. 9), yet, just before that, indicates that this takes place "[d]uring the first half of the Easter term" (p. 9).  This seems rather odd, since Easter normally takes place between March 22 and April 25, and it never falls in February.  So, perhaps the reference to "Easter term" is actually just another way of describing the "Spring term" for the school?  Next, the author makes a passing reference to "Dick Barton" (p. 50), when Jennings suggests to Darbishire that they will hail the next car and ask the driver to follow the one they are chasing, because "[t]hat's what 'Dick Baron' does anyway, and it always works" (p. 50).  I looked it up, and it seems Dick Barton was a radio-serial about a special agent that used to be broadcast on the BBC between 1946 and 1951 - and since this book was first published in 1951, it would have been right around the time that serial was coming to an end (but clearly, young boys like Jennings and Darbishire would still have listened to the stories and be familiar with the character).

 

In addition, readers get a brief lesson in Latin, when the boys are in class, using the pronouns hic, haec, hoc as sound effects for their imaginary plane battle - which comes to an abrupt end when the teacher enters the room, albeit Jennings misses the queue and keeps his "gun" firing:  "Hic-haec-hoc ... hic-haec-hoc ... hic-haec-hoc ... B-A-N-G!" (p. 181).   They jokingly utilize  the feminine ablative, accusative singular, genitive plural, and other variations of the words in their battle, naming their conjugations as they bleat them out in their fantasy battle.  I found this to be an ingenuious way of the author to insert a bit of actual learning into the story.

 

I am not sure who did the cover art  for this edition, but it is a beautiful, wrap-around scene that depicts the opening sequence, when Jennings and Darbishire are attempting to play a quiet game of chess while all the other boys in their grade (or "form," as it is referred to in the book) are wildly engaged in noisy activities, one of which sends a boxing glove right into the chessboard, knocking over all of our main characters' pieces.

 

While I ultimately enjoyed the story, and found a number of conversations to be very much along the lines of the 1980s and 1990s parody films, I am unlikely to search out any other books in the series.  A quick glance at the list of books on the back inside flap of the dust jacket reveals that this book appears to be the only one with any sort of mystery to it. All of the other books appear to be simply tales of Jennings' life at the boarding school and the various misadventures he and Darbishire find themselves in time and time again.  These are not my typical reading material, and so this is just a one-off that will find itself on my shelf of British children's books, never to have any of the other books in its series around it.

 

RATING:  7 Grossman Cine Camera de Luxes out of 10 for a slapstick style misadventure filled with plenty of misunderstandings, crack comments, and a touch of mystery. 

 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #28 - Who Killed Me?

There are several important things to point out about this Zebra Mystery Puzzler, the 28th in this series of murder mysteries that allows the reader the opportunity to solve the crime before opening that final, sealed chapter.  First, this is the final book in the series to sport a full-cover painted scene.  The format of the cover changed with the next book in the series, reducing the cover art to a small circle inside a magnifying glass (thus, limiting the amount of space for the cover art to provide a clue to the crime).  Second, this is the first book in the series authored by Joan Allan (more on the author below), and the first to feature advertising account executive-turned-sleuth Valerie Lambert.  Third, it offers up what turns out to be a very well-crafted mystery, with clues so subtle you do not even notice them until they are pointed out at the end!

 

Who Killed Me? is taken directly from the note that is found on the dead body of  Nelson Bishop, an up-and-coming executive in the Associated Cosmetics company who has managed to make an enemy of pretty much everyone who knew him.  Thus, the question printed out on the back of a theater ticket and left on his corpse for the police to find is most appropriate.  The suspects include pretty much everyone who is involved in the photo shoot for the ad campaign for the company's new line of cosmetics named after the actress, Meri Milton.  Now, it is up to Valerie Lambert (whose name is included on that ticket, indicating the police should ask her who did it) to figure out which one of the likely suspects actually did the deed.

 

Something that came across as too unrealistic is how quickly Inspector Haverstock was willing to allow Valerie to become a part of the investigation.  Now, any real police detective who has a dead body with a note that specifically identifies one person on it would NOT partner with the person to find the murderer, but would more likely take that person as a suspect until evidence would show otherwise.  (And, yes, evidence does clear Valerie by the next day, since she was having dinner with the commercial director that night, then took a taxi back to her hotel at the time the murder took place - but still, that inspector did not know this when he agrees to let Valerie help with the investigation!).  Putting that aside, though, it is only through Valerie's persistence that the real murderer is revealed.

 

Allan gives readers a truly puzzling mystery with this one.  The knife used to kill Bishop is a left-handed knife (with the grooves on the handle made specifically for a left-handed person).  The note left on the body is written on the back side of an unused theater ticket and written with specialty ink.  The rare button missing from his suit jacket was cut off, not torn.  And there just happens to be a specialty store in London that sells only items for left-handed people.  And there is a shop in London that specializes in the kind of ink and pen used to write the note.  And an antique store in the area happens to reveal that someone Valerie knows purchased a set of those exact buttons not long ago - a set that was short one.  All of these clues lead directly to one specific suspect, all nice and tidy.  And when that suspect winds up dead, an apparent suicide by jumping off a bridge into the frigid waters of the river below. the Inspector is sure the case is resolved.  Valerie, however, is not satisfied.  It is all too convenient.

 

The clues to this crime are so very subtle, I was getting frustrated by the time I reached that final chapter trying to figure out whodunnit.  I took a stab in the dark based on the idea that the least likely suspect will turn out to be the killer - and boy, was I wrong!  When Valerie unmasks the killer at a party she hosts in her lavish hotel room (very Agatha Christie-like!), and she starts walking Inspector Haverstock through all the clues that led her to the realization of the killer's identity, I could only shake my head.  Sure enough, the clues were there - on the cover, in several of the illustrations, and in the story; but my keen eyes simply glossed over them and did not pick them up for what they were.  Which, in my book, made this a SUPERB story!  While I do enjoy being able to figure out who the killer is before the end, sometimes it is nice to be taken completely off-guard, especially when the author points out that all the clues were there if I had simply paid closer attention along the way.  So, kudos to Allan and the publisher for making this one so crafty! 

 

As with a number of the books in this series, there is no identification of the artist for either the cover or the interior illustrations.  While I do love both, as the artwork is beautifully rendered, I am disappointed that the publisher failed to give the artist a proper description for Valerie Lambert.  In the book, she has "long ash blond hair that spilled over her shoulders" (p. 6); yet, on the cover, she clearly has a dark, reddish-brown hair, and on the only internal in which Valerie is seen (p. 58), she is again depicted with dark colored hair.  I realize this is being a bit nit picky, but I do not think it can be that difficult for an artist to be given an accurate description of the main character in a book!  That being said, I love the internal artist's depiction of actress Meri Milton on page 17 - very "Marlene Deitrich" in appearance and pose.

 

"Joan Allan" wrote only three books in this series - this one, volume 33 (Who's Next?) and volume 47 (Who's on First?).  I can find absolutely nothing about this author anywhere, other than the fact that she (he?) wrote the three books in this series.  There is something in the front of the book, however, that raises a question as to the author's identity - on the copyright page, there is a dedication to "Marjorie, Martin and Geoffrey Eric Grove."  As fans of this series might recall, Marjorie Grove is the named author of a number of books starring Maxine Reynolds - but "Marjorie Grove" is actually Martin A. Grove (and there was a sly reference in the first book in this series to Martin Grove, his wife Marjorie, and their son, Geoffrey!).  Thus, is "Joan Allan" simply another pseudonym for Grove, allowing him to create another sleuth for this series? Or is "Joan Allan" someone who knows the real Grove family, and gave a nod to them, perhaps as a word of thanks for helping him or her get their work published in this series?

 

A couple of things worth pointing out from this book.  The author elects to avoid the "555" telephone exchange when giving numbers in the book; instead, the author puts forth potentially real numbers:  "836-4343" as the number to call for Valerie Lambert (p. 34); and "286-6010" as the number of the taxi service (p. 41).  I wonder how many people, back in the day, called those numbers just to see who would answer!  The other item of interest is the reference to the exchange rate between the United States and England.  The shopkeeper informed Valerie the cost will be "two pounds sixty-six" (p. 102), to which Valerie quickly figures out the American equivalent would be "$5.32" (p. 103).  According to what I could find online for 1979, the exchange rate was 0.4713 British pound to one American dollar.  A quick search online shows the exchange would have been closer to $5.64 in American dollars; however, the rate fluctuates, so at any given time, depending on when the book was actually written, that exchange rate given in the story could have been accurate.

 

Overall, a really great read, and I look forward to Allan's other two books in this series!

 

RATING:  10 stubbed out cigarette butts out of 10 for a wonderfully written, excitingly engaging, perfectly puzzling murder mystery well worth the read! 

A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery, Book 7 - Death in the Spotlight

And so we come to book seven of the Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens (formerly known here in the States as the Wells & Wong Mystery series).  Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong make an irresistibly fun sleuthing duo, and I have thoroughly enjoyed all of their adventures to date.  As the series has progressed, the two young girls have aged and matured, they have learned and mastered new skills, and they have gained considerable experience in deduction and crime-solving.  Now, with this book, I get a combination of things two things I love - mystery and theater!  Combining these things almost made this into the perfect book!  Of course, as you'll note, I said almost...

Death in the Spotlight picks up not long after that short story (Case of the Missing Treasure), in which Daisy and Hazel, along with their friends George and Alexander, have to find a treasure missing from the British Museum shortly after arriving back from their trip to Hong Kong (which was recounted in book six of this series).  Now, Daisy and Hazel are still with Daisy's Uncle Felix and his new wife, "Aunt Lucy," who are determined to keep the girls from getting into trouble (i.e., becoming involved in solving another murder).  In order to this, the girls are signed up to help a local theater stage its production of Romeo and Juliet, since the aunt of a girl at Aunt Lucy's work owns the theater, which provides an "in" for Aunt Lucy to get the girls bit parts in the play.  Daisy is thrilled, but Hazel not so much.  But from the moment they set foot in the theater, things are off.

First, Daisy seems rather not herself, especially around the actress who was originally slated to play Juliet, but who was replaced by an up-and-coming actress who just came off a successful play at another theater.  Second, none of the actors seem overly happy about the play.  Rose (Juliet) is the pure diva, who got the actor cast as Romeo replaced simply because ... ahem ... of the color of his skin.  Obviously, this made Simon (previously Romeo) upset.  Of course, Marita (formerly Juliet) was upset  well, since she was originally cast as the lead.  Then you have Lysander (Romeo), who has been flirting with Rose, but he becomes almost violently jealous when he thinks she is seeing someone else.  Third, Miss Compton (owner) and Inigo (director) both seem more worried about filling the seats in the theater than any of the actors.  Plus, we can't forget Annie (wardrobe), who talks incessantly about everything and anything, and Jim (stage door) who literally lives at the theater and manages to know every single person and enters and leaves the theater.  As with any real theater, the girls soon discover that the real drama is taking place behind the stage...

Stevens weaves a wonderful whodunnit after a body is discovered in a well deep beneath the stage.  The star of the show, Rose Tree (or, as she is sometimes referred to in the book - Miss Tree - go on, say those two words together and tell me Stevens didn't pick that name on purpose!), has been murdered, and the Detective Society is on the case!  At least, until Uncle Felix finds out, at which point he pulls them out of the theater, forbids them to return, and basically prevents them from doing any further investigating.  Yeah, right - like that's going to stop Daisy Wells!  At this point, the story becomes even more fun, with Hazel actually engaging in some very un-Hazel like activities (with the help of George and Alexander, of course) in order to uncover more clues that will lead them to the truth.  And when a second person turns up dead, Daisy and Hazel face a race against time to unmask a killer at the theater.  Stevens manages to write a perfectly dramatic scene at the climax, where death really does take center stage at the opening night of Romeo and Juliet.  To be honest, I could almost see this entire story being performed as a play onstage - it is perfectly written to be done!

Had this been everything to the story, it would have been darn near perfect.  But, unfortunately, Stevens added certain elements to the story that felt like nothing more than pandering.  I won't go into the details, but let's just say that part of it felt forced upon one character, and for others - well, this takes place in the mid-1930s, and people simple were not as open-minded about these things back then as they are now, so the reactions of people within the story just don't really fit with the time period.  I've seen this with other authors, who try to instill today's "values" in stories set in the past, and for me, that removes me from the fantasy of the story.  For this book, it felt too forced and more like a statement rather than an integral part to the story.  Had this been removed from the story, I would say this would have been my favorite book in the series - definitely the best-crafted mystery to date!

I'm glad we are seeing more of George and Alexander - I really do like these characters, and hope to continue seeing more of them in future books.  The four of them make a really good team of detectives!

RATING:  7 white threads caught on a ladder out of 10 for putting death in the spotlight and giving us a great theatrical murder mystery!