Dorothy Dixon and the Mystery Plane - the second Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Story

The second book in the Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Stories was just as enjoyable as the first.  Author Dorothy Wayne (in reality, Lt. Noel Sainsbury, Jr.) offers up a stronger mystery this time around, and while Sainsury's other series star, Bill Bolton, does appear in the story, he does not show up until nearly half way through the book.  The book was published with the same dust jacket cover art as the first book (as well as the third and fourth book) - seems like the publisher, Goldsmith, often used the same cover art for an entire series, such as the Penny Nichols series, the Peggy Stewart series, the Merriweather Girls series, and others.  This book does offer one difference, however - there is a dedication at the front:  "To Winkie, who has had a finger in each of her Mummy's books."  While I could find no direct link, it is likely this is a reference to Sainsbury's daughter with Dorothy Wayne Illick, his second wife (and from whose name came his pseudonym for this series), as his daughter from his first marriage died while still an infant (Noel Everingham Sainsbury).

 

Dorothy Dixon and the Mystery Plane seems to be set some months after the events in the first book.  Not only is Dorothy now a licensed pilot, having completed all of her training, but her father has purchased her a plane of her own (confirming for the reader that Mr. Dixon's job as the president of the town bank has made him quite wealthy!).  In addition, the cast of characters in Dorothy Dixon's world is expanded, as readers get to meet Terry Walters, a blond-headed young man who could potentially be a love interest for Dorothy.  Readers are also introduced to Phil Stanton and Betty Mayo, two more friends who are sharing an afternoon in the water at the beach club as the book opens.  Before the first chapter ends, the "mystery plane" in the title appears, and the bearded man flying it, after being forced to make a landing in the water not far from where the young people are splashing around in the Long Island Sound (more on that location later...), makes it clear Dorothy and her friends need to steer clear of him!

 

It seems that the "mystery plane" as Terry as dubbed it (p. 19) seems to fly the same route over that area at the same time every day.  After her encounter with the pilot, Dorothy suspects something is not right, and when Terry goes missing and Dorothy herself is nearly kidnapped, she knows for sure that the man and his plane are somehow involved.  Despite his concern for his daughter, Mr. Dixon does not stop her from investigating, particularly when Terry remains missing.  Dorothy takes her plane up into the sky, hoping to follow the mystery plane and learn where it is headed each day.  Of course, weather interferes, and she must face great danger in some thick fog before finally uncovering a small cottage some miles down the shore.  She concocts a plan that she feels will enable her to uncover the truth - but all it ultimately does is get her knocked unconscious, kidnapped, taken to another location, and ultimately rescued by none other than Bil Bolton (remember, I did say he ultimately appears in the story!).  He reveals he is working a case for the government, trying to find some diamond smugglers, and wouldn't you know it - that happens to be the very criminal activity Dorothy has stumbled upon!

 

Sainsbury created a wonderful pair of detectives with Dorothy and Bill - they are a semi-comedic duo who share some fun banter, face plenty of danger together, and manage to outwit criminals of pretty much any nature. We even get another reference to Dorothy as "Miss Sherlock Holmes, the famous lady sleuthhound who solved the New Canaan Bank mystery" (p. 181), referring to the first book.  Despite this being Dorothy Dixon's series, I am rather glad the author has kept Bill coming into the stories, as he compliments the main character nicely.  I just wish he allowed Dorothy to take a stronger role in the actual planning and executing of those plans.  Instead, Mr. Dixon has to remind her of her place, sternly telling her, "...if you're going on these patrols, just remember that [Bill] is the captain of the outfit and must have obedience" (p. 185), further informing her that her job "is to do what you're told and let your captain do the thinking" (p. 185).  At that point, I almost wished Dorothy had talked back to her father, or struck off on her own and proved she was capable on her own!  But, I supposed despite the plethora of series books sporting strong-willed and determined female protagonists, Sainsbury could not let go of some of the more male-dominated lines of thinking in those days, and it came out in his writing.

 

Since Dorothy already had all of her training behind her, the story did not delve greatly into the technicalities of aviation as the last book did, and readers get more of the mystery in this one.  The danger level is definitely high in this one, what with the kidnapping, the foggy aerial mishaps, and a purposeful ramming of boats in order to keep the smugglers from grabbing their loot from the water.  The climactic chapters find Dorothy and Bill following the criminals' trail through a dark tunnel into an old, abandoned castle, where they find the captive Terry and face off with guns against the smuggling mastermind and his henchmen.  And yes, you read that right.  Once again, Dorothy faces the enemy with a gun in hand, more than once in this book!  She carries a revolver (p. 85) without any trepidation, and in the final face-off, Dorothy, Bill, and Terry all three are brandishing guns (p. 242).

 

Now, back to the location of this mystery.  It is stated numerous times throughout the book that Dorothy and her friends live in New Canaan, which apparently located not far inland from the Long Island Sound (p. 29), on the Connecticut side.  New Canaan is "slightly under eight miles" from the coastal town of Tokeneke (p. 29) - which is true, as a map shows that Tokeneke and New Canaan are only 6.6 miles apart.  Sainsbury also references Lloyd's Neck, which he indicates is "just west of Oyster Bay" to the "farther side of Smithtown Bay, a distance of fifteen or sixteen miles" (p. 58).  Once again, a map of the area shows these descriptions as accurate, as Oyster Bay is approximately 15 - 20 miles from Smithtown, New York!  I love when authors employ this level of reality within their stories, as it gives them some grounding in reality to help make up for some of the more outlandish and unbelievable antics of the characters.

 

What is funny about the references to Long Island Sound, as well as North Fork and South Fork, is the fact that I just recently finished another book set in the same location (Secret at Orient Point).  These two books were published more than 50 years apart and intended for two completely different types of audiences; so what are the odds that in just a matter of a couple of weeks, I would have read both books set in the same location?  And here we thought it was just children's series books that were full of coincidences!

 

One final thing to note - the author not only has Bill Bolton appear and take an active part in the story, but he specifically references on of Bill Bolton's books!  When Bill and Dorothy are talking, he reminds Dorothy of his adventure with "the Winged Cartwheels" (p. 115), for which there is an asterisk that gives a reference at the bottom of the page to inform readers to See Bill Bolton and The Winged Cartwheels. Now that is an interesting cross-promotion for a boys' series book in a girls' series book.  I have to wonder just how rare this kind of specific cross-promotion was!

 

RATING:  10 small white boxes filled with diamonds out of 10 for an exciting mystery that braves the foggy skies and weathers the stormy waves to stop a ruthless gang of smugglers!

Harlequin Gothic Romance Series No. 32018 - Secret at Orient Point

"Could they fight the evil pulling them towards the same horrible fate as their parents?" (cover blurb) 

 

Picking up and reading this book was hard to do.  When I picked up the first Harlequin Gothic Romance to read back in November 2024, I had seventeen books ahead of me after I finished that one, so I didn't give much thought to actually completing the series.  Now, here we are a little over one year later, and I have finally reached the eighteenth and final Harlequin Gothic Romance.  After literally most of my life thinking I would NEVER pick up and read a Harlequin book, it's funny to look back and realize just how much I thoroughly enjoyed this series of Gothic romances - mainly because the stories had very little romance and more mystery and suspense, which are definitely more my line of reading.  Thus, with of a bit of reluctance, knowing that after this, I would have no more to read in this series, I opened the book and began to read...

 

Let's start with the title.  Secret at Orient Point.  That title alone is enough to catch me, since it has that same format as the children's mystery series I collect (i.e., "Mystery in the..." or "Clue of the...").  Then let's talk about that cover.  Twenty-four year old Erika Barlow, looking back with fear at the ghostly couple dancing in the dark ballroom.  Hints of terror, hints of supernatural, hints of a mysterious tale waiting in the pages within this book.  With all of this swirling in my head, I was excited to forge ahead.  The story is set in the 1880s and centers around Erika's return to her family's hotel, located on North Fork in Long Island, New York.  It has been twenty years since she was taken away to live with her aunt after her mother's murder at the hands of her lover, and now her father has died in a shipwreck, leaving her the sole owner of the hotel.  But her arrival starts a series of events that brings long buried secrets to the surface, kindles a relationship that can never be, and threatens to reveal a truth that someone will do anything to keep hidden - even if it means killing Erika!

 

Erika is aware of her mother's affair with the man she truly loved - Gerhard Langermann.  What she did not know is that she was a product of that affair.  But that secret does not seem overly important until she meets Langermann's son, David, and suddenly finds herself attracted to the son of her mother's lover. They are half-siblings, and despite knowing how wrong it is, neither one of them can deny the feelings they are experiencing.  Erika does everything in her power to fight the growing love she has for her half-brother and focuses on the refurbishing of the hotel so it can be opened for the summer guests.  However, someone seems to be out to get her.  First, there is the attack on the pier that nearly drowns her.  Then there is the fire in the hotel, from which she barely escapes alive.  Later, she experiences a terrifying climb onto the roof during a rainstorm, following the person she believes is trying to kill her.  Who is trying to end her life?  Could it be David, who may have inherited his father's own insanity?  Is it her secretary, whose jealousy of the attention David gives Erika is written all over her face?  Is it Pepys, the near-mute handyman on the property who was always overly protective of her mother all those years ago?  Is it Johannes, the carpenter who is charge of the renovations for the hotel and who seems to have eyes for her?  Is it her own father, who suddenly appears after having been thought lost at sea and makes it clear he wants her to stay away from David?  Or, could it possibly be, the ghost of Julie Ann Barlow herself, come back to haunt the hotel and ensure that no one else has any happiness over the loss of her own?

 

Author Patricia Werner writes a wonderful tale of secrets, lies, ghosts, and suspense that keeps the reader turning pages faster and faster to find out how it will ultimately all end. Werner appears to be the author's real name, and she has written quite a number of romance and Gothic novels over the years, including more than a few in the line of Zebra Gothics (with wonderful titles like Mistress of Blackstone Castle, The Swirling Mists of Cornwall, Island of Lost Rubies, Hidden Gold o Widow's Mountain, and Shadows Over Cypress Swamp).  And Werner writes a rather lengthy acknowledgement on the copyright page to Andrew Marlay (for consultation on costumes), Marlene Hamerling (for advice on Jewish names), Steve Hadley (director of an historical society), and Andrea Budy (for sharing thoughts about her Inn).  Such acknowledgements only adds to the belief that Werner is not a pseudonym, but a real person.

 

The locations Werner uses in the book are real.  North Fork and South Fork (not to be confused with a certain ranch on an old nighttime soap!) are two peninsulas located on the eastern end of Long Island, New York, and like in the book, the water just north of the Forks is referred to as "Long Island Sound."  And, as in the story, the easternmost tip of North Folk is a town called Orient Point (which is where our story is set).  According to online research, Orient Point does have its seasonal swell of visitors during the summer months, which would make Erika's desire to re-open the hotel and her urgency to get all the repairs and renovations done before the summer begins perfectly in-line with reality.  And to keep matters even more real, the Orient Point Inn referenced in the book was an actual place built originally as a residence in 1672, but eventually changed to a hotel and eventually demolished nearly 300 years later. More information about the hotel can be found in the Northforker archives (Orient Point Inn - North Fork). When authors incorporate details like this from the real world, it provides a sense of realism to the story that tempers the more unbelievable aspects (such as ghosts and supernatural elements).

 

Well, with this, I've completed the run of Harlequin Gothic Romances and must move on to another Gothic series (I already have one in mind....).  Never fear, though - at the same time Harlequin began publishing this line, they also started a line called "Harlequin Romantic Suspense," which were stories with a similar suspenseful style.  Sadly, that line only lasted two books, before it was repurposed and renamed as "Harlequin Intrigue."  I have both of those Romantic Suspense novels (not to be confused with Harlequin's later line of Romantic Suspense books, which series continues today) and will eventually get around to reading them and reviewing them here.

 

RATING:  10 diaries hidden in the back of a roll-top desk out of 10 for ending this series with a story of suspense, seduction, surprises, and sinister secrets that make for a superb Gothic romance!