The Brownie Scouts at Silver Beach - Book Five of the Brownie Scout Books

It's a week at the beach for the Brownies in Mildred Wirt's fifth Brownie Scouts adventure (I hesitate to call this a "mystery" series, as the books are more about the young girls' adventures and learning experiences than they are about the actual mystery aspect of the stories).  I have to admit, this series has been a much more enjoyable read than I had originally anticipated.  A series about a group of pre-teen girls who are enjoying outings as Brownie Scouts did not exactly scream out to me as readable stories, and the only reason I actually bought them was because (a) they were all purchased relatively cheap, with their dust jackets in tact, and (b) it was another Mildred Wirt series.  I just assumed they would sit on my shelves, unread.  But, when a friend suggested I read and post about them, I thought, "Why not?"  And, quite frankly, I'm glad I did.

 

The Brownie Scouts at Silver Beach finds out favorite little Brownies enjoying the sun and fun at Silver Beach, said to be "along the Atlantic Coast" (p. 3).  Veve (whose spelling is changed to "Vevi" in this book for some reason) McGuire and Connie Williams are once again front and center in the story, with Jane Tuttle, Sunny Davidson, and Rosemary Fritche rounding out the troop.  Miss Gordon, the troop leader, is, of course, on the scene, as is Mrs. Williams, Connie's mother, who is helping to chaperone the girls.  Vevi and Connie are bunked with Mrs. Williams in the rental, Starfish Cottage, while the other girls are staying with Miss Gordon in a "vine-covered cottage overlooking Silver Beach" (p. 3) that the troop leader owns.  By the end of the first chapter, we get the beginnings of a mystery, when Miss Gordon's watch, which she left in the pocket of her beach robe with the rest of the troop's belongings on the sandy beach while they enjoyed the ocean water, is stolen!

 

Readers quickly learn there have been other thefts recently in that area of the beach, which has caused a number of summer visitors to migrate over to the beach belonging to a nearby hotel.  That mystery, however, is put to the side as the girls begin to explore the beach, discover shells, discuss the various types of water birds seen in the area, watch a turtle race, and discover a small house built to look like a ship not far from their cottages.  Along the way, Vevi and Connie get lost in the fog (which is when they stumble across the ship-shaped cottage and discover another mystery - who is using the small house as a place to stay?), the girls have fun adventures trying to catch a turtle so they can enter the next turtle race, they collect shells so that they can put together and showcase a shell display, and they learn all about carrier pigeons, with Vevi nearly getting her very own pigeon that she names Snow White!  And during all of these fun activities, the girls also hear about more thefts and inadvertently witness the thief on more than one occasion attempting to steal items from tourists who are visiting the beach.  Even worse, poor Vevi and Connie wind up on a boat put adrift at sea, with no one knowing where they are!

 

The mysteries, as usual, are not overly complicated, nor are they difficult to solve (at least, for the discerning reader).  The identity of the thief is not at all hard to spot, pretty much from the get-go.  The identity of the person using the ship-shaped cottage is also easy to figure out, as Wirt does not make it hard to see where the story is going.  The mixture of the two lifeguards, the former ship captain, the young boy whose father is a lifeguard at the other hotel, and the man who handles the homing pigeons are fairly straight-forward characters who may be able to hide all of their secrets from the Brownie Scouts, but none of them are so subtle that even a casual reader could not spot them a mile away.  None of that detracts from the enjoyment of the story, though - it's not about actually solving the mysteries; rather, it's more about following along with Vevi, Connie, and the other Brownies as they hop from one exciting escapade to another.

 

Wirt casually included a moment in the story that is definitely a very valuable teaching lesson for young children.  When Vevi and Connie venture out to find Cabell's pond, where there are said to be lots of turtles to be found, a layer of mist begins to roll in from the ocean as dusk draws near.  As they are walking, a "driver stopped for a moment offering the girls a ride.  Vevi and Connie did not know him, so they turned down the offer" (p. 23).  A shining example of the old maxim, "never get in a car with a stranger."  I smiled when I read these lines, thinking how smart Wirt was to integrate a moral lesson into the story without making it overly obvious and beating you over the head with it.  One has to wonder how many children read this back in the day and took this lesson to heart.

 

There is another scene, however, that caught my attention more than the "stranger danger" scenario.  When Miss Gordon and Mrs. Williams take the girls to Brant's Point for a picnic and for an opportunity to search for more shells, the tide starts to come in before they realize it, and soon enough, Mrs. Williams' car is stuck in the sand, unable to get any traction.  As the tide gets closer and closer, my mind kept telling me, "I've read this scene before - but where?"  Thanks to the memory of a very good friend, I found it - in Wirt's Penny Parker mystery, Voice from the Cave.  In that book, Penny and Louise are on a beach near a lighthouse (same as the Brownies are in this book), and like the Scouts, Penny's car gets stuck and the high tide keeps coming in with no help in sight.  The similarities do not stop there:

 

PP 95 - "Even if the car isn't washed away, the salt water will ruin it."

BS 88 - "Salt water ruins a car very easily ... We must get out somehow."

 

PP 95 - The motor began to labor.  Then the car stalled completely.

BS 85-86 - Slower and slower crept the car, its engine laboring ... The car would not budge...

 

PP 95 - "I'll run to the lighthouse," Penny decided desperately...

BS 88 - She glanced hopefully toward the lighthouse.  Connie offered ro un there and ask for help.

 

PP 97 - Penny and Louise seek help from a man they know who is wading through the reef; he sees them, but he turns and walks away

BS 90 - The Brownies seek help from a lifeguard they see in a boat out in the ocean; he sees them, but he turns and speed away in his boat

 

PP 99 - Jerry Livingston shows up on the beach and helps the girls push the car out of the sand

BS 91 - Captain Tarwell shows up on the beach and helps the girls push the car out of the sand

 

The scenes so closely resemble one another, only the names have been changed and some of the wording.  As the Penny Parker book was published in 1944, and this one in 1952, so perhaps Wirt "borrowed" the scene from the earlier book with the thought that readers of this particular book (who would be younger than the intended audience of the Penny Parker book published eight years prior) would not recognize the passage.  (Wirt seems to have had no problem in lifting scenes from previously published books of hers and retooling them into later stories - her Madge Sterling series provided her with a plethora of scenes that she later used in her Penny Parker books, her Mystery Stories for Girls books, and others.)

 

Marguerite Gayer provided both the cover art and interior illustration (the frontis piece being the only interior art) for this book.  The cover art actually depicts a scene related to the mystery surrounding the thefts at the beach, as the girls find a stolen purse buried in the sand (p. 146).  Meanwhile, the interior illustration merely shows the scene where Vevi and Connie happen across the small cottage in the mist while trying to find the pond (p. 34).

 

RATING:  8 dusty old Bibles out of 10 for keeping the Brownies faithful to their code, always helping others, while also learning about nature and valuable lessons at the same time.

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!