The Mystery of the Tolling Bell - A Book By Any Other Name, No. 1

Okay, so this post will start a series of posts (not in any particular order, mind you) of books that I read, which share the same title.  Over the course of collecting books for as many years as I have, I've discovered that there are a number of titles that seem to be reused, particularly when it comes to children's mystery series.  Off the top of my head, I can think of 20 or so titles that were used in multiple series (sometimes just two different series, but there are instances where three or more series used the same title).  So, I figured if I were going to read one book with a title, I'd go ahead and read the sister book as well, then compare them to see if the stories bear any similarities.  I'm hoping this turns out to be a fun adventure, so we shall see...

The Mystery of the Tolling Bell is likely instantly recognizable by Nancy Drew fans as the 23rd mystery in the "Nancy Drew Mystery Stories" series.  Heck, if you do a search online for just the title, you will get page after page of results showing the Nancy Drew book.  What you may not realize, though, is that there is another children's mystery book by the same title.  In the 1960s, a book with this title was published by Christian Literature Crusade with permission by Pickering & Inglis, Ltd. (and for those who read this blog, you may remember I reviewed another book from the P&I publishing company, The Crooked Signpost).  I happened across this book in a local used bookstore, where it had been placed with the Nancy Drew books, likely because without a dust jacket, the book has yellow boards and would seem to the casual eye to be the Nancy Drew book of the same name.  Of course, my eye caught the name of the author and realized immediately it was not Nancy Drew - so my search began to find the book in its brightly colored dust jacket, which I eventually found on eBay.

This book is written by Ellen Jane MacLeod, who wrote more than several children's mysteries, all of which have a Christian theme to them.  Some of the titles, such as The Ski Lodge Mystery, Mystery Gorge, and The Vanishing Light, all sound rather intriguing just by the title alone.  There are several mentions online that Ms. MacLeod also wrote under the pseudonym of "Ella Anderson," which, if there is true, means she also wrote The Crooked Signpost which I read a few months back.  Based on the writing style of the two books, I could easily believe her to be the author of both.

This version of The Mystery of the Tolling Bell features three young men - Paul Maxwell, Phil Leighton, and Pat Riley (funny how all those names begin with "P") - who are returning from a weekend of camping on their own when they are forced to take shelter in an abandoned cottage overlooking a cliff during a torrential rainstorm.  One of them recalls an old story that has circulated through town about the cottage, and how is poses a danger to anyone who approaches it and hears the tolling of a bell in the distance.  Well, as fate would have it, they begin to hear the tolling of a bell - which leaves them ready to run home, despite the raging storm!  They manage to wait out the storm until the morning, and upon returning home, they find another mystery that pulls their attention - a dog named Prince has been stolen from on of their town's wealthy residents, and the boys decide they are going to find it for the reward.  The search for the missing dog and the boys' desire to help a local young outsider become the focus of the book until near the end, when the boys (along with the outsider) make another trip to the abandoned cottage, where they not only learn the secret of the tolling bell, but they come face-to-face with some dastardly criminals who are using the bell and the folk tale to scare people away from the cottage, which they have been using for their base of operations.

It is odd that the tolling bell only plays a small part at the beginning, and then in the climax of the book, and is otherwise ignored throughout the rest of the story.  The main focus seems to be more on the boys' attempts to help young Ben Anderson and his friend, Leo Alexander.  MacLeod uses the story as an opportunity to share the message of the Gospel, as the boys share their Christian faith with Ben and Leo, invite them to church, and encourage them to accept Christ as their own Savior.  The events at the end of the book are what lead to both boys putting their faith in Christ, and the book ends on a very happy note for everyone involved (well, maybe not so much for the four criminals, who are ultimately arrested and thrown in jail!).  While The Crooked Signpost had elements of Christianity woven into the story, this book relies much more heavily on the boys' faith and their attempts to share their faith with Ben and Leo.

 

Since this book is copyrighted 1960 by Pickering & Inglis, it was not published until 14 years after the Nancy Drew story, The Mystery of the Tolling Bell.   That book was written by Mildred Wirt, based on an outline by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams.  In the Nancy Drew version, Nancy and her friends (three girls instead of three boys) travel to Candleton to solve a mystery involving a client of Mr. Drew's, who has been swindled for a lot money.  Turns out others in the coastal town have also been swindled by a woman and man claiming to be selling stock in a successful cosmetic company. While there, Nancy also tries to solve the mystery involving a tolling bell that is hear every time a cave is flooded with water, where a ghostly apparition appears, scaring people away.  While there are definite differences between the books, there are some surprising similarities - (1) both stories have three protagonists; (2) both books deal with an empty cottage overlooking a cliff; (3) both mysteries deal with thieves who are using the cottage as their base of operations; (4) both stories feature a hidden room beneath the cottage; (5) book books obviously deal with a tolling bell that is not easily seen by the hearers; (6) both mysteries feature an urban legend / folk tale that keep people away from the area; and (7) both stories appear to be set somewhere along the New England coast.  Since the Nancy Drew book was published over a decade before MacLeod's book, if there were any "lifting" of ideas or plot elements, it would have been MacLeod from Wirt's mystery.  Certainly, it could just be a complete coincidence, but seriously - how many coincidences like this do we really see outside of series books?

Overall, both books had their good points, and both stories had their drawbacks; however, I did rather enjoy both of them for what they were, and it was fun to read them with the idea of comparing the stories / plots.

RATING:  7 loose-leaf albums of stamps out of 10 for taking something as simple as a tolling bell and turning it into two different (yet similar!) mysteries more than ten years apart!

The Crooked Signpost - a Sunshine Series story book

This book came as a complete surprise to me.  I stumbled across this at a Half-Price Book store in Indiana while visiting my friend Geoffrey, and the title alone intrigued me (considering its similarity to the Hardy Boys' title, The Sinister Signpost).  The book was a little pricey, but a search online revealed very little about the book, other than the fact that the price was not really far off from what you could buy it for online.  The inside front flap of the dust jacket describes the story as "[a] typical Canadian foursome, our four heroines set out to spend a winder holiday in the country..." and ultimately become involved in "an exciting chase after a gang of picture thieves."  A mystery involving four Canadian girls, a title similar in name to the Hardy Boys, and a hint of mystery surrounding some art thieves - I was sold!  But what I encountered while reading the story was far from what I was anticipating!

The Crooked Signpost is written by Ella Anderson.  I was not able to find anything about this author, other than some of the other books she wrote (such as The Vanishing Light, The Talking Mountain, and a few others).  However, based on the content of this particular mystery, it is clear Ms. Anderson was a Christian author. This was the first surprise that I came across while reading this book.  The Crooked Signpost is replete with references to God, Christ, and Christian living in general, and two of the four main characters are devout believers who take the opportunities presented to them to share the Gospel with their friends.  Anderson is not hesitant to have her characters explain the plan of salvation, and the prayers spoken by those characters are heartfelt and sincere.  While not the focus of the story, the two girls' desire to see their friends accept Christ fits seamlessly into the story.

The story centers around the four girls - Beatrice ("Bea") and Marcia Roberts, sisters who are traveling to visit their Aunt Joan out in the country.  With them are two of their friends, Irene Jarvis and Frances ("Fran") Kenton.  Irene is somewhat timid, as an only child whose parents are not the most loving, while Frances is much more outgoing and spunky - yet, despite their differences, they are good friends.  The four start their journey just as it begins to snow, and soon enough, they are driving in a blizzard, worried lest they get lost.  A fork in the road gives them pause, wondering which direction to go, and the signpost there is unclear as to which direction will lead to the town where they are headed.  They choose to go to the right, which is what leads them to the strange, dark house at the end of a long, winding road (and a bridge that gives way just after they cross it, leaving them stranded at the empty house).

The mystery has a familiar theme to it - the girls find the house empty and unlocked, so they let themselves in to get out of the storm.  While inside, they discover the house contains some valuable items, and Fran, whose father is an art gallery owner, recognizes, hanging on the wall, an artwork by the famous painter John Constable. (A quick look online reveals that Constable was a real painter, known for his landscapes, and as Fran describes in the book, he used a palette knight to create sharp lights in his work - Constable's Art.)  The artist's name obviously gave Anderson an opportunity for some joking among the girls, as Marcia asks, "What's a Constable?" to which Irene snappily replies, "A village policeman" (p. 26).  Even I will admit, the name Constable in the synopsis of the story threw me for a bit, because I was not aware there was a painter by that name.

The mystery kicks into gear when the girls see a man peering in at them, and later that night, chase him out of the house, where it turns out he has stolen that very painting, leaving behind a copy in its stead!  The girls try to follow the man, but quickly lose him in the storm.  The storm subsides the next day, but with their car covered in snow, the girls hike to the nearest town, intent on telling the police what happened - but upon their arrival, they find the owner of the house already there, complaining about how she was tricked into leaving her home by a fake telegram.  The girls share their story and soon learn there has been a rash of art thefts along the Maine coast recently.

That familiarity returns in full force (as a reader) when the girls' faith is revealed to the woman, who then shares her own sad story of how she has become estranged from her only son, who left some time ago and who she lost touch with over the years.  The girls have sympathy for the woman, but it is Irene who actually comes up with an idea to try and reunite the mother and son.  (Personally, I was beginning to suspect it was perhaps the son who had committed the theft, in order to obtain something he could sell in order to gain money he felt he was entitled to - after all, I've read that same plot in some other books not so long ago...)  Eventually, the girls happen across the man they saw in the window and make the mistake of following him, where he leads them into a trap that finds them being held hostage in an isolated shack!

The second surprise in this story is the fact that the front flap synopsis describes the quartet as a "Canadian foursome" - yet, in the story, the girls make mention of having come up from the south to head for their aunt's house in the country.  Since the author specifically refers to them being in Maine, unless those "Canadian" girls were going to school here in the States, I'm not sure how they could be considered Canadians.  And interestingly enough, Anderson makes a point of saying the girls are traveling on Highway 39, yet there is no such Highway in the State of Maine.  And while we are on this topic, near the end, as the girls are following the man they believe to be the art thief, the girls wonder if they will have to follow him clear to New Hampshire, to which they laugh, thinking "...it would have taken two or even three days to get there, although it was the next state" (p. 74).  I have to wonder just how slow these girls are traveling, since there is only a distance of about 215 miles from Maine to New Hampshire, which, even at only 35 miles per hour, would only take six hours - not two or three days!  (Since this book was originally published in England, I am wondering if the author was wholly unfamiliar with North American geography, which would explain these geographical errors.)

What did make me smile, however, is that when the girls are trapped inside the shack near the end of the book, they overhear their captors talk about driving them up to Canada and leaving them stranded (p. 83)!  The girls are dismayed, because "[e]ven if they did get help in Canada, these men would have the painting and be too far away to be caught. Probably going south to Florida" (p. 84).  I find these references amusing, since I live in Florida, and a very good friend lives up in Canada - so to find both of places referenced in the same paragraph in this mystery was quite a coincidence.  And what would a children's mystery be without coincidences?

The book is a relatively short one - the story begins on page 5 and ends on page 95, making it only 91 pages in length.  It has only ten chapters, with an average 9-page count for each chapter.  Yet, there is plenty of story, and it does not feel rushed at all.  The characters are nicely fleshed out, and the mystery itself, while not overly exciting (outside of the bridge collapse and the kidnapping at the end), holds up fairly well.  I enjoyed this one enough to seek out some of Anderson's other books to see if they are just as good.

RATING:  7 eighteenth century oval mirrors out of 10 for having the courage to share the message of Christ through a children's mystery story.