Janet Hardy in Radio City - Book Two of the Janet Hardy Series

So, after enjoying the first Janet Hardy novel so much, I did not want to wait long to read the second book in this series.  Interestingly, the copy of this second book that I have is larger and thicker than the first book.  My copy of Janet Hardy in Hollywood measures only 5" x 7.5", while my copy of this book measures a bit over 5.5" x 8".  Additionally, Hollywood is only a bit over one inch in thickness, while this book is nearly one-and-a-half inches thick.  The additional thickness is likely due to the heavier paper stock used for this book, as I noticed the pages are nowhere near as thin and brittle as the first book.  Both have a copyright of 1935, so I honestly don't know if one is an earlier printing than the other, or if all copies of these books were printed in these different formats.  Regardless, the dust jacket contains the same cover art, with the same description of the series on the inside front flap.  And this second book picks up literally right where Hollywood left off...

Janet Hardy in Radio City opens with Janet and her best friend, Helen, getting ready for their next acting gig - another western filmed by Billy Fenstow and starring Curt Newsome. Author Ruthe S. Wheeler (who, it has been suggested, is actually a pseudonym used by Graham M. Dean) manages to get in a recap of the previous book in the first chapter, giving new readers a quick review of how the girls came to be in Hollywood and the adventures they had filming their first movie.  Interestingly, this book follows the same pattern as the first book with regard to how the story advances.

The first half of the book is spent in Hollywood, with the girls starring in the new film, Water Hole, which is being filmed on location at a secluded ranch.  The film crew and cast get on a bus (hmmm, if you've read the first book, perhaps you can see where this might be heading) and head out to the desert to film the movie.  Oddly enough, when the film is near completion, Janet and Helen's nemesis from back home, Cora Dean and her lackey, Margie Blake, show up at the ranch and manage to talk themselves into a bit part during the crowd scene at the end of the film.  They quickly leave, and it's a good thing they do - because when the film crew heads back to Hollywood on the bus, they have one mishap after another.  The bus breaks down; they get it fixed, and then it breaks down worse; then they discover there is a brush fire heading their way; and just when they get the bus fixed and head out, they have a flat tire!  By the time they make it back to the ranch, the fire is well on its way - and they once again hop onto the bus and head for higher ground.  They manage to find a stream with a bank nearby under which they can hide from the flaming onslaught.  It is a weary, damaged group that walk their way slowly back to the ranch, where all of the buildings have been burned to the ground - and just when they think all hope of help is gone, Helen's father shows up with a rescue team to help get the girls and the film crew back to Hollywood!  (And in case you missed the first book, there is a similar scenario in the first book where Janet, Helen, and their school friends are trapped on a bus in the middle of a deadly blizzard, and it is Janet's father who shows up in the nick of time - from the freezing cold of a blizzard to the deadly heat of a desert and fire!  And in both instances, buses were involved!)

The second half of the book follows Janet and Helen as they return home to not only register for college, which the plan to attend in the fall, but also to ready themselves for a ten-day trip to New York City, where they will join several other cast members of the film to promote the movie filmed in the last book over a radio broadcast.  The girls take a rather lengthy train trip (from their midwestern home town of Clarion - which, there is such a town in Iowa - through Chicago and on to Jersey City, before taking a ferry to New York City), and their arrival in the Big Apple is filled with awe as they take in the wonders of the skyscrapers and crowds.  Curt Newsom is there, and they meet the radio director, Ben Adolphi, as well as fellow radio star Rachel Nesbit, who thinks quite a bit of herself and takes an instant dislike to Janet.  (Again, this scenario seems very reminiscent of the second half of the first book!)  As with the previous book, the second act is where the mystery comes in, as someone steals a manuscript that Janet had been working on in her hotel room, and there is a suspicion that someone in the radio drama is intending to lead the movie's plot and ending in order to stop World Broadcasting Company from getting the rights to air this radio preview of the film.  Needless to say, Janet ends up in the thick of things, and she gets chloroformed (but not kidnapped this time, thankfully), there's another theft, a car chase, and an ultimate showdown with the culprits behind the sabotage, which results in Janet and Helen both being offered jobs at WBC as a writer and actress, respectively!

Despite the mystery not being central to the entire story, I still enjoyed reading this one as much as I did the first. Janet and Helen remain very likable characters, and even though the author follows the same format with both books, the stories are actually pretty engaging.  I became interested in knowing whether Janet and Helen would actually sign on with the studio and stay in Hollywood, or whether they would go home to pursue their college education.  And, yes, the saboteurs of the radio program are fairly obvious from the moment they are introduced, but it doesn't make the mystery any less exciting, as you find yourself rooting for Janet and Curt to stop the culprits before they get away with the manuscript and ruin the station's chance at getting the studio's contract.  My only wish is that Goldsmith had included internal illustrations, like nearly all of the other publishers did at the time, even if it was only a frontis piece.

With this, the adventures of Janet Hardy come to a close, as Goldsmith did not offer up any more books in this series.  I have to wonder if it was because sales were not high enough to warrant more, or if the author was simply not interested in writing more tales of these characters.  At this point, I suppose it doesn't matter, as no more Janet Hardy stories were publishers, and fans like me are left to cherish the two we do have.

RATING:  9 glowing masses of steel out of 10 for keeping these midwestern girls hopping from one coast to the other, and taking them from film to radio!