A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #27 - The Whispering Cat Mystery

First, there was a Devil Mask.  Next, there was a Golden Skull.  Then came the Green Lama.  And now, with book 27 of the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series, readers get the latest mystery involving television reporter Terry Spring.  This is author Ronald Joseph Goulart's fourth entry into the series, writing under the pseudonym "Josephine Kains," and he offers up a wonderfully fun tale of misdirect and red herrings set in New Orleans, Louisiana during the famous Mardi Gras festival.  In fact, I was loving the story so much, I finished the book in less than one day!  I rarely do that with any adult mystery (usually only happens with children's series books, which are much easier reading), but I love Goulart/Kains' characters so much, and I got so wrapped up in figuring out whoddunit in this mystery, that I literally could not put it down until I finished that last chapter!

 

The Whispering Cat Mystery once again opens not with our amateur sleuth, but instead with the psychic visions of Willa Farrway, the young "witch-woman" who lives near the Louisiana swampland on the outskirts of the wealthy Cullen family property.  The visions of the whispering cat were getting stronger, almost overpowering her, and she had yet to figure out what they meant.  Meanwhile, a man makes his way through the mists covering the swamps, finally reaching the cemetery, where he makes his move.  Now, as with Kains' other books in this series, the second chapter shifts the scene to Terry Spring and her friends, cameraman Janiero Chavez and producer Jess Berkeley, as they wrap up another on-the-scene story.  Soon enough, they receive their next assignment - a mini-documentary on the psychic girl who has been helping New Orleans' finest solve some cold cases.  Is she really psychic, or is she a talented fraud with insider information?  Terry and her crew intend to find out.  But the question on Jess's mind is:  will they get involved in yet another murder?  (Well, this is a Zebra Mystery Puzzler, so what do you think?)

 

Kains spends the first half of the book in set-up, as usual, introducing readers to the various players in this drama.  Laura Daventry Cullen is the wealthy socialite, who pretty much has her hand in everything in the area, and who married her jock of a husband, Chip Cullen, for unknown reasons.  Marcus Keaton, Laura's first love, has never gotten over her and has turned to the bottle for comfort.  Chip Cullen is trying to put together a spectacular jazz show for Mardi Gras, but he is frustrated with how tightly his wife is keeping those purse strings.  Jake Gossage is the local news celebrity who takes an instant liking to Terry - and also warns her to tread lightly around Willa Farrway's psychic abilities, as Willa is a personal friend of Laura Cullen, and bad publicity for Willa could result in bad consequences for Terry!  But Terry is not one to be intimidated, and she will only report the truth, whatever that turns out to be.

 

A painting of a black cat, one paw raised, seems to be Willa's way of releasing her visions - if they keep coming, then she paints them on canvas in the hope it will finally give her some understanding.  Only, this cat will not go away.  Not even when Chip Cullen's dead body turns up in Willa's living room one night, having been strangled by a lady's scarf.  A scarf that belongs to one Jennifer Claxton, the fashion editor for the local news, who was seen that very morning wearing the same scarf while having a rather heated discussion with the deceased.  But she is not the only one with a grudge against Chip Cullen.  Marcus blames him for stealing Laura away from him.  Willa has always been at odds with him, as he never believed in her abilities.  Laura was tired of him, blaming him for her brother running away a year or so ago.  So, which one of them finally did him in?  Or did Laura's brother return home and end his brother-in-law's life?  Although the local law tells her to stay out of it, Terry Spring is on the case, and before too long, she discovers a second body - one murdered long before this one, but whose death is directly linked to the current murder.  And as far as that whispering cat goes?  Well, let's just way that when Terry finds the location of that cat, it reveals quite the story...

 

Goulart/Kains must be given credit - he knows how to throw out those red herrings to keep you guessing as to the killer's identity.  One very obvious clue on the cover art had me believing it was one person, until nearly 3/4 of the way through, when another character made a passing comment that immediately contradicted an earlier scene - meaning my first suspect was wrong, and this was, indeed, the real culprit.  Plus, there was a certain cat scratch that gave the killer away, since Willa's pet cat has a tendency to scratch anyone except Willa, as Chavez quickly learns on their first visit to Willa's home.  Thus, the ultimate solution is not extremely difficult to figure out, but it's all in the fun of getting there that makes the story so enjoyable.  Plus, the whole Mardi Gras parade and chase scene had me remembering the Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew television crossover, "Voodoo Doll," which aired in February 1978 and introduced viewers to the "new" Nancy Drew (Janet Louise Johnson) during a Mardi Gras-themed mystery in New Orleans.

 

And speaking of Nancy Drew, I cannot get over how much Terry and her friends remind me of Nancy Drew and her friends.  Terry, obviously, is the Nancy Drew character, while Chavez takes on the Bess persona (loves food and is always falling in love) and Jess is the George of this series (being more health-conscious and even sporting a boy's name).  The three always work well together in solving mysteries, and Goulart/Kains even plays on the old series book format of referring back to previous mysteries (check out page 15, where Jess reminds Terry of "that witchcraft business in Grimshaw and the voodoo island thing and that haunted out out on the West," which refer to Devil Mask Mystery, The Curse of the Golden Skull, and The Green Lama Mystery, respectively).  This only adds to the fun of reading these books!

 

With no credit given to the cover artist, I have no clue who painted the scene; however, there are two major clues on there - one of which is a misdirect, while the other is definitely a giveaway for the killer.  The internal illustrations, though, are once again provided by Sanford Hoffman, who has provided interiors for at least seven of these first 27 mysteries.  His line art is always so beautifully rendered, and for some odd reason, I love the fat that he outlines most of his scenes with a thick black line, which is sometimes broken by a character or piece of scenery that "crosses the line," if you'll pardon the pun.  One of the illustrations (p. 140) is a bit weird, though, as it is supposed to depict Willa's own drawing of an unusual coffin she sees in her latest vision; however, based on Hoffman's representation of that drawing, how could Willa not immediately recognize it for what it actually is?  (And it clearly points to the killer's identity, which is why I'm not about to reveal what it is here!)

 

Twenty-seven books into this series, and I have not really been let down yet.  Sure, some are better than others, but none of them have been down right awful, and while a few have been pretty easy to figure out early on, they are still great reads, and I look forward to the remaining 33 books left in the series!

 

RATING:  9 pretty little faded roses out of 10 for throwing in a bit of ESP without letting it overpower the story or be used as a cop-out for solving the mystery! 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #20 - The Green Lama Mystery

With this 20th Zebra Mystery Puzzler, I hit the one-third mark for this 60-book series, and with it, we see the return of Josephine Kains' (Ronald Joseph Goulart's) television reporter turned sleuth, Terry Spring.  This is Kains' third foray into the Puzzler series, and it offers up a very Agatha Christie-style mystery for the amateur detective to solve.  I do love the fact that Kains' books feature titles very reminiscent of the old children's mystery series from back in the day - Devil Mask Mystery and The Curse of the Golden Skull being the previous two mysteries. They give these books a stronger feel of being "adult" Nancy Drew-style mysteries rather than just your run-of-the-mill murder mystery books!

 

The Green Lama Mystery offers up a mystery with plenty of suspects, but is told from a rather unique perspective.  The reader actually spends very little time with Terry Spring (who is the television reporter that is supposed to be the one solving the crime!); instead, the book seems to tell the story from the points of view of several other characters - particularly, Sara Denzlow, a young teacher who has, along with two of her cousins, inherited a creepy old mansion set up on a lonely hill outside of San Francisco, California.   In fact, the story opens with her driving towards the house, when she sees the ghost of an old sea captain who allegedly died over a hundred years ago - a ghost that is allegedly her ancestor who was killed with a heavy statue of a Buddhist lama made out of jade.  

 

Sara and her cousins, Barry and Arlen, have been required to live in the spooky house as a part of the bequest for their now deceased relative - in order to inherit the house, all of the land surrounding it, and the rather large bank accounts, the three must remain in the house for at least a year!  Sara can use the change of scenery after her recent divorce; Barry is determined to take the story of his ancestor's ghost and write a book about it, having dropped out of medical school to pursue a career in writing; and Arlen is hoping any publicity about the house and it history will help jump-start his acting career in Hollywood.  As for our crime-solving sleuth?  Well, she has been given the assignment to do one of her mini-documentaries about the haunting of the great house - so along with her faithful sidekicks, Chavez and Jess, she heads for San Francisco.

 

While we spend a few brief chapters with Terry, Chavez, and Jess (and I have to say, Goulart/Kains has really hit his stride with these characters, because their rapport in this book is top-notch - I thoroughly enjoyed reading their banter!) as they get their assignment and hop a plan to cross the country, a number of the chapters in the first half of the book introduce the Denzlow cousins, give us background on the house, and introduce us to some of the other suspects, including Richard Crossen, a slick real estate developer who is more than just interested in getting his hands on that property in order to develop a number of homes to sell; Roy Shooter, who is Sara's ex-husband who just happens to be in town at the same time as these weird things are happening; and Zack Carney, a reporter for a trashy tabloid who is not above helping people fake things in order to get an unusual story.  

 

After Arlen is pushed down the stairs, resulting in a broken leg that leaves him bedridden, readers meet the next suspect(s) in this murder mystery - Reverend Postage and Sister Martha of the Fellowship of the Inward Light, a religious organization (better, a cult!) who is the secondary beneficiary of the house and all other assets from the estate should the heirs fail to reside there for at least a year.  They show up on a dark and stormy night, claiming to have had car trouble at the bottom of the hill.  That same night, Sara's ex-husband shows up, demanding money, at which point Barry throws him out into the rain.  Well, the next morning gives readers the murder victim - yup, you guessed it.  Poor Barry is found dead in the library, having had his head bashed in by the green lama (a repeat of his ancestor's death so many years prior). The question then becomes - who killed Barry?

 

From this point, the book follows the local police lieutenant as she investigates the crime, with Terry following along to assist - all the while hinting that she has the thing figured out, but she needs to check a few things to make sure first.  We get more scenes with Sara, we even get scenes with Chavez and Jess as they discuss what is going on and what they believe Terry is or should be doing.  What we do not get are the actual scenes of Terry investigating.  Rather, we get Terry mentioning what she is planning to do, then Goulart/Kains skips ahead to after the fact, so the reader is left wondering what it is that Terry did and what information she learned.  Of course, there is a scene fairly early on when Terry is speaking with a potential suspect that pretty much gives away the fact this person is the killer - in fact, there are two blatant clues in the book that give it away so early, that the rest of the read is pretty much perfunctory just to see how she reveals the killer's identity.

 

At least the revelation in the last two chapters is done wonderfully dramatic, much as you would watch on an episode of Murder, She Wrote or read in any Christie novel.  Terry has the police lieutenant gather all the suspects to the scene of the crime where she goes through the entire story of how the ghost was fabricated, who pulled the scam and why, and ultimately who the killer is (through a clever con that forces the killer to reveal him/herself). The ending sort-of makes up for the lack of Terry Spring through most of the mystery.

 

The cover artist is once again not identified (although there is a possible name just below the spool of film, but it is cut off so you can only see some smidgens of white that could potentially be the top part of a signature), but the scene comes directly from the moment where Sara walks into the library and discovers her cousin's corpse.  The only problem is, in the story, Sara is wearing her sleeping robe, not a blouse and jeans.  Unless the person on the cover is supposed to be Terry, which is completely in error, as Sara was the one with the flashlight, and she is the one who picked up the glove as depicted on the cover.  The interior illustrations are provided by Sanford Hoffman, whose drawings are much better than those in the previous book.

 

A couple of things to note - I smiled at Arlen's reference to Terry as a "regular Nancy Drew, is she?" (p. 45), as well as Terry's comment to Jess that she makes Terry "sound like Wonder Woman" (p. 124).  Two of my favorite fictional women referenced in one story - what are the odds?!  There is also an editing or publishing snafu that caught my eye on page 91.  At the top of the page, the first line reads:

"Barry's been killed," Terry told him.  chest.  "Christ, you must be ... Barry?" He shifted his weight...

Not sure what was actually supposed to be between "told him" and "chest," but it appears an entire sentence, or maybe even a paragraph, was somehow omitted.  I guess that is one mystery that we'll never have solved...

 

Of the three Terry Spring mysteries thus far, I'd saw this was my second favorite (with Golden Skull being my first). I know there are several more stories in the pipeline before the series ends, so I'm hoping I will get some better stories in those yet to be read!

 

RATING:  7 gold-fringed drapes out of 10 for a decent enough attempt at a clever mystery of misdirect and deception, with a great climatic reveal! 

 

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #7 - The Curse of the Golden Skull

And so we come to the second Zebra Mystery Puzzler written by Ronald Joseph Goulart under the pen name Josephine Kains.  And again, I absolutely love the title, so reminiscent of those Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys' titles of yesteryear.  Plus, with the return of Goulart/Kains comes the return of that intrepid reporter, Terry Spring, and her wonderful producer, Jess Berkeley, as well as her always-hungry, girl-loving cameraman, Chavez.  These three make a fantastic detective trio, and their adventures are so much fun to read.

The Curse of the Golden Skull takes our threesome on a cruise to the Caribbean islands, where they are sent to cover a unique Voodoo Cruise for the news channel for which Terry works.  It seems like a great opportunity to mix a little pleasure with business, especially when Chavez meets a beautiful young woman, Claire Traynor.  But he will have to get past her overbearing aunt and their devoted housekeeper if he has any hopes of spending time with her.  Of course, his chances become greater when the Traynors' housekeeper is found dead in her cabin, apparently beaten to death with a cane ... a cane that looks suspiciously like that of an elderly, veiled woman that everyone had seen on the cruise when it first set sail!  Thus, it looks like the cruise will be making an extended stop at Sombra Island, the very island where Claire is headed to take ownership of the castle she has inherited from her recently deceased uncle - a castle that comes with stories of a hidden pirate treasure and a cursed skull!

There's definitely plenty of mystery in this book, and Terry, Jess, and Chavez are all right there in this thick of it.  Terry's involvement begins on the cruise when she saves Claire from an attempt on her life as a dark figure attempts to push her overboard in the dead of night - the very same night her housekeeper is murdered.  The question is, who killed the housekeeper and why?  And who was the veiled woman who bought a one way ticket to Sombra Island and where did she disappear to in the middle of the ocean?  And how is the housekeeper's murder connected with the attempt on Claire's life - or is it?  And will Chavez ever be able to convinced Claire's aunt to let him spend even five minutes alone with the woman?  These and more questions will fill your mind as you read this mystery.

Now, I will admit, this one is a fairly simple mystery to solve.  Well, at least part of it is.  The identity of the murderer is pretty obvious from the beginning, and there is a blatant clue glaring at the reader on the cover and second internal illustration on page 33 that pretty much gives it away.  However, that does not make the story any less enjoyable to read.  Goulart manages to throw in an over-zealous magician who catches Jess's eye, a less than honest tour guide who has ulterior motives for stopping at Sombra Island, and a potentially dangerous ex-boyfriend that keeps pushing his way into Claire's life.  We also get a dark castle on a stormy night - what better setting for a mystery to play itself out!  Add in a gold skull that holds the key to finding a centuries-old treasure, a coded message that will lead the one who solves it to the treasure, and a hidden room in an underground vault that reveals a (not-so) surprising secret about Claire's past that answers a question about her father's murder so many years ago.

The internal illustrations are beautiful, much more so than that last couple of books.  The artist is actually identified in one of the illustrations (p. 158) as Luke Ryan - which is the name of the illustrator who did the internals for the second book in this series (The Final Ring).  Not sure if Kensington (Zebra) had a group of artists in house, or if they farmed the work out, but they really should have used Ryan's art for all of the books in this series!  It is outstanding.  Probably my favorite of all Ryan's illustrations in this book, though, is found on page 114, which features a man Chavez and Jess believe to be a zombie - and that zombie bears an uncanny resemblance to actor Lon Cheney Jr as the wolfman!  No fooling - if you don't believe me, go Google the actor and his role and then compare it to this image.  You'll see I'm telling the truth.

 

The cover art is provided by Mel Greifinger, who went to high school at The School of Art & Design in New York.  After serving in the Navy, Greifinger began freelancing as a full-time illustrator at the age of 28, doing cover illustrations for various paperback and hardback books.

Seven books into this series, and I definitely know now why I enjoyed these so much back as a kid.  The stories are fast-paced, the mysteries are enjoyable, and the recurring sleuths give them a feeling of continuity.  While it seems most of the authors are men writing under female pseudonyms, I give them credit for creating well-rounded, female protagonists who I really like reading, and who I can't wait to read their next adventures.

RATING:  9 yellow pearlized hatpins out of 10 for a near-gothic style mystery of dark castles, hidden rooms, buried treasures, cursed skulls, and voodoo magic!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #3 - Devil Mask Mystery

Now, right off the bat, I will say that this book instantly intrigued me based on the title alone.  It is of the same style and nature as the titles to the classic Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books from back in the day.  You remember those days - "The [adjective] [noun] Mystery" or "The Mystery of the [adjective] [noun]" and the like.  From the title alone, you had a pretty good idea of what the mystery was going to be about.  Well, author Josephine Kains, in the first Zebra Mystery Puzzler starring her TV newswoman, Terry Spring, offers up a tale that centers around the very thing mentioned in the title - and also happens to be set in a small community theater!

Devil Mask Mystery (I keep wanting to type the word "The" in front of that title!) attempts to be a spooky murder mystery that hints at involvement of witches and Satan worshipers!  Set in the fictional town of Grimshaw at Halloween, the story finds Boston TV newswoman Terry Spring, along with her assistant Jess Berkeley and her cameraman Janeiro Chavez, heading to the New England town to film a story about the town's latest play - a melodrama about the nineteenth century witch hunts that made the town famous.  Terry is less than thrilled with the assignment, but she and her crew head over to Grimshaw to see what they can put together.  Little do they know they are going to have to solve a murder in which all of the suspects are known for acting - whether on the stage or in real life.

The story does not open with our protagonist; rather, the author opens this mystery with a young woman (Elizabeth Tanner) facing down the fear of a devil-faced creature.  But by the second page, the reader learns that this is merely a hypnotic vision she is being coerced to see by a self-proclaimed witch by the name of Annabelle Winn.  Also present are Laura Cross and Julius Wigransky, who both happen to be part of the play that Terry and her crew are coming to town to spotlight.  Quickly enough, on the fourth page, the story shifts to a scene where an unidentified man is taking  heavy metal box and hiding it behind a sliding panel in the wall.  Oddly enough, this is a scene the publisher decided to provide an illustration of, so while we get an image of the man, the reader has no idea who he is. The scene this shifts again on the sixth page to a mysterious person who is painting a wooden mask of Satan!  All of that in the first chapter alone.  It's not until the second chapter do we get to meet the pretty, young television reporter, Terry Spring, who is described as slender and having "long auburn hair" (p. 10).  And isn't it funny how Max, the Hollywood gossip columnist from the first book in this series also had red hair?  Makes me wonder how many more sleuths in these Puzzlers will have red/auburn/titian hair - maybe it's a nod to a certain teen detective who has become such a huge pop culture icon when it comes to female sleuths?

Anyway, we get introduced to even more of the ever-growing cast of characters in chapter four - Alan Roderick, yet another actor in the play, and Claudia Merritt, an older woman in a wheelchair who is assisting with the play.  In addition, there is Garrett Brooks, a stodgy actor who is not only playing a major role in the production, but he also seems to have made quite a number of enemies among the cast and crew - meaning ... yes, you guessed it!  Mr. Brooks becomes the victim when someone dressed up in a cloak and devil mask comes onto stage during a dress rehearsal, literally stabs him in the back, and runs out, disappearing backstage...and thus, the stage is set (yes, pun fully intended) for a murder mystery that only Terry Spring can solve.

The killer's identity is not really hidden, and in fact, there is one scene a little over half-way through the book in which Terry (as well as the reader) figures out who the killer is - which kind of spoils the whole "last chapter sealed" gimmick, since, if we already know who the killer is, why bother sealing up that final chapter?  While the overall story is okay, and I like Terry and her crew (Chavez is a hoot, always eating candy and making snarky remarks), the opening chapters are somewhat clunky as the author tries to bring in all of the characters as quickly as possible without allowing the reader an opportunity to really get a feel for who any of them are before moving on to the next ones.  It took me until I was about one-third of the way through the book before I finally was able to sort through all of the names and figure out who was who. And I do like the added "abandoned mansion on the hill" aspect of the story, with hidden passages and secret tunnels under the house.  Between that and the occult aspects to the story, one could almost think of this as a mild gothic tale of suspense.

 

Something I thought was rather interesting is that this is not Terry Spring's first time solving a murder (at least, according to her crew).  Several times throughout the story, Jess mentions the fact that Terry is rather well known for solving murders, and even Terry herself raises the point.  Sadly, there are not specific mentions of her prior cases, just the general statements that she is known to be an amateur sleuth, and that she has excellent detecting skills.  Makes me wonder if any of the other Zebra Mystery Puzzlers featuring Terry will give us the back story on these adventures, or if they will forever remain an unsolved mystery!

The author, Josephine Kains, as so many of these Zebra books, is a pseudonym.  It seems many a male author hid behind female pseudonyms when writing books with female leads.  In this instance, the real author is Ronald Joseph Goulart, who apparently wrote under quite a few pseudonyms back in the day - Kenneth Robeson, Chad Calhoun, Ian R. Jamieson, Jillian Kearny, Howard Lee, Frank Shawn, and others.  He also ghosted books starring pulp characters such as Flash Gordon, the Phantom, Vampirella, and the Avenger, as well as two books in Marvel Comics' series of novels back in the late '70s.  And based upon what I could find, the author used the pseudonym "Josephine Kains" only for the books he wrote in this Zebra Mystery Puzzler series - that name was not used for any other books he wrote.

As far as the art in this book goes, there is no credit given to either the cover artist or the interior artist, and none of the internal drawings are signed.  However, comparing the art with that in the first book in the series, and it appears to be the same artist - it's the same style, the same type of shading, and the same appearance in the people drawn.  And, like in the first book, the way the internals are drawn, there is really no way to discern any clues from the illustrations.  Further, the internals do not necessarily match the description on the story, which is the issue I had with the illustrations in the first book.  However, there were sufficient clues in the story itself to help me identify the murderer, so while the illustrations were nice to look at, they were not really needed to solve the mystery.

I would have to say of the three Zebra Mystery Puzzlers I've read thus far, this one probably comes in last.  That is not to say I did not enjoy it; rather, I just think the second book was definitely the most well-written, while the first one definitely provided stronger characterization than this one.  We will have to see what Kains next book (#7 - The Curse of the Golden Skull) holds in store before I make any definite judgment calls on whether this is just a one-off, or whether it's truly the author's writing style.

RATING:  7 spilled cans of green paint out of 10 for providing a few somewhat surprising twists to the story and the characters to keep the solution from being too easy to solve!