Dorothy Dixon and the Double Cousin - the fourth (and final) Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Story

With this book, we reach the final adventure in the Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Stories.  First, our young heroine had to learn how to fly (Dorothy Dixon Wins Her Wings), after which she stopped some smugglers (Dorothy Dixon and the Mystery Plane, and then she had to help find a young man find his stolen inheritance (Dorothy Dixon Solves the Conway Case).  I was curious to see what type of flying would lead Dorothy into her final mystery; what I discovered, however, is that the author (Noel Sainsbury, Jr. writing under his wife's name of Dorothy Wayne) must have run out of flying tales, as our title character never sets foot in a plane in her last adventure!  Instead, readers get a tale that is yet another twist on the whole "twins switching identities" trope in an outlandish adventure involving the United States government, spies, international thieves, and a deadly invention that could kill millions! 

 

Dorothy Dixon and the Double Cousin begins with what appears to be a simple case of mistaken identity.  While purchasing a Christmas gift for her father, Dorothy Dixon is accosted by a young man who wants to know "[h]ow in the world did you escape?" (p. 15).  Dorothy tries to ignore the man, but when he finally addresses her by the name "Janet" (p. 16), she has no choice but to set him straight.  What is rather odd is that without knowing who this man is, or ever hearing Janet's last name, Dorothy somehow knows he is referring to Janet Jordan, her first cousin (p. 17).  The author explains that Janet's and Dorothy's mothers were twins, which could account for how closely the two cousins resemble one another (p. 18), and Dorothy admits she has been mistaken for Janet before (p. 18), although this must have happened "off-screen," so to speak, since there has never been any mention of a cousin, or of the fact that Dorothy's mother had a twins sister.  In any event, this sets the stage for the latest mystery, because Dorothy learns her cousin is in serious trouble, and, of course, she is only too willing to jump in and help.

 

This final story is a departure from the previous three books.  While the first three stories involved Dorothy flying (albeit only briefly at the beginning of the third book), this book does not see Dorothy go anywhere near a plane.  Instead, she agrees to aid her cousin's fiance rescue Janet Jordan from the dilemma in which she has found herself!  Janet awakes from sleepwalking in her apartment home to find herself strategically hidden behind a screen in the room where her father is meeting with a number of business associates - unscrupulous business associates, that is!  When they discover her, she pretends to still be asleep, but the crooks do not believe her, so her father (Dorothy's uncle!) is forced to keep her locked in her room until they can determine what she knows.  Dorothy's friend, Bill Bolton, enlists the aid a Secret Service agent (Ashton Sanborn) to help them.  He immediately comes up with a plan that involves Dorothy switching places with her cousin, so she can be taken captive to the home of a professor who is creating a formula for the United States government - and who is, unwittingly, housing two foreign agents in his home who plan to steal that formula once it is complete!  It is up to Dorothy to play the innocent young Janet, who purportedly knows nothing of what is going on, while at the same time, work undercover to steal the formula before the foreign agents do!

 

This is far from your typical girls' series book mystery.  The danger is considerably greater, as Martin and Laura Lawson, the foreign agents, are murdering thieves who will not hesitate to kill anyone who keeps them from their objective (p.135)!  Dorothy is kept on her toes, especially with Mrs. Lawson, who is constantly trying to trip up "Janet" to reveal what she knows.  But Dorothy is too smart, and she eventually pits the Lawsons against one another, accusing Mr. Lawson of making overtures to her, which starts the accusations flying between the two crooks!  Meanwhile, Dorothy makes a friend in a young made named Gretchen who recognizes Dorothy as the aviatrix who she once met and got an autograph (forcing Dorothy to reveal herself and enlist Gretchen's aid).  She also has the help of the major domo of the house, Mr. Turnbridge, who, it turns out, is a Secret Service agent himself!  Dorothy has to use her wits to escape being revealed when Mr. Lawson captures her in the library right as she is about to get away with the formula!  It's a deadly showdown, with the cavalry (including Bill Bolton and Ashton Sanborn) arriving at just the right moment to save the day!

 

The book offers up some fodder for discussion, that's for sure.  First, the entire "twin cousins" premise makes me think of The Patty Duke Show (1963-66), which featured cousins, Patty and Cathy Lane, who were identical in appearance.  In more general terms, it reminds me of Mary and Marilyn: Double-Trouble Twins, published five years after this book came out, in which twin sisters that were separated at birth switch places to experience once another's life.  Then, there is the more easily recognized story, The Parent Trap, which also features twin sibling separated at birth who switch places.  This idea seems to be a common trope for children's stories.  Second, the book features some very high-level vocabulary, with words that even an English-major like me did not recognize - such as "equinoctial" (p. 31), which in this case, refers to strong storms, usually experienced in autumn; "demitasse" (p. 39), which refers to a small cup, typically of ceramic or porcelain, used to serve strong coffee; "legerdemain" (p. 62), which is the skillful use of one's hands, normally when performing conjuring tricks; "trousseau" (p. 65), which is a collection of clothing, linens, and personal items a bride assembles for her marriage; and "somnambulistic" (p. 174), which refers to the actions, characteristics, or state of being one who sleepwalks.  The book definitely offers some interesting new vocabulary!

 

There is one particular scene of dialogue that made me do a double-take (no pun intended) and had my laughing out loud.  When Janet's fiance is describing the trouble his bride-to-be faces, he informs Dorothy, Bill, and Ashton that she is to be moved from her apartment to the professor's house at midnight that very evening, to which the Secret Service agent replies, "It is now one-thirty.  That gives us exactly eleven and a half hours in which to get her out of their hands" (p. 29).  Now, I may not be a fan of math, but even I know that eleven and a half hours after one-thirty would be one in the morning, not midnight!  Apparently, not only could the author not count, but neither could the editor nor the publisher, since no one caught the error before the book went to print!

 

And with this, we've reached the end of the Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Series (although this book had no airplane flights or mysteries in the air!).  There is a possibility that Dorothy appeared in at least one of Bill Bolton's books, as this one has a reference to Bill Bolton and the Winged Cartwheels (p. 24), and a quick glance through the pages of that book reveals several references to "Mr. Dixon" - so, at some point, I'll have to read that one and see if our adventure-loving aviatrix appears there.  I would be curious to know if this series ended due to low sales, due to lack of interest by the publisher, or due to Sainsbury's own lack of interest in continuing the series.

 

RATING:   8 shivering fox terrier puppies out of 10 for sending Dorothy Dixon off with one wild tale of spies, deadly weapon formulas, undercover work, and cousins ... identical cousins ... two of a kind!

Dorothy Dixon Solves the Conway Case - the third Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Story

And so we come to the third book in the Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Stories.  After an introductory story in which Dorothy earns her wings and captures some thieves (Dorothy Dixon Wins Her Wings) and a follow-up tale in which she foils the plans of some smugglers (Dorothy Dixon and the Mystery Plane), I had hopes that we would have yet another challenging adventure that Dorothy (and, yes, Bill Bolton returns once again - poor girl cannot seem to have her a story without him!) would have to weather - and when I say weather, I mean it (see below)!  Author Dorothy Wayne (better known as Lt. Noel Sainsbury, Jr.) seems to rely on a number of the same tropes as this third book in the series features many similar scenes that we saw in the first two books - although, Dorothy does finally shine as the quick-thinking sleuth and strong leader we all knew she could be if given the chance!

 

Dorothy Dixon Solves the Conway Case opens with our young aviatrix doing what she loves most - flying her plane, Will-O-The-Wisp (or "Wispy," for short) with her best friend, Betty, along for the ride. The only problem is, they are flying in the middle of a rough storm, and good ol' Wispy is running extremely low on gas.  Thus, Dorothy is forced to find a place for an emergency landing in the torrential downpour while flying over a dark area of forest!  Leave it to Sainsbury to put Dorothy in dire danger from the very first page - this type of situation definitely catches the reader's attention from the get-go. Of course, Dorothy, being the hero of the story, manages to set the plane down safely, and she and Betty make their way through the storm and find a secluded house (gee, it seems like each of these mysteries involves a secluded house in some form) where they think they will get shelter.  But, alas, fate has other plans - instead of a welcome party, the girls peer in the window to find a young man tied to a chair, while two other men are questioning him harshly about something (hmmmm, this also seems to be a recurring theme in this series - someone being held captive in the secluded house).  And so, the mystery begins!

 

This time around, Dorothy uses her own ingenuity, rather than relying on Bill Bolton, to rescue the young man - and Sainsbury, to his credit, gives her the quick thinking needed to get the men out of the house so she and Betty can rescue the captive man.  He turns out to be George Conway, and once untied, he and Betty form an immediate attraction; but Dorothy does not give them time to think about that, as she calls in some aid in the form of Bill Bolton, who brings along Terry Walters to help him refuel Dorothy's plane.  It is at this point we get some of the story about George Conway and the mystery surrounding his father and why so many people are interested in George, that small house his father left him, and a book titled Aircraft Power Plants.   None of it makes sense to George, but Dorothy suspects it all comes down to money in some form or fashion.

 

Sainsbury spends in inordinate amount of time on Dorothy and Bill's tramp through the woods, as they try to escape the men with guns who are after them (mistakenly believing Bill is actually George Conway!), and chapters are spent on their running in the rain through the wooded forest and up a dangerously steep cliffside (that, conveniently, Terry had previously hiked and found a secret way to climb up the side of it).  He eventually gets the duo to a cabin in the protected woodland area, which is inhabited by an old man named Abe Lincoln River "known to the world at large as Ol' Man River, but to his friends he's Uncle Abe" (p. 160).  He takes an instant liking to Dorothy and Bill and helps them out of a number of tight situations through the rest of the book.  

 

What the reader must realize is that Uncle Abe (or Ol' Man River, if you prefer) is a character that is a product of the time when this book was written. From the moment his is introduced as "an ancient, white haired negro" (p. 152), to the dialect he is given by Sainsbury (i.e., "Lordy, Lordy, you chillen is sho' 'nuf half drown'. But we's gwine ter fix date sho' nuf in a jiffy" [p. 154]), it is clear he is an over-the-top stereotype of how African-Americans were portrayed in the early part of the twentieth century, particularly in literature.  The references to Uncle Abe as "the old darky" (p. 156) and even the self-proclaimed "ol' niggeh" (p. 161) must be read in the context of the time, with an understanding that such terms, while not appropriate today by any means, were not considered in same way back in 1933 when this book was published.  Uncle Abe is a lovable character in the story, and he has no problem standing up to the white landowners who try to bully him into revealing Dorothy and Bill's whereabouts. In fact, without Uncle Abe, the two heroes would never have been able to sneak their way into the great house on the hill, rescue their friends, and reveal the crooks for who they are!

 

Sainsbury once again keeps his story real by integrating non-fictional locations into the book, such as references to "Route 124," a road "from Poundridge Village that runs to South Salem..." (p. 96).  Some quick research reveals that New York State Route 124 (called "Salem Road") is a nearly 5-mile road that connects Pound Ridge to South Salem, running through a forested area, just as it is described in the book.  And since the previous books have made it clear the Dixons and Boltons live in New York, around the tip of Long Island, then this area would not be far-fetched at all as a place where Dorothy is forced to land while flying.  There is also an interesting reference to "Bull" Durham (p. 78), but not the one from the real world.  In the story, Bull Durham is Terry's cousin, Ed Durham, who played football for the Lawrenceville university team; in the real world, however, Bull Durham was a baseball player who played for various teams in the first decade of the twentieth century.  While not a direct reference, it was probably a subtle homage to the sports hero.

 

Something else I found interesting is the author's use of the Bible in the story.  At one point, Uncle Abe is telling Dorothy and Bill how he came to be there in that cabin in the forest, and he says, "De Good Book say, 'Him what has, gits, and him what ain't got nuffin' gits dat nuffin' tak'n away'..." (p. 165). This is a paraphrased version of Matthew 13:12, which says, "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath."  This statement was made by Jesus to his disciples, just after telling the parable of the sower and the seeds.  Commentaries on the matter indicate the verse is referring to spiritual awareness: a man who has a desire to learn more about God and to do His will shall see his knowledge and understanding increased, but those who refuse to listen and believe will have what little understanding they may have had taken away.  Sainsbury takes the verse to refer to Uncle Abe and the comfort he lost with his previous master in the South to the lonely, impoverished existence he now lives.

 

While the adventure and danger are kept at a high level throughout the story, the mystery itself is somewhat subdued and not a major portion of the story; in fact, its solution is done "off-screen," so to speak, and we learn of how Dorothy uncovered the whereabouts of the missing patents owned by George's father from the crook's cook, who helped Dorothy, Bill, and Uncle Abe when they snuck into the great house in order to rescue their friends.  I found that to be somewhat of a let down, as I would have loved to have seen (or, rather, read) Dorothy's making the big find in the presence of George Conway and all of her friends.  I supposed Sainsbury may have been running out of room, so he had to wrap up this adventure so as to not exceed whatever page count or word count restrictions he had for the book.

 

Before I end this post, there is one scene at the end that had me scratching my head.  After everything is wrapped up, Dorothy and Bill take a test run in her plane in order to test one of Conway's patents - and after spending more than 100 hours straight in the air without refueling once, the plane comes in for a perfect landing.  What is unexplainable is that when the mechanics open the door, they find "side by side, grimy, worn, unkempt, were Dorothy Dixon and Bill Bolton, sleeping like children!" (p. 247).  How in the world did they land the plane if they were both fast asleep?  I did a search to see if there were automatic pilots in the 1930s that could have landed a plane, but it seems the first successful, fully automatic landing did not occur until 1937, some four years after this book.  Thus, we are left with one mystery that will never be solved...

 

RATING:  8 faded blue flannel shirts with matching overalls out of 10 for a mystery that has very little flying and lots of running, sneaking around, and climbing!

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!

Dorothy Dixon Wins Her Wings - the first Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Story

It was time to start a new (well, technically it's vintage, but it's "new" to me, since I've never read it before!) series, and this time around it's the Dorothy Dixon Air Mystery Series by "Dorothy Wayne."  And, yes, I put the author's name in quotes, because that name is nothing more than a pseudonym.  As it turns out, "Dorothy Wayne" was actually Noel Sainsbury, Jr., who wrote a number of children's adventure and mystery stories during the 1920s and '30s.  A former naval aviator during the first World War, it would only make sense that his stories tend to involve aviation.  Sainsbury authored the Billy Smith series, as well as the Bill Bolton series, both of which had pilots as their protagonists.  The inside front flap of the dust jacket for this book advertises the series as a "new series of mystery books for girls - the stories are told by Dorothy Wayne, wife of Lieut. Noel Sainsbury, Jr., author of the famous Bill Bolton books."  It seems Sainsbury used his first wife's name when authoring the books, likely because it would have appeared odd to have a girls' series written by a male author.  All four books in this series were published by Goldsmith in 1933, and no more appeared after that.

 

Dorothy Dixon Wins Her Wings reads like a spin-off of Sainsbury's Bill Bolton Naval Aviation Series, which also ran for four books, and were all published in 1933.  On the first two pages, readers are not only introduced to sixteen-year old Dorothy Dixon, but the "famous" Bill Bolton as well!  Dorothy meets him while preparing to head out into the waters in her skiff, and when she realizes who he is, she exclaims, "I've read about you in the papers - and I know all about the wonderful things you've done!" (p. 16).  So, it's clear from the start that the young man had already made a name for himself as an accomplished aviator by the time this story begins.  Dorothy, on the other hand, knows nothing about aviation and quickly proves herself not so capable in the water either when her boat capsizes in the middle of a horrific storm by the end of the first chapter.  It's Bill Bolton who saves the day, however, when he pulls her out of the raging waters with his Loening amphibian (p. 33).

 

Sainsbury clearly knows his stuff, as the Loening amphibian was a real seaplane that could land on ground or water, designed by Grover Loening and first taking flight in 1923 (Loening Amphibian).  And the author definitely shared his knowledge of aviation and planes throughout the entirety of this first book, as Dorothy immediately wants to learn how to fly, and Bill graciously agrees to teach her (with both of their fathers' permission).  Sainsbury, through Bill's lessons, goes into painstaking detail at times about the various parts of the plane, the instruments and their different purposes, and pretty much everything one would need to know before taking a plane up into the air.  I have a feeling the author fudges with the timing a it, as Dorothy learns to fly in just a matter of days, while in the real world, as quick search online reveals it can take a month or two of regular, consistent training for someone to learn how to fly sufficiently to gain their private pilot's license.  I suppose, however, in a fictional tale such as this, learning to fly in a just a few days is relatively easy - especially for someone like Dorothy Dixon, who also is skilled in jiu jitsu (George Fayne, eat your heart out!) and was trained by her father in "running, boxing, fencing, swimming..." (p. 192).  Why, it seems there is nothing Dorothy Dixon can't do once she sets her mind to it!  (Gee, sound like another female teen detective?)

 

And speaking of similarities, I did find it interesting that Dorothy is the daughter of a one-parent home, yet her relationship with her father was not an affectionate one.  The author indicates that although the bond between father and daughter was strong, "especially since the mother's death some years earlier, neither was particularly demonstrative" (p. 103).  It made me stop and think that a number of these girl sleuths had only their father to raise them, although some had live-in housekeepers.  Perhaps this is why the young detectives are so strong-willed and, more often than not, well-versed in any number of physical and mental capabilities - because they were brought up with a male perspective and strong, masculine influence, which made them more capable and independent than most girls their age.

 

While a large portion of the story focuses on Dorothy's education in aviation, there is a mystery involving a robbery at the bank of which Mr. Dixon is the president.  Honestly, it's pretty obvious from the get-go who aided the thieves, but no one (including Bill and Dorothy!) seems to catch on.  The mystery takes a back-burner to the flight lessons, but once Dorothy starts to get the hang of flying, Bill suddenly reveals a hunch about there whereabouts of the thieves (in an isolated house on a hill, some miles away from town).  Rather than tell the police, the daring duo make their own way to the house and end up captives of the criminals.  It's actually a fairly exciting climax to the story, as Dorothy reveals her jiu jitsu skills, and she proves just how much she has been paying attention to her flying lessons as she takes the amphibian from the water and flies it right up to the front porch of the house where the criminals are hiding!  (Oh, and one of those criminals is not exactly who he appears to be, which made for a good twist in the story.)

 

Sainsbury is not shy about his female detective using guns (something Harriett Adams would NEVER allow for Nancy Drew!).  When Bill offers Dorothy a Colt .32 to protect herself and asks if she knows how to use it, her response is, "Certainly.  What do you expect me to do - release the safety catch and pull the trigger to see if it works?" (p. 159).  Near the end, when she flies the amphibian up to the front of the house, she does not hesitate to turn "the Browning [machine gun] into action and [send] half a belt of bullets whipping through the door," careful to "aim high [as she] had no desire to play the part of executioner" (p. 245).  Definitely not a Stratemeyer sleuth! 

 

I found the constant banter between Dorothy and Bill rather humorous, and loved that Bill playfully referred to her as "Miss Sherlock" (p. 85).  He even goes so far as to refer to himself as "Doctor Watson" (p. 89) to her Sherlock!  And I was surprised at the blatant use of brand names such as "Silvertowns" and "Goodyears" when Dorothy and Bill are discussing the kinds of tires the getaway car had (p. 90).  It's not often you see specific brand names used in a series book.

 

Finally, Sainsbury had a bit of fun at his own expense in the story.  When Bill asks Dorothy to go see a movie, she declines, informing him she has a writing club meeting that night.  She invites him to join her, but he quickly turns her down - until he learns the advisor for the group is none of than ... "Noel Sainsbury, the writer ... He was a naval aviator during the war ..." (p. 143).   How many authors have the fun of immortalizing themselves in their own stories?!

 

All four books in this series feature the same cover art, which is a scene taken right out of the second chapter, where Bill shows up to rescue Dorothy after her boat overturns.  There's no signature on the art, and like most series books of that time, no cover artist is identified on the title or copyright pages.  There are also no internal illustrations, which is typical of a lot of the Goldmith books.  The paper is also considerably cheaper, as this nearly 100 year old book has pages that are very brittle, meaning it had to be extra careful when I was reading it to make sure the pages did not crack or fall apart under my fingers.

 

While I did find the abundance of technical instructions about flying to be a bit tedious at times, the characters' banter and the mystery did more than make for it.  I found that I really enjoyed the story, and I'm looking forward to reading the next three books.

RATING:   10 pairs of yellow beach pajamas out of 10 for giving readers a spunky, new aviatrtix who is daring, adventurous, courageous, fearless, and loves to solve mysteries!

Daisy Blackwood, Pilot for Hire - Vol. 5 - The Buccaneer's Bounty

I can't believe it's been over a year since I read book four in the Daisy Blackwood series of graphic novels.  It certainly does not seem like that long.  I have thoroughly enjoyed these stories - Ryan Howe writes some fun, fast-moving, action-packed stories and his art, while a bit on the cartoony-side, definitely work with the stories.  In a way, I suppose I'm glad I put off reading this one for as long as I did, because it seems this is the last book in the series.  This was published back in 2021, three years ago now, and I haven't seen any indication of any new stories on Howe's website.  Which is a real shame, as this character is just too good to put on a shelf and let collect dust.  Daisy Blackwood needs more adventures!

The Buccaneer's Bounty opens not with the title character; rather, Howe starts this story with a sky pirate who inadvertently discovers the secret to the "treasure of the three captains."  A locket he discovers could be the key to locating that treasure, and it just so happens his girlfriend is a medium who can contact the dead - a medium who used to be a student of the professor, and who happens to have stolen the Skull of K'Tuck, a supernatural artifact the professor is hoping to have Daisy Blackwell recover.  And thus, finally, on page 22, we see our favorite pilot-for-hire enter the picture, as she has been summoned by the professor to locate the skull.  And locate it she does, but with the most unexpected results!  It seems the medium has unwittingly freed the spirit of Luisa Costa, a pirate who has been dead for several hundred years, give or take.  And now that spirit is dead-set (pun intended!) on regaining a mortal body, and it's up to Daisy and her crew to put a stop to it.

 

From here, the action picks up speed, and Howe crafts another dangerous and exciting adventure, as Daisy must obtain one of the items that Costa needs to restore her spirit into human form - an anastasis stone, also referred to as a "resurrection" stone - and in order to get one, she must face off against her grandfather - which is a well-written, fun scene, since Daisy and her grandfather basically hate each other!  What struck me about this scene is that just as Daisy is about to win the auction for the stone, her grandfather receives a mysterious message and simply gets up and leaves!  It would seem to me this is a hint of some future story Howe has planned ... yet, since there don't seem to be any more stories, I'm left wondering exactly what that message was and why the mystery surrounding it?

A kidnapped friend, a race against time, and a fight against a giant sea monster round out this story, making it another fun and exciting read.  And while Daisy does ultimately rescue her friend and recover not only the skull, but also the stone, for the professor, the story ends with a cliffhanger of sorts.  Perhaps Howe will one day return to this series and pick up where he left off.  I did notice, however, that on his website, it appears he has some other series, such as We've Got Spirit, Bad Karma, and Captain Flynt.  I suppose I need to check those out to get my fill of Howe's writing and artistic talents.

If you enjoy comics, if you enjoy adventure stories, and if you enjoy daring female pilots, then you will absolutely LOVE the Daisy Blackwood series.  I highly recommend it!

RATING:  10 sultry evening dresses out of 10 for closing the book on Daisy Blackwood with a truly exciting tale of pirates and treasures!

Jane, Stewardess of the Air Lines - a Goldsmith Book for Boys and Girls

Since I've been enjoying the books by Ruthe S. Wheeler (or Graham M. Dean, as has been alleged), I thought I'd go ahead and read another of her (his) books from back in the day.  While not part of any particular series, it is included in the "Books for Girls" published by Goldsmith, under which banner a number of series were published - the 2-book Janet Hardy series, the 4-book Penny Nichols series, the 2-book Peggy Stewart series, the 4-book Dorothy Dixon series, among a number of single titles.  I regret spending so many years thinking title published by Goldsmith, Saalfield, and Whitman were inferior in quality simply because the art and paper did not compare with the bigger publishers - I have discovered a number of really great books by these publishers, and this happens to be one of those!

Jane, Stewardess of the Air Lines was published back in 1934, some twelve years prior to the Patty O'Neal book published by Whitman (Patty O'Neal on the Airways), which also dealt with a stewardess - only the books are reversed.  In Patty O'Neal, a girl wanting to learn how to fly eventually becomes a stewardess, while in this book, a girl who becomes a stewardess gets a desire to learn how to fly!  No real mysteries in this story (well, unless you want to count the very brief episode in which an entire group of passengers, along with Jane herself, become violently ill after someone poisons their food); rather, this book is more about Jane's career as a stewardess and the many adventures she finds along the way - and boy, is this girl a magnet for trouble!

I think one of the most interesting aspects of this book is that when the story opens, Jane Cameron and her best friend, Sue Hawley, are attending their graduation from Good Samaritan hospital in University City, where they are both receiving their nursing diplomas.  It is after the graduation ceremony that they are informed by the supervisor of nurses that Federated Airways is looking for girls to serve as stewardesses on their flights, a new service being offered.  I never thought of nurses moving into the field of flight attendants (or stewardesses as they were referred to back then, since it was only women who served in those roles); however, some research revealed that way back in 193e0, a registered nurse by the name of Ellen Church is the one credited with convincing Boeing that having nurses aboard their flights would be of great assistance to passengers, and Boeing agreed - hiring female nurses at a salary of $125 per month (Commercial Flight in the 1930s).  Wheeler must have been aware of this salary, because in this book, Jane and Sue are offered $125 per month in their new positions with Federated Airways (p. 52).   That's not exactly an extravagant salary, considering that in today's money, that would equate to only $2,894.83 per month!  According to the research, the height and weight requirements of 5'4" or shorter and 118 lbs or lighter also coincides with the requirements Wheeler writes into her story (p. 19).

With regard to the story, Jane and Sue find themselves in one tight spot after another without any break!  On their first training flight with several other stewardesses-in-training, the plane they are on crashes, and the girls are forced to help their teacher rescue the pilot and co-pilot before the plane explodes!  From there, Jane gets called to assist an extremely wealthy woman as a private stewardess in her cross-country flight to see her ailing son in New York.  Before you know it, aerial bandits are forcing the plane down to take Mrs. Van Verity Vanness (gotta love that name!) for ransom!  They manage to evade the bandits, and Jane is rewarded not once, but twice - first, with a check for $500 from a newspaper who wants an exclusive story of the plane's bout with the bandits (p. 139), which was definitely no small sum back in the day, the value of which today would be more than $11,000; and second, with a $1,000 bonus (p. 142) from Ms. Vanness herself - which would have been a HUGE bonus for the day, as such amount would be worth $23,308.36 in today's money!  Off that one incident, Jane certainly got rich!  Oh, and that reporter from the newspaper who got the exclusive - her name was "Ruthe" Harrigan (p. 139).

Wheeler does not provide her heroine a time to rest, for before you know it, Jane ends up taking on the role of a stunt pilot (she had been taking lessons from a rather handsome pilot who was showing her favor and attention) in a movie being filmed at the Federated Airways airfield in Cheyenne - a role that nearly costs her her life when the plane does not function as it goes flying towards the ground!  Jane jumps out and parachutes to safety as the planes crashes in a ball of fire and metal, all while being filmed (making it the best crash scene filmed by the camera crew!).  From here, Penny and her teacher are called upon to travel to a remote town to deliver some much needed medicine for sick children during a turbulent storm, and, of course, the plane is forced down - but they make it out alive, just in time to get the medicine to the children, saving their lives.  And without time to blink, Jane then heads off on yet another flight, on which a child movie star and his mother are aboard - along with two unsavory men who end up hijacking the plane and taking the child, his mother, and Jane hostage!  But Jane manages to outwit them, using their own sea plane as a means for her to escape with the star and his mother.

I think Jane says it best as the book ends, just one year after she and Sue become stewardesses:  "Jut think how much more can happen in the coming year," replied Jane, wondering vaguely what new adventure might be ahead of them.  Good grief, after everything they went through in just that one year, one would think the poor girl would want a break from it all!

The cover art depicts the scene from the first airplane crash in which Jane is involved, as she watches the plane go up in flames.  And I love how the cover art extends over onto the spine as well (with part of the burning wing and one of the young stewardesses running from the wreckage visible there). That same "Two Taylors" signature that adorned the covers of the Janet Hardy books appears here as well.  I would love to know just who that is....

This was a good read, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys vintage children's series books, even though it does not have any mystery element to it.   I'd call it more of a career girl / adventure story.

RATING:  9 prepared lunches of sandwiches and salads out of 10 for high-flying adventure and danger wrapped up in a wonderful story with a truly likable young heroine!

 

The Girl Flyers on Adventure Island (The Girl Flyers Series, Book 2 of 2)

This second book in The Girl Flyers series was a gift from a wonderful friend who found out I had bought the first book, so he graciously gave me this book so I would have a complete set.  The first book was a fairly decent read, so I had expectations that this one would be just as good.  The inside front flap of the dust jacket provides the exact same blurb that was used with the first book, so going into the story, I had no idea what to expect from it, as the blurb only gave a general overview of the series as a whole (and, surprisingly, gives away the identity of the culprits from the first book).  

The Girl Flyers on Adventure Island picks up very shortly after the ending of the first book. This is a rare occurrence in series books, as they usually do not connect with one another so closely.  Terry and Prim Mapes are flying down to South America on a mission to purchase the land on which their father, Dick Mapes, had established his flying field.  The option to purchase the land is just about ready to expire, and the girls must make it to the wilds of Peru to get the money to Peter Langley before their father's competition, Joe Arnold, convinces Langley to sell it to him.  Now, I did find it rather odd that the author makes several references to the events of the last book, yet fails to answer the question of how Joe Arnold and his lackey, Bud Hyslop, escaped their fate from the end of the last story (those that may recall, Joe's plane was crashing towards the water in a fog bank, where they were believed to have lost their lives!).  I guess that is one mystery that will remain unsolved...

From the stops along the way, the author has the girls travel down the East Coast, and they eventually make a stop in Miami before heading on to Havana - readers even get a too-brief mention of the "keys and reefs of the Florida coast spread out flat on the blue water" (p. 29).  Then, upon arriving in Havana, they sign "the grim old Morro Castle, the Spanish fort" (p. 29), which is actually a real place - Castillo del Morro, a defense fort located at the etrnce of the Port of Havana.  It is here where the girls are forced to wait for the arrival of their father's students, Allan and Syd - a fact that displeases Terry very much (as she believes her father thinks the two girls cannot handle the job without the boys there to watch over them!).  It turns out, though, the boys just want to join the fun as a bit of vacation and have no intention on interfering with the girls' task - but when they find out Joe Arnold is tailing them, the four decide it is a good thing they are all together to face the enemy.

It's not until Chapter III - Tropic Storm that the story takes on the more dangerous elements.  Terry and Prim in their Skybird, and the boys in their Fleetwings, try to escape a horrific storm in the Caribbean but end up flying right into it.  Their planes are put through the worst of tests, and by the time they come out of the other side of the storm, the girls are forced to land at the first island they come upon.  Before they even have a chance to think about repairs to the plane, they come face to face with Joe Arnold and Bud Hyslop, who are engaged in some rather illegal activities on the island - using the natives of the island as their slave labor!  Needless to say, they have no intention of letting the girls leave and reveal their location to the authorities, so Terry and Prim are taken captive while Bud takes off with the Skybird!  But, as is usually the case with situations like this in series books, the natives befriend the girls due to Joe Arnold's horrific treatment of them, and they eventually help the girls escape the clutches of the villains!

"Adventure Island" is an apt description of the island, for there is plenty of adventure that the girls experience while there.  The author has them traipsing through the jungle, hiding in native huts, exploring hidden caves, and doing everything they can to outwit their enemies.  The manner in which they signal for help is rather creative, but it's all too convenient that the boys happen to fly over the island and see it at just the right time.  Once again, coincidence is the go-to trope for series book authors.  

While there was never any third book published in this series, the end of the story does indicate that the girls would "face grave dangers and many times would escape with their lives only be a hair's breadth" in the Land of the Incas, leading one to think the next book might have been titled The Girl Flyers in the Land of the Incas had one been published.  And since Terry and Prim outwitted Joe and Bud by getting to Langley and paying him for their father's land before the option expired, it can be speculated that the two dastardly men would have appeared once again in the third book to compete against the girls in searching for the lost Incan treasure!

Something else I noticed in these books is that like nearly all Goldsmith books I've read, the first chapter begins on page 11 - however, unlike the other books, this one actually has 10 pages prior to it (most of them simply being blank pages).  That came as a surprise, since most of them only have 8 pages or less before that first page of the first chapter - so it was a refreshing surprise to see the page number actually match the number of pages.

The cover art, again provided by "F. Rigney" and, like the first book, features a very unexciting scene of the girls with a man who readers can assume is either their father or perhaps one of the men who serviced the plane at any one of the stops along the way down to Peru.  There is no sense of danger, no sense of mystery, and honestly, no sense of adventure to the cover at all.  Perhaps if the cover art for these two books had featured scenes with a little more drama, the books may have drawn more readers to them and sold well enough to warrant at least one more book.  But, alas, the Girl Flyers only had the two adventures - in Canada and in the Caribbean - before hanging up their flying togs.

RATING:  8 silver necklaces with bright pendants out of 10 for adventure, danger, and a nice send-off story for the Girl Flyers!

Gypsies of the Air (The Girl Flyers Series, Book 1 of 2)

This book is the first of a two-book series that I have heard about for many years, but which I had never had any real interest in picking up.  I know there was discussion about the real identity of the author (as the name Bess Moyer is considered a pseudonym, like so many others used for children's books back in the day); but I'm unaware of anyone actually uncovering Moyer's true identity, although there has certainly been speculation.  Nevertheless, when I happened across this book at Atlanta Vintage Books last year, I decided to pick it up.  Since the series only consists of two books (which is surprising, since most series of that time at least managed to open up with three books - even the short-lived Madge Sterling series had three books!), I figured they should be easy reads.  After all, they were published by Goldsmith and consisted of only 110 pages of story (similar to the Madge Sterling books, also published by Goldsmith).

Gypsies of the Air is the first of the Girl Flyers series.  As described on the inside front flap of the dust jacket, the series is about Terry and Prim, "two high spirited and adventurous girls, who have been taught to fly by their father."  Their father, Dick Mapes, was proud of his daughters and encouraged their flying, but their mother, Alice Mapes, was not quite so thrilled about their adventures in the sky.  Fortunately for her, though, Terry was the truly adventurous one, dedicating her life to learning all she could about airplanes and flying, while her sister, Prim, who did learn to fly a plane, was more than happy to stay on the ground.  Sort of like George and Bess (and you KNOW who they are!), the girls are described in the book as opposites - Terry is "tall for her age, slightly built, high-strung, and nervous, while Prim was inclined to be plump and rosy" (p. 17).  It is said that Prim "was easy-going, practical and diplomatic.  She could get along with any one, while Terry with her quick tongue was always getting into trouble and making enemies" (p. 17).  Yet, despite all of these differences, the two sisters are the best of chums.

The story centers around the disappearance of Allan and Sydney, two young men who Dick Mapes is teaching to fly.  They head off in a plane to fly across the Atlantic, but they disappear before their planned stop in Newfoundland.  Terry convince her father to let her and Prim go off in search of them, and the story takes off (no pun intended!) from that point.  The girls locate a downed plane, but it turns out to be one that was taken by their father's right-hand man, Bud, who had said he was heading down to Florida.  Why was his plane up North?  And why was Bud nowhere to be found?  The girls soon find the answers to that, and those answers lead them into a whole heap of trouble!  Joe Arnold, who is a neighbor and Dick Mapes' biggest competition, is willing to do anything necessary to put the girls' father out of business and take over the land Mapes' currently leases.  That includes kidnapping Allan and Sydney, and now Terry and Prim!  But the girls find aid in a newfound friend, a young girl named Alice, who is instrumental in helping them escape and rescue the two young men.

Despite how short the story is compared with most children's mysteries of the time (this book being published in 1932), it is actually rather engaging.  The descriptions are not necessarily as flowery as other series books, and the action moves along at a much quicker pace - but it makes for a quick, easy read that is, ultimately, enjoyable.  Terry is definitely the more quirky of the two sisters, and her character gets fleshed out considerable more than poor Prim.  Prim's purpose seems to be for no other reason than to keep her sister in check.  We do get some backstory on their father, Dick, who is confined to a wheelchair due to an injury sustained in a plane crash (which they suspect was a result of sabotage by Arnold), but we see very little of the girls' mother.  Allan and Sydney are the "gentlemen in distress" for the book, because it is the girls who have to save them, not the other way around as is usually the case.  It's a nice gender flip to see the girls presented as the stronger characters, not needing the men to bail them out. 

What is surprising is how the story ends - with the girls rescuing the boys, leaving Arnold and his cohort in crime believed to have crashed into the sea in a swirl of fog, lost to the waters below.  Not many children's series books end with the crooks believed to be dead!  But, of course, it doesn't come right and say they crashed and died, so it does leave it open for them to return...

 

Part of the story takes place in Harbor Grace, which is an actual town in Newfoundland.  Information found online indicates the town has roots going back all the way to the 16th century, making it one of the oldest towns in North America!  The town currently has a population of less than 3,000 people, so who knows what the population would have been 90-plus years ago.  In the story, the girls also travel down to a place called "Fish Cove" - and it turns out that is a real place as well, located in Newfoundland.  Thus, either the author was familiar with that area, or he/she did some research to integrate actual places into the story (to ground it somewhat in reality - again, no pun intended).

The cover for the book is not a very thrilling scene, showing Terry and Prim simply cooking over a fire next to their plane. This scene takes place just after they locate Bud's plan (p. 48) and does not portray any of the dangerous situations in which the girls find themselves over the course of the story.  Odd they did not pick a more "mysterious" scene than this.  The art is provided by "F. Rigney," who provided art for other books published by Goldsmith, including, but likely not limited to, the Madge Sterling series and a sports book titled His Olympic Feat.  Rigney also provided the cover art for the second book in this series as well (which, by the way, is mentioned on the last page of the story, nicely integrated into a sentence for readers to know the title of what was being offered next!).

While not exactly the best example of series book writing from the era, the story is enjoyable, and I'd recommend it for anyone wanting a fast read.

RATING:  8 jaunty flying suits out of 10 for giving girl aviators a chance to shine in their own little mystery - and ensuring they were the strong heroes of their own story!

Courageous Wings - a New Prize Guild Library mystery

This book is the second of two flying stories that Mildred Wirt (Benson) wrote under The New Prize Guild Library banner of books.  The first was The Sky Racers (you can read my review here: The Sky Racers), indicated as book 10 of the collection on the back of the dust jacket for this book, while this book is listed as book 13 of the collection.  There are quite a number of classic books on this list, including some by Louisa May Alcott, Robert Luis Stevenson, Charlotte Bronte, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and others.  Thus, Wirt must have felt some level of honor to have her books placed in the same category as such great writers.  It's just a shame these two books about young aviators were not on par with those other stories.

Courageous Wings is very similar in subject matter and plot to The Sky Racers, a fact I did not realize until I went back and looked at my review of that first book (which was nearly four years ago).  Both books deal with a young girl who is learning how to fly.  Both stories center around a competitor who is trying to sabotage the new invention of the girl's father.  Both books also feature a plane crash in the mountains.  The main differences are in the actual protagonists (in the first book, Jane Grant is eager to fly her father's plane, while in this story, Cleo Bowman, wants to fly, but at the last moment, becomes fearful until she is put in a position where she must fly a plane in order to save her father's life!) and the details surrounding the flights (Jane's father has entered a race, while Cleo's father is trying to rebuild a failed business by doing stunt flying with traveling circuses).

Oddly enough, the book opens not with the main character, but rather with Jim Sherman and Shorty Dawes, an airplane pilot and his mechanic.  While they do play a large part in the story as the supporting cast to Cleo and her father, Martin Bowman, they are just that - supporting characters.  So, I found it strange Wirt would begin the story with these two men, telling the story from Sherman's point of view.  Even when Cleo does make her appearance (p. 8) in the first chapter, the POV remains with Sherman through the first and second chapters. It it not until the third chapter, when Sherman, Dawes, and Cleo come face-to-face with Marcus Reman, a man claiming to be a friend of her father (but who turns out to be a thief who tries to break into the Bowmans' home safe) that the point-of-view begins to change to Cleo, and she takes more prominence in the story.

As with Jane Grant in The Sky Racers, Cleo Bowman in this book is not a very interesting character.  She is nowhere near as determined as Jane from the first book, and her indecisiveness regarding whether she will dare to fly a plane on her own quickly becomes tiresome.  Her doubt and constant questioning of herself is not something most people want to read in a story - they want their protagonists to be strong-willed, determined, and daring.  Perhaps Wirt was simply playing Cleo in this manner, so that when she does take to the sky, in a plane with which she is completely unfamiliar to boot!, her ability to overcome her own fears is meant to be all that more impactful.  Unfortunately, for me, it did not have any impact at all; rather, it was sort of like reaching a point of "Finally!"  

I will give Wirt some credit for creativity, however, as Cleo ultimately unravels the mystery of what really happened between her father and his former business partner that caused the split between them and pitted them as bitter rivals against one another.  This reveal does not provide a bit of a twist, as the person you think is truly behind everything turns out to be just another victim of a criminal determined to get revenge on a perceived slight years prior.  

One interesting thing I must point out is the use of Ardmore City in this book.  Ardmore City is where Jim Sherman and Shorty Dawes run a private airplane company, and it is where Cleo first meets the aviator and his mechanic.  I raise this point because Wirt also used "Ardmore" as the name of the college that Ruth Fielding attended in her series, and it was also the name of the college the girls in Ghost Gables were attending.  Makes one wonder what importance "Ardmore" had to Wirt, that she would use it again and again in various books.

Overall, it's not one of Wirt's better books.  Despite her later love of flying, it seems to me that Wirt's early books that dealt with aviation just did not have the same quality of stories and characters that her mystery stories did, as neither The Sky Racers nor Courageous Wings were good reads in my opinion.  Having never read the Ruth Darrow series, which I know is one of Wirt's earliest series, I cannot comment on those.

RATING:  4 long-endurance engines out of 10 for giving us an Oriental servant (Lee Sin) that, while definitely a stereotype, offered some humorous (and in some instances ingenious!) moments in the story.

Whitman Mystery Stories - Joyce of the Secret Squadron (A Captain Midnight Adventure)

The Whitman Publishing Company definitely put out plenty of self-contained mysteries for children back in the day, and it's clear that quite a few of them were "authorized editions," containing stories about licensed characters and actual actors and actresses.  I have read several of them already, starring actresses such as Bonita Granville and Betty Grable, as well as fictional characters as such Tillie the Toiler, Boots, and Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, and for the most part, they have been pretty good.  So, whenever I'm out and about, and I see any Whitman books with fairly decent dust jackets (they don't have to be perfect), I pick them up.  This book is one of my more recent finds, and while it is no much of a mystery, it was still a fairly okay read.

Joyce of the Secret Squadron is based on the old radio show, Captain Midnight (as the tagline on the cover of the book indicates - A Captain Midnight Adventure).  While I had heard the name before, I had never actually listened to any episodes of the show, nor had I watched any of the televisions shows or films based on the character.  I also had never read any of his comic book adventures published by Fawcett Publications back in the day.  So, I went into this story with pretty much no knowledge of the characters.  Which is probably a good thing, as it gave me a fresh perspective on all of them.  What I did find interesting is that even though Joyce Ryan is toted as the main character, based on the title and the photo of one of the actresses who played the character on the radio show, she does not necessarily play a prominent part in the story.  In fact, none of the characters seem to be the "main" character - rather, Captain Midnight, Chuck Ramsay (the Captain's young ward), Joyce Ryan, and Ichabod "Ikky" Mudd (the team's mechanic) all seem to share some equal time in the story.  Thus, in effect, this really is more of a Captain Midnight adventure than a Joyce Ryan story.

As for the story itself, it is definitely more of a war tale than a mystery.  Set near the start of World War II (the book was published in 1942, after all), the Secret Squadron are engaged by the United States government to search for the missing Flying Wing - an experimental plane believed to have gone down somewhere in the Pacific, possibly near the islands where Captain Midnight and his team have their secret base.  The Captain and his team - Joyce, Chuck, and Ikky - are only more than willing to help out their government, but they find themselves first having to help Mrs. F. W. Bosmouth, who happens to be searching for her missing brother in the same area of the Pacific.  What the Captain and his gang do not realize is that Mrs. Bosmouth is actually Carla Rotan, an agent of the Barracuda, Captain Midnight's deadly nemesis.  She has been tasked with the job of not only finding the Secret Squadron's hidden base, but also to find out what they knew of the Flying Wing.  The Barracuda's forces descend upon the Secret Squadron while Carla is there, hoping to convince the Captain that she is sincere, but Joyce has her doubts about the woman - and let's face it, a woman's intuition is rarely wrong!

From here, the story becomes a search and (hopefully) rescue mission, as the Captain, Joyce, Chuck, and Ikky fly out to search the Pacific Islands for the lost Flying Wing.  They eventually locate an island, where they land and begin their search - only to face the arrival of Mrs. Bosmouth and her pilot, as well as a boat filled with some very rough men.  Joyce and Chuck come across a crashed plane, but it is not the one they are looking for - rather, it's an even older plane, whose pilot they discover has been living isolated on the island for fifteen years!  Between their distrust of Mrs. Bosmouth, their fight to keep the ruffians at bay, and their attempts to help the stranded pilot, the Secret Squadron team has their hands full.  Needless to say, all is revealed in the end, and there is even a surprising change of heart for one of the villainous characters, who provides much needed aid to the Captain and his team (this, thanks to the quick-thinking and persuasive talk of young Joyce Ryan).  There are a few air battles, ground battles, and even a battle on the ocean to keep the "excitement" in the story, and while Joyce is somewhat timid during these battles, she definitely proves her worth to the team throughout the book.

 

One thing that must be noted is that the story is definitely a product of its time, having been written not too long after the U.S. became involved in World War II.  There is some very "colorful" language used to describe the United States' enemies of the time, and the characters' references to them would certainly raise a lot of outrage in today's overly sensitive society.  But, when placed in the proper context, these derogatory names are actually appropriate, as it is what people would have called them back in the early 1940s.  Therefore, it's important to read the story with its setting and context in mind.

 

The author, R.R. Winterbotham (1904-71) was a newspaperman turned author, and he wrote several books for Whitman Publishing Company (apparently writing at least 60 books in the Big Little format, including a series of those books about a character called "Maximo, the Amazing Superman," which I will need to track down).  In addition to this Captain Midnight novel, he also wrote a Captain Midnight story in the Big Little format.  The art in this book is by Erwin L. Darwin (1906-77), which I discovered is a pseudonym for Erwin L. Hess.  Before illustrating books for Whitman, Hess was a comic book artist for Dell Publications.  While his art is not what I would call "beautiful," like some of the other artists I have seen in the Whitman books, I think his almost cartoon-style art fits for the characters.  And that is one thing I do have to say the Whitman books have going for them, at least in my opinion - they have plenty of interior illustrations and some truly great end pages.  I wish the books of today would take a page out of the books of yesteryear and give readers some great illustrations to compliment the stories!

While not really a mystery, I do think this book makes a great addition to the Whitman authorized editions and Whitman's collection of "Stories for Girls and Boys featuring your favorite characters."

RATING:  7 brand new Codographs out of 10 for

Whitman Mystery Stories - Patty O'Neal on the Airways

This was a Whitman title I had never heard of before, so when I chanced upon it in DJ at a used bookstore, I went ahead a picked it up.  I've been discovering, much to my surprise, just how enjoyable these Whitman books are (even if they were published on inferior paper and rarely had any ongoing series characters, unless they were reprints of other publishers' works), so I figured this book was worth a couple of bucks.  Besides, based on the title and description, I thought perhaps the story would be similar to the Vicki Barr or Shirley Flight series (which featured stories about stewardesses who traveled the world having adventures and solving mysteries).

Patty O'Neal on the Airways is another Whitman title written by Ruby Lorraine Radford.  I have several Whitman titles written by her (Peggy Parker, Girl Inventory; Kitty Carter, Canteen Girl; Nancy Dale, Army Nurse), and the one that I have read (Peggy Parker) was very well written.  Thus, I had pretty high hopes for this one, and I was not disappointed.  While there was no real mystery, per se - other than perhaps the question of what happened to Patty's friend, John Nash, whose plane went down over the Himalayas and he has not been found since - the story is still engaging with a certain level of suspense and danger to it.

Radford opens the story with Patty getting ready to take her first solo flight.  She and her best friend, Ann Marsh, attend Carter College, where they are aviation students.  Also attending the school is another student by the name of Joan Sumerau, who is the "Nellie Olsen" of the book (and if you don't know who that is, go watch an episode of Little House on the Prairie!).  She is always berating and belittling Patty, to the point where she breaks down any self-confidence Patty has, which ultimately causes her to crash her plane, leaving her only slightly injured but very badly shaken.  While at home recovering, Patty begins to wonder if perhaps she should give up her dream of piloting a plane.

And then along comes Dal Warner...

Yes, Radford had to include a love interest, and it turns out Dal is a pretty experienced pilot.  He unexpectedly shows up flying a new commercial jet liner, and Patty gets a first class tour of the large plane.  While in town, Patty shares her feelings with Dal, and he convinces her not to give up on her dreams, but take a different path - become a stewardess first, and then once she regains her confidence, go back to obtain her pilot's license.  Patty takes him up on this idea, flying out to the West Coast to attend classes - and wouldn't you know it, Joan Sumerau (who was kicked out of Carter College for showing off and endangering herself and others) is at the very same training center, hoping to become a stewardess.  It seems Miss Sumerau has her eyes set on becoming a stewardess on Dal Warner's team - but Dal already has Patty set for the job, much to Joan's chagrin.

It is interesting to read about how stewardesses were supposedly picked for airlines back in the '40s, when this book was published.  "A stewardess has to promise she'll serve a year without marrying before they will train her," Patty is told (p. 118).  And Belton Airlines, the company Dal flies for, "is famous for its attractive stewardesses," so Patty is told she has to submit photos of herself - close up and full length, too (p. 124).  There is also an age requirement - between 21 and 26 (p. 124) - and a weight requirement of at least 100 pounds (p. 126), as well as a height requirement of 5' to 5'5" (p. 127).    Curious, I did some online searching, and I discovered that a number of ads from back in the '40s and '50s were indeed looking for these exact characteristics for their airline stewardesses - including the "attractive" part!  Talk about sexism at its worst!  But, that was all a part of the day, and thankfully, we have grown past that in today's society.

The description of the plane Patty serves on that flies over the Pacific is also rather interesting, as it is described as having an "observation lounge" (p. 170), and when passengers get restless, Patty and the other stewardess pass out decks of cards, checkerboards, and other games to keep them busy (p. 166). I was also surprised to read that when Patty woke up in the morning (the flight took several days), she "bathed and put on a fresh uniform" (p. 174).  I wasn't sure if this meant she actually bathed in a bathtub or shower, or simply used a sink to wash her face - I've never heard of an airplane having a full bath or shower in it, so I'm going to assume Radford simply meant Patty "washed up," as the saying goes.

 

There are a number of internal illustrations, by Henry E. Vallely, who seems to have illustrated a number of Whitman books (as I have seen his name in many of the books I have in my collection).  While his backgrounds are never overly detailed, I will say that his people are very nicely drawn - he captures expressions beautifully!  The joy on Patty's face (p. 125); the sadness of the missionary's wife (p. 167); the solemn seriousness of everyone as Dal points out a dangerous route to be taken (p. 195) - you can actually FEEL what the characters are feeling in each illustration.  Not every artist can capture that, but Vallely does it magnificently.

The book has a rather dramatic climax, as the crew of the passenger plane all take ill due to food poisoning (all I could think of was Peter Graves in Airplane!), and Patty is forced to call upon her days of training as a pilot to take over the huge commercial airliner and maneuver the plane through heavy clouds and around and over dangerous mountain peaks.  But, manage it she does, and she even lands the plane like a pro, something she has always had the most difficulty with.  And it's "all's well that ends well" with this story, as Patty regains her confidence and set out to get her commercial flying license!

While the mystery side of things was extremely light, the story was still enjoyable, and Radford creates some great tension and suspense there at the end, keeping the reader turning page after page to see whether Patty will succeed in getting the plane out of danger and back onto the ground.  And, oh, yes, the mystery about the poor missing John Nash is resolved as well, so no plot threads are left dangling.

RATING:  8 plates of good almond chicken out of 10 for preserving a bit of women's history in the aviation history with a dash of fiction and a just a hint of mystery!

Daisy Blackwood, Pilot for Hire - Vol. 4 - Paranormal Perils

Four books into the ongoing story of Daisy Blackwood, Pilot for Hire, and I'm still enjoying her adventures now as I did when I picked up and read the first graphic collection.  Creator/writer/artist Ryan Howe has created a truly likable character with a bit of wit, some quick comebacks, and a whole lot of intelligence and gumption to go up against some crazy supernatural baddies that seem to get worse with each story.  These comics are told in newspaper strip-style format, and the pulp-style adventures are paced perfectly to keep the action going, the story moving, and the excitement building.

Paranormal Perils provides readers with not one, not two, but THREE new stories featuring Daisy Blackwood and her new friend/roomie, Huma Laghari (who was introduced in the last collection).  Daisy and the Doc have returned home, where Ross Parsons is anxiously waiting.  Daisy welcomes Huma into her humble home, but any much-needed rest gets pushed aside when a little fire sprite escapes its container, and the two women have a bit of a comedic escapade re-capturing it.  The main feature, to to speak. of this volume involves a cult calling themselves the Golden Tone, who are making a nuisance of themselves in town.  Daisy and Huma set out to stop some of the Tone's members from harassing some innocent pedestrians, which leads them into uncovering a nefarious plot involving some high ranked officials and some very human sacrifices!  Of course, Daisy does what Daisy does best - blows things up! - and brings all of the cult's plans come crashing down on their heads in the most literal fashion possible.  The short story that wraps up this fourth volume is a cute little tale about a missing mummy that is not necessarily the danger everyone things she poses - and yes, I said that right - SHE.  And before the pages close on this book, Daisy finds herself asking Huma to join her in business, so that they can share more supernatural adventures together going forward!

 

The first tale, "Hot Times," is not overly serious, as Daisy introduces Huma to her home, her friends, and her life - but Huma has brought a fire sprite back with her, and when it gets loose, the two woman have one heck of a time trying to recapture the little booger.  Of course, what's the easiest way to put out a fire?  Not exactly the way you would think!

The main story of this collection, "Beautiful Music," starts off simple enough with Huma getting a needed haircut (after what the fire sprite does!), but quickly escalates into a full-scale adventure when they get into altercation with cult members of the Golden Tone.  It's a mixture of supernatural and technology, and Daisy happens upon the smallest of clues that begins to make her wonder if there is a bigger picture that she isn't seeing (because the cult leader's mask just happens to have the same symbol that she saw back in Norway...)

The final tale, "The Mummy," is supposed to be a simple delivery - but when the box carrying the mummy falls from her airplane, crashes, and the mummy gets up and walks away, Daisy must hunt her down.  With the help of Huma, she finds the ancient queen is looking for the most unexpected thing of all!  It's actually a touching little story that reminds the reader not to judge a book by its cover.

With this fourth book, Howe gives readers a bit of a respite from the longer adventures of the previous books, but the stories maintain the same quality, the same quirky humor, and the same excitement and adventure.  His art is as beautiful as ever, and the mix of detailed backgrounds with blank background panels gives just the right mix to keep the reader focused on the story and not just the "pretty art."  I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I really want to see Daisy Blackwood as a television series.  I mean, let's face it - a 1940s/50s pulp-style action hero who is a female adventurer that manages to get involved in one supernatural escapade after another - it's got "HIT" written all over it!

So, one more book to go - and then I have to wonder if there will be any more Daisy Blackwood tales, as I have not seen any further collections solicited, nor have I seen any news on Howe's own website about future stories.  I hope there is still more to come, as this is just too good a character to be put up on a shelf and left to collect dust!

RATING:  10 brooms and dustpans out of 10 for stories that give the reader some fantastic fun adventures to read with characters you just have to love!