Flashing Mountain - a Children's Press Mystery

It's been a bit since I last read a mystery from The Children's Press, and this one was picked up for my by a friend of mine from a library in Canada.  I don't often see many of The Children's Press books here in the States, and most of the ones I have came from beyond our borders.  This one is authored by Edwin Johnson, who wrote a couple of other books for this publisher, with titles such as The End of Project 38 and The Devil of Bruges.  With these kind of titles, one would think the books were aimed at adults, rather than young adults or older children; however, all three of these books were published by The Children's Press, and as such, were marketed for young readers.  I did find a number of other books by "Edwin Johnson," but I have a feeling this name is associated with different authors, as the topics range from Christianity and the origins of the Christian religion to poetry to books about sexy Asian girls.  I cannot, for the life of me, imagine all of these varied subjects were written by the same Edwin Johnson!

 

That being said, Flashing Mountain follows the adventures of fifteen-year old Charles "Chip" Wood, an orphaned young lad living with his already overworked aunt, who has her hands full with her own family.  Despite attempts to stay under the radar, Chip ends up on the run from a gang of bullies and ultimately finds himself saving the life of one Dr. Mandrake, an archeologist with a special mission, to assist a physicist friend who needs to borrow some specialized electronic equipment for a discovery he has made.  Chip joins Mandrake on a ship bound for an island off the coast of South America - to an island known as "The Island of the Four Apostles" (p. 26), or as it is referred to in French, "L'Ile des Quatre Apotres."  This is likely based upon the Ilots des Apotres (Apostle Islets), which in the real world are some uninhabited rocky islands located in the southern part of the Indian Ocean (south east of the southern tip of Africa - they are nowhere near South America, as the island in the book is).  In the book, Johnston indicates the name "comes from four hills at the north of the island," named by a shipwrecked Frenchman who was so thankful for not perishing in the wreck that he named the hills for the apostles (p. 26).  Of course, the mission turns out to be much more dangerous than originally anticipated.

 

Before they even arrive at the island, they learn the man Mandrake is supposed to meet is dead.  They also discover there are two men on the boat with them who are determined to learn what the scientist's discovery was and get to it before Mandrake can.  Thus, from the beginning, the reader knows it is going to be a race to see who can solve the mystery of what the scientist discovered first.  Mandrake and Chip must not only deal with the president of the people on the island, but they must also contend with a wealthy treasure-hunter who has basically taken control of the island in the hopes of uncovering the scientist's secret, as well as a group of revolutionists who want the interlopers gone and also want to overthrow the president!  With the help of some unexpected allies, Chip and Mandrake manage to escape after being captured and make their way through the jungles to the area known as "flashing mountain" - and they learn exactly what the scientist discovered and why that mountain has the name it does!

 

This is definitely a boys' adventure story, as it is chock full of adventure and danger for our main characters.  It also does not shy away from violence and death - even some very gruesome deaths that involve melting faces!  There are also deadly natives on the island, and mysterious legends regarding the formation of the island and the hills.  The climatic scenes where Chip uses his ingenuity to destroy the flashing mountain, ensuring that no one would ever be able to mine what the mountain was hiding (and trust me, considering what it was, Chip definitely did the right thing!) - and in the process, he causes the deaths of two of the bad guys.  Certainly not something you would ever read in a Stratemeyer series book, that's for sure!

 

Sadly, there are no internal illustrations (in fact, I don't believe any of the books I own that were published by "The Children's Press" have internals), and there is no identifying information for the artist who painted the cover.  The scene depicted on the cover is somewhat misleading - it comes from that final chapter, where Chip sets off explosives to cause the destruction of the flashing mountain, however, Chip and the man helping him were wearing considerable protective gear (otherwise, they would have been melted down, just like some of those natives had been!).  I guess showing the main character completely covered from head to toe would not make a great cover, so they simply placed Chip at the scene in his regular clothing.

 

As someone who much prefers mystery stories to adventure stories, this book was not overly captivating to me.  Sure, it had plenty of adventure and chapter cliffhangers; but the lack of mystery just made me want to speed through it and get finished with it so I could move on to another book.  This book would probably be enjoyed more by those who like Tom Swift, Rick Brant, Ken Holt, or series such as that.

 

RATING:  6 small ticking boxes out of 10 for an adventure story filled with more danger and death at ever turn than most young adult stories I've read!

Harlequin Gothic Romance Series No. 32015 - Island of Mystery

"It was the perfect summer job, or so she thought - until it became a nightmare of danger and intrigue" (cover blurb) 

 

The fifteenth Harlequin Gothic Romance was written by yet another new author to the line:  Margaret M. Scariano.  Ms. Scariano (1924-2013) was the author's actual name, and she was a graduate of Fresno State who went on get a master's in English from Illinois State University.  She was not exactly a prolific writer, having only 18 books published; however, her works were of a wide variety, including stories for lower reading levels, young adult fiction and non-fiction, adult stories, and this book - her one and only contribution to the Gothic genre.  Based on this story, it is rather surprising Scariano did not write more Gothics, as she definitely has the talent for it, capturing the right mix of mystery, suspense, and romance.

 

Island of Mystery is the story of a young woman hired to help organize a wealthy family's papers to help put together a family history, and in order to do this, she must travel to an isolated island and stay in a rather foreboding house with family members who do not necessarily want her there!  If this plot sounds familiar, perhaps that is because it is a nearly identical plot to Tree of Evil, which book I just read and reviewed just two weeks ago.  I have no doubt there are plenty of Gothic novels from his era with similar plots (considering the plethora of books pushed on the market at the time, there would have to be!), but I do find it rather amusing that by pure chance I would read two books so similar this close to each other.  I mean, the opening sequence with the young protagonist on a boat, traversing rough waters to get to the island is almost identical to that of Roberta Morrison's Tree of Evil.  Both stories also feature a family member who dies from falling off a cliff, and both stories feature a locked room from which sounds can be heard (when there is not supposed to be anyone in there), as well as some secret that is held within the family papers that someone is willing to kill for. And if that were not enough, but stories have natives (Hawaiians in the Tree of Evil, and Native Americans in this one) who play an important part of the tale.  Thankfully, though Scariano eventually diverges and provides some variations that gives this Gothic some distinction from the other.

 

In Island of Mystery, Jenny Fletcher (a relation of Jessica Fletcher, perhaps?) is a grad student who goes go Lone Lake Lodge in order to help Grace Hamilton put her family papers in order so that they can be donated to the Montana Historical Society (the author likely chose Montana as the setting, since she was originally from that state and began her college career there).  From the moment of her arrival, however, there is unrest with the family.  Grace resides on the island with her two nephews - Glenn and Martin Larabie, whose mother was Grace's sister.  She took them in after their father left and their mother died in a tragic boat accident.  The brothers are at odds, however, on what Grace should do with the island when she dies, and poor Jenny gets caught in the middle.  Bobby Black Bear, the Native American who also resides on the island, warns her not to take sides, as it will not end well for her.  Jenny also learns that Grace has had previous secretaries, none of whom lasted very long.  Jenny is determined to prove them wrong, as she plans to use the Hamilton family history as a part of her thesis for grad school.  She just never realized the tension she was going to face in the great house.  To round out the oddball cast, there is Lone Willow, the companion to Grace, a young Native American who is going to college via correspondence courses (yes, this definitely shows the age of the book!), and who the family affectionately refers to as "Ruthie."  There is also Mr. Alger, the rather rough-around-the-edges cook who makes it clear in no uncertain terms that he knows the real reason Jenny is there and does not want her there.  

 

The mystery comes into play when Grace and Jenny come across an old lease that reveals the island was only leased to her family, and neither she, nor the boys, own the property.  Jenny is certain they will come across a later document that eventually transferred title, but Grace is unsure.  When Grace finds the diary of Glenn and Martin's mother, she learns a dark secret that could have very serious repercussions on the entire family, particularly with regard to who really owns the island!  Unfortunately, before she can reveal the truth, she is murdered, and the diary goes missing.  Jenny soon finds her life is in danger, as someone thinks she knows what was in that diary, and they are determined to keep her from revealing it!  The suspense really plays out in the final act of the story, and in true Gothic fashion, everyone's secrets are revealed at last, and Jenny (along with the reader) learns that not everyone is who they say they are!

 

The cover artist is not identified, but the art is beautifully rendered.  The scene is actually a mixture of several scenes - one scene, where Jenny is pushed down the stairs when exploring the fourth floor ballroom, and another scene where Jenny has found the diary on a stormy night.  The only thing I noticed about the art (and it's rather nit picky, I know) is that while Jenny's hair appears to be blowing from the wind, the wick of the burning candle does not appear to be affected at all by that same wind.  (And since that particular scene of Jenny occurs while she is in a room with a broken window, it would only make sense that the wind from the storm outside was blowing in, affecting both her hair and the candle.)  This is probably one of my favorite covers from this series - that half turn, the storm outside, the hands reaching out for her. It breaks the mold of the stereotypical "girl running away from the house in the background" standard scene and instead gives us a tension-filled moment where we can almost feel Jenny's fear as she is about to be pushed.

 

One thing I did want to mention was the author's choice of names for the cook.  Mr. "Alger" made me immediately think of Horatio Alger (1832-1899), who was a very prolific author of young adult novels in the second half of the 19th century.  Most of his stories are referred to as "rags to riches" tales about young lads in poverty who rise above their circumstances to make good for themselves.  Interestingly enough, one of Alger's pseudonyms was Arthur "Hamilton," which also happens to be Grace's last name in this book.  It could be pure coincidence - or, just perhaps, Scariano was actually paying a slight homage to a fellow author, albeit one a bit before her time.

 

RATING: 9 rugged mountain sheep out of 10 for spinning a slightly new take on an already established Gothic plot - and throwing in a few surprises along the way.

The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of Cabin Island (Hardy Boys Mystery Stories # 8 - Revised Text)

Okay, if the title to this book looks familiar, it should.  Just a couple of months ago, at the urging of some friends, I read the original version of this book, which was published nearly 100 years ago in 1929.  Approximately forty years after its initial publication, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, during the course of its revisions project, revised this particular book.  Andrew Svenson, best known for his own series, The Happy Hollisters, was given the task of writing the revised version of this title, reducing the story from 25 chapters down to 20 and the page count from 214 down to 178.   In some cases, the Syndicate merely cut out dialogue or certain scenes to reduce the length; however, in this instance, instead of simply shortening the story, Svenson gives readers what I would call a "re-imagining" of the story.

 

In both the original and the revised texts of The Mystery of Cabin Island,  Frank and Joe Hardy, along with their friends, Chet and Biff, investigate some mysterious goings-on at a cabin owned by Elroy Jefferson, a wealthy man whose automobile the boys had recovered when they solved a previous mystery involving car thieves. But, other than that basic premise, the remaining adventures are changed, sometimes in rather drastic ways.  The opening of the revised edition removes a rather large chunk of story from the original text, where the boys visit Cabin Island long before they get permission from Mr. Jefferson to stay there with their friends over the Christmas holidays.  In the revised, the first page reveals the boys have received permission to stay on the island as a "reward" for recovering the older man's car, and not only that, but Mr. Jefferson also has a mystery he wishes the boys to solve.  Thus, while the original had a somewhat slow build-up, the revised jumps right into the heart of the story, letting readers know from the very first page that Frank and Joe were going to be solving a mystery at Cabin Island!

 

Chapter after chapter, page after page, more and more of the story is changed in ways that seem to emphasize action more than anything else.  In the original, the boys did not face a run-in with another ice boat until the end of the second chapter; however, in this version, the ice boat handled by Tad Carson and Ike Nash runs them down in the first chapter (with a nice, two-page spread line illustration that seems to be a redux of the frontis piece from the original text).  And for those who remember the second ice boat incident in the original, where poor Chet could not gain control of his boat, it might surprise you to discover that in this revised version, it is the vile Mr. Hanleigh and Tad Carson who purposely attack the Hardys' boat, knocking them out onto the ice along with old Mr. Jefferson!  Poor Mr. Jefferson is injured, and the Hardys end up taking him back to the cabin, where he spends the night - a scene that never took place in the original.

 

There are quite a few other differences that deviate from the original tale.  One major difference is the fact that Mr. Jefferson has a grandson in this revised text, who disappeared and is the center of the mystery that Mr. Jefferson asks the boys to solve.  And in the original story, the boys learn about Mr. Jefferson's stolen stamps from the general store owner, Amos Grice, while in this version, Mr. Jefferson himself relates the story of the stolen medals to Frank and Joe - and yes, that's another revision. Perhaps by the late 1960s, stolen stamps would not seem as valuable to stolen medals, so the Syndicate changed the object of the theft - which creates another big change, as a "ghost" that is scene on the island (mostly by Chet) turns out to be the representative of the great Shah Ali, who has come to seek out Mr. Jefferson in the hopes of buying back one of the medals in his possession (or, rather, in his former possession, since the medals are missing).

 

One incident in the original text that I am actually glad they removed was the fox hunting chapter, where the boys hunt down and kill some foxes that Mr. Grice believes stole some of his chickens.  In the original, the Hardys use the rifles given them as Christmas presents by their parents; in the revised, the boys receive much needed snowshoes instead and there is no mention of stolen chickens or fox hunting.  And speaking of Christmas, that is yet one more revision in the text - in the original story, the boys spend Christmas day together in the cabin; in the revised tale, the boys spend Christmas morning with their families, and they do not head out to Cabin Island until after Christmas.  And the climactic scene where the tree comes crashing down on the cabin in the original?  Nope, it is removed from the revised, and the boys instead merely face a fierce snow storm that breaks through the windows, sending snow and cold into the cabin.

 

There is one difference that I found made the story a bit more challenging for the boys, and that involves the cryptogram.  In the original, the code to solve the cryptic message was simply reversing the alphabet:  to wit, A = Z, B = Y, C = X, and so on.  In this revised version, however, Svenson gives Frank and Joe (and the reader) and much more challenging solution, as the code actually makes use of the thief's name - John Paul Sparewell, Houseman (i.e., A = J, B = O, C = H, D = N, and so on).  I found that to be a much more creative solution, which would explain why the boys had such difficulty in solving the puzzle.  In the original, the solution proved way too easy and basically made the Hardys look inept, in that they could not have deciphered such a simple code.

 

Something I found both books to have in common is the illustrations of the ice boats.  In the original text, the plain frontis piece (by artist Ausott) shows Frank, Joe, and Chet in their iceboat, which has very little room for anything other than the three of them.  In the revised text, the frontis piece, as well as the two-page spread on pages 8 and 9 show ice boats with barely room for the riders - the frontis has only Frank and Joe with room for no one or nothing else; and the two page spread shows all four boys in the boat (and it is supposed to be the same boat, so how did they manage that?) with no extra room.  So this begs the question - how did these four boys fit into the ice boat, along with all of their gear, clothes, and the boxes of food that Chet brought, when those illustrations make the boat appear to have very little free space, if any at all?!  Artistic license, I suppose...

 

While I cannot say that either of the Cabin Island texts were overly enjoyable (remember, I am not much of a Hardy Boys fan to begin with), I can say that the original text offers up a richer tale with stronger characterization.  The revised text seems to focus more on fast-paced action, with constant accidents, danger, scares, and such, relying on the action to move the story rather than the mystery itself.  I think I prefer Svenson's Happy Hollisters' series far more than I did this Hardy Boys tale.

 

RATING:  5 handsome, gleaming medals out of 10 for the attempt at re-imagining a 1920s mystery for the 1960s (leaving one to wonder what a re-imagining of this tale for the 2000s would look like?)

The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of Cabin Island (Hardy Boys Mystery Stories # 8 - Original Text)

Yes, believe it or not, I can now say I have actually read a vintage Hardy Boys book.  Growing up, I did not like the Hardy Boys, because to me, they were more adventure stories than they were mystery stories.  I was more interested in haunted houses, spooky staircases, dark attics, hidden rooms, and the like.  These were the type of mysteries I could find in the Nancy Drew books.  In recent years, yes, I've been reading the recently published Hardy Boys Adventures series, and they have not been half-bad.  Yet, I just have not been able to bring myself to go back and read those original adventures of Frank and Joe Hardy, as I simply did not have the interest.  But with the Christmas holidays, I have been urged (I would say "bullied," but in today's climate, people would jump on that and take it completely the wrong way!) to read one particular Hardy Boys book that is set during that time, and I had no other choice ... so I did!

The Mystery of Cabin Island is the eighth book in the Hardy Boys series, published back in 1929 (the year before Nancy Drew made her debut).  It was written by Leslie McFarlane based on an outline provided by Edward Stratemeyer, and it could have been more aptly subtitled, "The Hardy Boys and their Ice Boat Adventures."  The boys spend an inordinate amount of time in this book traveling in their ice boats, nearly getting run down twice by other ice boats (one from some rivals, one from their friends), and it seems the ice boats are their only means of travel between "Cabin Island" and the mainland of Bayport.  The frontis piece of the edition I have of this book is even an illustration (by someone named "Auscott") of their rivals' ice boat "booming down on the smaller craft at terrific speed" (p. 16).  It is interesting to note that this scene takes place so early in the book - normally the frontis piece of series books depicts a scene from much later in the story.  I also have to wonder at McFarlane's choice of words, since just a few paragraphs before on the previous page, he describes the boat as "hurtling forward at terrific speed" (p. 15), then reiterates the same phrase when ending the chapter with "booming down ... at terrific speed" (p. 16).  Perhaps he forgot his thesaurus when he was writing that day (sorry Pam!).

 

The story centers around the isolated cabin that stands on Cabin Island, owned by one Elroy Jefferson.  The boys visit the island with their friend Chet Morton, only to be warned away by a man they later learn is Mr. Hanleigh - a rather pushy man intent on buying the island from Mr. Jefferson.  The boys befriend Mr. Jefferson, who it turns out was one of the people that they helped save his valuable car in a previous book (The Shore Road Mystery), and he graciously allows the boys and their friends to camp out at the cabin over the Christmas break from school.  Something odd about the planning of his trip is that Chet first mentions the idea of camping out over the Christmas holidays at the beginning of the story (p 3); yet, a few chapters later, Biff Hooper makes the suggestion of a camping trip over the holidays, and the Hardys say they will think about it and discuss it with Chet (pp. 30-31) - why would they need to discuss something with Chet who already approached them with the idea?  Had they already forgotten Chet's suggestion?  Or had McFarlane forgotten already that he wrote that earlier scene?

The mystery, such as it is, comes into play after Frank, Joe, Chet and Biff take up residence in the cabin and all of their food supply is stolen!  They do eventually locate the food hidden behind some rocks on the shore beneath the cabin, along with a small notebook that contains a message written in code.  Personally, I found the code rather simple to crack, but the boys spend a number of chapters trying to figure it out (I suppose if they solved it too early, it would not make for an exciting story).  It is obvious the notebook belonged to Mr. Hanleigh, who keeps returning to the island, looking for something in the cabin.  The cover even depicts one of those instances when the boys spy the man sneaking into the cabin (pp. 113-14).  It ultimately turns out that a valuable stamp collection stolen from Mr. Jefferson many years ago was hidden in the cabin by the thief, and Mr. Hanleigh is determined to get his hands on it.  As the coded message reveals, the box containing the stamps is located somewhere near or in the chimney (which seems to be a common thing in children's series books - check out The Wooden Shoe Mystery and The Missing Formula to see what I mean).  McFarlane does provide a rather dramatic climax to the story, when a tree collapses on the cabin during a horrific snow storm, destroying the chimney and revealing the hidden location of the box (pp. 195-99).

While the mystery itself was not overly thrilling and seemed to be a smaller portion of the story, I do have to say the book contains quite a few dated references in it (and considering it was published in 1929, one would have to expect it to!).  The most obvious one was when the Hardys discover the notebook, and Frank find written on one of the pages "October, 1917") - to which he exclaims, "Why, that's eleven years ago" (p. 101).  This is the first actual date reference I've seen in any of these series books, where a character specifically sets the date (since that eleven years would place the story in 1928, the year prior to the publication date).  It was my understanding that the Syndicate specifically avoided these type of references, so as to not fully date the books; but, perhaps, since this was still while Edward Stratemeyer was in charge, he was not as stringent about these type of things as his daughters became.  There is also the reference to Frank and Joe receiving "two small caliber rifles, each with a box of ammunition" for Christmas presents from their father (p. 46).  You would DEFINITELY not see rifles given to teenagers as gifts in today's books, that's for sure!

There's also the overuse of the word "queer" in the book (which, back in the time when this book was written, would have meant "strange" or "odd" - it did not have the same connotation that it does today).  In just a few paragraphs, one of the characters refers to Elroy Jefferson as "very queer" and "a queer old chap," even saying he had "a heart of gold, specially where boys is concerned.  But queer - mighty queer in some ways..." (p. 86).  People reading those lines today would probably have an entirely different take on what was meant!  And speaking of word use, McFarlane used a rather interesting term to describe poor Biff - he was described as "pugilistically inclined" (p. 79), which refers to someone fighting with his fists, specifically used when talking about boxers.  I have to wonder how many young people would have known what that word meant - heck, I did not even know what it meant until I looked it up!  Then there's the reference to the two foxes killed by Frank and Biff in the story - McFarlane writes that "the boys cut the brushes from the two foxes ... and placed the prizes in a place of honor above the fireplace" (p. 132).  I honestly cannot figure out exactly what the author is referring to here.  I was unable to find a definition for the phrase "cut the brushes" in this context (most of what I found referred to cutting paint brushes); speaking with my friend Pam, who is a McFarlane expert, it seems "cut the brushes" refers to the fact that the boys cut off the fox tails and kept them as trophies of their catch.  I had never heard this before, so perhaps it is a Canadian turn of phrase.

McFarlane also makes reference in the story to Edgar Allen Poe's short story, "The Gold-Bug" (p. 105).  That particular story involves the deciphering of a secret message (written as a cryptogram) that is supposed to lead the characters to a buried treasure. He clearly used this as a comparison to the Hardys attempting to figure out the cryptogram written in the notebook they discovered.  Frank even tries to follow the character's suggestion in the story of looking for the most frequently appearing letter in the message and substituting it with the letter "e," which is said to be the most frequently used letter in the English language (p. 105) - sadly, though, that substitution method did not work for the Hardys.  At least McFarlane did not make it too easy on them (although, in reality, the solution to the code is fairly simple - reversing the alphabet, i.e. A=Z, B=Y, C=X, and so on).

The only other thing I thought was note-worthy was the fact that Chapter XX in the book has an entire change in the point of view.  That particular chapter is told completely through the eyes of Mr. Hanleigh, as he faces difficulties with his henchmen, Carson and Nash, who have been ferrying him back and forth to Cabin Island aboard their own ice boat.  It is rather fun to read part of the story from the villain's point of view, as you see how easily he gets riled up and how he intends to double-cross his own men!

While I understand that a number of Hardy Boys fans like this particular volume, I have to admit that I did not find it all that great.  Sure, it has plenty of adventure in it, but I like mystery, and the book fell rather short on that (in my opinion).  I tried to go into it with an open mind, and not let my distaste for the Hardy Boys series to color my reading of the story; but, I suppose, I'm just not a Hardy Boys fan, and for me, this story is a reminder why I prefer Nancy Drew and the other female sleuths to boys' series such as this.

RATING:  6 precious rosewood boxes out of 10 for giving me a cryptogram to solve (I love those type of puzzles!) and showing how dangerous ice boating can be!

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!