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!

Agatha, Girl of Mystery #4 - The Heist at Niagara Falls

It's been over a year now since I read my last Agatha, Girl of Mystery book, so I figured it was about time to pick up the next book in the series.  This truly has been a fun series to read thus far, and I have to smile with each character's name - author Sir Steve Stephenson is clearly having loads of fun using names associated with many well-known crime-solving literary sleuths!  Agatha (as in Christie), Dashiell (as in Hammett), Mr. Marlowe (as in Philip), Chandler (as in Raymond), Watson (as in that certain doctor of Holmes fame), Scarlett (a game of Clue, or perhaps Cluedo, anyone?) and the list goes on!  It's literally a smorgasbord of famous sleuths, and the stories remind us that of all them, none can hold a candle to the queen of crime herself - Agatha Christie!

 

The Heist at Niagara Falls follows Agatha and her inept brother, Dashiell, along with their butler, Chandler, and Agatha's pampered and obnoxious Siberan cat, Watson, as they cross the Atlantic to stop a jewel thief on the Canadian border.  As always, it is starts with poor Dashiell, as he receives an urgent message from Eye International, sending him on a new mission - there has been a theft from the Overlook Hotel at Niagara Falls, and Dashiell is to get there, find the culprit, and recover the stolen jewels (p. 24).  Of course, Dashiell knows he could never do it himself, so he rushes to Agatha and asks for her help (and, as an aspiring mystery writer with a mind just chock-full of information, she's more than willing to help!).  Thus, it's a rush to the airport to catch the next flight to New York, where they are picked up by their cousin, Scarlett Mistery, who just happens to be a journalist and joins them on their quest to catch the crook.

 

What I found amusing is that the "Overlook Hotel," which is the scene of the crime where Madame Hofstetter's jewels were stolen (Hoffstetter?  Any relation to Leonard?), is the name of the hotel from Stephen King's horror novel, The Shining.  That book came out in 1977, while this book was originally published in Italy in 2011, so there is a possibility that the author used that name for the hotel as a nod to King.  There is no actual "Overlook Hotel" in Canada.

 

Stevenson has Agatha utilize her exceptional skills of observation and deduction to pick up clues and connect the dots that most people miss, and she soon comes to the conclusion that the thief was none other than Ratmusque, Canada's most notorious thief (who is actually a man named Rick Moriarty - hmmm, that last name sure sound familiar, doesn't it?).  But according to sources, he gave up his criminal activities years ago, so why start back up now?  Agatha and her crew are determined to find out.   They track the mastermind to a secluded cabin, where they nearly run down a Canadian Royal Mountie, who agrees to help them find the culprit.  The trail leads them to the Dark Sky Preserves, which is an actual location in Canada that allows you to get away from the bright lights of the city and gaze up at the stars free from any distracting lights (Dark-Sky Preserves).  Thus, without any distractions, it is here that Agatha realizes they have been chasing after the wrong crook all this time, and she reveals the identity of the true thief before he can disappear with the fortune in jewels!

 

These books are not meant to be heavy reading - at just a little over 100 pages in length, they are simply fun mysteries starring a young Agatha (Christie?) tracking down criminals in order to help her brother succeed at his school for spies.  They are similar to the 10-book Greetings from Somewhere series by Harper Paris, which also features a brother/sister team of kids who travel around the world solving mysteries everywhere they go - only the Agatha series is aimed an audience with a bit high reading level.  As the blurb on the back cover says, "With the smarts of Nancy Drew and the charm of Eloise, Agatha is an exciting addition to the girl-detective canon." (School Library Journal)  If you are looking for something light and quick to read, these are the books for you!

 

RATING:  9 stolen magnetic key cards out of 10 for mystery and adventure in Canada, from the Falls to the Muskoka, and plenty of places in-between! 

Whitman Mystery Stories - Winnie Winkle and the Diamond Heirlooms

Before picking up this book, I had never heard of "Winnie Winkle" before, but apparently Miss Winkle was the star of her own newspaper comic strip for a little over 75 years!  The strip was quite an achievement, and more than just for its longevity.  Created by Joseph Medill Patterson, the strip was written and drawn by Martin Branner (who provided the illustrations for this Whitman edition), and it was one of the first strips to feature a working woman as its lead character.  In the strip, Winnie Winkle supported her parents and younger brother, and she eventually married and became pregnant (which, oddly enough, some newspapers felt was too risque for a comic strip, causing them to drop the daily trip from their papers!).  Branner wrote and drew the strip (with the aid of various assistants over the years) until 1962, when he suffered a stroke, and other creators took over the strip  until it was eventually discontinued in 1996.  Besides this book from Whitman, Winnie was also featured in a one-issue comic published by Dell, as well as ten feature films written by Branner and starring Ethelyn Gibson was the title character.  So, with this much fame out there, it is rather odd that I never heard of the character prior to finding this book...

 

Winnie Winkle and the Diamond Heirlooms is a fairly standard children's mystery of the period, but I have to say, it was rather engaging and well-written.  I'm not familiar with the author, Helen Berke, but I will definitely try and locate more of her books.  A quick search online reveals she wrote more than a couple of Whitman's "Big Little Books / Better Little Books," including Captain Midnight, Dick Tracey, Smilin' Jack, Terry and the Pirates, and Little Orphan Annie.  Winnie Winkle appears to be the only full-size novel that Ms. Berke wrote for Whitman, which is a shame, as this story was probably one of the better Whitman novels I've read to date!  Now, to be fair, part of that reason could be that I am unfamiliar with the character, having never read the comic strip, so I have no ability to compare the characters and characterization in this story with those in Branner's daily strip.  That being said, I went into this hoping for a good mystery, and I definitely got that!

 

The mystery begins when Winnie gets an urgent call from Mary Dee Adams, an old friend from high school, who begs Winnie to rush to Chicago to help her.  It seems Mary's Aunt Rhoda passed away, and the only thing left in her estate is an old house out in the country.  Aunt Rhoda had previously told her there was money and jewels that she was leaving her, but somehow they are gone!  So, Winnie, being the good friend that every girl sleuth is, gives up her long-awaited vacation plans and heads over to Chicago to help her friend. Winnie meets Tommy Blake, her artist boyfriend, and the three of them prepare to head out to Blainville - but not before they have dinner with Mr. Jenkins, a man claiming to be friends with Tommy (but Winnie suspects the friendship is one-sided!), and not before poor Winnie gets kidnapped by someone who mistakes her for Mary!  There is something definitely fishy going on, and Winnie decides she must get to the bottom of it.

 

Through unexpected circumstances, Winnie, Mary, and Tommy wind up as prisoners in the house Mary has inherited from her aunt, as an unscrupulous con man and his lackey (who turns out to be an even more dangerous criminal than his boss!) are determined to locate the fortune in jewels that Mary's aunt allegedly left her niece as a part of her estate.  The only problem is, no one knows where they are, and there appear to be no clues as to where to find them!  It becomes a race to see who will find them first - are they hidden in the grandfather clock that Aunt Rhoda had moved up to her room on the second floor?  Could they be stored in the one of the chandeliers hanging in various rooms?  Are they in one of the trunks in the attics, or in one of the storage chests out in the barn?  Every drawer is pulled out, every closet is combed from top to bottom, and every wall is checked for secret panels - but, alas!   No jewels are to be found.  Winnie and her friends eventually focus on getting word to someone outside of the house of their predicament, in the hopes someone will rescue them from the clutches of these villains.

 

The story does not necessarily build a lot of suspense, but there are definitely some tense moments (when one of the captors takes a shot at Tommy when he attempts to sneak out one night, or when the con man purposefully shows Winnie that he, too, has a gun and is not afraid to use it!).  The location of the jewels and the way in which Winnie is able to find them is actually pretty ingenuous, and I give the author credit for crafting a fun little mystery (and for giving Winnie more than half-a-brain when it comes to outwitting the villains!).  Now, there are a couple of "Nancy Drew" moments in the story - such as the secret compartment in the grandfather clock (Old Clock, anyone?), and the old diary that provides them with a few hints about the jewels (Clue in the Diary).  However, those similarities only enhance the story, as I saw them more as homages than I did any cheap rip-offs.

 

The artist on the Winnie Winkle comic strip, Martin Branner, provides all of the illustrations for this book, including the endpages, which features a scene taken directly from page 42 of the story, when Winnie, Mary, and Tommy are taken by a horse-drawn wagon from the train station to the home that once belonged to Aunt Rhoda.  Thankfully, the scene is from early in the story and does not spoil anything from the mystery, as a number of endpages from other Whitman mysteries have done!  

 

As always, there are a few tidbits from the story worth nothing.  The first is found when Winnie comes across a medicine cabinet full of a number of bottles of various kinds of pills, including sleeping pills.  She realizes they could be used to put their captors to sleep, giving them a means to escape; and when Tommy suggests giving them two pills each, Winnie quickly replies, "...we'd better give them just one.  We don't want to kill them, even if they deserve it" (p. 109).  I can't say I've ever read a children's mystery where the protagonist actually believes someone deserves to die!  However, that scene is quickly forgiven by the author's later references to books that Winnie finds in one of the trunks in the barn.  "She picked up a few at random and looked at the titles.  Horatio Alger ... Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth.  Rover Boys..." (pp. 139-40). Anyone even vaguely familiar with children's series book at the turn of the 20th century will recognize Alger and the Rover Boys!  As for Mrs. Southworth, she was a popular author of the late 19th century, writing about heroines who challenged the Victorian perceptions of that day (sort of how Winnie Winkle, as a working woman, challenged the idea of women's place in the working arena of the early 1900s).  It was surprising to see references to real authors and book series in a title such as this!

 

This was certainly one of the most enjoyable Whitman mysteries I have read, and most definitely one of the better written ones.  I will be searching for some of those Big / Better Little Books that Berke has written.

 

RATING:  9 specially-made chocolate cakes out of 10 for a well-written mystery that takes comic-strip characters and fleshes them out into very readable characters in a great story!