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!

The Summer of the Great Secret - the second Romney Marsh story

I honestly cannot recall where I got this particular book - I think, perhaps, it was a book my friend picked up at a library book sale at the library where she works (but I cannot guarantee that).  However this book came to be in my possession, I can say it was the title that caught my attention.  Obviously, based on the publisher (Collins), I knew it was going to be a British publication, and, therefore, the story was likely to be set in England (and it was).  The edition I have is from the early 1960s, but a little research online reveals the story was first published back in 1948 - which does explain some of the questions I had regarding the girls' complete lack of knowledge regarding film making in the story.  I also discovered that this book is actually the second in a series of stories by author Monica Edwards (I'll get more into that later...)

 

The Summer of the Great Secret reads almost like a mish-mash of various series book stories.  It's a story about a girl's love of horses and an accident that leaves her unable to walk and possibly never ride again; it's also the story of a group of smugglers who are accidentally revealed by two young girls playing around on an old, weathered shipwreck; in addition, it's the story of a town excited about a film crew coming to make a movie in their sleepy little village; if that weren't enough, there's also a short tale of a haunted house; and it's the story of a mysterious greasy man whose true intentions are suspect.  While these four stories may sound completely unrelated, author Monica Edwards manages to weave them all together in one somewhat enjoyable story.  (No, it's not the most exciting book I've ever read, but it does have some good moments and fun adventures in it, and the movie making scenes remind me much of the Moving Picture Girls books.)

 

The main characters in the book are Tamzin Grey and Charissa ("Rissa") Birnie, best friends who share a love of horses and a sense of adventure.  While swimming in the bay, they decide to jump off the wreckage of an old ship that had long ago come to rest on the shore - but Rissa accidentally falls through the deck into the level below, where the girls unexpectedly find boxes of liquor and perfume!  Realizing the ship was being used as a hiding place for smugglers, the girls soon learn that the smugglers are none other than men in the village with whom they are very familiar.  They promise to keep the secret, even from their own parents, and soon become messengers of sort for the criminal fishermen.  While this story is developing, readers learn that Lesley Frampton, a friend of Tamzin and Rissa, is out west, recovering from an injury that has left her paralyzed.  Lesley is set to come back for a visit, and she is anxious to see her pony, Cascade, who now belongs to Tamzin.  Ultimately, it is this visit and Cascade who give Lesley the fire to walk again!

 

The book weaves back and forth among the various plots, an an incident with a car being caught in the high tide leads to the girls meeting a movie producer - a producer who comes back to their small town because his film studio wants to do a movie there.  Tamzin's father, who is the town vicar, is called upon as a historical advisor for the film, and Tamzin, Rissa, and even Cascade are all given parts in the film!  Of course, while all of this is going on, the authorities have also come to town, looking to smoke out the smugglers.  Tamzin and Rissa keep their word and say nothing (which is a bit on the unbelievable side, as the authorities do not take any action against the girls, even though both admit they know the smugglers, but will not give up their names - in the real world, they would tell or face some severe consequences!).  Along the way, a "greasy man" as Tamzin describes him comes to town looking for information on the smugglers - his identity, and his fate, are ultimately revealed to be something less than stellar by the end of the book.  (And why is it that villains are never described as handsome or beautiful; they are also greasy with horrific facial features?)

 

The book is illustrated by Anne Bullen, who provides 19 internal line illustrations (nearly one for every chapter).  Bullen is known for illustrating books about ponies, but she and her husband also bred ponies.  Her illustrative work was mostly for Collins.  She did the full colour dust jackets for the first four books by Monica Edwards, but I can't be sure she provided the art for the edition that I have (1963), as the book gives no credit to the cover artist.  Apparently, though, Edwards was not overly thrilled with the humans in Bullen's illustrations, and after The Midnight Horse, published in 1949, Edwards' books were illustrated by a different artist.  (Anne Bullen, Artist)

 

The book has gone through several editions over the years, and with it, the cover art has changed (although three out of the four covers focus on Tamzin and her horse, Cascade - the fourth book features the smuggling aspect of the story).  My edition, the first cover shown above, has both Tamzin and Rissa - Tamzin wth her horse, Rissa with her bicycle. Another edition features the two girls with Cascade, with another has Rissa with a chestnut colored pony.  The later, paperback Armada printing has Tamzin and Rissa coming out of the boat with one of the smugglers helping them up onto the wharf.  

 

Now, with respect to the series of which this book is a part, it turns out Edwards wrote fifteen books in a series of novels about "Romney Marsh."  The first book, Wish for a Pony, was published in 1947 (one year before the original publication of this one), and features Tamzin and Rissa in their first adventure.  As the series progresses, the characters age and are joined by other new characters, and by book fifteen, the stories become much more mature in nature (as the last book deals with one of Tamzin's friends becoming blind and having to deal with the emotional trauma associated therewith).  Apparently the stories are based upon real people in Edwards' life (Tamzin's father being based upon Edwards' father, who was a reverend) and the locations were very real, simply renamed.  While this story was somewhat enjoyable, I don't know that I will actively seek out the other books in the series - if I happen across one, I might pick it up if the price is right; otherwise, this is not a series for which I am anxious to read all the books.

There is one horrible thing that occurs in the book that I simply could not overlook.  One of the smugglers, Jim, has a cat in his home that gives births to kittens.  He offers them to Tamzin and Rissa, and while Rissa declines, Tamzin agrees to take the one tiger-colored kitten.  The remaining kittens?  Well, Jim tosses them out into bay and drowns them all!  I could not believe such a thing would be written into a children's story.  Researching the matter online, it seems back in the day this was a fairly common practice to keep the population of unwanted, stray kittens and puppies down.  I just cannot even imagine such a thing!  Definitely did not raise my opinion of this book by any means... 

 

RATING:  7 cat-related advertisements for fertilizer out of 10 for managing to mix smugglers, ghosts, filmmakers, and sleazy criminals into one story and keeping it coherent enough to read!

The Three Spaniards - a Chambers's 3'6 Rewards for Boys and Girls

On my visit to Ireland earlier this year, I picked up three British children's mystery books at Charlie Byrne's bookstore in Galway.  They were not part of any particular series, but I did want to bring home some kind of book souvenir from my trip, and I did rather like the cover art on the three books, as well as the titles.  I was not really sure what to expect with any of the three books, so deciding which one to read first was a bit of a quandry.  Ultimately, I decided to read them in order of the least interesting titles - and, thus, this one became the first one I read!

The Three Spaniards, by its title alone, does not sound like much of a mystery.  As a friend commented, if there are three Spaniards, how come there are only two kids featured on the cover?  Where's the third?  Well, that, indeed, was the question I was wondering as I opened the book to begin this latest adventure.  Right off the bat, I noticed the difference between this and American vintage children's books.  This story opens with a three-page prologue of an unnamed man in his sailboat at night, when a giant barge comes along and crashes into his boat, sending him into the cold, dark waters of the Thames...  

The mystery itself begins with Elizabeth Clutterbuck and her younger brother Anthony readying themselves for their summer vacation.  When their mother is unexpectedly called away to help her ailing sister, Elizabeth and Anthony are shipped off to Marsh Cottage to stay with Captain and Mrs. Waters until Mrs. Clutterbuck and get away from her sister's and meet them at the small cottage outside of Canterbury.  Elizabeth and Anthony are excited, because Captain Waters has cleaned up their small sailboat, christened the 'Pequod."  This, of course, was the name of the whaling ship that appears in Moby Dick, so apparently the author knew his (or her!) literature.  The two youngsters arrived at Marsh Cottage and immediately come face-to-face with Captain Waters' employer, one very surly Mr. Grieves, who rubs both Elizabeth and Anthony the wrong way from the start.  He very bluntly warns them to stay away from the pottery, as well as the abandoned Prospect Inn located next to the brickworks building.

Here, I must interrupt the narrative to describe how the author interrupts himself (or herself) quite often in the story to shift points-of-view and scenes.  The narrative at first seems to focus on Elizabeth and Anthony, but within a couple of chapters, the point-of-view changes to that of Captain Waters, as readers learn he is working for Mr. Grieves at the new pottery not far from the cottage, and that Mrs. Waters is concerned about whatever is happening there.  The narrative shifts again, and readers discover what happened to the man that was capsized in the Thames and how Mr. Grieves unwillingly rescues the man and sees to it he is taken as far away as possible from the pottery (leading the reader at this point to understand that something untoward is going on at the place).  Although the story then brings us back to Elizabeth and Anthony, it continues throughout the rest of the book to switch back and forth, so that readers get bits and pieces of what is really going on, although not enough to know the full story until the revelations at the end.

Early in the story, readers discover the man who fell overboard in the prologue is David Welch, a well-known ornithologist who went missing just before Elizabeth and Anthony left for Marsh Cottage.  It is some time before he and the kids actually meet, but readers do get to follow his line of adventure, as he purchased an older craft and begins working to remodel it and get it back up to shape for sailing.  He faces his own difficulties with Mr. Grieves, who wants him away from the area (clearly afraid he will see something he is not supposed to!).  The author is really crafty in weaving the two stories - the children's adventures and Welch's adventures - into a single thread, as they join forces to find out exactly what is going on at Prospect Inn and the old pottery and why Mr. Grieves is so intent on keeping everyone away from there.

The children do meet a new friend over the course of the story.  Jefferson Civardi, known simply as Jeff, is an American boy their age who is visiting relatives at a nearby house.  He has his own racing boat, christened 'Miss America,' and he challenges Elizabeth and Anthony to a race.  When the kids first meet Jeff, he comes across as boastful and conceited.  As the story progresses, however, and particularly after Jeff loses his boat in an accident, his demeanor changes and the three become great friends.  He is even instrumental in helping Elizabeth, Anthony, and Mr. Welch solve the mystery surrounding the pottery.

As this story was written in England, there are some terms that are different than what we use in America, and the author does a nice job of integrating those differences into the story.  The American 'cookie' versus the British 'biscuit" is discussed (p. 78), as well as the American 'kerosene' as opposed to the British 'paraffin' (p. 97).  There is also the use of the word "ass" on page 69, where Anthony refers to Jeff as a "silly ass" for the careless way he handles his boat.  Such an expletive would have never been used in an American story of the same time period (although I can't necessarily say the same for the more modern stories written today).

And, in case you are wondering where the title of this book comes from, as the story does not seem to have any reference to Spaniards at all - well, the kids manage to find a clue that makes references to 'three spaniards."  At first, they assume it refers to three men, although they don't recall ever seeing any Spanish men working or hanging around the pottery or the Inn.  They eventually discover that the Three Spaniards are actually three buoys out in the river way, which are used as a guide for the barges bringing in the stolen goods for smuggling.  

On a final note, this book has some similarities to a Canadian mystery of similar name - The Secret of Spaniard's Rock (the next to the last Secret Circle mystery).  Both stories feature a brother/sister team who are vacationing near a site where there are mysterious happenings.  Both involve smuggling of a sort, and both have Spaniard references that hold clues to solving the mysteries.  Both stories also feature a flashing light as a code for the crooks.  The Three Spaniards was published in 1954 in Britain, while The Secret of Spaniard's Rock was published nearly a decade latter in 1963 in Canada.  Children's mysteries are rather well-known for their coincidences, which more often than not help the protagonists solve the mysteries, but one does have to wonder if the author of Spaniard's Rock had not read this book and some of the plot elements stuck with him.

In any event, this book does offer up a fairly decent story, and I'm glad I picked it up.

RATING:  8 slabs of Terry's Bitter chocolate out of 10 for providing a dangerous and adventurous tale of smugglers on the river that offers up a few unexpected twists at the end.