A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #33 - Who's Next?

This thirty-third entry into the Zebra Mystery Puzzler series is the second book authored by Joan Allan, whose true identity remains a secret (although there is a clear connection with author Martin A. Grove, who wrote a number of books in this series under the pseudonym "Marjorie Grove").  While the first book by Allan, Who Killed Me?, has a dedication to "Marjorie, Martin and Geoffrey Eric Grove," this book has a dedication to Marjorie and Geoffrey - with Martin noticeably missing!  Once again, this begs the question as to whether "Joan Allan" is just another pseudonym for Grove himself.  In any event, this book sees the return of advertising executive Valerie Lambert, who must play amateur sleuth once again when faced with an ever-growing pile of dead bodies!

 

Who's Next? takes Valerie and her assistant, Oscar Fryman (known simply as "Fry"), to Paris, France, where they are to meet with the owner of her agency's latest client, Abbe-Roi, a vineyard famous for its champagne that is hoping to break into the American market.  Joining Val and Fry for the trip is wine expert Franklin Hertford, an Englishman who has agreed to offer his expertise to assist Val in coming up with a campaign for Abbe-Roi.  While there for the weekend, the trio are staying with their host at a rather lavish - and, coincidentally, very isolated - chateau that once belonged to the original owner of the land - Pierre Alexandre Saulnier, who was brutally murdered on the property and who is said to still haunt the halls of the somewhat worn down homestead.  No one believes in ghosts, of course, but for Val, it does set the mood for what is about to be a terrifying weekend!

 

Allan eases readers into the story, with 60 pages of build-up as Val and Fry first meet Hertford, and the three travel more than a couple of hours by limousine to the chateau.  They are welcomed and introduced to their hosts, Henri-Robert Verlaine and his wife, Claudine.  At the lavish wine-tasting being held down in the wine cellar, Val and Fry also meet the other guests for the weekend:  Michael Rochambeau, the vineyard's chef de caves; Edouard Cherbourg, the vineyard's advertising director; Nicole Courteline, who is Edouard's secretary; Roger Saint-Benoit, head of sales for the vineyard; and Alexandre Saulnier-Carpeaux, descendant of the original owner of the chateau.  Of course, there is also Gerard (the butler), Caroline (the maid), and Alain (the cook).  With the cast fully introduced, Allan wastes no time at that point getting to the murder we've all been waiting to happen.

 

Rochambeau is the first to be killed, before the wine tasting can even get off to a good start.  With everyone there in the room, it's next to impossible to figure out who the killer is.  Then Cherbourg's secretary is killed rather gruesomely, with a mess left behind (hint: this is the scene from the cover of the book).  After that, Saint-Benoit literally has his brains beaten out of his skull, making him victim number three.  Before the night is even over, Hertford is nearly killed, saved only by the fortunate turn of his head at the most opportune moment!  One of the survivors of the group disappears, leaving everyone else to wonder if perhaps this points to the guilt of that person - but that suspicion comes into question when two more dead bodies turn up, bashed in their heads by a heavy tree branch (with a rather horrific image of those bodies depicted in one of the internal illustrations, page 171!).  With everyone being picked off so quickly, over the span of one evening, it leaves Val and Fry wondering - who's next?  (Hence, the book title!  In fact, the author asks this question three times in the story:  pages 82, 108, and 143.)

 

I was actually rather surprised by the rather explicit descriptions of the bloody deaths.  "Roger Saint-Benoit's skull had been cracked open ... The sight of his brains splattered among the bedclothes was sickening..." (p. 103).  The last two victims "had been bludgeoned to death ... and now lay in a shallow pool of blood that trickled directly across the narrow trail" (p. 165).  This is a murder mystery, so I would certainly expect some description of the crime scene; but I believe this is the most horrific descriptions I have seen to date in any book in this series.  And the illustration on page 171, with those last two victims - definitely not for the faint of heart!

 

Speaking of illustrations,  Sanford Hoffman once again provides the internal illustrations, and interestingly enough, three of the six internals are horizontal, rather than vertical.  Normally, we might see one or two in this way, but to see half of them depicted in this form is a bit unusual.  What is not unusual is the framing around the illustrations, since that seems to be a standard for Hoffman in this series, which, to be honest, I rather like.  Especially when he has part of the illustration extend beyond that frame (as he does with that gruesome scene on page 171).  The clues in the illustrations are not obvious at all, except maybe for the one on page 151, which becomes extremely clear once you know the identity of the killer.

 

There was a part of me, as I was reading the story, that was hoping this would all turn out to be some elaborate hoax, such as the film April Fool's Day (1986), and in the end, it would turn out no one was dead, but it was all staged just to test the analytical and detecting skills of the guests.  But, alas, it was not.  Instead,we got a replay of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, in which ten individuals at a secluded estate suddenly find themselves being picked off one by one (with the only obvious difference being not everyone dies in this tale!).

 

There are a few things worth pointing out about this book.  Published in October 1979, I was surprised to see a reference to Star Wars (p. 14).  Yes, the movie had been out for two years at this point, but normally I would not expect a pop cultural reference like this to appear so soon.  The author also throws in a number of real newspaper columnists, such as Dorothy Kilgallen and Louis Sobel from the New York Journal-American; Frank Farrell from the World Telegram; Earl Wilson and Leonard Lyons from the New York Post; and Walter Winchell from the New York Daily Mirror (p. 44).  These came up as Val revealed her original dream of becoming a columnist, before changing direction and working in advertising.

 

9 shattered bottles of champagne out of 10 for piling up the bodies, subtly laying out the clues, and providing readers with a creative climax to the story! 

The Mystery of the Chimeric Cornucopia - the Third (new) Three Investigators Mystery

I honestly have given this series a whole-hearted try, as I wanted to like the series, since I enjoyed Robert Arthur's Three Investigators' books so much as a pre-teen.  But this book merely reinforced many of the things that I do not enjoy about the series, and as such, it is the last book that I will read in the series (thankfully, I did not purchase any books beyond this first three breeder set).  I know nothing about the authors, Elizabeth Arthur and Steven Bauer, other than the fact she is the daughter of the original author, Robert Arthur, and is married to Steven.  The author bios in the back of the book provide the authors' educational backgrounds and some writing history; however, none of that supports either Arthur's or Bauer's ability to carry on Robert Arthur's legacy with these characters.  It is a real shame, too, as I would have loved to have seen a truly great series of Three Investigator mysteries for the present day.

 

The Mystery of the Chimeric Cornucopia follows the sequential lettering of the series' titles, with this book being the letter "C."   The main mystery in this book seems to surround Jupiter Jones' family and the real identity of the woman he believed to be his mother.  However, there is a secondary mystery that has a very familiar plot - a counterfeiting scheme, where the counterfeiters have their equipment set up in a cave located at the edge of a property line.  Gee, sound familiar?  (And if it does not sound familiar to you, then clearly you need to go read the early Nancy Drew mystery stories, and you'll quickly learn from where this plot appears to have been derived.)  Honestly, the sub-mystery felt completely unnecessary to the overall story, and while portions of it were weaved into the mystery surrounding Jupiter's mother and her ancestors, they were not so intricate that the same result could not have been had without them.  Instead, it felt as if the counterfeiter elements were inserted to add some "excitement" and "danger" to the story, as the boys go into the cave, are startled by bats, discover the engraving equipment, and face off against a truly vile counterfeiter who had killed his criminal partner nearly thirty years prior!

 

Now, as to the mystery surrounding Jupiter Jones' family - for me, this was not especially enjoyable.  This sudden impulse of Arthur and Bauer to superimpose all of these overly-diverse cultural backgrounds into not only the Three Investigators, but also in every single person they know, meet, and come in contact with is tiresome.  As I mentioned in my reviews of the last two books, the authors' decision to imprint these characters with multi-cultural ethnicities is wholly unnecessary and does nothing to "flesh out" the characters, as the authors' website indicates.  Instead, it feels like the same old forced diversity for the sake of diversity and does not in any way make these characters more relatable or more relevant.  Bob is half-Chinese.  Pete is half-Mexican/American.  Jupiter is half Serbian.  Mallory is Scottish.  Worthington is British.  Mallory's friend, Califia, is half-Spanish, half-African-American.  Arthur and Bauer spend so much time reminding readers of the ethnic background and heritage of each character, that you wonder how short the book would be without all of this extraneous material.  Don't get me wrong - I don't mind knowing that each of these characters has a multi-cultural background; what I do mind is having it thrown in my face repeatedly, and having the characters talk about it pretty much every time they open their mouths.  The Three Investigators are supposed to solve mysteries, not give readers a history lesson on the countries from which their ancestors came.

 

Additionally, the mystery (aside from the threat of the counterfeiter) was a bit too convenient.  Jupiter knows he has a Serbian background.  The family he met in the last book happen to be Serbians.  They go to visit that family, meet another family who happens to turn out to be related to his mother, and Jupiter suddenly discovers he has a ready-made family consisting of his mother's aunt, her son and his wife, and her grandchildren.  Granted, series books rely heavily on coincidences for their sleuths to solve the mysteries, so this really shouldn't be that far-fetched.  However, it may have had a bit more impact if Arthur and Bauer had held off on this reveal for several books, to allow it to build a bit before making such a revelation.  Perhaps if this book had been more about the counterfeiters (even if the plot was borrowed from Red Gate Farm) and less about pushing Jupiter's Serbian roots and missing family, I might have enjoyed it more.

 

With all of that being said, there were some things I did like about the story.  I enjoyed the moments with Bob as he was researching Jupiter's family tree, and his discovery of how Jupiter's mother changed her name.  With the advancements of technology, it would make you think that solving mysteries would be much easier than it was back in the 1930s when Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were first getting their start; but Arthur and Bauer show that even with all the technology we have at our fingertips, it still requires someone with the knowledge and ability to work with that technology to dig up the information you need.  And Bob was able to do just that.  I am glad Arthur and Bauer gave some of the details of what Bob had to do in order to locate the information and connect the dots, as THAT gives readers a lot more definition of Bob's character and personality than any ethnic background imprints.

 

I also liked the exploration of the cave, the discoveries made therein, and the unexpected turn of events when they come face to face with the counterfeiter.  I think it was these scenes that really allowed Pete to shine as the one who stays calm in the face of danger and is quick-thinking when it comes to defusing what could be very volatile situations.  His attempts to talk down and "make friends" with the counterfeiter, despite having a knife held to his throat, really made me appreciate just how mature he can be when needed - while, at other moments in the story, he embraces his child-like nature with playing games of Go Fish and Slapjack,  Again, these are the things that truly define the boys' characters - not their cultural and family histories.

 

Finally, I did rather find the boys' new car to be fun - the Flex with the Chimera sticker on the back of the car.  Since they no longer had use of the Rolls Royce (after all, that contest won wayyyyyyy back in the first book of the original series) was bound to run out sooner or later.  And this new car is unique in it own way, and the chimera sticker gave the boys a new way of looking at their partnership, even helping them create a new logo to go right alongside the three question marks that have been their trademark for so long.

 

I am disappointed that the series did not meet up with my expectations, but with the cost of each book being what it is, it is simply not worth it for me to continue buying them when I have no intention of reading them.  Perhaps if I ever find them second hand for a few dollars, I might pick them up; otherwise, this is one series that will end with the third book on my bookshelf.

RATING:  5 wax-sealed barrels of wine out of 10 for at least making an attempt to keep the Three Investigators series alive and well.