A Ted Wilford Mystery, no. 1 - The Secret of Thunder Mountain

Can't really recall who turned me on to this series (James Keeline, perhaps?), but I remember reading a post about it, so decided to check it out.  Found that these reprints were available on Amazon for a relatively inexpensive price, so went ahead and bought the first five in the series (definitely have high hopes in the series to do so!).  Originally published from 1951 through 1967, this fifteen-book series features Ted Wilford, a young high school student whose older brother is a reporter for the local newspaper in their small town.  He, and his best friend, Nelson Morgan, go on adventures and end up solving mysteries along the way.

The Secret of Thunder Mountain introduces readers to Ted and his older brother, Ronald.  We also meet Ted's best friend, Nelson, as well as Ted's love interest, Margaret Lake.  We  see the Wilford brothers' mother once or twice, but the only thing we learn about her is that she is more then consenting to her two sons traipsing off into the mountains on their own to search for a fabled gold mine.  Otherwise, she has no prominence in the story whatsoever, and one wonder why she is even in the story (except to perhaps show that the boys have at least one living parent).  Another character we learn a bit about is Ken Kutler, who is not only Ronald's competition in the reporting world (working for a competing newspaper in a neighboring town), but he is also an old friend of Ronald's.  In fact, Ronald is featured so much in this story, it begs the question - who is the true protagonist - Ted or Ronald?

Why do I say this? Well, the author has a tendency to switch points of view throughout the entire story, at some moments, within the same paragraph.  While the book is told in third person, there are times where we are reading the story through Ted's point of view (which would make since, since this is toted as being his mystery series), but there are nearly just as many times where we find ourselves readying the story through Ronald's point of view (and Ted isn't even in the picture). An early example can be found on page eight:

Ronald sat back in the large swivel chair. "Now what's on your mind?"

"Ron, I want to get an interview with Old Goldie for our school newspaper." Ronald's reaction was the same as Nelson's; he, too, whistled. "That's going to be tough. I suppose if you do find him, you think he'l tell you all about his mine, and everything else you want to know."

At first glance, it appears Ronald is doing all the talking (grammatically, at least, that is what it is). But, when you read it, you see that the second paragraph begins with Ted talking - the only thing is, the author not only doesn't identify Ted as the speaker, but in the same paragraph immediately switches over to Ronald.  There are a number of instances throughout the book where speakers change without warning in the same paragraph, causing a bit of difficulty in following who is saying what.

Now that I'm done critiquing the grammatical aspects of the book, let's look at the story itself. I'm the first to admit I'm not a huge fan of boys' mystery series.  For the most part, I find them more about adventure and less about the mystery, and quite frankly, I buy mystery series for the mysteries.  Admittedly, this book gets off to a slow start, and by all rights would have bored me to death (considering it clearly started out as a treasure hunt for the fabled gold mine of Old Goldie); however, the further into the story I read, the more I began to actually like Ted and his friend, Nelson, and I began to root for them to find the gold mine.  Sure, the mystery itself was more than just where is the gold mine - there was also who exactly was Old Goldie; how does the young crippled boy Tim fit into all of it; how does the photograph of the cabin and the strange coded message lead one to the gold mine; is that Indian sidekick of Old Goldie really back in town; and what exactly does Mr. Gumber really want?  The further into the story you get, the more the mysteries start to come into play and the more I found myself wanting to see this through to the end right along with Ted and Nelson.  The conclusion is logical and satisfying, and overall, I'd have to admit it was worth the read.

Apparently the author, Norvin Pallas, was a huge fan of puzzles, and as the author of several puzzle and code books, it should come as no surprise that there is a unique code within the mystery that plays an important part of discovering where the hidden gold mine is.  Otherwise, there is not much information out there about the author.

One thing that I thought was rather interesting - this book is not the only children's series to use The Secret of Thunder Mountain as its title.  There is a Tom Quest book that shares the same title (having never read this series, I can't tell you what it's about), and, oddly enough, there is a Hardy Boys board game based on the 1970s' television show that is titled The Secret of Thunder Mountain. Apparently, Thunder Mountain was a popular place to be, and it certainly held its fair share of secrets to be used in not one, not two, but three separate series!

On a final note, there is a rather humorous thread running throughout part of the book that involves Ronald's car (which seems to be an old jalopy).  Ronald and Ted have affectionately named the car "Jeremiah," but yet when they refer to the car by pronoun, it becomes "she" and "her."  The scenes and dialogue surrounding Jeremiah are cute and brought a smile to my face as I read them.

Do I recommend the series?  Based on this first book alone, I'd give it a good maybe.  After I read a few more in the series, we'll see what my answer is then.

RATING:  6 wiggling ears out of 10 for making me think that quite possibly these mystery stories for boys may not be all bad.

Dark Shadows Audio Book 41 - The Happier Dead

As you may have noticed, I have been listening to a lot of Dark Shadows audio books lately.  Between the trip to Miami for SuperCon, and then the much longer trip to Kentucky to attend a funeral, I've had plenty of driving time, so lots of opportunity to plug in a CD and listen to the citizens of Collinsport come to life!

This next drama, The Happier Dead, had a great premise - what if there was suddenly a day where no one died, no matter how damaging the injury or disease?  (Torchwood fans may remember this as the theme to the "Miracle Day" mini-series by Starz)  Well, when Amy Jennings is rushed to the hospital for abdominal pain, she awakes to find that her appendix was removed, and she will recover.  What she doesn't expect is to find that no one else in the hospital has died that night either - from car crash victims to cancer patients - no one!  She begins to investigate with the help of her boyfriend, Simon Turner, who seems intent on joining her in her quest to put an end to supernatural terrors as they occur.

I like the idea of Amy becoming a sort of ghost-hunting Nancy Drew-esque character.  With her growing knowledge of the supernatural and arcane, and her spunkiness and determination, the writers have developed a very likable Amy Jennings.  And the continuing subplots within these audio dramas, as well as the use of more than just one or two actors in each story (as seemed to be the standard in the early audios), keeps my interest peaked and leaves me wanting for more at the end of each story.

I also liked the character of Dr. James Balthazar.  This is one character that I could have easily seen becoming a very worthy protagonist in the Dark Shadows mythos.  He is unfriendly, secretive, and definitely suspect.  His actions in this story came as a surprise, considering his personality and the initial build-up of his character.

Now, what I did NOT like about this particular story is the excessive use of cursing.  An occasional "damn" or "hell" I can overlook.  Even an emphatic "bitch" once in a great while can be passed over.  However, the writer of this drama (Adam Usden) seemed to rely quite a bit on expletives such as "Jesus" and "Christ" and "G**damn" and such.  Several of the characters used them, including Amy Jennings!  Now, I'm not a prude by any means - but one of the things I have always enjoyed about Dark Shadows is the fact that it was not your typical soap opera. Sure, they were some love triangles - but the storylines did not involve abortion, blackmail, rape, and your typical daytime stories; instead, they relied heavily on the tropes of horror tales of days gone by - werewolves, vampires, frankenstein monsters, time travel, parallel time, the phoenix, and so on.  Another thing easily noticeable about the show (and, of course, this could be more because of the era when it aired) was the fact that there was little to know swearing in the show.  Throwing words such as "Jesus Christ" and "G**damn" around unnecessarily does not add to the story at all; rather, for me anyway, it took me out of the story and, well, it annoyed me.

Aside from that, the story was well-plotted, and the ultimate villain behind the supernatural event actually surprised me - not at all who I thought it was.  And poor Amy, she just can't catch a break when it comes to meeting men (without giving too much away, I will say that Simon is NOT the villain of the tale).  Hopefully, one of these days, one of the writers will give her someone that won't betray her, try to kill her, or die on her.

RATING:  7 undying corpses out of 10 for keeping Amy on track with her supernatural investigations!

Creepella von Cacklefur, No. 1 - The Thirteen Ghosts

Okay, so I'm a sucker for some gimmicks - sue me!  I've had my eye on the Thea Stilton series for a long time - every time I go into a Barnes & Noble or a Books-A-Million, I see the series of books on the shelves, and I'll pull a couple out, glance through them, and wonder whether I should give them a try.  They look short and sweet, easy to read, and quite frankly, fun!  Yes, I realize the reading level for the series is ages 7 to 10, but when have I ever let that stop me from enjoying a good mystery series.

So imagine my surprise when a few weeks back, David and I are browsing through Books-A-Million, and I see they have a "Buy 2, Get 3rd Free" sale on all of their children's series books.  Seeing no new books in the current series I collect, I thought this might be the perfect chance to pick up the first three Thea Stilton books and give them a shot.  So, imagine my surprise when I saw another series right there next to Geronimo Stilton and Thea Stilton - a uniquely horror/mystery series starting "Creepella von Cacklefur" - who is described on the back of the book as "an enchanting and mysterious mouse with a pet bat named Bitewing.  By night Creepella is a special-effects designer and director of scary films, and by day she's studying to become a journalist."  As a lover of horror stories and mysteries, this was a combination that I couldn't resist.

The first book in the series, The Thirteen Ghosts, is not necessarily scary, and the mystery is anything but mysterious; but, it is good, clean fun, and had these books been around when I was in first and second grade, I have no doubt I would have been gobbling them up as soon as each new book came out.  The writing is simple, and the author utilizes repetitiveness as an obvious means to teach younger readers new words.  Each chapter is chock full of full color illustrations, and there are a number of two-page full illustrations (depicting the cast of characters, or the rooms of the mansion, etc.).

The plot is not overly intricate - Creepella is looking for her latest story for "The Shivery News," and she decides she wants to interview some ghosts.  With her pet bat and her niece, Shivereen, she heads to Squeakspeare Mansion, which is said to be filled with ghosts.  There, she meets the latest owner of the mansion, Billy Squeakspeare, who is a writer and is timid as (dare I say it?) a mouse.  They discover the mansion is haunted by not just one, nor even just two or three, but by thirteen ghosts!  And these ghosts are none too happy to have visitors - until they find out Billy is a writer!   They all have stories to tell and no way to tell them; so, it falls upon Billy to start telling their tales.  Not before Creepella, though, gets the interviews she needs to make her article a chilling success.

There is no information given in the book as to the identity of the author, but I found some very interesting facts about the book on the publication page.  The series is based on an original idea by Elisabetta Dami and apparently is an Italian publication.  Scholastic has translated the series and published it here in America for young readers.  The original title was Tredici fantasmi per Tenebrosa, and the cover art is by Guiseppe Farrario, with internal illustrations by Ivan Bigarella (pencils) and Giorgio Campioni (colors).  The original Italian text was translated by Emily Clement.  Clearly, there were a lot of people involved in the creation / publication of this book, and it leads me to wonder how successful it is over in Italy.  Something to look up one day, I suppose...

Along with the "Greetings from Somewhere" series, this is another early readers series I would recommend for children who are just getting into reading (first to third graders).  It's fun and easy to read, and the style is nearly Disney-esque in nature.  Now we'll have to wait and see if the further volumes in this series stand up to the test.

RATING:  7 convertible hearses out of 10 for giving kids a "horror" series of books that are squeaky clean, yet still fun to read.

Dark Shadows Audio Book 40 - The Harvest of Souls

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program...

It's back to Collinwood and the continuing story of terror and nightmares, as author James Goss picks up right where Beyond the Grave left off.  The Sheriff, Jim Hardy, is dead.  The recent episode of the show "Beyond the Grave" is being touted as merely a drama, downplaying the reality of the horrifying events that occurred live on the show.  And Maggie Evans finds herself alone in Collinsport ... literally!  There is no one in town, and Maggie, all hope lost, decides to take her own life.  She is stopped, however, by a most unexpected source - Gerald Conway (as played by the former "Doctor Who," Colin Baker), who was last seen in The House by the Sea.  But, as those who listened to that audio drama will remember, Gerald is not exactly himself these days...

The Harvest of Souls is an interesting and very sad look at Maggie Evans and the toll her life in Collinsport has taken on her.  Over the years, she lost her mother, she lost her father, she has lost a number of friends (either by death or by them moving away), and at times, she has even lost her sanity.  Goss writes a well-crafted story about Maggie's inner-most despair and strength, and it's amazing the range that Kathryn Leigh Scott has - to take Maggie from the point of giving up completely to finding her strength once again and saving not only herself, but the whole town of Collinsport!

Bringing back Conway (albeit Nicholas Blair in his body) was a surprise, but definitely a welcome one.  It's been a while since I've seen the television series (and by "a while," I really mean well over 15 years now...), but I seem to recall that Nicholas had a fascination with Maggie and even fell in love for Maggie (as much as a warlock in the service of the devil can fall in love).  So having him rescue Maggie from her attempted suicide, and then attempt to persuade her to live in a dream world forever with him makes perfect sense (leaving me to wonder if this story was already planned, and The House by the Sea was a harbinger of things to come).

It is always fun to see (hear?) the continuity among these stories - Dr. Balthazar makes a brief appearance at the beginning of this tale, as he checks in on Sabrina Jennings (who, faithful listeners will recall was hit by a car in The Flip Side).  His character also plays a much bigger part in the next audio drama, The Happier Dead.  There is also a reference to Maggie's days as a blond, which, on the television show, changed to her natural long, brown hair without any explanation whatsoever.  And the true villains in this story turn out to be the Leviathans, whose story on the television show was probably one of the most reviled by fans.  So Goss gives them a final (?) closure, sending them off to their final resting place in the sea.

There is also that recurring nursery rhyme, "One, Two, Three, Four Five," which has been heard in three prior audios, making this its fourth appearance.  Leaves me wondering what future story it will play a role in...

This is definitely one of the darker Dark Shadows audios, but it ends on a high note, with Maggie regaining her inner strength and conquering, once again, the evil that threatens to overwhelm her hometown.  Her final words in the story hold more than just truth for the fictional world of Dark Shadows, but definitely speak loudly after all the recent events that have taken place here in the real world - Orlando, Dallas, Belgium, and elsewhere -

"Everyone's looking up at the sky, hoping that at any moment, the sun will finally come out.  And maybe it will. So, I guess life goes on; because, where there's life, there's always the hope that today is going to be a better day."

RATING:  10 dreams of a better day out of 10 for reminding us all that even in our darkest times, we can always find hope that the sun will shine again!

The Time-Traveling Fashionista, Book 3 - And Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile

I finally took the plunge and took one last trip into the world of Louise Lambert, the time-traveling fashionista.  This book came out in 2013, and there is no news nor listing of any other book in this series, so I can only assume that this is the final book (which is a shame, since it is a rather unique series).

This final entry into the series picks up right where the previous book left off, with young Louise Lambert shocked to discover that her own mother could very well have been a time-traveling fashionista in her youth.  She is unable to get her mother to admit to anything, so when Marla and Glenda send her another invitation, Louise is determined to pull the truth from them.  Instead, she finds herself tossed back in time once again.  Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor.  She has taken on the role of an assistant to the costumer designer - but instead of living out a dream job, Louise picks up a pearl necklace that sends her further back in time, where she ultimately lands in a very real ancient Egypt as a servant and confidante to the very real Cleopatra!

Louise wakes up to find herself in ancient Egypt - or rather, what she thinks is ancient Egypt.  Instead, it tuns out to be a movie set, and Louise is thrilled to find she is on the set of

The double time-shift is a new twist in this book, as previously the author, Bianca Turetsky, had only sent her protagonist on a single trip back in time.  The author has a bit of freedom in her storytelling this time around, as she admits in the afterward at the end of the book, since there is so little known about the early years of Cleopatra's life.  Turetsky's fashionista finds herself not only struggling as a servant (truly, a slave!), but also a witness to two vicious murders that no one in Cleopatra's time even blinks an eye.  And while Turetsky actually creates some growth within Louise's character in this book through her experiences with Cleopatra, at the same time, she leaves unresolved the dilemma regarding her feelings for Todd and Peter.

The book closes with Louise finally making contact with her fellow fashionista, Stella (whom she met in the previous book) and, at the time time, realizing she has received no more invitations to Glenda and Marla's vintage clothing sales.  Perhaps this was the harbinger of things to come (or not to come, as the case may be) - Louise never received another invite, and readers never received another book in this series.

Once again, the book has some beautifully painted color internal illustrations that, for the most part, highlight the fashions in the book - although, there are two 2-page spreads that showcase the movie set for Cleopatra and, later, the great city of Alexandria.  This is something that I will admit I miss from so many of children's mystery series these days - the internal illustrations.  For me, these illustrations always added something special to the books.  That is one positive thing about this series that lends it a more favorable light.

RATING:  6 poisonous asps out of 10 for providing some character development, as well as that double time-travel twist to shake things up a bit.

Dark Shadows Audio Book 39 - Curtain Call

Nancy Barrett returns to the audio dramas in Curtain Call, the latest Dark Shadows CD that I recently listened to as I traveled to Miami.  This time, she is playing Leticia Faye, who is the cousin of Pansy Faye's mother.  Leticia Faye has the gift of sight, but she has been doing everything she can to avoid the visions, focusing instead on her life as the high society wife of Desmond Collins.

This story is a break from the recent continuing stories involving Maggie, Amy, and the citizens of Collinsport.  Now, listeners are transported back to 1857, where Leticia is trying to learn to speak and act as one of the affluent New Yorkers, so that she won't be a continued embarrassment to her husband.  But, as always, one's past always has a way of catching up, and for Leticia, it is her gift of seeing the future that comes back to haunt her.

Enter:  Joshua King.  He's a man of incredible persuasion, and he is inciting the poor, downtrodden, and unfortunate people of society to rise up and rebel against the rich, aristocratic, and selfish upper class.  It's a revolution King is wanting, and a chance meeting with Leticia Faye seems to be the answer to his prayers.  Here is someone who has real insight, who can really see into the future and can help change his act of charlatan tricks into truth and reality!  Leticia is resistant at first, but the more she gets up on the stage, the more she finds herself pulled back into the limelight.

The question is - is Joshua King everything he claims to be?

As Leticia has more and more visions of the future - of flying metal birds with people inside, of massive troops of soldiers, of many other futuristic events and things - she begins to doubt what she is being told.  And, in true Dark Shadows fashion, the supernatural suddenly comes into play, and Leticia finds herself a mere pawn in a much larger game being played.  And thus, from New York to Collinsport, Leticia finds herself back at Collinwood, as King forces her to take him to the stairway into time so he can finally gain control of time itself and ensure a future where he is lord of all!

While not exactly one of my favorite audio tales to date, the story is a nice breather from the ongoing terror that has beseiged Collinsport as of late, and I enjoyed Barrett's spunkiness with Leticia's character,  There is not a lot of references to other Dark Shadows storylines within this tale, although there is mention of Desmond having shot Gerard Stiles.  There are several historical references - such as James Buchanan being President and the sinking of the S.S. Central America.  A little infusion of truth into fiction can only further bring the story to life.

The brief snippet at the end promises a return to Collinsport, as we resume the ongoing drama of its citizens and our familiar case.

RATING:  7 nosy gossips out of 10 for taking a lesser known character in the Dark Shadows mythos and providing her an opportunity to take the spotlight.

Hardy Boys Adventures, Book 12 - The Madman of Black Bear Mountain

The latest Hardy Boys book weighs in at a whopping 122 pages of story.  Seriously?  What is Simon & Schuster thinking?  This is exactly the same page count as the last mystery, which was certainly not the most captivating story.  But, then again, how much excitement and entertainment can you really capture with so few pages?  And what's sad is the fact that the premise of these stories are actually pretty good - it's just the execution that is less than stellar due to the compact nature of the books.

The Madman of Black Bear Mountain finds the Hardy brothers heading off the the famous Black Bear Mountain with their school environmental group to assist Dr. Max Kroopnik with some environmental studies.  Thanks to the financial backing of the parents of one of the students, the group of five (Frank, Joe, Mandy, Melissa, and Randall) along with their science teacher, Jim Morgan, head up into the remote forest of the mountain over the objections of a local lodge owner.  And what starts out as an adventure with high hopes of meeting a famed biologist and helping with the scientist's research turns into a fight for survival.

With that kind of build up, one would think there would be a great mystery here.  Plenty of characters to create suspects, a camp-fire tale about a mad cannibal living on the mountainside, a thirty-year old mystery involving a plane crash and a Russian mobster, and, of course, the black bears for which the mountain was named.  When one of the campers disappears, the biologist goes off searching for him also disappears, and then Frank and Joe get separated from the group, it seems there could be plenty of room to build suspense and create tension that would keep the reader turning page after page.

Sadly, with all of this crammed into only 122 pages, the pacing of the story is too fast.  It literally jumps from once incident to the next - arriving at the lodge, Frank overhearing a conversation about someone getting hurt, flying up to the mountain, a terse meeting with Dr. Kroopnik, a fright involving a black bear, their teacher missing with a bloodstain left behind, then Dr. Kroopnik disappearing, then Frank and Joe getting chased by the "Mad Hermit" of Black Bear Mountain and so on, and so on.  There is very little time at all to really get to know the characters.  While we find out snippets of Randall and Jim Morgan's characters, we learn absolutely nothing about Mandy and Melissa (leaving them as pretty much the stock females in distress).

As for the mystery?  It is anything but.  Right from the get-go, it is pretty obvious who is doing what and who the hermit is.  And that is really disappointing, as the last 11 books in this series have not been half-bad.  Either I am simply too old to really enjoy these books any more, or the writing is becoming more sloppy as Simon & Schuster simply puts out anything under the Hardy Boys (and Nancy Drew) logos, figuring the name alone will sell it.  There's no more care put into these stories, and that old S&S excuse that "children today just don't have the attention span for longer stories" doesn't cut it - I see way too many young adult books on the shelves that are 3 and 4 times as long as this, and they sell quite nicely.

I guess the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew stories of years ago truly are gone.  And it's a shame, as they are such a part of literary history at this point, you'd think S&S would care enough to want to continue that history and make their own mark on it.

RATING:  5 cans of tuna fish in oil out of 10 for at least providing an interesting plot, regardless of how lackluster the writing itself was.