Penny Parker Mystery Stories No. 15 - Whispering Walls

As I finished this fifteenth mystery in the Penny Parker series, I realized with sadness that there are only two books left before I take leave of Mildred Wirt Benson's perky little amateur sleuth.  This truly has been a wonderful series to read, with only one or two stories lacking the strength that most of the series has.  As the series has progressed, I also noticed that Benson's writing also matured - the stories became more adult and darker in nature, and the writing became less geared towards young adults and more similar to adult mysteries.  Benson never shied away from having her characters carry and use guns; poor Penny faces some truly life-threatening situations; and, in some instances, characters actually died as a result of their actions (as I found out in this book!).  I would love to know the real reason why the Penny Parker series ended after the seventeenth book - had sales truly decreased?  Did Benson simply not want to write any more?  Did the publisher decide the series had run its course?  Or were there other factors that contributed to the demise of the series?  I suppose that nearly 80 years later, we will likely never know for sure...

Whispering Walls is definitely much darker, dealing with black magic and its affects on people (regardless of whether the "magic" itself was real or not).  The story begins innocently enough, with Penny using her press card (p. 3) to get into a bank where the police are investigating the disappearance of the bank president, Hamilton Rhett (p. 5).  And before we go any further, let's take a look at that name - my friend, Pam, pointed out to me that the name "Hamilton Rhett" appears to be a combination of Ashley "Hamilton" and "Rhett" Butler, the two loves of Scarlett from the novel/film, Gone with the Wind.  Having never read the book, nor seen the movie, I would not have caught this, but since the book came out just 10 years prior to this book, and the film was only 7 years prior to this book, it is possible Benson had read the book or seen the film, and the names just stuck with her.  In any event, back to the story at hand - it seems Mr. Rhett's disappearance happens to coincide with the disappearance of $250,000 in negotiable government bonds (p. 6), which would equate to well over $4.2 million in today's cash!  While Penny is trying to get the story, she happens upon a piece of paper with the drawing of a "crude and sinister looking winged serpent" (p. 10), which thus begins her descent into the world of black magic.

From the president's secretary, Albert Potts, Penny (and the reader) learns that Mr. Rhett collected weird trophies of ancient cults from around the world (p. 12), and the drawing was that of a plumed serpent - which, in the real world, may represent Quetzalcoatle from the pre-hispanic Mesoamerica (Central Mexico).  When Penny goes back to the newspaper to tell the editor what she has learned, DeWitt sends her to the Rhett mansion to "get all the dope you can from Mrs. Rhett" (p. 15).  The mansion is described in typical gothic terms - discolored, with trees and bushes overgrown from lack of care, while the house itself has on each side a circular tower room with two small windows "which resembled human eyes" (p. 21).  That last description seems to give the Rhett house a life of its own, as it if were its own character in the story, watching over the other characters as the drama unfolds.  Mrs. Rhett is a recluse who refuses to admit anyone to the house and is adamant about not wanting the police or reporters anywhere near her.  Penny, however, meets Rhett's step-daughter, Lorinda (interesting name!) when the girl shoots an arrow that barely misses Penny's head in an effort to keep Penny out of a thatched-roof cottage located behind the house (p. 24).  Of course, Penny befriends Lorinda and offers to help her and her mother find out what really happened to Mr. Rhett.

Penny meets Anton and Celeste, the Rhetts' handyman and housekeeper, who are oddly enough described as "dark-skinned" (p. 38) rather than colored, black, African, or any other term.  And I say "odd" not because the characters are black, but rather because Benson has never shied away from using derogatory terms to refer to non-white characters, so to see her not use them to describe Anton and Celeste seems a bit out of the ordinary for her.  Penny (and the reader) quickly learns that Anton and Celeste were brought to America by Mr. Rhett, and that they are "natives" from an unnamed country that practices voodoo and other dark rituals.  In fact, Benson points out in the story that Celeste is wearing "one of those heathenish ouange charms" (p. 39).  I was curious as to what "ouange" meant, and a search for that word revealed it was actually the name of a movie from 1936 that is heavy with voodoo.  In the film, one of the characters use a death charm known as a "wanga."  Also, one of the character is named Klili, but on the movie poster for a renamed cut of the film called "The Love Wanga," the character's name is spelled "Clelie."  Interesting that Benson would choose to name her character "Celeste" and have her wear an ouange charm!

What is more intriguing about the writing of this mystery is Benson's use of the Zudi Drum as a major plot point in the story.  This book is not the first Benson book to have a mystery involving a Zudi Drum.  Back in 1932, some 14 years prior to this book, the second Madge Sterling mystery, The Deserted Yacht, also featured a Zudi Drum at the center of the mystery.  What is especially interesting to note is that Benson not only utilized the same plot device, but she also lifted an entire scene from that earlier book and re-purposed it in this book (compare the description of Enid removing the Zudi Drum from her father's wall safe in The Deserted Yacht at pages 81-82 with the description of Lorinda removing the Zudi Drum from her father's wall safe in Whispering Walls at page 49).  But Benson goes much further with this story into the superstitions and omens that Anton and Celeste have brought with them - from an evil ouange of two burnt matches with their ends tied together with a bit of scarlet string (p. 40) to an effigy doll of Mrs. Rhett, intended to frighten her (p. 98).  Penny and Lorinda even uncover dark rituals being performed in a cave not far from the Rhett mansion (p. 172), where Anton and Celeste, with some others, are chanting and performing weird rites to their Serpent God (pp. 171-72).

 

The thing that probably surprised me most about this story is the event that takes place during the hurricane.  And yes, you read that right.  Benson, who is famous for utilizing storms to create tension within her stories, brings a hurricane far enough inland to affect Riverview.  During the storm, Penny, Jerry (yes, he's back!), and Mr. Rhett chase Celeste down to the docks.  The storm becomes so intense, Penny and the others take shelter in a shed - but poor Celeste remains out in the storm, and the strong winds sweep her off the dock ... she tries to cling to a dock post, but she loses her grip and "with a scream, topped over the edge into the churning water" (p. 198).  I don't believe I've read such a horrific description of a villain dying in any children's mystery before, and it came as a shock to read it in this one.  At least when the dam burst in Hoofbeats on the Turnpike, the characters we thought died actually turned up alive in the end.  But not this time.  Celeste meets her demise, and such a tragic way to go.

K.S. Worner is back to provide both the cover art and the line illustration in the front of the book.  The cover art gives us a overly-dramatic confrontation between Penny and Celeste, while the frontis piece inside marks the moment when Penny discovers the hidden staircase that leads them down to the cave where Celeste and Anton hold their dark rituals.  In both illustrations, Penny is missing her trademark bow in her hair that so many of Worner's earlier illustrations had, leaving me to wonder if this was perhaps a way of showing how Penny has grown up over the course of the series (from being simply an amateur sleuth who happened to have the good fortune to fall into mysteries to a determined young reporter who, even though she is still in school, knows how to scoop out a story when she sees one!).  

One final observation is that regarding the budding romance between Jerry Livingston and Penny Parker.  While it was hinted at in prior books, there's been no opportunity for Benson to explore that avenue, since she sent Jerry off to fight in the war.  But in this book, Jerry is back full time, and he assists Penny in some of her detecting.  At the end of the story, after all has been resolved, and Mr. Rhett restored to his family and the truth behind the missing bonds revealed, Jerry and Penny have a rather amusing moment

"My reward or tonight's work.  Girl reporters, even cute little numbers like you, can't snatch my by-lines without paying the piper."

 

"And what fee do you require?" Penny asked with pretended innocence.

 

"We'll go into that later," [Jerry] chuckled, pinning her neatly into a shadowy corner of the vestibule. "Just now, I'll take a little kiss on deposit!"  (p. 212). 

I have to say, this scene has quite a bit of innuendo and some not-so-subtle subtext that could make even an adult slightly blush.  Between the dark tone of the mystery, the horrific death of Celeste, and this scene, this story could easily have been written and marketed to adults rather than young adults!  It leaves me anxious to see what the last two books in this series has in store!

RATING:  10 whispering, drum-pounding walls out of 10 for a superbly-plotted tale of magic, mystery, and mischief!

The Happy Hollisters and the Missile Town Mystery (HH19)

It's time to return to Florida with the Happy Hollisters!  While the Hollister family visited some fictional sites in their previous Florida adventure, (The Happy Hollisters at Circus Island), this time around, the Hollisters visit actual locations on the east coast of the Sunshine State!  Author Andrew Svenson (a/k/a "Jerry West") reveals in a letter written to a fan back in 1961 that he made a special trip down to Cape Canaveral (back before the name was changed to Cape Kennedy for a period of time) to do research for the book.  And interestingly enough, when the name changed from Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy, Svenson revised the text for the story to reflect the name change (meaning, for the die-hard collectors out there, there are two versions of this particular book to be found!).  Living not far from the Kennedy Space Center, I was eager to see what this mystery had in store.

The Happy Hollisters and the Missile Town Mystery takes the Hollister children and their mother down to Florida to visit Mrs. Hollister's sister, Carol Davis, and her family at Cape Kennedy (for the sake of consistency, I'll simply refer to Cape Kennedy, since the latter versions of the book used this name).  Mr. Hollister has work that prevents him from making the trip, but there's no need to worry - Aunt Carol's husband, Uncle Walt Davis, provides a steady male father-figure throughout the story, and he even works at Cape Kennedy, to boot!  The Hollisters are excited at the prospect of watching a rocket launch, but their first one turns into a disaster when the missile explodes shortly after take off - which leads the four older siblings on an adventure with their cousins, Randy and Sharon, to see if they can find any parts from the exploding missile which may have crashed along the coast, in the hopes that the scientists and engineers at Cape Kennedy can determine the cause of the explosion.  Plus, there's the three million dollar payload in the missile's cone that could potentially be out there somewhere in the ocean or along the coast, and the government is definitely anxious to recover that before someone else does!

This mystery is much more entailed and certainly provides considerable more danger to the children (although they are not necessarily aware of the danger).  A rundown shack on Cocoa Beach is home to a rough old man who makes it clear the kids are to stay away from there - but they begin to suspect something is wrong when a retired space monkey goes missing, and they ultimately find him coming out of that very shack!  There is also the trouble maker, Marshall Holt - who is very reminiscent of Joey Brill back in Shoreham! - who seems ready to cause trouble than for no other reason that he wants to show off.  When the children find clues that could lead to the discovery of the missing payload, they are put in grave danger - one of the villains sabotages Uncle Walt's car so that it runs off the road and crashes onto its side with Pete and Pam inside!  And the criminals have no issue with animal cruelty when they take the Davis family's small dog and just toss him overboard into the Atlantic, leaving the kids to scramble like crazy to get to the dog before he drowns!  Sure, the kids do seem to have a bit more freedom than children their age would normally have, and they definitely have some lucky coincidences in finding things the U.S. Government, with all of their technology and equipment could not find - but, c'mon, this is a children's mystery, after all, so there has to be a certain suspension of disbelief.

And although the first missile the Hollisters see take off explodes, they do have the chance to watch a launch from the beach, and Pete, Randy and Ricky even manage to get to see an underground launch from a restricted area after their boat runs out of gas near Cape Kennedy!  Speaking of which, Svenson uses a good amount of real locales for this book.  The Davis family resides in Cocoa (p. 28), which is situated on the Indian River (p. 28).  Later, the Hollisters are driven along the causeway, through Merritt Island, to read Cocoa Beach (p. 34), where they learn Cape Kennedy is on one end of the beach (p. 34), and Patrick Air Force Base is on the other end (p. 35).  The Hollisters also get glimpses of the Banana River (p. 94), which flows between Cape Kennedy and Merritt Island (p. 94).  And their visit to Port Canaveral, where they see the shrimp and snapper boats (p. 112) would probably make one think of the tropic port from which the castaways sailed in that old television show from the '60s (you know which one!).

Also, as with any good children's mystery, Svenson throws in some educational tidbits - such as how the city of Cocoa got its name (p. 52), as well as the meaning of Canaveral (p. 53) and why the name was changed from Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy (p. 53).  There's also explanations as to the firing of an underground rocket (p. 105), as well as how the fishing for shrimp (p. 113) and snapper (p. 147).  Thus, those who read the story will get an education as well as an enjoyable mystery.

In the recent hardcover reprints of the series, Svenson's grandson added some "extras" to the book, including family photographs, fan letters, newspaper articles, original outline and character pages, as well as some details as to where Svenson got his inspiration and information for the story.  It's fun to think that the author actually made a visit to Cape Canaveral and its surrounding area so that he could accurately portray the locales when writing the story - giving the mystery some realism to keep the story grounded.  It shows the care he took in crafting the series and how much he wanted to ensure his young readers were not only entertained, but also took away some knowledge after finishing the book.  You don't often find that kind of dedication in writers of children's series.

The Happy Hollisters are always great books to read, and this one especially so, since it is set so close to home!

RATING:  10 hidden message written in onion juice out of 10 for good, clean fun in the Florida sun with some missiles and mysteries, and even a monkey, too!

The Detective Chimp Casebook - a DC Comic Book Collection

Detective Chimp is a comic book character few people are likely to know.  To be honest, I really had no idea who he was until DC started to integrate him into some of their supernatural titles, like Shadowpact and Justice League Dark.  Since I have been reading comics with Detective Chimp in them, he has always been able to talk; however, this collection of the great detective's earliest adventures (pre-Crisis) have given me a lot of new insight into the character. Not only do readers get treated to Bobo's origin story (yes, Bobo is his real name), but you get the opportunity to see what kind of character Detective Chimp originally was and how he went about solving mysteries back in the 1950s - quite frankly, it's a real treat!

The Detective Chimp Casebook collects Bobo's adventures from his first appearance in The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog # 4 (July/August 1952) to his last regular appearance in # 46 of that same series (September/October 1959), as well as his co-starring role in the "Whatever Happened to...?" back-up feature from DC Comics Presents # 35 (July 1981).  With the exception of issue # 5, Detective Chimp was a regular feature in The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog, enjoying 42 adventures, each story six pages in length (well, actually five pages of story, since the first page of each story is basically just an introduction to the story).  All 42 of those stories were written by John Broome, with most of them drawn by Carmine Infantino (who I recognize from his many years working as an artist on DC's The Flash series pre-Crisis).  One story was drawn by Alex Kotzky, while six were drawn by Irwin Hasen.  The series had a number of various inkers, such as Joe Giella, Sy Barry, Bernard Sachs, Alex Kotzky, and Gil Kane - although Infantino did ink a a large amount of his own stories.  The back-up story in DC Comics Presents in 1981 was written by Mike Tiefenbacher and drawn by Gil Kane, who definitely stayed true to Detective Chimp's original stories with regard to characterization and even set up (with Bobo's boss introducing the story).  

In the first tale, "Meet Detective Chimp," readers are introduced to Bobo through Sheriff Edward Chase of Oscaloosa County, Florida.  Now, I must note there is no Oscaloosa County in Florida, but there is an Okaloosa County, so I imagine Broome simply changed a couple of letters when creating his setting.  An actual city is never named.  Most of the stories are actually told by Sheriff Chase, although Bobo does have the opportunity once in a while to narrate his own adventures.  Anyway, in this first adventure, we learn that Bobo was a chimpanzee trained by Fred Thorpe to run errands and perform simple tasks around his animal farm there in Florida.  When Thorpe is murdered, Sheriff Chase is called in by Thorpe's niece to solve the crime.  It turns out, however, that Bobo is the one who leads Chase to the real crook and solves the murder!  This is the one and only 8-page story in the series.

There was no Detective Chimp tale in issue 5 of The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog, making me wonder if perhaps it was intended to be a one-off story, but it generated enough positive response that DC brought the simian sleuth back for more adventures starting in issue 6 with "The Return of Detective Chimp."  In this story, Bobo solves the murder of Carlton Meade, a wealthy man who lives on a private island with his daughter.  It's funny, one thing I noticed about these first two stories is that Thorpe's niece in the first one and Meade's daughter in this second one are both blondes who wear red dresses.  This seems to be a recurring theme throughout the series, as most of the young females in Bobo's tales are blondes who tend to be dressed in red.  Not sure if this was intentional or just coincidental.

The stories are anything but complicated, and although there are only five pages within which Broome and Infantino had to tell the tales, they manage to pack a whole lot of story into each one.  The mysteries Bobo solves involve wax museums, circuses, ball parks, fishing boats, horse tracks, animal farms, and various other places.  Bobo also manages to develop quite a lot of hobbies over the course of the series, with each hobby entangling him with a new crime to solve - from spear-fishing to stamp collecting to autograph collecting to trains to airplanes and so much more.  And, just like another popular detective in children's fiction, Bobo is given a number of rewards for his ingenuity and quick-thinking in solving cases, such as a baseball uniform, a jockey's outfit, a cowboy suit, an underwater spear-fishing ensemble, and even a $500 check from the bank where he stopped some robbers from making off with a fortune!

As the series progresses, the adventures become less about Bobo actually "solving" a crime and more about Bobo simply trying to capture crooks (often thieves whose pictures the sheriff receives in the mail to be on the lookout for).  He's a spry little chimp, and he does capture the crooks in some rather funny ways, usually by inadvertence when he pushes something he shouldn't, or leans against something that is not stable, etc.  The antics almost make one think of a typical television show with lots of physical comedy.  Near the end of the run, I think Broome was running out of ideas, because he begins to re-use some plot ideas, such as Bobo solving a crime while playing baseball, or when he stops some criminals while pursuing a fire-fighter dream (and it's odd that the second fire-fighter story has Sheriff Chase in the introduction saying, "The last thing I figured on Bobo taking up was the art of fire-fighting" in the March/April 1959 issue, when Bobo had already done this just three years prior in the January/February 1956 issue, albeit with the forest ranger in that earlier story rather than the fire department in the latter tale - in fact, the two stories have similar names: "Where There's Smoke - There's Trouble" in 1956 and "Where There's Smoke - There's Bobo" in 1959!).

In Detective Chimp's last adventure (September/October 1959), he manages to recapture a couple of criminals he accidentally releases from their jail cell while simultaneously helping his little league team win their big game.  His last thought is, "I hope I'm not around when the boss finds out what happened!" referring to the fact that the crooks who the sheriff came back to find safe in their cell were actually released and nearly escaped if it hadn't been for Bobo's quick thinking and a lot of good luck!

Flash-forward twenty-two years, and an aging Bobo is found meeting his long-time hero, Rex the Wonder Dog, in the back-up tale "Whatever Happened to ... Rex the Wonder Dog?" in DC Comics Presents # 35.  Bobo and Rex team-up to stop a couple of thieves from taking off with $10,000 in charity receipts from the circus where Rex was performing, and in the process, they happen across the fabled Fountain of Youth.  After drinking the water from the fountain, both Rex and Bobo are restored to their more youthful days, giving the Detective Chimp a new lease on life in Florida, where he was able to continue "making monkeys out of local criminals," as his DC Comics' Who's Who entry says.

In the back of this collection are a few covers on which the Detective Chimp has appeared over the years, including three issues of Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, which reprinted three early Detective Chimp tales ("The Return of Detective Chimp," "A Whistle for Bobo!" and "Bobo's New York Adventure").  There is also a reprint of the Detective Chimp page from the original Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe, which gives fans some personal information and a history of the character.

All-in-all, this is a spectacular collection, which spotlights a lesser known character that definitely deserves the spotlight.  These are the types of collections DC Comics should be doing, providing fans with some reprints of the golden and silver age of comics, with a variety of colorful characters that deserve to be revived for new generations to read and enjoy!

RATING:  10 homemade jungle gyms out of 10 for good, clean, fun, and zany adventures of a chimpanzee with more talent for solving crimes than a dedicated small-town sheriff!

The Secret of Stonehouse - a Gothic novel for young adults

I honestly cannot tell you where I got this book or when I got this book.  I've had it for quite a while, and the only thing I know is that I picked it up some years ago because the cover had a very slight resemblance to the cover of the fifth Nancy Drew mystery, The Secret at Shadow Ranch - a young woman on a horse, looking back at a foreboding house.  It has been sitting on my shelf for years, and I finally decided it was high time I read the book.  Coincidentally enough, this book was published by Tempo Books, a division of Grosset & Dunlap, the same publisher who was publishing the Nancy Drew books back in 1973 when this book was published (the text copyright is actually 1968, meaning this is a later edition of the story).  Thus, with all of these things running around in my head, I sat down to read the story...

 

the secret of stonehouse (yes, all of the letters are lowercase in the title) tells the story of Heather Mackenna, a young girl from Scotland who has been moved by her uncle Donald around the world to live in the small town of Sky Lake, Wisconsin for reasons unknown.  As the mystery opens, Heather is pondering her fate, wondering why her uncle has moved her to such a remote location, forcing her to give up the only home she ever knew in Scotland, leave her grandmother behind, and probably hardest of all, leave her horse, Lady, behind.  It does not make sense, and her uncle Donald refuses to explain.  (We must stop a moment here and acknowledge that "uncle Donald" is not clearly defined in the beginning - Heather always refers to him simply as Donald, but he refers to himself as her father, and at a later point in the story we learn he is her uncle - her father simply dumped her off with Donald when she was but a wee lass and took off, never to be seen again!)

 

The mystery here centers around Donald's strange behavior since they arrived at Sky Lake.  He warns Heather not to tell anyone she was adopted, and more strange is his reaction to her telling him about the abandoned stone house she and a neighbor boy explored when they were riding horses (Heather makes friends with Gus, a boy whose family lives on the neighboring farm and whose horse, Cloudy, Heather has taken a liking to).  Heather is struggling to fit in, and her uncle is not making it easy.  But the story takes a darker turn when someone nearly runs Heather and Cloudy over the side of a bridge, and then someone breaks into their house when Donald is away, forcing Heather to climb out a window and run to Gus's house to seek help.  And just how does all of this tie into the story Heather has been told about the family who owned the stone house ... how the father was killed ... the baby daughter was kidnapped and later found dead, with only her clothes floating in the lake ... and the death of the mother shortly thereafter.  The caretaker still lives on the property, taking care of the house...

 

While it's not overly difficult to figure out what is going on, it's the journey of following along with Heather as she slowly puts all the pieces together.  The one thing that had me stumped was just how old is Heather?  From the start, it seemed she must be in her late teens or early twenties, as there is no mention of school, and her actions and freedom seem to indicate a young lady not long after graduation.  However, I was completely taken back when, at the beginning of Chapter 7, it says that Heather was happier than normal because "[t]omorrow was her fifteenth birthday, and her birthdays were always an occasion in the Mackenna family" (p. 84).  It was at this point that I realized this was not your typical gothic novel, and in fact, it may not have been intended to be a gothic tale at all.  Sure, it has all of the elements - a dark, foreboding house with secrets in his dark history ... a young woman terrorized by an unknown assailant ... and a man in her life that may or may not be the threat behind her troubles.  But the age of the main character derails it somewhat, and makes me wonder if the book was merely repackaged with a gothic-style cover to help sell it during the height of the gothic paperback era.

 

Regardless, the story is well-written and a good read.  Lynn Hall, in this case, is the author's real name and not a pseudonym.  She has written a number of books for young adults that feature horses and other animals.  This book appears to be one of her earlier publications, as many of her books appear to have been published in the 1970s, 1980s, and even into the 1990s. One of her books, The Mysterious Moortown Bridge (published 1980), happens to have been illustrated by Ruth Sanderson, my favorite illustrator and cover artist of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories.

The cover art does have an artist signature of "FMA" - who, coincidentally did cover art for two Bomba, the Jungle Boy books that were reprinted by Grosset & Dunlap in the late 1970s. This would lead one to assume the artist was someone Grosset & Dunlap contracted with on a somewhat regular basis.  Some research online reveals FMA may be Francesco M. Accornero (1938-2020), who was apparently an Italian-born paperback cover artist who provided covers across many genres and was known as "Franco."  Interestingly, most of his romance cover art appears to have been signed as "Franco," so perhaps it was his earlier art that was signed under his initials of "FMA."  In any event, the cover here is definitely spooky, although it is interesting to note the variation on the gothic trope, since there is no light in any upstairs window of the house; rather, the only light appears to be coming from the partially opened front door.

While the book is definitely a young adult novel, I'd still say it's a good gothic read.

RATING:  8 cocoa-colored stuffed horses out of 10 for giving young adults a taste of the gothic genre, with the right amount of suspense and mystery!

Agatha, Girl of Mystery #3 - The King of Scotland's Sword

It's been a bit since I last went adventuring with young Agatha Mistery, so I figured it was high time to pick up another one of her books.  This fun little series from Italy, written by Sir Steve Stevenson and translated by Siobhan Tracy, with plenty of great illustrations by Stefano Turconi, is not heavy reading by any means, but it is enjoyable reading that will bring a smile to your face.  With characters named Agatha, Dash, Watson, and Chandler, it's obvious the author is paying homage to some of the world's greatest mystery authors, and the mysteries themselves share some similarities with some of the stories written by those greats.  Agatha may only be a twelve-year old aspiring mystery writer, but she's intelligent, observant, quick-thinking, and talented, and she can solve any mystery in 125 pages or less!

The King of Scotland's Sword is Agatha Mistery's third mystery, and this time, she and her cousin Dash (two years older than her) are staying with their grandfather Ian Mistery, who lives outside of Edinburgh, Scotland.  Our world traveling sleuths are given yet another mystery to solve when Dash's school sends him an urgent assignment - a valuable sword has been stolen from Dunnottar Castle in Aberdeen!  The sword on belonged to Robert the Bruce, the legendary king of Scotland, and it holds great sentimental value for the natives.  What makes this mystery to hard to solve is that all but one of the guests and employees at the castle all suddenly fell asleep at once, and when they awoke, the sword was missing!  Who came in and stole the sword while everyone was sleeping?  And how will Agatha, Dash, Chandler, and grandfather Ian solve the crime before nightfall?  They had better find a way, because if they do not, then poor Dash will fail his detective class!

With this mystery, Stevenson gives his readers a form of "locked room" style mystery, of which Agatha Christie was a master at telling.  An entire room full of witnesses were all somehow made to fall asleep at the same time, during which time the thief came in, removed the famous sword from its glass case without damaging the glass or its casing, and took off with his prize without anyone seeing.  And the only way in and out of the castle was guarded by two police officers (outside the walls of the castle, so they were not asleep).  The only person who avoided falling asleep was the professor's assistant, Ms. Ross, who had gone out to her car to find her purse, as they contained some very important papers the professor needed.  When she came back in after her fruitless search, she found everyone on the floor asleep and the sword gone!  She had not seen anyone come or go, nor did the police - so whodunnit?

Agatha's (and the reader's!) detecting skills are put to the test in trying to solve this crime before dusk falls.  Where was Ms. Ross's purse, which she claims she lost?  Did she lose it, or was that merely a ruse to get out of the castle before everyone fell asleep?  Who could have taken the sword without damaging the glass casing?  It must have been an inside job, but who?  Professor Cunningham, the antique dealer who organized the exhibit? The Earl of Duncan or the oil millionaire Angus Snodgrass, the investors who put up the money for the exhibit?  Director MacKenzie, who ran the exhibit?  The man who claims to have heard a gunshot?  The woman who claims to have seen a ghost walking upside-down on the ceiling? The painter who heard a wolf howl in the hall?  There are plenty of suspects, and limited clues - like the straw, the golf ball, and the peacock feather Agatha and Dash find outside ... the glint of metal at the bottom of the well ... and the secret passage that leads down to the beach at the bottom of the cliff ...

It's a fun romp through an ancient Scottish castle and its grounds as Agatha puts together the pieces of the puzzle, and once they all fit, calls together everyone (like her namesake always did in her stories!) to reveal the identity of the culprit and explain how he put everyone to sleep and managed to sneak the sword out of the castle without anyone seeing him!  Definitely a mystery worthy of Ms. Christie herself!

RATING:  9 deflated balloons out of 10 for a well-crafted mystery that features a hot-air balloon ride, a search through a dark tunnel, and a race against time to solve a seemingly unsolvable crime!

A Zebra Mystery Puzzler #7 - The Curse of the Golden Skull

And so we come to the second Zebra Mystery Puzzler written by Ronald Joseph Goulart under the pen name Josephine Kains.  And again, I absolutely love the title, so reminiscent of those Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys' titles of yesteryear.  Plus, with the return of Goulart/Kains comes the return of that intrepid reporter, Terry Spring, and her wonderful producer, Jess Berkeley, as well as her always-hungry, girl-loving cameraman, Chavez.  These three make a fantastic detective trio, and their adventures are so much fun to read.

The Curse of the Golden Skull takes our threesome on a cruise to the Caribbean islands, where they are sent to cover a unique Voodoo Cruise for the news channel for which Terry works.  It seems like a great opportunity to mix a little pleasure with business, especially when Chavez meets a beautiful young woman, Claire Traynor.  But he will have to get past her overbearing aunt and their devoted housekeeper if he has any hopes of spending time with her.  Of course, his chances become greater when the Traynors' housekeeper is found dead in her cabin, apparently beaten to death with a cane ... a cane that looks suspiciously like that of an elderly, veiled woman that everyone had seen on the cruise when it first set sail!  Thus, it looks like the cruise will be making an extended stop at Sombra Island, the very island where Claire is headed to take ownership of the castle she has inherited from her recently deceased uncle - a castle that comes with stories of a hidden pirate treasure and a cursed skull!

There's definitely plenty of mystery in this book, and Terry, Jess, and Chavez are all right there in this thick of it.  Terry's involvement begins on the cruise when she saves Claire from an attempt on her life as a dark figure attempts to push her overboard in the dead of night - the very same night her housekeeper is murdered.  The question is, who killed the housekeeper and why?  And who was the veiled woman who bought a one way ticket to Sombra Island and where did she disappear to in the middle of the ocean?  And how is the housekeeper's murder connected with the attempt on Claire's life - or is it?  And will Chavez ever be able to convinced Claire's aunt to let him spend even five minutes alone with the woman?  These and more questions will fill your mind as you read this mystery.

Now, I will admit, this one is a fairly simple mystery to solve.  Well, at least part of it is.  The identity of the murderer is pretty obvious from the beginning, and there is a blatant clue glaring at the reader on the cover and second internal illustration on page 33 that pretty much gives it away.  However, that does not make the story any less enjoyable to read.  Goulart manages to throw in an over-zealous magician who catches Jess's eye, a less than honest tour guide who has ulterior motives for stopping at Sombra Island, and a potentially dangerous ex-boyfriend that keeps pushing his way into Claire's life.  We also get a dark castle on a stormy night - what better setting for a mystery to play itself out!  Add in a gold skull that holds the key to finding a centuries-old treasure, a coded message that will lead the one who solves it to the treasure, and a hidden room in an underground vault that reveals a (not-so) surprising secret about Claire's past that answers a question about her father's murder so many years ago.

The internal illustrations are beautiful, much more so than that last couple of books.  The artist is actually identified in one of the illustrations (p. 158) as Luke Ryan - which is the name of the illustrator who did the internals for the second book in this series (The Final Ring).  Not sure if Kensington (Zebra) had a group of artists in house, or if they farmed the work out, but they really should have used Ryan's art for all of the books in this series!  It is outstanding.  Probably my favorite of all Ryan's illustrations in this book, though, is found on page 114, which features a man Chavez and Jess believe to be a zombie - and that zombie bears an uncanny resemblance to actor Lon Cheney Jr as the wolfman!  No fooling - if you don't believe me, go Google the actor and his role and then compare it to this image.  You'll see I'm telling the truth.

 

The cover art is provided by Mel Greifinger, who went to high school at The School of Art & Design in New York.  After serving in the Navy, Greifinger began freelancing as a full-time illustrator at the age of 28, doing cover illustrations for various paperback and hardback books.

Seven books into this series, and I definitely know now why I enjoyed these so much back as a kid.  The stories are fast-paced, the mysteries are enjoyable, and the recurring sleuths give them a feeling of continuity.  While it seems most of the authors are men writing under female pseudonyms, I give them credit for creating well-rounded, female protagonists who I really like reading, and who I can't wait to read their next adventures.

RATING:  9 yellow pearlized hatpins out of 10 for a near-gothic style mystery of dark castles, hidden rooms, buried treasures, cursed skulls, and voodoo magic!

A Rather Lovely Inheritance - first in a series of "Rather" mysteries

I came across this series because I was actually looking for a completely different series - but it just so happens that the title character in both series share the same name - Penny Nichols!  For those who don't know, Penny Nichols was a four-book series published by Goldsmith back in the 1930s, written by Mildred Wirt (Benson) under the pseudonym of Joan Clark. It featured a spunky teen detective and her private investigator father who solved mysteries, much in the vein of Nancy Drew (who first appeared at the beginning of that decade).  It apparently did not have the sales to warrant an ongoing series, and after only four books, the series ceased publication.  I have had those four books for quite a while, have read and enjoyed them all, and have never really given much thought to the actual name of the title character (i.e., the fact that her name is actually two coins - "penny" and "nickel").  Now, flash forward to this year, and while strolling through Amazon, I happened across a series of mysteries by author C.A. Belmond whose title character is named ... you guessed it ... Penny Nichols!  Not too long ago, I read a graphic novel with the same-named character (Penny Nichols), and now I found this relatively new series of novels with Penny Nichols.  So, I have to ask - why is this name suddenly becoming popular again?

A Rather Lovely Inheritance is written by an author who has experience with making documentaries, and thus, her protagonist's position as a historical researcher on documentaries of women of the past could possibly  have been drawn upon Belmond's own experiences in the film industry.  Even if that is not the case, Penny Nichols' work plays a large part of the story, and it also adds some humorous elements to an otherwise very dramatic tale.  Penny's father is the son of a war hero who married a French woman.  Penny's mother, Nancy, is from England, but she has lived in the States since she was eighteen and married Georges Nichols after she moved to New York to pursue a career in art.  Penny is named after her Great-Aunt Penelope, and it is a name she hates - after all, who names their child Penny Nichols (say it out loud and you'll understand)?  But, she's stuck with it, so she makes the best of it.

This first entry into the series of "Rather" mysteries centers around the death of Great-Aunt Penelope and her will.  It seems Penelope was very specific about her bequests and who they should go to.  Her spend-thrift nephew Rollo inherited the bank assets, while Penny's parents received Penelope's London apartment and all of its furnishings.  This seemed to cause no problems (even after learning that Penny's parents did not want the apartment and had already informed the lawyers to transfer everything into Penny's name).  However, when it came to the will governing Penelope's assets in France - well, that's another story.  Penny's cousin Jeremy inherited Penelope's villa, while Rollo inherited the contents of the villa.  Penny, on the other hand, inherited the garage attached to the villa and all the contents.  Which really did not make much sense, as Penny could not imagine anything in a garage that would be of any importance to her.  Rollo and his mother grew outraged and threatened to contest the French will, and Jeremy (who Penny had been friends with since their childhood) assured Penny they would not present any real problem.

Boy, was Jeremy wrong!

Surprisingly, the mystery here was not a murder mystery that I expected.  Instead the mystery centers around the French inheritance, a stolen photograph from the London apartment, a rare 1936 Dragonetta (which does not appear to be a real car, but one simply made up for the story - at least, from what I could find online), a missing painting, and a dark family secret that could change everything.  There's also a break-in at the London apartment, during which Penny gets nabbed and thrust into the bathroom while the thief makes his escape - a break-in that leaves Penny questioning who she can trust and whether anyone really is who they say they are!  But, just like her 1930s namesake, Penny is determined and unwilling to back down, so she sets about to uncover the truth about her great-aunt's past, her childhood friend's real family heritage, and the importance of the contents of the garage she was willed.  And by the end of the book, Penny is in for a number of surprises, all of which will definitely change her life!

The story is a very enjoyable read, and the characters extremely likable.  The cast and crew of the documentary on which Penny is working in England when she receives the call about her great-aunt's passing are all just a bit over-the-top - but not so much as to make any of them unbelievable.  Rather, they are just zany enough to give the story some humorous elements and remind the reader that not everything the world is all doom and gloom.  Erik, the set designer, and Timothy, the prop-master, are probably my two favorites of the group.  Their reaction to Penny's inheritance (and Erik's reaction to Jeremy!) are hilarious.  

 

Now, one last thing I have to wonder about the use of the name Penny Nichols...  I purchased the book because of the name being the same as that of Mildred Wirt's sleuth in the 1930s.  What I did not expect to find was the following passage in this book:

Actually, the name may strike you as familiar, if you were the kind of kid who liked to read children's detective stories.  Because not only did my parents give me this ridiculous name, they also took it into their heads to invent Penny Nichols, Girl Detective - a picture-book character supposedly based on me.

 

She was a spunky little sleuth who went around snooping for her friends and neighbors, solving scientific puzzles and natural phenomena as if they were murder mysteries and crimes and kidnappings, by using deduction and logic, certainly, but also memory and intuition and instinct.  She carried around a magnifying glass, and she had cooper-colored hair like mine, which she wore in pigtails.  (p. 10)

Reading this, one might wonder if perhaps Belmond actually did utilize the name "Penny Nichols" as a way to pay homage to that original 1930s crime-solving teen.  That, and the fact that in this series, Penny's mother is named "Nancy" - and it's pretty common knowledge at this point that Mildred Wirt (Benson) was the original ghostwriter who breathed life into Nancy Drew, the ultimate girl sleuth.  Sure, it could all be a coincidence, but is it really...?

I would say this book is a must-read for mystery fans, as it is a wonderful break from all the murder mysteries on the market, it introduces a wonderful new female sleuth, it is well-written, and it is truly engaging.

RATING:  10 long-forgotten unmailed letters out of 10 for giving an old-fashioned mystery name a new lease on life!