Mary Lou #1, The Mystery at Dark Cedars

The Mary Louise Gay books were originally published as a breeder set by A.L. Burt in 1935. They either never caught on, or Blue Ribbon Books chose not to continue the series when they bought out Burt in 1937. Edith Lavell wrote two other, probably more famous, series, the Linda Carlton series and one of the many Girl Scouts series. I've never read either, so I can't make any comparisons.

I had been warned in advance by Jennifer's description that Mary Louise is not exactly a law-abiding citizen. And, boy, was she right. Her m.o. seems to be, "As long as someone's guilty, you can do anything. ANYTHING." She's the daughter of a police detective, but neither he nor the police plays too much of a role. Her mother is very much of the, "Yes, dear," variety and is completely extraneous. She has a little brother known as Freckles (Joseph) and her best friend is named Jane. As far as I could tell, Jane's only personality traits are being less fearless than Mary Louise and more interested in boys.

Mary Louise has an eccentric miser of a neighbor, Miss Hattie, who lives at Dark Cedars, her decrepit mansion, with two simple-minded servants (Hannah and her husband) and her niece, whom she treats like a servant. It's this niece, Elsie, whom Mary Louise and Jane befriend and enter into the mystery. There are mysterious sounds at night, and then Miss Hattie's safe is burgled for gold and paper money. Elsie is the immediate suspect of everyone, but, a la Murder on the Orient Express, there are actually multiple culprits. In the end, Miss Hattie gets her money back, and Elsie is sent to live with a more sympathetic relative.

• The book's opinions of "colored" people and gypsies would not pass current muster. At one point, Mary Louise gets important testimony from a black woman, the wife of a deacon, and her father tells her that the word of a colored woman doesn't mean a thing. And he's clearly not talking about "to other people," he's saying she's not trustworthy.
• A lot of the book is based around Executive Order 6012, ordered by President Roosevelt to prevent the hoarding of gold during the Depression. It was illegal to own any gold coins, bullion, or certificates. So Miss Hattie's stash is illegal. Elsie is considered a likely thief, because she's thought to be too ignorant to know that she couldn't use the gold. In the end, the true thief of the gold is a gypsy, as gypsies only traded in gold and silver.
• Edie talks a lot about clothes. Mary Louise and Jane give Elsie some of their clothes, including a green print silk dress, a wooly white coat, and a pink lawn dress, along with several items of lingerie. Elsie's old clothes are a dated purple calico, and she's envious of Mary Louise and Jane's bob hairstyles.
• The most shockingly illegal events of the book? ML&J stash away in Miss Hattie's nephew Harry's roadster (shades of Nancy Drew and Beverly Gray), and, when he stops, take his locked leather satchel. ML then cuts it open with a pen knife--completely destroying the bag. Luckily for her, some of the stolen money is inside it. It wouldn't be that bad, but at this point ML has no reason to suspect Harry more than any of the other relatives, and Jane is extremely upset at the proceedings. ML tells her that they'll replace it--if he's innocent.
  
• They talk about being near Harrisburg. Pennsylvania, maybe?
• ML's "boy-friend" is Max, Jane's is Norman.
• At one point, ML is bound and thrown into Miss Hattie's closet, which was pretty scary, I have to say. Very Nancy Drew of her, too.
• ML's mom is way too trusting of her, clearly for no reason. I just think it's bizarre to have such a clearly Nancy Drew/Penny's Parker & Nichols character with a mother.

So, not bad, but not the greatest. In 3-book series, though, I almost always prefer either the first two (Arden Blake) or the last two (Adventure Girls), so hopefully this is a case of the latter. Next up, the second book, The Mystery of the Fires.