Vicki Barr #11, The Ghost at the Waterfall

I know I said that The Secret Stair would be next, but I lied, okay? Anyway, I have to say that The Ghost at the Waterfall is a rather unusual series book. The book opens with Vicki's friend/RN Ruth Hall asking Vicki to fly her up to a remote area of Canada, to nurse her brother, who's injured himself in a mining accident. Betty Sue that Vicki is, of course she agrees. Good old Bill gets her set up in a plane, and off they go.

All is well until they run into a storm and short on fuel. They're forced to make a landing in a clearing in a remote area. They find a hunter's lodge, which unfortunately is inhabited by fur smugglers instead of hunters. Vicki and Ruth are (naturally) discovered hiding in a closet. Two of the smugglers have just shot the third smuggler, who is an odd character--a rough and tumble woman whom they first mistake for a man, and who is also the leader--and one of the men's wife. The men leave for a smuggling run, forcing Ruth and Vicki to care for Jody, the wounded woman.

Once the men are gone, the girls fly to the mine with an incriminating ledger they've found, after first getting Jody set up in relative comfort and safety. Ruth is left to nurse her brother as planned, while Vicki makes contact with a Mountie and tells him about the situation. He wants to take over, but Vicki (of course) feels an obligation to care for the injured woman.

Back at the lodge, the Mountie patrols the woods, while Vicki stays in the cabin. Like a genius, she falls asleep at the kitchen table, and the woman is able to steal the gun. The Mountie has no way of knowing that Vicki is now being held as a prisoner. Eventually, of course, they're able to capture the woman and all her accomplices, with the assistance of Vicki and Bill.

• This book has a really odd, claustrophobic feel. I really felt the isolation and desperation of the situation. In that way, it reminded me of Behind the White Veil, which is, in my opinion, the very best Vicki Barr book. Interesting, when you consider that they were by two different authors, Julie Tatham and Helen Wells.
  
• This book reminded me in ways of several other series books as well: The Mystery at the Ski Jump, a Nancy Drew book about fur smuggling, the original text of The Message in the Hollow Oak, another Nancy, which is set in rural, wooded Canada, and the Madge Sterling book, The Missing Formula, which has the same setting. Allow me to here plug the Madge Sterling books, which I think are really underrated. They're a breeder set by Mildred Wirt, published by Goldsmith. I got all three on Amazon, in dust jacket, for about $5 apiece.
• This book has some more seriously romantic vibes between Vicki and Bill than most of the other books, which feature a playful flirtation. In the end, Vicki is rescued by Bill, who "senses" something is wrong when she doesn't return on time.
• Is Ruth ever mentioned before this book? I don't recall her, although it's been awhile since I read the earliest books. I tend to file nurses away in my mind, since I'm an RN.
• The titular ghost at the waterfall is this alleged "Indian legend." The gang takes advantage of this legend by using Jody dressed up in Indian garb, yelling, as a signal for the nights when they're receiving furs. Yeah, it really makes no sense. It's also supposed to scare off the locals. I mean, how Scooby Doo of them.
• EVERYONE in this book seems to be a pilot. As in Jody and her husband, and I think a few others. I guess it's somewhat more plausible considering the remoteness of the location, but it still seemed a bit of a coincidence.
  

I quite liked this book, although it didn't have the light-hearted feel that I tend to prefer from a series book. It was much better to me than #10, The Search for the Missing Twin.

I have a question for collectors out there. My copy is ex-lib, which in this case doesn't bother me, as it's in beautiful condition. However, the dust jacket is still in the library mylar, which is glued to the front end papers. Should I attempt to detach the mylar (lighter fluid? scissors?) or slit it from the front and remove the dust jacket, or what? There's nothing on the spine, so it still looks quite good on the shelf. My first instinct is to leave it, but it does have a less than beautiful overlap seam on the cover, which you can see in the picture.

Mildred A. Wirt Mystery Stories #1, The Clue at Crooked Lane

Mildred Wirt Benson is best known as a ghostwriter for the Nancy Drew series. However, she was extremely prolific and wrote for many other series, such as Ruth Fielding, Dana Girls, and Kay Tracey, as well as several titles in her own name. One of these series is the Mildred A. Wirt Mystery Stories, published by Cupples and Leon in the 1930s, of which The Clue at Crooked Lane is the first.
There's no illustrator listed, but the expression on Peggy's face reminds me of the early Tandy artwork for Nancy Drew. Something about the profile and the tucked chin, looking up.

The Clue at Crooked Lane fulfills pretty much every series book stereotype ever: amnesia, missing person, missing will, a secret drawer, gypsies, a miser, motherless girl with motherly housekeeper. It's all very Mildred Wirt. The motherless girl in question is Margaret "Peggy" Palmer, the daughter of Major Palmer. Her best friend Rebecca convinces her to come with the other girls to a gypsy camp to get their fortunes told. While there, the police raid the camp, and the old gypsy gives a bracelet to Peggy. Naturally, it's the stolen property of an actress, and the police immediately accuse Peggy of stealing it. When the actress, Marilyn Marlowe (yes, really), is asked to identify Peggy as the thief, she does so, even though it's clear Marilyn has no clue who took it. Peggy is only released when her friends track down the old gypsy and get her to confess. She now has an enemy in Miss Marlowe, who was shamed before the police.

Peggy's Uncle Jack sells antiques, and she sometimes helps him unpack shipments. While doing so later that night, she discovers a secret drawer in a desk, which contains a locked onyx box. Her uncle says it needs to be returned to the original owner--it was purchased at an estate auction at Sleepy Hollow, some 100 miles north. She and Rebecca drive up the next day and meet Linda, the only person living on the estate. Her uncle Elias disappeared three years ago with a ton of money belonging to a charity and has now been declared dead. He left all of his money in an old will to a distant cousin, in spite of the fact that he had been caring for Linda for several years since her parents' death. Peggy is convinced that the onyx box must hold a newer will, and Linda promises to come down to visit Peggy and see the box.

The next day, Peggy discovers that a clerk has inadvertently sold the box to Marilyn Marlowe, who denies it when questioned. Uncle Jack sends her and Rebecca to pick up an old clock in the mountains, but they get a flat along the way. When they go for help, they stumble across an old miserly recluse living on Crooked Lane. He's kind, but clearly confused and not remembering his past. I'm sure you can guess who he is, but we've still got more than 100 pages to go. Peggy goes back to visit him weekly, because she's concerned that he's not eating, and she senses a mystery about him.

Linda comes in and is disappointed about the box. While with Peggy, they interrupt a hold-up at a jewelry store and get the police--the thief sees Peggy and promises revenge as he's captured. Peggy attempts again to get Miss Marlowe to give up the box, but she throws Peggy out. Peggy's solution? Breaking in to the house. Sweet. She has no luck with the box, but overhears two maids talking about it. Afterward, the gardener tells her that Miss Marlowe is at her mountain summer home. Conveniently, Rebecca's parents invite her and their friends to a house party up a their own mountain lodge. Peggy goes over for attempt #2. Again, Miss Marlowe tosses her out, and again Peggy breaks in. Just, wow. To throw in one more stereotype, she's forced to hide in a closet and is discovered. She escapes with the box, blows the fuses--which kills the lights, and absconds on a high speed automobile chase. For real. It's pretty amazing.

She turns in at Crooked Lane and discovers a robbery in process--the thief from earlier has escaped and is hitting the miser over the head. She leaves the box in the car and runs. The thief captures the miser and Peggy, but they gain control of his gun in struggle. She locks him in a wardrobe (see the frontis), but the miser has been injured. At this point, her friends are searching for her. Once found, they send for an ambulance and the police. Of course, the knock to the head causes the man's memory to return, and when Peggy asks if he's Uncle Elias, he says yes. The thief robbed him three years earlier and hit him over the head. He's had amnesia and the delusion that he must make enough money to make up the loss, which is why he's a miser. He and Linda are reunited, and Marilyn Marlowe, who is the distant cousin and has destroyed the will by now, gets absolutely nothing.

• The book blatantly says, "Rebecca liked whatever Peggy liked. However, she found it difficult to keep up with her more energetic friend." This is almost always the definition of a secondary series book character, but I've never seen it so blatantly stated.
  
• The book is very Nancy Drew in that, once the police find out who Peggy's father is, they immediately back off and are worried.
• Uncle Jack has a Chinese cook named, I kid you not, Squint. Ouch. I have to admit a secret fondness for Chinese cook characters, though. The Adventure Girls at K Bar O, for example.

While there's no romance or fashion, The Clue at Crooked Lane makes up for it in adventure. The mystery is pretty lame--it's obvious to anyone who reads these kind of books who the miser is--but it's better written than most. I'm still on a hunt for good sleuthing chums, though! Next up, I did decide to go with an old favorite: Judy Bolton and Seven Strange Clues, to be followed by The Mysterious Half-Cat.

C&L Mystery Stories for Girls #9, Escape by Night

Honestly, I had trouble believing that this book was by the same author as The Dormitory Mystery. It was published in 1941 and falls in patriotic war propaganda territory, to the detriment of any character/plot development.

Wendy, an orphan, lives with her crippled* Uncle Ed and yet another harsh-but-secretly-loving housekeeper, Sarah, in what used to be the Edgewater Inn, formerly operated by her parents. She's received a letter from a Mr. Schmidt requesting that he and his family be able to stay at the inn all summer--and he'll pay well for the privilege. Wendy talks her uncle into taking out a loan so that they can fix up the inn and take guests again. She wants the money that the profits would bring, so that she can go to college for hotel management.

She gets the inn ready with the help of her buddies, Duke and Eva. Neither is as charming as Chubs. Miss Abbott, a nurse/nutritionist/former inn patron, also hires on. The Schmidts come, along with several other guests, who all just happen to want the south wing. In her rush at the sudden influx of guests, Wendy brilliantly hires a maid and her sister without checking their references. Some normal guests also come, but they get driven away by strange events (snake in the bed of a child, salt in the soup, theft of Mrs. Schmidt's pearl necklace).

Wendy has several suspicious encounters with the guests, and she basically ignores them all. For example, she overhears Mrs. Schmidt and the maid speaking in a foreign language, which, when caught, they claim is Czech. Mr. Schmidt also asks that a "high line" (something electric/radio related?) be installed in his young son's room, supposedly for the son's experiments. Miss Abbott, who nursed oversees in the first World War, also recognizes one of the guests, but can't place him. When a hometown boy in the military brings comrades to stay in the hotel, the guests are pretty clearly attempting to spy on the group. At this point, Wendy's finally figured out that SOMETHING is wrong, but her suspicions don't solidify until the regretful/fearful wife of one of the men confesses that they are Nazis. Well, that and when escaped German POWs are found on an island in the lake. That Wendy, she likes to be sure before she takes action.

Wendy decides to poke around in the room with the high line, which is full of radios. She accidentally does something to one of the radios. When the men unexpectedly come in, she has to hide in the closet (series stereotype #549). She overhears their plans for a mass synchronized bombing of the US. And a bunch of "Heil, Hitler!"s. Of course, she gets caught when someone on the radio asks the men about the signal, and they seach the room. She gets bound and gagged, and they seriously toss her over a cliff into the lake. She saves herself by praying that she hits water(not the jagged bottom of the cliff) and arching herself into a dive. They somehow don't notice this, and she makes it to shore and gets rescued by a woman and her daughter. They take her to a doctor, he takes her story seriously, and they alert an FBI agent staying at the woman's hotel. The gang gets rounded up, Wendy is a hero to her country, and the publicity ensures that the Inn will stay full of guests.

• The front flap synopsis tells you the entire story, spoilers and all, including the ending. Not that there's much doubt about the ending, but it's still annoying.
• It was never clear to me if Mr. Schmidt wrote to Wendy about staying at the Inn completely out of the blue, or if she had advertised for guests. My impression was the former, which is kind of weird.
  
• Duke isn't a romantic interest; the book really doesn't have one. I got some vibes from the Steve the Hometown Hero military boy, but nothing ever came of it. Duke and Eva are also not together. Not a drop of romance in the whole book.
  
• They give a dance at the Inn for guests and locals. Wendy wears "a pale blue crisp pique," Eva a "white organdie, full-skirted and ruffled." A real guest worries that her short summer frock isn't appropriate, and Wendy reassures her that any natives in long dresses are her fellow graduated seniors, who are just "delighted at a chance to wear our class-party clothes again!"
  
• When the POWs are caught, it's not known that they're escaped prisoners--just some people found on the island who don't seem to speak English. Miss Abbott attempts to interrogate them and find out their identities. She tries a couple of languages, then says, "Heil, Hitler!"They click their heels and return the phrase. Um, wouldn't escaped POWs be a LITTLE more cautious?
• I don't want to know what sort of people are going to Google up here now that "Hitler" has been named on this blog.
• Only after the guests are arrested does Miss Abbot remember where she's seen the guy before--he was her patient in Paris, a captured German naval officer.
  
• I'm a nurse specializing in spinal cord injury rehab, so I hate to use the word crippled. However, the book doesn't elaborate on Uncle Ed's condition, other than to say he uses a wheelchair.
• The orphan living with housekeeper is very typical. However, her uncle is completely uninvolved in the mystery, unlike other parentless heroines. He sits and carves in his workshop, while his teenage niece runs the hotel.

In case you couldn't tell, I didn't enjoy this book. I'm not quite sure what I'll review next--my huge TBR pile includes the final two Sara Gay books, a few Sally Baxter, and some Mildred Wirt Cupples and Leon titles. I'm still on the lookout for The Pledge of the Twin Knights.