Briarwood Summer

 

    Jean Hampton is a 20-year-old librarian living in Briarwood, CA. She is engaged to 24-year-old Marc who has dreams of being a professional children's book illustrator however for the time being he is working at The Palms hotel which is owned and operated by his mother, Rose.

    Rose is controlling and has Marc wrapped around her finger. She despises Jean because Jean encourages Marc to pursue a career in art. Rose treats Jean poorly but Marc refuses to acknowledge it and thinks his mother is an angel. When a beautiful, barely-legal blonde named Bunnie applies for a job at The Palms, Rose hires her in an attempt to lead Marc astray from Jean. She creates errands and jobs that require the two to be alone together and they quickly grow close.

    When The Palms hosts a dance Jean attends it with Marc and there she meets 30-year-old James Massey. James Massey is infamous in Briarwood due to his wife Francesca's unexplained suicide over a year ago. Following the tragedy James had left town with his son, Robert, but had now returned to set up a stable life for the 5-year-old boy. The town loves to gossip about James, claiming he must have driven his beautiful, young wife to suicide. His going around with her former best friend, Althea, adds fuel to these rumors.

    Unbeknownst to Jean, James becomes infatuated with her after their meeting and he finds excuses to see her such as having her babysit his son or giving her a ride home from work. One excuse is by helping Jean secretly submit Marc's illustrations to a publishing company in New York. Jean borrows some of Marc's illustrations, claiming she wants to display them in the library but then Marc asks for them back because Bunnie has arranged a meeting with a retired publisher staying at the hotel. When Jean confesses what she has done with the illustrations Marc burst out in anger at her and the two do not speak for a week. Jean finds herself dreading having to talk to Marc again and realizes that she has no desire to be engaged to him, let alone marry him.

    Marc shows up at her house unannounced one night and tells her he wants to end their engagement and that he is in love with Bunnie. Jean gives him his ring back and rushes him out of the house, thankful and relieved that she never again has to deal with Marc, his unstable mood swings, or all his problems which she often had to handle for him.

    Learning of the break-up James feels he can now openly show interest in Jean but hesitates to do so due to his reputation around town and his own feelings of guilt surrounding Francesca. Three months before her death James had left his wife due to her desire to completely control him, her erratic mood swings, and increasing debauchery. He, along with the town, believe his leaving her is what drove her to take her own life.

    Unbeknownst to him is that Francesca had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor and was not handling the diagnoses well. The only people she told were Althea and her pen-pal, Elnora, who is currently visiting Briarwood and blackmailing Althea.

    Althea, who is in love with James, has kept the reason for her best friends suicide a secret so James will stay rebuffed by Briarwood society and dependent on her. After Althea refuses to continue paying Elnora, James is told the truth and can finally move on from the past and begins to date Jean. Elnora is arrested for extortion and Marc and Bunnie elope to the fury of Rose.

- Francesca was clearly mentally ill so James saying he will only continue their marriage if she sees a psychiatrist was nice and surprising for the time this book was written.

- Marc is the epitome of the "men will do anything but go to therapy" meme.

- Everyone's exact age is mention and the author seems to be into younger women/older men age gaps. Francesca and Althea are older than James by 5 and 2 years and they're both portrayed unfavorably. They are written as awful, pathetic women who ruin a handsome mans life because they are so embarrassingly desperate to have him. Jean and Bunnie are 20 and 18 and are both portrayed as wonderful women who make men feel alive again. Even Bunnie who plots to steal Marc away from Jean, and succeeds, is considered angelic. Marc refers to Bunnie as a kid and Jean ponders that Marc might be attracted to Bunnie because she's childlike, yikes. The cliché of "man leaves evil 30+ woman for barely legal angelic girl" is very sexist and I was disappointed to see a female author use it.

- Sometimes I can't help but picture characters as actors and for this book I pictured Bunnie as Joi Lansing, Jean as Hope Lange, and Althea as Fredi Washington.

    Overall it was a good book about small town gossip. It had drama but in very relaxed way, not a way that's going to stress out the reader. It was a fun read.

Judy Bolton: Seven Strange Clues

    In preparation for a upcoming poster contest Judy is having a work bench built in the Bolton's cellar. Not only will she and Horace have use for it but Judy also wants to have it for her friends; Honey who does not have the space to paint in her grandparents apartments, and Irene who can not afford her own paints.

    The work bench is to be built by Stephen and Lon, two young men who are boarding at Irene's house and renting half of the Bolton's garage for their car. Stephen particularly seems to have taken a liking to Judy.

    Now that Judy is spending more time in the cellar she is noticing some strange things. First she hears the sound of glass breaking and later she hears whistling. Things also begin to go missing such as an apple she is using as a reference for her poster and a stack of papers places by the furnace for burning.

    One night Judy goes out to the movies with Peter while Honey uses Judy's work bench. The couple arrive back at the Bolton house at midnight to find Honey nervous and in a rush to leave. Although she insists she is fine Judy thinks Honey must have experienced something spooky in the cellar.

    Irene doesn't end up using the work bench as Kay Vincent has suddenly decided to make friends with Irene and lend her own paints to the mill girl. Kay's snobbery surpasses that of even Lorraine and she has a long history of refusing to associate with any of the girls who work at the mill so her sudden interest in befriending Irene is a surprise to all who know her.

    It is the last day to hand in posters for the competition and as Judy and Honey are walking to school they see people rushing despite the early hour. A fire truck ends up passing and soon the girls see their school building up in flames. The school is completely destroyed as well as the students posters which were inside. Judy feels no great personal loss over the latter as her poster turned out embarrassingly bad.

    The contest participants are now made up of students from other schools with the exception of Kay who was waiting to turn her poster in alongside Irene who attends Industrial high, a special night school for the mill workers. Judy is certain that Irene's beautiful poster will win the competition so it is a surprise when she opens the announcement letter and sees that she, Judy, has won first place.

    Knowing that this is impossible due to her poster being destroyed in the fire Judy heads to the department store where the posters are being displayed. The winning poster is unfamiliar to Judy but after some investigating, and misunderstandings, it is revealed that the poster was created by Honey. However more questions arise when Honey announces her poster disappeared in the Bolton's cellar.

    On the night Judy and Peter went to the movies Honey was working in the cellar alone when she began hearing muffled voices. In her nervous haste to leave the house she forgot her poster in the cellar but it was not there when she went to retrieve it later.

    With so much happening in the cellar Judy, Horace, Honey, Peter, and Irene all head down there and begin searching for a hidden entrance. They find a trap door in the floor which leads to a sub-cellar which contains another trap door leading to the Bolton's garage. Inside the sub-cellar they find shelves which are empty except for a broken bottle of whiskey. The group is now able to piece the mystery together: the house's former tenant, gangster Vine Thompson, had been bootlegging liquor. Stephen and Lon had rented the garage with the intention of accessing the sub-cellar and sneaking out the liquor. Judy is able to deduce that the boys were hired by Kay Vincent's father, who owned the house when Vine rented it. Kay's sudden interest in Irene's friendship was an excuse to be around the two boarders and supervise the smuggling job. The papers were stolen from the Bolton's cellar to wrap up the liquor bottles with. When Honey's poster got mixed up with them the boys, assuming it was Judy's and being fond of her, had put her name onto it and turned it in for her.

    Judy takes this information to police chief Kelly who conducts a raid on Kay's father. It is also soon learned that Kay had copied her poster from a magazine advertisement. Having forgotten the magazine on her desk at school she sent her little brother, Dick, to go retrieve it and while using a match to light the empty classroom he accidentally started the school fire.

    Irene ends up being hired by Judy's father as an office girl which pays her more than the mill and gives her an opportunity to learn more about her father's illness as Dr. Bolton is his physician. Irene's father's illness is due to paint poisoning he got while working in unsafe conditions in a factory owned by Mr. Vincent. Irene tells Judy that they will be suing Mr. Vincent over it.

- I found Irene very unlikeable. She gets mad at Judy and wants to end their friendship because she is jealous she didn't win the poster contest.

- I like how Sutton just exnihilated the Vincent family. Kay had been awful to Judy since book two so she certainly had it coming.

- I love how Honey clearly is interested in Horace in this book. They are an adorable couple in my opinion which means I didn't much like how Irene was placed into the role that Lorraine takes when it comes to Judy and Arthur.

- I found the mystery in this book to move a little bit too fast for my liking. It seemed like Judy was making wild assumptions and they turned out to be true. I can overlook it though since it's not the norm for this series.

- I like how we continue to find mysteries in the familiar setting of the Bolton home. I enjoy the mysterious history of the house and like it being used beyond The Haunted Attic.

- I also was a fan of Blackberry helping solve the mystery. I think Sutton did a good job of including him but also keeping him as a realistic cat. He helps them solve the mystery simply by wanting to be let outside.

- I like Stephen and Lon and would have enjoyed if they became semi-reoccurring characters in the series.

Kim Aldrich: Silent Partner

    Kim is taking a vacation at a ski resort in the Austrian Alps. She has become friendly with the young man in the room next to hers. He is Jim and with him he has a 12 year old boy named Roby who clearly adores him. Kim is intrigued by these two as Jim is too young to be Roby's father. Both of them have an interesting quirk of staring at her attentively when she speaks.

    While they are all out on the slopes one day Kim is taking some home videos when she ends up capturing an intentional, and fatal, ski accident. That night she finds someone has been in her room and stolen the film out of her camera. Unfortunately for them Kim had changed film and the evidence of the crime is still in her possession.

    Kim questions Jim about his relationship to Roby and he tells her a sad story; Roby's father is Jean Paul, a famous skier who owns the resort they are currently staying at. Roby's mother passed away in a car accident while pregnant which caused Roby to be born post-mortem via a c-section. The situation led the hospital staff to believe Roby was mentally disabled and his father rejected him, having him sent to an institution for the mentally disabled. 

    When Roby was 8 Jim came to work for the institution and correctly suspected that Roby wasn't mentally disabled but deaf. After teaching him sign language Roby began to flourish and was transferred to a school for physically disabled children, with Jim getting a job there to continue taking care of the boy. Jim had brought Roby to the Alps for two main reasons; to show Roby that, with his lip reading ability, he can live a normal life without people stigmatizing him as disabled, and with the hope that they will run into his father and he will either accept the child or allow Jim to adopt him.

    One night after putting Roby to bed Kim and Jim see two men in the resort lounge secretly using international sign language. After they return to their rooms they find Roby missing. Mixed up in some nefarious goings-on the two are unsure how to proceed, do they call the police and risk Roby's safety? And what about the film that shows the crime, what good can it do if they are unable to get it developed. While discussing their next move Jim tells Kim that he'll need her to be his ears which makes Kim realize Jim is also deaf.

    After seeing sign language being used again in the lounge, the two learn of a secret meeting being held in the garret of the resort. Kim and Jim climb up to the garret balcony and witness the secret meeting. The men inside use sign language so as to not be overheard and Jim translates it to Kim; the men are drug smugglers, the man killed on the slopes was an Interpol agent, and Roby was kidnapped and placed in an isolated cabin up on the mountain cause the gang believed he found out too much.

    Kim and Jim decided to head up the mountain to rescue Roby but as they are sneaking supplies from the ski room one of the gang members shows up. It is the man who Kim captured on film causing the fatal accident. He tells them that he is looking to run out on the gang and will take them to Roby if they can secure half a million dollars in jewels from Roby's father. Having no other option they agree. Kim and Jim go to Jean Paul's home where they secure the jewels from his wife but are falsely accused of being the ones behind Roby's kidnapping.

    They make the dangerous trip up the mountain which includes skiing sideways across a headwall that has a worrying amount of snow overhead. Once at the cabin they find Roby and spend the night there waiting for him to warm up enough to be able to safely make their decent.    

    The next morning they get back to the headwall when the criminal tells them that this is where they part ways. He instructs them to head back across the headwall and that he will climb up the mountain and descend on the other side. However once he is farther up the mountain Kim sees him with a gun. He is going to wait until they are crossing the headwall then shoot the gun to cause an avalanche, killing the three. When they don't begin to cross the headwall he points the gun at them, leaving them no option but to try and outrun the avalanche.

    Jim is the only one who outruns it. Kim and Roby are buried alive but dug out by Jim. Soon they are rescued by patrol men checking the area. Once safe the three head to the police station to report everything but there they are instantly arrested for murder, kidnapping, and drug smuggling. The head of the gang is also their impersonating the Interpol agent that was murdered.

    They are all taken to Jean Paul's house where Kim outwits the gang leader, Roby tells his story, and Jean Paul accepts Roby as his son.

- Religion is weirdly shoved into this text, it doesn't feel natural at all. The only natural inclusion was when Jean Paul and his wife give Kim and Jim a sleigh ride home and stop at a sermon which has a special meaning since it was the first one since the murder which hung heavy over everyone at the resort.

    However Kim and Roby "making peace" with God while trapped in the avalanche, Kim getting offended anytime Jim uses an expression with "god" in it, Kim saying her wedding would be "in a church, of course", and Jean Paul insisting Roby be raised Catholic even though he refuses to accept him as his child and tells everyone he has no children were all awkwardly forced into the text. The last book didn't do this so I'm not sure why this one was so focused on Kim being a believer.

- I'm not sure the author was really aware of what sign language looks like because in the scenes where the men are secretly using sign language in the lounge it is described more like morse code. A man is tapping his fingers on a book he is reading and another man replies by tapping his fingers on the fireplace mantel. If you've seen sign language you know that's just not accurate.

- After they arrive at the cabin to rescue Roby they eat and have some wine with the wine causing Kim to fall asleep. I thought this must mean Kim is at least 21 but then I looked at the year this book was published. It was during the time the majority of the U.S. had lowered the drinking age to 18. Alas, we still don't know Kim's age. Also, they give Roby some wine to help warm him up and it puts him to sleep. Definitely something you wouldn't find in a kid's book today.

- I did not think Roby going to his father at the end was a good choice. If that was suppose to be a happy ending then why did the author make Jean Paul so irredeemably unlikeable throughout the book. Jim has raised Roby to be a good, kind boy and Jean Paul is a terrible person who is probably going to undo all of that. Jean Paul also calls Roby "defective" so I doubt he will be patient when it comes to Roby's deafness. The real happy ending would be Jim adopting him.

    Overall this was another good book in the Kim Aldrich series.

Kim Alrdich: Miscalculated Risk

    Kim Aldrich, the daughter of an FBI agent, is working as a secretary for WALCO insurance agency. One day commissioner Saunders of Neadham shows up to talk to the company about a lawsuit his town is undergoing.

    It seems that down on the beach there is a large area of rocks where children like to play. The rocks are suppose to be sprayed weekly with a chemical to keep algae from growing and causing the rocks to be slippery and dangerous. But the rocks have not been sprayed for some time which resulted in a small boy named Peter Madden falling and getting seriously injured. The boy is in a wheelchair now and his parents are suing the town for $500,000. Since the towns insurance policy is only for $100,000 the commissioner desperately needs to win this case. However he refuses to try and reach a settlement with the Maddens. He insists doing so would cause others to falsely sue the town.

    Kim, interested in the case, visits the beach location where she ends up meeting a handsome young man. His name is Andy Hill and he is the Madden's lawyer. Instantly drawn to each other the two start working on the case together to discover who is at fault for the accident.

    All signs point to the town being liable as the rocks had not been sprayed. The chief life guard, Bill Jones, reportedly wrote in his work log that he had repeatedly requested for them to be sprayed but that his requests were denied and the money allotted for it went missing. This evidence would seal the case for Andy but unfortunately Bill, and his logs, are missing.

    Strange things soon begin to happen such as Andy constantly being followed by a dark Sudan and Kim suddenly being offered a fabulously paying secretary job in Puerto Rico. After a visit to the Maddens Kim learns that Bill has been writing to Peter. She asks to see a letter so she can get his address to track him down. It is a general delivery address in Santa Elena, California and the letter reveals that Bill was suddenly offered a year long fellowship from the Dier Foundation, an alleged foundation for artists. But an investigation soon proves the foundation doesn't exist.

    Andy sends a letter to Bill in the hopes Bill can make it back to New York to testify in court but when the case is suspiciously moved way up on the docket and no word has come from Bill, Kim and Andy fly to California over the weekend to bring him back themselves.

    Once on the west coast they are briefly delayed when someone crashes into their rented car but they continue their journey to Santa Elena where they learn from a local that Bill is staying at the "Saunders shack". Commissioner Saunders shack.

    They find the shack empty but while looking around Kim opens the wardrobe door and the body of Bill Jones falls out. Andy finds a typed paper in the trash where Bill had written what he knew regarding the lawsuit and Saunders guilt. Pocketing the paper the two rush to the car where Andy says they have to call in the murder as an anonymous tip otherwise they will be held for the inquiry and miss the court date in New York. However as they begin to leave they hear a car driving up, it's a sheriff's car which indicates someone else had tipped off the police in an attempt to frame Andy and Kim.

    They are able to drive away undetected and get to a payphone where Andy phones his boss to tell him he will have to take over the Madden case. Andy is then informed the Maddens have suddenly insisted on dropping the case. Knowing the family wouldn't drop the was case willingly the two need to return to New York right away so they head to the airport, anxious they will be arrested at any moment.

    They successfully make it back to the East Coast and, realizing they are being followed through the airport, Andy instructs Kim to go into the ladies room and phone her father. Unfortunately he is away on a case until the next morning. Kim tells her housekeeper that she is coming straight home. Leaving the ladies room she finds Andy gone. She decides to get her car from the parking lot and go straight home but is drugged and kidnapped outside her car.

    Kim awakes in a small rustic shack. There is an older woman there who Kim soon learns is Mrs. Casey, the wife of the judge handling the case. She informs Kim that Peter Madden and Andy are also there. They have all been kidnapped to stop the case from proceeding. Kim soon learns they are being held on an island. Her and Andy manage to find some scuba suits in a shed and decide to swim for shore in the icy water. 

    Beginning to grow tired and struggling to keep an eye on each other in the pitch black they begin to feel hopeless when they hear the sound of a boat approaching. They dive under water but without airtanks they soon are forced to surface and are pulled into the boat where Dan Aldrich, Kim's father, greets them.

    After Kim's call home the housekeeper had called the FBI and a kidnapping case was immediately opened for her. Two teenagers had reported seeing some suspicious men loading a boat on the shore hours before which lead the FBI there to search.

    After everyone is rescued they are all put under guard and escorted to court the next morning. Kim is called to testify, her appearance shocking Saunders. When she mentions the murder of Bill Jones Saunders yells out that he did not order a hit on the man, just instructed to have him silenced. Soon the commissioner is telling his story; he had been stealing funds to use to campaign for mayor, this is what had become of the money that was suppose to be used to have the rocks sprayed. Saunders believed if he beat the Maddens in court it would help his public image and get the voters on his side. He had hired people in the "syndicate", aka organized crime, to keep Andy, Kim, Bill, etc. away. With all this out before the judge the commissioner is arrested and a settlement of $10,000 is agreed upon by the Maddens and WALCO.

    With all that settled Kim and Andy decide to take some time to figure out if their world wind romance was due to genuine feelings or from being thrust into a dangerous situation together.

- Kim and Andy instantly feel bonded over their upbringings; Kim grew up in Puerto Rico due to her father being stationed there for FBI work and Andy was born and raised in Hawaii. It doesn't say if Andy is pacific islander but I pictured him as so.

- I think Kim is a good feminist example. I know some people disagree but I think they are confused on what feminism is. Kim is able to take care of herself but she is also able to accept help from Andy if and when she needs it. After their car is crashed into in California Kim starts to change the flat tire when Andy takes over and tells her to rest. Kim was just unconscious and needed to rest. She thinks how she likes feeling protected by Andy but how if it was her brother, for example, she would be offended and furious.

    Kim and Andy have a romantic relationship and therefor Andy can do and say things to Kim that would be offensive if another man did it. Andy respects Kim and knows she is capable of taking care of herself. But he also cares and loves her which makes him worry about her wellbeing and want to protect her. It is because Kim knows he respects and loves her that she does not find these things offensive.

Kim is also very well balanced. She likes to look pretty and often acts silly but also is skilled in Taekwondo, sky diving, scuba diving, and is a sports car enthusiast.

- I did not like how Kim and Andy suddenly realize their romance was superficial. I liked them together and would have liked them to be a couple throughout the series, even though I knew from experience that wouldn't happen. If I am being honest I must admit I think the ending did make the most sense as they really didn't know each other before falling for each other.

- When Kim phones her housekeeper at the airport she gives a description of what she is wearing since it would be useful information if she went missing and a search was made for her. I thought this was really smart. 

    Overall I enjoyed this book. I read it in one sitting which is something I have not been able to do in awhile. Lately it seems every book bores me so this was a nice change.

Night Bus

     After her father forbids her from dating King Westley, rich and spoiled Elspeth Andrews sneaks out of the house and boards a bus headed from Miami to New York to marry him. On the bus she meets Peter Warne, a friendly and kind man who, seeing she is out of her element, decides to help Elspeth on her journey despite her arrogance towards him.

    At their first stop on the journey Elspeth runs to a fancy hotel to take a bath and misses the bus' departure. She then spends the majority of her money on large meals and two movies while she waits for the next bus that evening. This prompts Peter to take control of her funds. One way he rations the money is by signing them into motels as Mr and Mrs which allows them to pay for one room instead of two.

    A storm has hung over the trip, causing flooding and washing out roads. The bus gets delayed several days during which time fellow passenger Oscar Shapely hears a radio broadcast announcing the disappearance of Elspeth Andrews as well as a hefty reward for information leading to her return. Recognizing the outfit she is reported to be wearing Oscar confronts Peter and offers to split the reward. Peter tells him he is mistaken but knows Oscar is not fooled.

    Not wanting to upset Elspeth, Peter tells her that Shapely, suspecting the two aren't really married, is trying to blackmail him with the Mann Act and therefore they must continue their journey immediately. Peter steals and repairs a broken boat to get past the flood waters and the two continue on foot. At first opportunity Peter writes to Mr. Andrews saying he is traveling to New York with Elspeth and not to give the reward money to anyone who tries to claim it. He also pawns Elspeth's clothing for something unrecognizable much to her distress.

    Good fortune seems to shine on them when they are picked up by a friendly driver named Thaddeus Banker but he turns out to be a highway bandit who picks up hitchhikers just to drop them somewhere and take off with their luggage. When he tries doing this to the couple Peter jumps onto the car and after being driven out to an isolated area he beats up Thaddeus and drives back to Elspeth. Multiple license plates and drivers licenses inside the vehicle lead Peter to believe the car is stolen and that no harm will be done if he uses it for a few more days to finish their journey.

    Soon the two are driving into New York and Peter is depositing Elspeth in front of her house where her father is waiting. She tells her father she is in love with Peter but when she learns he had written to Mr. Andrews she wrongfully believes he was after the reward money the whole time.

    The following day Peter is brought into the man's office where he presents him with an itemized bill totaling $18.56 and refuses anything more than this. Realizing Peter was not using her, Elspeth goes to his home to find him packing to leave for South America. She insists on going with him and travelling legitimately as husband and wife this time.

- A big difference between the book and the movie is that in the movie Peter is a newspaper reporter desperate for a story. In the movie Peter helps Elspeth (or "Ellie" as she is named) because it also helps himself. However in the book he does it just because he is caring and sees how bad Elspeth is struggling on her own.

- There is a large age gap between Peter and Elspeth although an exact number is not given. At first Peter believes Elspeth is underage until she tells him she is 21. This makes the romance between them a little disturbing. Peter is even uncomfortable having romantic interest in someone so much younger than himself but that doesn't end up stopping him. 

- Elspeth is not very likeable. She is a complete brat, selfish, and demanding. At one point she throws herself onto Peter while he is asleep and kisses him. Before he wakes up and realizes what is happening he kisses her back. Once he is conscious he immediately stops and clarifies boundaries between the two. Elspeth is upset by this but she is also upset that Peter kissed her back at first, which is absolutely ridiculous considering he was unconscious and as he had not shown any romantic interest in her this was kind of sexual assault on her part.

    Overall this was a good read. Before seeing this book for sale I had no idea the movie was based on anything. Because I have seen the movie several times it is hard to judge the source material on it's own. I don't think I would have read this and thought "this would make a great movie" but I guess it was a pretty unique concept for it's time. Also it's fun reading this knowing it basically caused the creation of Bugs Bunny.