A Summer For Witches

 

    The book opens with 24 year old Janet's telephone ringing. When she answers it she immediately recognizes the voice as that of Floncy, a girl from her past who had disappeared without a trace 15 years ago.

    When Janet was 9 years old her single mother had taken on a job as a housekeeper at Shorecrest, the impressive summer home of actress Evelyn Gilmor. There Janet has an amazing summer living in the little cottage on the grounds, enjoying days playing with Evelyn's kind hearted 17 year-old daughter Floncy and 13 year-old son Scott whom Janet has a crush on. The house is constantly being visited by famous friends, parties are always happenings, and romance is in the air as lovesick psychiatrist Dr. Bronson is at Evelyn's beck and call.

    When summer ends Janet's mother stay on working for Evelyn in her city residence. Scott and Floncy are away at school and Janet eagerly awaits the next summer when they will all be at Shorecrest again.

    However when the summer arrives it lacks the charm and magic of the last year. Floncy has taken a part in a local play and fallen in love with an actor named Todd Van Dyke. Evelyn does not approve of either of these things and makes Floncy give up the stage and Todd.

    This causes constant fighting between Floncey and her mother and often Janet comes across Floncy sobbing alone on the beach.

    One August morning Floncy is no where to be found and when a search of the house and grounds proves fruitless the authorities are called in but the case goes unsolved. After years of no sign of Floncy she is declared legally dead.

    Yet here she is on the phone insisting that Janet come to Shorecrest right away, and to come alone.

    Janet borrows a car from her perpetually friendzoned date, Dave, and starts the 3 hour long drive on a stormy winter evening. She finds the timing of this happening strangely coincidental as she had reason to think of her summers at Shorecrest twice recently. The first time when she had seen a woman that resembled Evelyn stepping out of a dr. Bronsons private hospital in the city. And the second when her mother, who recently got married, sent her a box of her childhood things, including a book she had borrowed from Shorecrest and never returned. However she put it in the mail to return it right away.

    Once at the house she is greeted (and I use the term loosely) by Ida, one of the maids that Janet's mom worked with, and Scott. Neither whom are happy to see her. Evelyn, Scott says, is very ill and can not be excited with claims that Floncy is alive and making phone calls.

    Janet is granted an audience with Evelyn who appears weak and looks ill but retains her former charm. When Janet says she will be leaving soon Evelyn insists she stay for the night in the little cottage on the grounds.

    Reluctantly Janet accepts. She would rather have stayed at a motel as Shorecrest no longer has the charm it once had. It's gloomy and subdued, even the art had been stripped from the walls. 

    Despite her discomfort Janet sleeps well as she is tired from the drive and emotional strain of the day. In the morning she dresses and is ready to leave right away but as she steps out of the cottage she finds a man's dead body on the porch, with a knife in his back. 

    She runs screaming into the main house where she finds Scott. He calls the police and after a long wait alone in the library the sheriff comes in to question her. 

    He informs her the man is Judson Brock, a former groundskeeper Janet remembers from her childhood summers. Ida and her sister Carrie have wasted no time in telling the sheriff that Jud and Janet's mother had had a romantic relationship one summer and with that information the sheriff starts piecing together a fictional story of Janet killing Jud. Suggesting the man was threatening to tell Janet's new step father about the romance unless he's paid off leading to Janet killing him. He supports his theory with the fact the knife was taken from the cottage kitchen. 

    Although not under arrest, Janet is told to stay in the vicinity until the state police arrive to investigate. Distraught Janet goes for a walk on the beach and up a cliff that use to be one of Floncy's special places. Sitting on the edge of the rocky cliff Janet feels a hand against her back pushing her over the edge. She manages to hang on and pull herself back up but she is badly shaken and runs back to the house, and into the arms of Scott who her childhood crush on has been revived. Alone together that night he kisses her and Janet wonders if she's secretly loved him all these years. However the moment is ruined when he admits he doesn't believe Janet's story of being pushed off the cliff. 

    When Janet heads for church service the next morning Scott joins her and afterwards they go for a long drive, stopping at a little restaurant for lunch. After this Janet is sure she is in love with Scott. On the drive back to the house Janet notices a man working at a shooting booth on the board walk but it's not until she's back in her room that she realizes the man is Todd Van Dyke. 

    Sure that he must know where Floncy is she sneaks out of the house to go talk to him but outside she runs into Dave who has read about the incident in the paper and has come to help Janet as a lawyer and a friend (and a simp).

    Together they go to town and ask where Todd lives then head to his house which is really a one room shack. Todd, who had plans of going to Hollywood to become a famous actor, has remained in the small seaside town for 15 years, still in love with Floncy, and determined to learn what happened to her. 

    He tells Janet that he has surveilled Shorecrest for the last 15 years, keeping track of the family's coming and goings, and breaking into the house when it's closed for the winter to look through it for any information that could explain Floncy's disappearance.

    It's through these break-ins that he found Floncy's deceased fathers will in which he left all his money in a trust fund for Floncy and left Scott nothing. Todd and Floncy were planning to elope days after her disappearance with Scott being the only one she told.

    Because of this Todd believes Scott killed her. This theory is backed up by Scott having her declared legally dead which caused him to recieve her inheritance.

    Janet refuses to believe Scott could be involved and despite Dave's instance she wont tell the sheriff this information. 

    On the drive back to Shorecrest Janet says she want to see her mother as she would have a better understanding of the happenings of Shorecrest 15 years ago than 9 year old Janet did. Dave gets permission from the sheriff for him and Janet to make the 3 hour trip to see her mother the next day. Her mother tells them she had heard from Jud over the years as he kept pursuing her and that she suspected he was blackmailing people as he had suddenly acquired a lot of money. But besides that she has no new information for them besides reminiscing over the grand summers at Shorecrest.

    When Dave drops Janet back off at the house that night he tells her that not informing the police about Scott is obstruction of justice and he wont be able to represent her legally. Janet still insists on not telling the sheriff. Dave says in that case he will have to return to the city that night but if she changes her mind he will still be at his motel until 9.

    Back inside her room Janet is thinking over what her mother said when suddenly it all becomes clear. She knows what happened to Floncy, who did it and why, and that her life is in danger.

    She sneaks to the kitchen and calls Dave, arranging to have him meet her at an intersection, then goes outside where she sees a man and women in a car pulling out of the garage but cant see their faces.  

    Once with Dave she explains everything to him (but not to us). A car appears to be following them but Janet doesnt care, she just wants to get to a destination in the city; the private hospital owned by Dr. Bronson. Once there the car following them is revealed to be Todd. Together the three of them force their way inside and demand to see Floncy. Evelyn appears trying to play innocent but Dr. Bronson knows the jig is up. Floncy is brought in, vacant looking from years of sedation. Todd tenderly wraps her in his arms, his unending devotion rewarded.

    It's revealed that 15 years ago Scott, upon learning of Floncy's upcoming elopement, had told his mother, and she, together with Dr. Bronson, Jud, Ida, and Carrie, had put Floncy in Bronson's hospital, gaslighting her that she was severely mentally ill. Meanwhile they pretended she had disappeared so as to have her declared dead and Scott receive her inheritance so he could give it to his mother who is a compulsive spender. This had worked successfully for them until Janet saw Evelyn leaving the hospital one day. The woman Janet thought "looked like" Evelyn was in fact her and she was convinced Janet recognized her a such. When Janet then mailed the book to her soon after she believed this to be some kind of threat that implied Janet knew what was going on. 

    Impersonating Floncy she lured Janet to the Shorecrest so she could kill Jud, who was blackmailing her, and have it pinned on Janet, thus killing two birds with one stone. She then tried to push Janet off the cliff with the plan of it appearing as a suicide. 

    With the truth revealed Floncy is taken to a hospital to recuperate, the guilty parties are arrested, Janet realizes her feelings for Scott were simply childhood memories, and to Dave's great happiness she realizes it's he she loves.

- I read it in one reading because it was too hard to put down. It was very suspenseful and I just had to find out what happened to Floncy.

- The backstory is woven into the whole book really wonderfully and skillfully.

Love is Blind

    Gorgeous twenty-one year old Cass Everett has just moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco to take on a job as a secretary in an x-ray lab. Having not been there long she already has a serious crush on one of the radiology doctors, Bill Atkinson, and fortunately for Cass, the feeling is mutual.

    The two begin going out on dates, especially to the race track as Bill is a big fan of racing and soon they are confessing their deep love and mentions of marriage. On the way home from one of their dates it begins to rain and the car skids and flips over. The two are fine with the exception of a deep cut in Cass' cheek. With a scar most likely to result Cass' Aunt Willa hires Dr. Tod Jeffers to do a skin graft on it. Tod is one of the top plastic surgeons on the west coast and to Cass's surprise he is close to her age. 

    With the plastic surgery scheduled for a few weeks away Cass goes back to work. A new hire named Linda soon joins the lab's team and it's clear to all the women that she has only taken on the job to try and land a rich, doctor husband. She acts cold towards the women and turns the charm on when any men are around. 

    Against her will Cass begins to worry about Bill and if he will fall prey to Linda. Despite never having been self conscious in the past Cass realizes her facial injury and the chance of a disfiguring scar are making her loose her confidence. However Cass feels a bit better when Dr. Jeffers visits the lab and Linda appears to lock onto him as her target. This belief is reinforced when Linda asks to visit Cass in the hospital after she's had the surgery.

    The surgery itself is successful but the following days of recovery are a struggle for Cass. All she wants is to see Bill but when he arrives he has Linda with him and Cass doesn't get to see him alone. That night she comes down with a terrible cold which will keep her in the hospital longer. Her next two visits from Bill are also intruded on by Linda and when a co-worker visits Cass she says Bill and Linda have been inseparable at work. 

    That evening Dr. Jeffers comes into Cass's room while she is bawling her eyes out. He washes her face and lets her tell him of her troubles. Cass is surprised by how easy she finds it to confide in him.

    The next day when Bill and Linda visit Tod comes into the room and begins to flirt with Linda before inviting her out for a drink, a ploy to give Cass and Bill some time alone. After she leaves with the surgeon Bill becomes upset and agitated about it. Cass confronts him bluntly; "Bill, you're in love with Linda, aren't you?".  Bill mistakes her tone and sees the accusation as a sympathetic remark. Suddenly he is telling Cass how happy he is that she understands, that clearly Cass and him are just two friends who mistook their friendship for something more. Cass, holding onto her pride, plays along and tells Bill she also had been wanting to end their relationship for awhile.

    Cass is surprised to find she doesn't feel emotionally shattered over the break up but she does feel depressed. Once home from the hospital Cass is annoyed to receive a call from Bill asking if she has heard from either Tod Jeffers or Linda. Linda has apparently thrown Bill to the side in favor of the doctor. Cass is greatly annoyed by Bill's immaturity in calling and after recalling numerous things he had said and done in the past Cass realizes Bill is very much a "man-child".

    "The person she thought Bill to be, a man she could love, had never really existed except in her own starry-eyed concept of him. So her mistake had been an error of judgment about the man, not about her feelings for him, and when she saw the man was nonexistent, her feelings became nonexistent, too."

    Back at work, and in the presence of Bill, Cass finds she truly does have no feelings for him but for some reason she still gets an upsetting feeling when Linda is around. She finds herself thinking about how much Linda is seeing Tod and wonders if he really has fallen for Linda's calculated charm. This she finds is more painful than the thought of Bill and Linda together was.

    At her follow-up appointment with Tod she finds herself in an argumentative mood over these feelings which brings out one in him as well. He's been going out with Linda to try and keep her away from Bill so Cass could have Bill and be happy...despite Tod being in love with Cass himself. This truth comes out in a yelling argument and soon Cass also confesses her love for Tod. 

- Much like one of the other books I've read by Marcia Miller this book has a woman named Cass with a scarred cheek from a car accident. It is also set in San Francisco with a home on telegraph hill, and it's filled with the detailed descriptions of the main characters clothing and home decorating. I can't find any information on Marcia Miller but I wish I could. Clearly she loved fashion and interior decorating and the repeated use of the cheek scar makes me wonder if it's something she pulled from personal experience. 

- Cass lives in a two-story apartment building yet it says she takes an elevator down from her apartment. I think Marcia Miller forgot what she had written.

- Although it mentions Cass' cheek healing there is no mention of the area behind her ear, where the skin was taken from for the skin graft, healing. 

- The end was kind of abrupt.

Bright Tomorrow

    Sisters Cass and Lisa are orphaned at a young age when their parents pass from a car wreck. Cass, who was in the car with her parents, miraculously survives the accident but it leaves her with a disfiguring scar across her cheek. When taken in by their Aunt Edith the beautiful Lisa is spoiled while traumatized and disfigured Cass is left to emotionally and socially fend for herself resulting in a lonely and isolated life. 

    Fortunately for Cass her parents old friend Monica is visiting from England and stops by to see the girls. She is upset to see that eighteen year old Cass still has the scar and that Edith has not allowed for the simple plastic surgery to remove it. After seeing how horrifically shy and withdrawn Cass is and the significant difference in the treatment the sisters receive, Monica asks Cass to return to London with her where she will get Cass the surgery she needs as well as the parental kindness and love. 

    The surgery is a success and for the next two years Cass engages in a happy and fulfilling life under the guidance of Monica. She makes friendships, dates, and when the extra time stacks up she begins a career in copywriting despite inheriting enough money from her parents to live comfortably.

    When she learns a new department store, Gratons, is opening in her former hometown San Francisco she secures a job there as a copy writer and heads back to the states, with Monica's warning not to let her reunion with Lisa and Edith destroy her new found self confidence. 

    Once back home she visits with Lisa and Edith, with neither of them in a rush to see her, and finds their demeanors strange. Cass's confidence in her self, both inside and out, have turned her into a gorgeous woman and her aunt and sister now seem to see her as competition to Lisa socially, and romantically.

    Lisa and Edith inform Cass that Lisa is in a serious relationship with Brad Kincad, the owners son of Gratons but make excuses to keep Cass from meeting him. She does end up meeting him and he invites her out to dinner where he insists Lisa and him are just casual acquaintances. 

    Edith sees them out together and storms over to Cass' apartment the next day where she tells her to stay away from Brad. However Lisa calls up that evening saying that Brad was telling the truth, they're just friends and any romantic feelings between them was simply wishful thinking on her part. She encourages Cass to date Brad if it makes her happy. Cass is touched by this and happy to think her and Lisa are becoming close for the first time in their lives.

    Brad continues to take Cass on dates and is clearly smitten with her. One day his mother makes an appearance in her office and says she wanted to meet Cass after hearing Brad speak so much of her. However there seems to be underlying tones of worry in her demeanor. 

    Later that day Brad calls her office and claims to be "returning her call" but Cass insists she never called him. It's chalked up to a simple mistake on his secretary's end. 

    Days later while out to dinner with Brad the couple runs into Lisa and her date and Lisa asks Cass "did you ask Brad?" to which Cass is confused. Lisa claims she asked Cass to attend a party she is throwing and invite Brad to come with her but Cass has no memory of Lisa asking this.

    The two attend Lisa's party and Lisa greets them by apologizing for missing Cass' call earlier that day, a call that Cass insists she didn't make. 

    The next day Cass and Brad go to the beach where Cass tells him about her scar and the effect it had on her life and Brad tells her she's amazing with or without a scar. They go back to her apartment so she can change before dinner. When she comes out of her room Brad is on the phone with his mother and relays a message to "thank Cass for the flowers". A bouquet of flowers had been delivered to her with a card baring Cass's name yet she didn't send them. 

    She tells Brad about all the strange incidents and how they are beginning to frighten her. Irritatingly Brad brushes it off as practical jokes but begins doing some sleuthing. He learns that Edith had visited his mother, falsely telling her that Cass had been in England for psychiatric care and that Lisa had been making fake calls and placing orders under Cass's name to convince Brad that she was seriously mentally ill. 

    Together the two tell off Lisa and Aunt Edith, with Cass walking out of their lives to start her new life with Brad.

Symphony in the Sky

    Cheryl Stevens, Cher as her friends call her, is a nurse. She's known she's wanted to be a nurse ever since she was a child due to her mother having been a nurse and her father being a surgeon. However she's simultaneously had another career goal since she was a child, that of flight stewardess. Having achieved one she now wants to achieve the other. She's been accepted to stewardess school and now has to tell her loved ones. 

    Her parents are upset by her career change, feeling as tho she is degrading herself. Her boyfriend Tom, who is a surgeon at the same hospital as her, is furious at first because he worries it will waylay their plans to marry after his residency, but once he's digested the news he accepts Cher's decision and suggests they place their relationship on pause so she can be free to date other men while she's away.

Cher worries that this will open Tom up to dating Lee, his ex girlfriend that Cher is sure still carries a torch for him, and has recently been placed as nurse in Tom's surgery ward. 

    Away at stewardess school Cher becomes close to her roommate, Vicki, who has a handsome, young, sky-writer brother named Biff. After meeting at their graduation ceremony Cher and Biff hit it off right away and begin going on dates regularly whenever Cher's work schedule takes her to San Francisco, where Biff lives. 

    

    When Cher is with Biff she feels as tho there is no other man she could love, however when she's back home with Tom she feels the same way about him. She's been open and honest with both men about the other and is struggling to figure out what her heart wants. 

    When she goes home for thanksgiving she's asked to work a nursing shift at the hospital as they are short staffed due to the Hong Kong Flu. There she's told Tom and Lee have been inseparable, working closely side by side.

    Biff is flying to a sky writing job that day and will be flying over the hospital at 3 o'clock, he's arranged for Cheryl to look in the sky for him at that time so he can "dip his wings" at her but when she goes outside at the arranged time, instead of the friendly gesture, he writes "CHERYL I LOVE YOU" in the sky in full view of Tom and Lee.

    Back at work after the holiday Cher torments herself with thoughts of Tom and Lee together. Her airline has a new flight to Mazatlan, Mexico which she is assigned to. On her first trip there Biff meets her and they spend two romantic days at a beach hotel during which he subtly suggests they get engaged.

    Cher leaves Mexico more confused than ever but when a fiery explosion erupts on her flight home her first thoughts are of Tom and the fear she'll never get to tell him she loves him again. She realizes then what her heart wants.

    Cher extinguishes the fire and is hailed for her quick and calm action in the face of danger. Once safely landed she arranges to visit home and calls Tom telling him she has big new. Tom says he has big news as well and Cher convinces herself it's an engagement to Lee.

    Back home she tells him he is the only man she loves and he tells her he's been offered a job in Washington D.C. and he wants them to marry and move there together.

- This is the second book I've read by Laura C. Raef. Her writing style is somewhat different then I've encountered before, I'm not quite sure how to describe it. It feels quite boring but also paced well enough to keep me reading and wanting to know what happens next. Quite an interesting combination.

- I'm no medical student but the ways the medical parts were written, such as the baby being born during a flight, felt like they were written from an educated point of view. I couldn't find any information on Laura Raef so I don't know if she had experience as a nurse but I certainly wouldn't be surprised. 

- The pregnant lady on the plane was dumb. She's a Canadian who was visiting her husband who is working in Chicago and when she goes into labor, instead of going to the hospital and having her husband nearby she sneaks on a plane so her baby can be born in Canada. This almost cost the baby it's life. Very stupid lady.

- The explosion in the plane bathroom was never explained. I was curious what caused it. Was it a malfunction or had a passenger done something?

- I actually really liked Cheryl, I thought she's really cool. Her double career ambition is admirable and I like how she was honest with Tom and Biff about the other, not wanting to play games or be deceitful at all.

    Overall it was a pretty nice read. I thought at this point I'd be sick of flight stewardess stories but this showed me otherwise.

Barbie's Hawaiian Holiday

    Barbie's family heads to Hawaii for the Christmas break. Her father had been stationed there during the war and became friends with a British solider who moved there permanently after his service. He has invited the Roberts to stay with his family which consist of Clara, his uptight British wife and Gerald, his teenage son. Barbie is excited to spend the vacation with the boy until she meets him and sees he is only 13. 

 

    While Barbie and Gerald are at the beach Barbie meets Apaki, a handsome Hawaiian college student and avid surfer. Taken with Barbie he offers to teach her how to surf which Barbie is ecstatic over.

However when she reveals this plan to her hostess, Clara is appalled. She finds surfing improper and disapproves of Barbie partaking in the sport. 

    After the first day of her lessons Barbie sees Gerald out on the waves and is very upset. She disapproves of him surfing behind his mothers back and insists he tell her about it which he refuses to do. 

    Apaki will be partaking in an upcoming surfing competition and after Barbie introduces him to both families, and they like him, they all decide to go to the competition. When Clara enjoys watching the surfers Barbie pulls Gerald aside and insists he tell his mother he surfs but he again refuses. Instead he takes off into the waves with a surf board, getting in Apaki's way, and unintentionally making him lose the competition. Apaki is not mad but he informs Gerald's parent of his secret hobby and they approve.

- This book would have been really nice except for Barbie being a busy body. I really couldn't stand that. It pushed the narrative that you should always tell your parents everything because they will always understand. Was the writer unaware that not all parents are saints? If I was Gerald I would have gotten my ass beat. 

- I love that Barbie's romance is with a Hawaiian boy. I think it makes her experience is Hawaii more authentic and romantic than if she met another tourist. 

- I found it a little amusing how Ken was worried Barbie was going to meet a "beach boy" and then she does just that. Poor Ken.

    Overall this was a pretty good book, you've just got to overlook Barbie acting like the arbiter of morality. Also worth noting how lovely the cover art is. Its simple but really gives the Barbie aesthetic. 

Here's Barbie

    This was the first Barbie book and what helped shape Barbie. It gave her a full name which has stuck to this day and gave lore to her relationships with Ken and Midge. It consists of seven short stories.

Barbie be my Valentine

    Barbie is new in town and excited for the valentines dance. It's a costume dance and Barbie goes as Cinderella, hoping to meet her prince charming. Once their Barbie dances with a boy who trips and they both fall down in front of everyone. Barbie feels embarrassed and it puts her in a sour mood. Her heel has also broken making her unable to dance for the rest of the night. Despite her bad attitude ken, dressed as prince charming, is determined to become friendly with her. After warming to him he asks her to dance and after she tells him about her heel situation he suggests she get her gym shoes from her locker. 

Barbie's Big Prom

    Barbie's cousin comes to visit and attend Barbie's prom. However when she arrives Barbie is surprised to see she's become very beautiful and glamorous. Ken seems to notice too and the two of them are always sneaking off. Barbie is upset until at the prom she finds out they had been sneaking off to plan a surprise for her. 

The Easter Hat

    In this play Barbie is working at a rest home. While discussing the upcoming Easter celebration with an elderly woman she kindly gives Barbie her old Easter hat to wear in the parade. The hat is outdated and Barbie already has a new hat she wants to wear. Unsure what to do, and not wanting to hurt the woman's feelings, Ken suggests they gather their friends and put on a private parade for the woman while dressed in old timey clothing. It's a big success and frees Barbie to wear her new hat in the real parade. 

The Size 10 Dress

    When Barbie's unfashionable schoolmate Bertha decides to have a glow up she models herself after Barbie; dressing like her, doing her hair like her, joining Barbie's after school activities, and even trying to steal Ken's affections. Barbie uncomfortably stays quiet until Bertha copies Barbie's sewing project: a yellow, size 10 dress that Barbie had custom designed. 

The Michael Tree

    When ornaments go missing from the school's Christmas tree Barbie and Ken investigate and find that a little boy named Michael has been stealing them. His mother is off having a baby and the boy wants to decorate a Christmas tree to welcome his new sibling home. Barbie and Ken work to help decorate the family's house and make Michael's wish come true 

Mirror Mirror Crystal Ball

    After Barbie's friend Jody has her fortune told at a fair she makes astrology her entire personality, forcing it onto her friends, refusing to interact with people that don't have a compatible zodiac with hers, and reducing her friends personalities to their zodiac descriptions. Barbie and Jody's friendship is almost destroyed by this hyper fixation until a new boy arrives at school and Jody almost misses his romantic interest due to misdetermining his zodiac sign 

Captain Hooten's Return

    Barbie accepts an invite from her aunt to spend a month on the Maine seaside. Unfortunately the resort they stay at turns out to be a gloomy old isolated house. It is owned by Ms. Hooten who inherited it when her brother, Captain Hooten, was lost at sea along with his crewmate John Metcalf. Two children staying there tell Barbie they've seen Captain Hooten's ghost at night. Barbie brushes off the whole idea of ghosts but when she sees a mysterious figure in black out on the dunes at night she becomes curious. Barbie goes searching for traces of the mysterious figure the next day and is surprised when they pop up in the distance. But they quickly run away when Barbie calls to them. That night she stays up to spot the figure again and sees it heading for the house. She catches it trying to sneak into the kitchen and finds it's actually a girl, the orphaned daughter of John Metcalf who ran away from an orphanage. Ms. Hooten takes the girl in and Barbie solves the mystery. 

    It's hard to judge this book appropriately as it is for children. Oh course a lot of the books I read were written for children, such as Nancy Drew, but this one is for a younger audience. So it was hard to keep my interest and for me to finish some of these stories. I am also not a fan of short stories in general so I didn't look forward to reading these if I'm being honest.

    The one I liked the most was Captain Hooten's Return which is the longest out of the seven and does the best at setting up a story. If that one had been a full book I think I would have enjoyed it quite a bit.

The American Girl Book of Mystery and Suspense Stories

    This book is a collection of 10 stories that were original published in The American Girl magazine, which was a magazine by Girl Scouts and shouldn't be confused with the modern American Girl magazine published by Pleasant Company, the makers of American Girl dolls. Several other books containing short stories were published such as Sports Stories, First Date Stories, etc. 

    This one, as you can tell by the title, is Mystery and Suspense stories. I have my doubts as to how suspenseful a short story can be as I personally don't feel there's enough time to build up interest in a mystery but we shall see!

The Legacy of Canyon John

    Jerry and Linda are two teenage photography enthusiasts who are hoping to win a cash prize in a photography contest to pay for college.

    They go to the post office to pick up their new telescopic camera lens and also receive a letter. Its from a nurse at the local mission hospital telling them that their friend Canyon John has passed away. He was a native American and the last of his tribe. Before his passing he had a nurse dictate a letter for the two kids giving them directions into Canyon Del Muerto where he says something very precious is located with its existence being known only to his tribe.

    The two horseback into the canyon where they find Dawson, a hospital employee, pickaxing the canyon wall. He had read the letter and is hoping to steal whatever treasure he assumes is there. He orders Linda and Jerry away at the point of a shotgun.

    Once the two are some distance away they use their telescopic lens to catch a picture of Dawson as evidence for the police. But Dawson quickly sees them and fires the shotgun. They leave the canyon and head home to develop the film.

    Once they do they find they have a wonderful picture of Dawson taking aim at them and the picture also captures something else; up on a cliff is a nest of California condors. Canyon Johns precious gift was the knowledge of the endangered birds home.

- This one was alright. It was a little longer than I think it should be but certainly not the worst in the book at all.

Night Flight

    Lyn, an air force flight nurse has a passenger go into early labor on a flight. The plane makes an emergency landing and the woman is taken to a nearby rural hospital to give birth. However the hospital doesn't have the resources to take care of a premature baby so it must be flown to a different hospital. It's a dangerous trip for the fragile newborn to make but Lyn gives it her all and the baby safely makes it.

- This one was sweet but I didn't like how Lyn named the baby. When they're travelling to the second hospital she decides to call the baby Susie and keeps referring to her as that. I thought it was really weird and if I had been the mother I would have been creeped out and felt really disrespected. 

Strange House

    The main character of this book is unnamed since it is written in first person however it's mentioned that her father's nickname for her is "minx" so I'll use that.

    Minx is taking a summer college course in New York and her aunts have offered to let her stay at their old brownstone house since they are out of state on a vacation.

    Strange things happen such as the sound of someone walking up the stairs despite no one being there and things being moved like Minx's hat she left on a bench being moved to the hat rack.

    One stormy night the sky light crashes in and Minx has to go downstairs to get a washtub to catch the rain, during which she hears the footsteps again.

    She doesn't worry about the goings on because she is too busy with her college class but at night they give her the chills.

    When she comes home from class one day she sees a table has been moved and a small rug has been hung over the banister. A letter from her aunt is waiting for her and when she reads it she learns the aunts have a cleaning women that comes every other day which solves part of the mystery.

    She sits outs on the front steps and begins making small talk with the elderly man that lives next door. He tells her the old homes on the street are all built alike but opposite. After he goes inside Minx does too and she hears the footsteps again, they're the neighbor walking up his staircase which is on the other side of the wall of her staircase.

- This one was good. It was spooky and I liked how brave Minx was. I was really invested in finding out what was causing the strange noises however I also wasn't aware that brownstone houses were attached to each other which probably would have tipped me off to the answer.

Spring Tornado

    Debbie has just been given an aeroplane by her father and is planning on selling it to pay for college. When a tornado comes along Debbie is about to fly her plane to safety when she sees a family with a flat tire on the side of the road. She decides to drive her car to safety so she can bring the stranded family with her, leaving her plane in the tornados path. Her plane ends up surviving and the family gifts her a scholarship to college as a thank you for her unselfishness in saving them from the tornado.

- It was hard to see a teenager complain about money when she owns her own plane.

The Boathouse Mystery

    Gail and her friends have been granted permission to use cranky old Mr. Slaters boat house as a concession stand while he is out of town. After hearing gunshots in Mr. Slaters private woods they realize someone is hunting out of season and have to catch the dangerous men.

- This is the longest story in the book yet is shortest of my summaries because I didn't like this one. I didn't find the characters likeable or having common sense.

Locked In!

    Valborg works in a department store and hopes to save enough money for a ski outfit. When she falls asleep on the sofa of a display set she wakes up to find it's night and she is locked in the department store. She soon finds a little boy lost in the store and cares for him for the night. The next day she is rewarded with a new ski outfit by the boys mother.

- This one was kind of weird. The writing felt awkward and Valborg has to have lapses of commen sense for it to play out in a suspenseful way.

- Like Spring Tornado the lesson of the story is to be kind and help people...because then they will give you money and/or presents. I hate that.

Kay Uses the Evidence

    While working as a candy striper in the hospital a little boy is brought in after being hit by a car. He keeps calling for "luto". With the help of a blurry newspaper photo Kay deduces that "luto" is the boys pet dog named Pluto and recovers the dog from the local animal shelter.

- The age of this one shows as I don't think anyone would connect "luto" to Pluto the dog so easily. It was a cute story tho.

Fire at Egg Ranch

    Vicky is left home alone with her little brother as a blazing forest fire creeps closer to her family's chicken farm. The roads are shut off so no help will come but Vicky's conscious can not let her flee and leave the thousand chickens behind so she uses her fathers tractor to create a fire break as the fire rages inches from her. 

- This one was really good. It builds up the suspense well as Vicki watches the fire get closer and closer as she impatiently awaits her parents return home. Her bravery in taking the tractor into the heat of battle, so to speak, despite her being untrained on the dangerous machinery to save the lives of innocent animals was really beautiful.

- My only complaint is that the severity of smoke in the air during a wild fire was kind of downplayed. In reality I think it would have been much more of a challenge for Vicky to deal with.

Prowlers in the Night

    Bitsey is suppose to leave for a trip right after her graduation ceremony but when her cranky great aunt Melissa does not show up Bitsey foregoes her trip to return to her aunts house despite the fact that her aunt was also suppose to leave for a trip that night.

    Bitsey finds the house empty and the utilities turned off as her aunt had planned. Feeling as tho she skipped her trip for nothing she hears a repetitive tapping in the empty house and soon a prowler appears. Evading the prowler until he leaves Bitsey builds up her courage to investigate the tapping and finds her great aunt trapped in the houses elevator due to the electricity being scheduled for disconnection due to her trip. The "prowler" was her chauffer looking for her. 

- This one felt very similar to Strange House but that's not a bad thing. I think both Bitsey and her aunt Melissa were brave in different ways.

Amateur Sleuth

    Elly and her boyfriend Butch head to Elly's grandfather's house out in the countryside. They are visiting the retired judge to earn money for a school projecting by doing odd tasks. While in the yard working a man comes by looking for the judge's residence. He is an escaped convict looking for revenge on the judge and the two teenagers must out wit him to protect Elly's grandfather.

- This one was actually my favorite. I think the setup was great and I loved the location. I also loved how Elly and Butch work together. I would happily read a whole book with these characters

    This book is available from Archive's lending library (if only I had know that before buying a copy).

Kim Fashions A Career

     Kim Merriman has just completed her second year of college when her father has a sudden stroke. In order to help him take time to recover Kim leaves school temporarily to get a job. Although she dreams of working as a buyer at department store the only offer she receives is as a stockroom girl. She accepts the job planning to quickly work her way up to the position she wants.

    Kim soon makes friends with her fellow coworkers including Francesca, a beautiful girls who dreams of being a model, and Dave, a night school attendee who is full of wisdom and good advice. Kim is fascinated by the department store and begins learning the ins and outs but despite her devotion to her job she can't help but miss college. Especially when she goes on dates with her sorta-boyfriend Gary who is always caught up in college/fraternity events. 

    Kim only plans on missing a semester of school but when her father decides to open an art gallery instead of going back to work Kim signs on to her job full time. Dave encourages Kim to attend night school but Kim insists she wants to go to "real college", especially since Annette, her rival for Gary's heart, has just transferred to Gary's school.

    Kim, eager to get ahead, propositions Melva Dorn, the fashion buyer, for a position as her assistant. Her boldness pays off and she gets a part time position as her assistant. Kim uses this opportunity to show off her fashion skills and learns some hard lessons about speaking up.

    When Christmas time comes around Kim attends a party at Gary's fraternity. When she learns the party-goers intend to steal Christmas displays from the department stores Kim realizes how much she has outgrown her old crowd and Gary. She decides to enroll in night school and give her heart to Dave.

- Kim is so unlikeable! She is spoiled, snobby, and self centered. She also seems impossible to get along with yet she thinks it's everyone else's fault.

- Kim is shocked anytime a coworker uses their employee discount to buy something for a friend and even refers to Cheri as "committing a crime" when she does it.

- It ended very abruptly. Kim decides to go to night school and realizes she likes Dave on the last pages. I thought the story was building up to Kim actually going to night school where she would do actual personal growth so when it ended without that happening it was very disappointing and made the book feel like a build up to nothing.

(I read this book on Archive.org via their lending library which is where the image comes from.)

Stranger in the House

    Kathleen is a 16-year-old girl whose world gets shook when it is learned that her mother will be returning home after 9 years in a mental health facility. Her mother, Helen, suffered from depression which made her unable to handle the responsibilities of adulthood. After she was institutionalized her father's childhood friend, Alma, came to them as a housekeeper and helped raise Kathleen and her brother Gregory, or Whimpy as he is better known as.

    Kathleen does not want her mother to come home because she likes how her life currently is and she does not want to deal with her mother's mental illness which she assumes is still rampant despite Dr. Lundigan's insistence that she is cured.

    After her arrival Kathleen struggles to treat her mother as a normal person and accept Alma's withdrawal from the family.

    Kathy and her best friend, Margie, begin spending a lot of time with two boys named Bruce and Swede. Bruce has been the target of Kathleen's adoration since they were children so it's hard for her to witness him and Margie take up with each other while she gets tossed to shy and awkward Swede.

    After Dr. Lundigan visits the family Kathleen realizes how little she has done to help her mother and fears that she will be taken back to the hospital or removed from their family permanently. She starts to help her mother adjust to family life and build a bond with her.

    After Margie and Bruce have a fight he makes a play for Kathy and she realizes she likes the idea of Bruce much more that the actual him, and that Swede is what she wishes Bruce was.

- Kathleen's mother's illness is attributed to her "inability to accept maturity" which means she refuses to give up things she enjoys that are considered for teenagers only such as playing tennis, playing piano, and wearing teen fashions. By these standards I would be institutionalized too. I'm a firm believer that age is just a number when it comes to fashion, hobbies, etc. and I think it's ridiculous and ageist that people, specifically women, are forced to look and act a certain way based on their age, and then demeaned for being "old".

- Also I found it a little frustrating that playing tennis is considered a sign of mental illness yet things like Helen being post-partum when her condition got much worse is never taken into account. It also glosses over Helen struggling with the death of both her parents and just focuses on "she doesn't want to be an adult, she wants to play tennis".

- It never says if Swede is actually from Sweden. Bruce introduces him as being new in town but from where he doesn't say. Kathy asks him if the nickname Swede bothers him and he says no, the same way a man from Texas doesn't mind being called Tex. I always enjoy books that have students from other countries since I grew up in an area with a lot of immigrants and a lot of my friends in school came from other countries. It makes the stories more realistic to me.

- This was made into a TV movie in 1982 called Memories Never Die. I watched the first 15 minutes on YouTube but wasn't really interested. The movie is a bit different, it is from the viewpoint of the mother who returns to her family after the father becomes ill and has to deal with her family and the housekeeper being hostile towards her. It seems much more dramatic than the book.

    Overall it was a nice book. I don't have too much to comment on as it was very similar to other books from the time that focus on a teenage girl. The mental health angle was interesting but kind of ruined by the focus of enjoying tennis being a symptom of mental illness and things like that.

Peggy Lane: Peggy Finds the Theater

 

    I've been suffering with reader's block for quite a few months. I have picked up several books but haven't been able to finish them. Thanks to Peggy Lane, or maybe Virginia Hughes, I have finally broken this little spell and finished a book. 

    As the book opens Peggy Lane is having a discussion with her parents about the possibility of her putting off college to pursue an acting career in New York. Her father is initially against it but Peggy works out a deal with him that if she can't land an acting job within one year she will return home to attend college. 

    Once her father is on board he calls up May Berriman, an old friend who acted in New York and now owns and operates The Gramercy Arms, a boarding house for actresses. May agrees to take on Peggy as a boarder and gets her an audition with the New York Dramatic Academy.

    After a quick trip to New York Peggy is accepted into the academy and soon moves into her new home in the city where she quickly becomes close friends with fellow boarder Amy, a southern girl who has also just arrived to attend the dramatic academy.

    On their first day of school they meet Mal, a British boy and aspiring director. He soon introduces the girls to his friend Randy, a song and dance man at local nightclubs. Mal and Randy have written a play but have hit an obstacle; they cannot find a theater to rent. The Broadway theaters are too expensive and the off Broadway theaters are booked years in advance. Peggy, wanting to help the boys and possibly wanting to impress Randy, declares she will find them a theater.

    Her plan of attack is to look up every theater license issued since the late 1800's, cross-reference them with a recent phonebook, and visit any that are not accounted for in the hopes that some are lying abandoned or forgotten about. 

    After a bit of searching Peggy finds one that is located on the fifth floor of a building. The building looks vacant but a ring of the door buzzer brings a surly janitor who insists there is no theater before shooing Peggy away. 

    Suspicious that crooks have taken up use of the theater Peggy suggests that the group take turns surveilling the theater at night in the hopes they will catch illegal doings so the police will clear out the theater thus leaving it available for Mal and Randy. On the second night while Peggy and Amy wait they witness a truck arriving and boxes being unloaded into the theater under armed guard.

    After informing the police it is discovered that hijackers have been storing their stolen loot in the old building. It is freed up and the landlord is so grateful he offers Mal and Randy a ten year lease at a steal of a price. Not only can the boys now put on their play but they also decide to turn a lower floor into a male version of the Gramercy Arms. 

    This was a quick, fun read. After Peggy begins her search for a theater the book gets quite interesting. I enjoyed the descriptions about different parts on New York City. There is one part where the boys take the girls on a date to Luchow's, an old and famous real life restaurant that was located in the old theater section of the city. At the time this book was written the restaurant was already a reminder of the past. I found this interesting as this book is from the 1960's. It is like looking in a window to the past while already looking in a window to the past.

    I read this as an eBook that I got for free from Project Gutenberg which is where the images in this post come from: Peggy Finds the Theater on Project Gutenberg

Connie Blair: The Puzzle in Purple

    Connie has just enrolled in a local art night school and on her first day she meets two boys who take an interest in her; handsome and cocky popular boy Roby Woodward and shy and awkward Eric Payson who is Mr. Woodward's protégé. 

The school is having a fancy dress ball in two weeks. The art school is located inside of an large, old residence and the Fairy Tale Ball is to be held in the ballroom. Some of the senior students have been tasked with painting murals of fairy tale scenes to hang in the room for the event. Eric is creating a Rapunzel mural and for reference has borrowed an expensive purple cape from Miss Catherine, an elderly woman who admires Eric and so happens to be Roby's aunt. On Connie first day the cape goes missing from the model's locker which causes Eric worry.

    A week later Eric musters up the courage to ask Connie to the ball and she decides to go with him and invites her twin, Kit, to come too. The next day Roby asks Connie to the ball but she informs him she already plans to go with Eric. Roby laughs and insists he'll deal with Eric and Connie will go with himself instead. Connie gets furious at Roby's conceit and tells him off.

    Kit arrives and the two girls dress as Snow Queens for their ball costumes. They are so identical in looks, voice, and costume that no one can tell them apart. As the dance is about to start the ballroom doors are opened and inside stands a skeleton, used by the school for anatomy reference, draped in the missing cape and all the murals, with the exception of Eric's, have been covered in purple X's.

    Despite the act of vandalism and queer prank the ball goes smoothly until everyone is walking home. Feeling playful in the snow Connie begins a game of tag with Eric which results in him stepping on a broken grate and breaking his leg.

    The twins go to visit him in the hospital the next day where they meet Roby's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Woodward. Eric lives with them and works at Mr. Woodward's factory. It appears they are sort of parent figures to the boy. While there Mr. Woodward complains that Roby has not yet come to visit Eric and that he is probably sleeping in till noon as usual. Miss Catherine also arrives for a visit and invites the twins to tea the following day.

    As they are leaving the hospital Roby arrives and gives the girls a ride home. He says Eric is his parents favorite child and that he only came to visit because it was expected of him. He also joyfully says Uncle Francis doesn't like Eric either but the subject is changed before Connie can respond.

    At tea the following day Connie learns that Eric is an orphan and Miss Catherine had met him when he was a small child and she was doing social-service work. "Uncle Francis" then arrives and turns out to be Mr. White, the superintendent of the art school building (a glorified janitor as Roby describes it). He, almost happily, states that the school has Eric as their number one suspect of the mural vandalism which could result in his expulsion.

    Eric asks Connie to bring him his sketchbook from his school locker. Roby brings her the locker key from home and inside Eric's locker she finds the purple paint which was used for the purple X's on the murals. Eric returns to school and is instantly informed he is the main suspect.

    Five large paintings worth $5,000 each were loaned to the school from Reid and Renshaw's to be used as decorations for the ball. With that over the paintings are packed up and shipped back to the advertising company. Connie is there when the paintings are delivered and opened to reveal they've all been slashed with a large X. With this serious crime in the mix an investigation is started by two detective from the insurance company. Eric is still the main suspect and being questioned constantly.

    Kit comes into town on a buyers trip for the hardware store and while at lunch with Connie she talks about her experience with Roby at the ball; Roby, mistaking Kit for Connie, shares the information that Miss Catherine has made Eric her sole heir and with the suspicion of vandalism she is likely to change her will now. 

    Connie makes an impromptu visit to Miss Catherine and supports Eric's innocence. The older woman informs Connie that she has never liked her brother Francis much and that he was a disappointment to the family. She confides to Connie that she is concerned over a knife she had gifted to Eric, that it may be used as evidence against him.

    Connie spends time with Eric on the weekend and, learning that the knife is in his school locker, she decides it would be best if they go remove it. They sneak in through the cellar and dig through Eric's locker but can't find the knife. Francis White and Mr. Jenkins, the school dean, arrive and the two young people try to sneak back out but Eric realizes he's forgotten his jacket in the locker room. They attempt to sneak back to the room and retrieve it but Mr. White discovers it first. Then the two come face to face with the detective who have been monitoring the school and saw them sneak in. Eric's coat is brought to the detectives who find the knife in a pocket.

    At this point Connie has realized that Mr. White is the real culprit and is able to explain her theory and get Eric off the hook. The book ends with them at Connie's family house for the weekend.

- I read my old review before starting this book and I'm afraid it blinded me a bit. In it I had said that the culprit was obvious from page 40. With this reading I assumed that meant Roby who was written with every sign pointing to him as being it. Much like how Eric could not be guilty because the clues point towards him to a suspicious degree, Roby could not be it because Betsy Allen has given the reader clues that point towards him to a suspicious degree.

- Fritz was just...not necessary. I didn't include him in my summary because his inclusion in the book is pointless. He is a obvious red herring. He is only included in the story at times where Connie needs to be suspicious of someone other than Roby. 

- Roby is the reddest red herring to ever herring. There is so much written just to make Roby look guilty in every single way yet not a single person suspects him, including Connie. As we learn more and more about him throughout the book we find he is not a good person yet at the end of the book when he's no longer needed for misdirection he is suddenly described by the other characters as a really great guy. This is quite annoying.

- Eric is described as being awkward and shy but instead of these being flaws Connie actually finds them endearing. Meanwhile smooth, confident Rob gets on her nerves. I thought this was nice. Normally characters are likeable despite their awkwardness but never for it.

- This book reminded me of the Nancy Drew Files with how the three suspects were laid out and all had their moments that make them look suspicious.

To continue on with examples of how the Connie Blair series is in fact not sexist:

• Connie is working fulltime and going to school. She supports herself with her job and she earned her school tuition through her work in the last book.
• Kit is still running the hardware store and going on buyer's trips alone despite her young age.
• Miss Catherine is a strong, independent woman and described as being "made of iron".
• Roby is good looking and charming yet Connie does not fall for his smooth talking and chooses for herself who she wishes to attend the ball with.
• Yet again no mention is made about Aunt Elizabeth being single and childless.

Connie Blair: The Riddle in Red

    With her temporary modeling job at Champions over Connie has gone back home to wait on the results of her job interview at the advertising agency Reid and Renshaw. Although Connie's life path was suppose to include college she decides she would rather head into the working world. Her father's unfortunate and unexpected heart attack drains the family financially and her parents consent to her taking a full time job.

    With her letter of employment Connie heads back to Philadelphia to continue rooming with her 28-year-old aunt Elizabeth and begin her job as a receptionist.

    On her first day she finds that the former receptionist was fired for using Angela Murray makeup products. Cleo Marville, who owns Cosmetics by Cleo, is the agency's biggest client and so the employees are subject to her eccentricities, which include using her makeup exclusively.

    Connie is asked to deliver an envelope to Cleo directly and when she arrives at the cosmetic factory she find an employee, chemist Mr. Paul, heatedly yelling at Cleo and throwing things around the office. It is Connie's arrival that deescalates the situation.

    Back at Reid and Renshaw the copy writers are struggling to create an acceptable advertisement for Cleo's new revolutionary nail polish created from a top secret formula. Connie mentions to her co-worker that the research department should conduct a survey with test samples to find out how the customers feel about the product. This idea gets passed along and accepted and Mr. Renshaw offers Connie the job of distributing the samples.

    After picking up the samples from the factory Connie goes to Cleo's glamorous house where she is told who to distribute the samples to; a stenographer, a homemaker, a college student, a wealthy women, etc. 

    Upon leaving Connie stops at a random house in the wealthy neighborhood to give a sample to the woman of the house. The home turns out to be occupied by Baron Von Glekin, the scientist that created the nail polish formula. Connie doesn't know who he is until later but gets bad vibes from him. While in the house she notices letters written on Angela Murray's stationary.

    Later while in a taxi with a chatty cab driver Connie learns that Cleo had a previous falling out with her sister. Connie checks with an edition of Who's Who to verify her belief that Angela Murray is Cleo Marville's sister.

    A conference meeting with Cleo is scheduled for the first work day after Thanksgiving. When she does not arrive at the advertising agency Connie is tasked with calling around to try to get a hold of her. However Cleo Marville seems to have suddenly disappeared. No one knows where she currently is and her last known whereabouts had been a football game the previous evening. The friends she had attended with said she left for an appointment but no one knows where or with who. Suspicion of foul play grows once the police find Cleo's car parked at the train station with the keys still inside. All her associates are questioned with the exception of the Baron who is suddenly out of town.

    One night after work Connie and Ken, a co-worker she occasionally dates, drive out to view Cleo's house. As they pass the Baron's house Connie sees a light flash in one of the windows. She notifies the police who put a watch on the house and catch a man running in through the back door, he is the same man as the butler Connie met on her first visit there and she finds him suspicious.

    The police decide to search the house and Connie and Mr. Renshaw come along. All three floors are fully searched with the exception of two padlocked rooms which, for some ridiculous reason, the police don't insist on searching. Connie is the only one taking Cleo's disappearance seriously and when the search does not turn her up Mr. Renshaw and the police act exasperated by Connie, perceiving her as a meddling child.

    Back at the office Connie has been given a new responsibility of opening and sorting all the mail. When she opens a package of advertisement proofs she finds one for Angela Murray has accidentally been included; it's for a new revolutionary nail polish made from a top secret formula. Guessing that the Baron has sold the same formula to both sisters Connie believes more than ever that Cleo has been abducted by him.

    Connie and Ken sneak out to his home in the late morning and climb a trellis to enter through a window. With the aid of a metal file they saw through the padlock on the locked room upstairs and find Cleo bound and gagged. She instructs Connie to run downstairs and call the police. Just as Connie has done this the butler returns but the police arrive before he discovers the couples presence.

    With the mystery solved Connie asks Cleo to reconcile with Angela which she does. A private lunch is thrown in which it's announced the Baron, fake Baron as it turns out and con man, has been captured, that Cleo and Angela will be combining their companies, and that Cleo wants to finance art classes at night school for Connie as a reward.

- I don't like Mr. Renshaw. He seems like an idiot and quite rude sometimes.

- Combining cosmetic companies is a stupid idea. The women have feuded for years then they get along for an afternoon and decided to combine companies.

- After Cleo is found Connie really becomes a busybody the way she tries to make Cleo reconcile with Angela. Connie doesn't know about the situation between the sisters. She's invested herself way too much in their private affairs.

- The police were dumb not to search the padlocked rooms and I have a very, very hard time believing they wouldn't. If you think someone is being held prisoner in a home obviously the locked rooms will look suspicious. I feel like Cavanna, or Allen as she's credited here, could have come up with something better.

- We never find out the Barons real name and that bothers me a tiny bit, I'm curious.

- I have no idea what the "red" in the title refers to. Nothing was especially mentioned as red. Cleo's hair is auburn but it's barely mentioned.

- Like I said in my last review, Connie Blair has been falsely dubbed as "sexist" when it is in fact the most feminist of all the female detectives series. Here's the example from this book, check my last review to see examples from the first book.

• When Connie thinks about her career goals it says "Connie was always seeking new worlds to conquer".
• After their father has a heart attack the girls take over being the providers for the family; Kit takes over the hardware store and Connie gets a job in an office. Kit is fully running the hardware store, including going on buyer's trips, and she's only 17. Connie is working as a receptionist and in her first month already gets opportunities to work on a large advertising campaign. She also plans to work her way up to higher position such as art department or copy writer and is willing to work hard to achieve her goals such as by going to art school at nights.
• Miss Cameron is an executive at Reid and Renshaw. She is well respected and Connie admires her for her business skills.
• Cleo Marville is a very successful business woman, as is her sister, and called a legend in her own time. She is always cool, collected, and in control even when being held prisoner.
• The men of authority like Renshaw and the police don't take Connie seriously because she's a young woman but Connie makes fools of them all by being right.
• And just like the last book there is no mention of 28-year-old Aunt Bet being single and childless.

Connie Blair: The Clue in Blue

    Twin sisters Connie and Kit are excited over the arrival of their young Aunt Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a stylist for Champions department store in Philadelphia and has agreed to help the twins and their friends put on a fashion show, including borrowing outfits from the department store.

    After her arrival, as the girls begin fitting the outfits, Elizabeth realizes one item is missing; an expensive beaver fur beret. Although she tries to appear relaxed Connie can tell her aunt is very worried about the missing item. She later confides to Connie that this isn't the first time something in her care has gone missing.

    The fashion show goes well and Connie loves the experience as a model but Kit does not. So when Aunt Elizabeth mentions that she's short one model for the department store everyone agrees Connie should take it and that night the two women head back to Philadelphia.

    Elizabeth is still concerned over the missing hat so she goes to the closed department store on Sunday to search her office. Connie wanders around the empty store and stops in the mirror-lined hat shop to browse. With the sudden feeling of being watched she looks up into the mirror and sees a man disguised in a large women's hat behind her. Before she can scream he knocks her unconscious.

    She awakes with Elizabeth and George, the watchman, with her. They don't believe her story of the man in the hat and tell her she must have simply fainted from the summer heat and knocked her head on a display counter.

    Back at Elizabeth's apartment Connie is introduced to Larry Stewart, a boy who works in the window dressing department at Champions. He listens to and believes her story.

    Monday is her first day of work. Her job consist of walking around the store wearing clothing from the College Miss section. When she goes into the empty model's dressing room at lunch she finds a stock girl named Grace in the room crying. Connie tries to console her but upon learning Connie's aunt is the store stylist Grace flees the room.

    Towards the end of the day Connie is approached by floorwalker Mr. Kurt who is also new. Connie finds something off about the man and mentally describes his manner as "oily".

    After work Connie and Larry go out a date to the movies and while walking home they talk of Connie's career goal of working in advertising. Larry says him and Elizabeth have advertising contacts through work. They go up to the apartment to discuss this with Elizabeth but inside they find the place in disarray and some mysterious person fleeing through the backdoor. Strangely enough nothing has been taken.

    The next day at work brings another missing item, this time from the jewelry department. Mr. Champion believes the items are being stolen by an inside person and hires a private detective who is to stay unknown.

    Connie runs into Grace on the way home and learns that her little sister is a recovered invalid who has no desire to leave her house. Again, at the mention of aunt Elizabeth Grace flees.

    The next day at work the missing necklace from the jewelry department is discovered in Elizabeth's bag. Connie becomes more eager to find an answer to this mystery, especially after she learns the necklace was found immediately after Grace had fetched the bag for Elizabeth.

    Connie visits Grace's home where she learns that Grace borrows items from work to show her sister but returns everything she takes. She had returned the fur beret in the display department hoping someone would find it but no one has yet.

    The next day Connie arranges a plan for her and Grace to retrieve the hat after hours and return it to the hat department, then confess her borrowing to Elizabeth. Once down in the display department they dig the hat out from behind a pile of display props that have since cover it. 

    Just as they find it Mr. Kurt enters the room with one hand suspiciously in his jacket pocket. He menacingly demands they hand over the hat but Grace tells Connie not to give it to him because, as she later learns, Grace had given him the necklace which then showed up in Elizabeth's bag. 

    Connie manages to hook her foot around the leg of a small display table and kick it at him while Grace uses this confusion to run and turn off the light. The door swings open and in comes George and the undercover detective, Mrs. Morton. Mr. Kurt then leaves while the detective sits down and listens to the girls' story. Connie begins thinking and comes to the conclusion that Mr. Kurt was the man in the mirror who knocked her out.

    Knowing that Mr. Kurt will sneak back into the store to take the fur beret the detective, Connie, Elizabeth, Larry, and a policeman hide in the store and catch him in the act.

    It turns out Kurt was working with a hat maker in Paris to sneak out stolen jewels which were hidden in the designs and Kurt was to retrieve them.

    Just as the book ends Larry tells Connie he's gotten her a job interview at an advertising agency.

- The fashioned mentioned in this book fascinates me. The book was written in 1948 but this copy was published in 1966. The suit that Connie models in the fashion show would look very different depending on which edition of the book you're reading. Here's an example of a fashionable suit for each time period:

Left: PenelopesHopeChest Right: CustomStyle

- I've always pictured Elizabeth's apartment as looking like Mary's from the Mary Tyler Moore show.

- I like Larry. I think it's intriguing the way he's in between Connie (17) and Elizabeth's (28) age and originally is romantically interested in Elizabeth. She's not interested in his affections, I assume because he's younger, and pawns him off on Connie.

- I think that the whole story of Kurt and a Parisian man's plan to smuggle stolen jewels into the country is kind of dumb. It's too elaborate and not believable.

- An author of a book discussing feminist female examples has tried to claim that the Connie Blair series is sexist. This makes me extremely frustrated because I would absolutely argue that Connie Blair is the most feminist of all the female detectives, much more so than Nancy Drew who is regarded as a feminist icon. Here are some examples in this book alone to support my claim:

• Elizabeth is 28 and is a proud career woman. She is successful at her job and very respected. There is not a single mention in this book about her lack of a husband or children. She is someone who Connie and Kit admire.
• Kit enjoys her family's hardware store and is ecstatic when her father offers her a job working there. She doesn't just love it because it's her family's business but because she finds genuine interest in hardware equipment and the work it does. Kit dreams of someday running the store.
• Mrs. Morton is a female detective. She's very good at her job and when she gives orders to a man it says "her voice held authority he couldn't help but respect". She is also a "Mrs" so we can assume she is both a wife and a detective, something that Nancy Drew claims is not possible.
• Connie herself insists she doesn't have any current interest in boyfriends, love, or marriage as she's too interested on a future career to focus on any other large life decisions. Although she has a job as a model, and is successful at it, she dreams about working in the advertisement business rather then just wearing pretty clothes all day.

- Not only does this book show independent and strong women it also speaks out about gender stereotypes. Larry Stewart and Chipper White are men who works in the display department, they have to create visually pleasing displays and advertisements which includes styling outfits. Connie remarks she didn't think men like Chipper (i.e. manly) would do this kind of work. He counters back that its unfair that men who did this are stereotyped as "sissys" and gives Christian Dior as an example of men working in fashion.

    Overall this is a good book. I think old fashion department stores are very fascinating. They use to be so much more glamorous and magical so that setting was fun, especially with a character who also gets to be behind the scenes. Even though this is a good book it's also slightly bland when it comes to the mystery. The beginning with Connie getting knocked out is quite spooky but the ending kind of fizzles out. I thought this the first time I read it as well but I was very happy to see the rest of the series, especially after book three, gets stronger.

    Oh! I almost forgot to mention that the title isn't ideal. After giving it some thought I believe that the Clue in Blue is referring to a blue thread found on the missing necklace which helps Connie realize Grace was the one to take it. It's a very small and weak part of the story and not worthy of the title.

When Sara Smiled

    Sara is driving down a country rode scouting areas for her junior class picnic when she spots a beautiful horse in a nearby pasture and stops to pet it. Seeing no one around she decides to hop on and go for a ride. Suddenly a dog runs up and Sara soon hears a man yelling at her from an approaching distance. Startled, the horse knocks Sara off and she falls into the soft grass unharmed.

    As she lays there the man approaches, still bellowing at her, and she sees that he's not a man but a boy of her age. She closes her eyes because she is nervous about getting into trouble but also because she knows she won't be able to talk to him. Sara is shy but to such an extent that she becomes physically unable to speak to those she's not comfortable around.

    The boy continues to yell and accuses her of pretending to be unconscious to make him carry her. He then threatens to take her car the way she took his horse. When he acts on this threat Sara jumps up in shock and indignation. She tries to get the horse to chase after him but Marmalade, her name for the horse, refuses to move. 

    The boy then comes back with a basket and tells her to come over and have some cookies and soda with him. Confused, Sara joins him and they sit in the car to eat. He introduces himself as Bart Hoffman and attempts to make conversation. Sara is able to say her name is Sara Thorne but not much else. Bart begins speaking in a soft voice which makes Sara assume he thinks her to be mentally disabled. This causes her to laugh and, thinking she's laughing at him, Bart tells her off before storming away.

    On Monday morning Sara is having breakfast with Donna, her youthful sixty-something grandmother. Donna lives with Sara and Sara's mother in a third floor apartment. Sara's father is no longer living and the small family struggles financially.

    Angie, Sara's best friend, arrives to walk to school together and she tells Sara she was at a party on Saturday night and Bart Hoffman, who is friends with Angie's boyfriend Hank, was there. He said he had met Sara and called her "odd". When her friend Liz hears about the incident with the horse and boy she suggests Sara should practice talking to the horse, pretending it's a person.

    Sara and Angie drive over to the pasture together. Sara wants to ride Marmalade again and Angie wants to meet the attractive Bart Hoffman. The boy and girl are instantly flirtatious and take Sara's car for a ride while Sara rides the horse. After awhile she remembers the plan of practicing talking with Marmalade. She sits down against a fence and drowsily closes her eyes while talking.

    Mr. Hoffman comes along and thinks Sara must have a head injury so picks her up. When she starts struggling he's sure she's looney and forceably carries her into his car. Bart and Angie show back up then and explain the situation thus saving Sara from being rushed to the hospital by Bart's dad.

    Sara arrives home that night to a tense atmosphere among her mother and grandmother. Donna sits her down and tells her she is getting married and will be moving back to Kentucky. Sara is heartsick at the thought of her grandmother leaving but also completely mortified about the marriage, claiming Donna is too old to get married. Her departure will mean that Sara will have to take over household responsibilities which will ruin her plans to get a summer job and earn money for college.

    The junior picnic arrives and takes place at the river on the Hoffman's land. Angie goes off with Bart but when Liz snags him away Angie gets into a terrible attitude and takes it out on Hank. When Sara sneaks off to ride Marmalade Hank follows and quickly spreads the story around school of Sara talking to a horse. This causes the boys to tease her and the girls to bully her.

    The wedding day arrives for Donna and Mr. Hugh Jones. Don, as he asks Sara to call him, is a wealthy man and long time friend to Donna who Mrs. Thorne grew up around. Sara likes him immensely after meeting him and once Angie insists getting married in your 60s is romantic Sara no longer feels so embarrassed about it.

    One afternoon while Sara walks home from the grocery store she stops at the drugstore for a drink. Bart's there and he asks her to sit down and have a bite to eat with him. He's understanding of Sara's shyness and offers to do the talking. Sara enjoys this impromptu date but feels sadden by the fact that Angie or Liz would be in her place if it was them who happened to walk into the drug store.

    On Friday Sara and Angie are walking to school when a senior boy named Roge Spencer approaches them. He's interested in Sara and is trying to get an introduction but Sara wants nothing to do with him because he had teased her about the horse incident. The girls shake him and Hank pulls up. Angie accepts his offer for a ride to school but Sara, still mad at him, declines. Roge then catches up with her and the two walk to school together. Roge knows she's shy and doesn't pressure her to make conversation which Sara appreciates.

    During the school day Hank approaches Sara in the hall and apologizes. He claims he didn't know people would tease her about the horse incident and says he took some great photos of her riding Marmalade. He says he'll give her some copies but when he asks her to show them around to people Sara feels he's up to something and tries to walk away. He grabs her by the hands and this is when Angie shows up and accuses them of being romantically involved behind her back and she breaks off her friendship with Sara.

    On the weekend Sara goes to Bart's to visit Marmalade but finds Bart and a beautiful girl already riding him. The girl is Lottie, Bart's cousin, and Sara instantly feels inferior to her. She drives off in the car and pulls off to the side of the rode to cry over her loss of Donna, Angie, and now Marmalade.

    When she tries to continue home the car won't start. A sinister man in a shiny black car stops and offers her a ride which she hesitantly accepts. The man believes Sara is a mute and claims he's only offering her a ride because his beloved little sister is a mute too.

    At her direction he drops her off on a street in town just before a traffic light. When he stops at the red light he is immediately bombarded by policeman; the sinister stranger robbed a bank earlier that day and only stopped in town during his getaway because of Sara.

    Sara goes to Angie's after school and begs to be friends again. Angie finally relents and informs Sara that Hank had submitted the pictures of her to the schools magazine along with an article about her talking to a horse to overcome her shyness. Sara is horrified and fears the bullying she will receive once the magazine comes out.

    To try and turn the situation around Hank throws a party in Sara's honor and reads his article out loud. The article talks about Sara kindly and affectionately and both it and she are raved about. She is happy and enjoying her time until Liz pulls her aside. 

    Liz is furious that Sara is getting so much attention and tells her she is through being her friend unless Sara turns the attention over to her. Sara stresses about this until the next morning when a young man calls asking to interview her. She has Liz come over and lets her handle the interview thus putting Liz in the spotlight.

    Summer vacation arrives and with the advice of Angie and Liz Sara decides to earn money by working as a sort of caterer helping women host luncheons. She makes a good amount of money doing this which she saves for college. When Donna invites her to visit her in Kentucky Sara declines saying she needs to keep working to earn money. This prompts Donna and Don to offer to pay for Sara's college. Once she gets news of this she runs over to Bart's to tell him and he asks her to date him.

- When Donna breaks the news that she's getting married Mrs. Thorne is standing in the living room and takes off her skirt and blouse...in the living room...for some reason. I found it really strange. Maybe if she took off her belt and untucked her shirt it would show exhaustion from the news but to undress like that is weird.

- Everyone makes fun of Sara for talking to the horse during the picnic but she didn't even say anything weird, just called to him and said like "hello beautiful boy, lets go for a ride". Like the kind of stuff you would say to a pet.

- Sara's mother is described as "plump" then "slim" a few chapters later.

- I have a hard time believing Angie would get so mad seeing Hank grabbing, not holding but grabbing, Sara's hands. Also Angie is constantly dating other guys, so what if Hank sees another girl. Not to mention Angie solely gets mad at Sara and not Hank.

- Liz is a TERRIBLE friend.

- It doesn't make sense that Sara can't have a job. If she can go to school and take care of the household then why can't she have a job once school is out?

- Once Donna leaves and Sara has to take over the cooking she learns to love it. She learns how to make Haap to Ghuy, a supposed Chinese dish but then that becomes all she makes. Once she starts catering her first client is Mrs. Hoffman and she wants to make a cheese soufflé for a luncheon but Sara says no, lets make Haap to Ghuy instead. It's a little hard to believe she can have a catering service with only one recipe.
    Anyways I looked up Haap to Ghuy and found a surprising lack of search results. Only four results came up; three old newspapers and one book which simple says "Haap to Ghuy: fried chicken with pork and walnuts". Two of the newspapers were locked behind a paywall but the third was free and had a recipe so if anyone wishes to make Haap to Ghuy like Sara then here you go. Also this newspaper is from the 1970's and the other two were from the 1960's so I'm guessing this is simply an old trendy recipe and not a Chinese classic as the book makes out.

Source: The Sentinel

Overall this book is alright. I couldn't help but compare it to Kathleen Robinsons other book When Debbie Dared and I'm afraid it doesn't live up to that marvelous book. I thought I would feel a connection to Sara since I've struggled with similar shyness/selective mutism but I didn't at all. I think the premise of Sara and her mother living in an apartment and struggling financially is interesting and different. I also liked that Sara did not feel any shame about it.

    I do have to say that I don't think the writing was all that great and since I've read other books by this author I can't help but feel Kathleen was not using her full potential.