The Flapper Wife

    The story begins as twenty-year-old Gloria is getting married to thirty-year-old Dick Gregory. Gloria, unsure what love is, doesn't believe she loves Dick but she does care for him and falsely believes that he's a wealthy lawyer. He is a lawyer but has just started his career meaning he wont be making the type of income Gloria yearns for for 10-15 years yet. Dick however loves Gloria, happily spoiling her and putting up with her emotional outburst to get her way.

    After returning from the honeymoon Gloria gets word that Stanley Wayburn is in town. Gloria had had a love affair with the small time actor last summer when he was in town performing in a play. Although she wanted to marry him Stan had no interest in committing to Gloria and the day he left town with the show he didn't even tell her goodbye. It was soon after this heartbreak that Gloria met Dick.

    Tempted beyond resistance Gloria goes the the theater to see Stan perform. The two reunite and quickly restart their love affair but the same problem persists of Stan having no interest in commitment.

    Gloria soon finds herself becoming more and more depressed with life. She is committed to a man she doesn't love, unable to have the man she does love, her mother-in-law constantly demeans and insults her for not keeping home, and her husband is constantly telling her of their fastly dwindling finances due to her spending habits. It doesn't help her that her husband is not stupid and knows there is something happening between Gloria and Stanley although to what extent he can only guess.

    On a rainy day when Gloria picks up Stan for their usual secret drives out into the country Stan is drunk and as he tries to aggressively "make love" to Gloria she fights him off which causes her to crash her car quite badly. Stan reports her unconscious body laying in the muddy road and then flees to New York with money he has borrowed from her.

    After recovering from her broken collar bone and numerous bruises Dick invites Gloria to take a trip to the mountains with him. He's been ordered by a doctor to take a restful trip to help recuperate after a bad case of pneumonia and thinks Gloria could use such a trip after her car accident. However when Dick tells her his mother is coming along Gloria gives him an ultimatum; either his mother doesn't go or she won't. To her surprise Dick chooses his mother so on the same day that the two leave Gloria boards a train to New York, leaving a letter for Dick saying she wont be coming back. 

    Once in the city Gloria heads to Stan's boarding house but he is not happy to see her. The two have a bad fight which leads to Gloria smashing a framed picture of Sonya, a fellow actor who Stan has reassured Gloria for months that he doesn't have a romantic interest in. Stan responds by laughingly telling Gloria he married Sonya yesterday. He admits that he used Gloria for cheap thrills and degrades her about cheating on her husband with him. She heads back to her hotel hurt but determined to get a job on Broadway and make a name for herself.

    Despite being the prettiest girl in her hometown Gloria struggles to find any stage work and after fighting off a sexual assault from a producer she returns home defeated and longing for her husband.

    Dick accepts her back into their house but not into his heart. Young Gloria soon realizes her constant yearning for Dick while she was in New York and her overwhelming jealousy of Miss Briggs, his secretary who is openly in love with him, mean that she is in love with Dick. However regardless of Gloria's open affections to Dick he keeps her at an arms distance.

    Determined to win back his heart Gloria works hard to learn to cook and keep house, even becoming willing to have children, something she had previously stated was out of the question. Despite these efforts Dick keeps himself emotionally shut off from her and continues to do so even when Gloria literally gets on her knees multiple times to beg Dick to treat her properly. Dick says it's because the situation with Stanley is stuck between them but when Gloria brings up Dick's refusal to fire his lovesick secretary, he brushes it off as nothing.

    After trying all she can and being rejected by her husband over and over Gloria moves back to her parents home and Dick does the same. Dick places their house for sale and promises to support Gloria financially but after she receives her first check from him she returns it and goes back to work as a typist.

    After several weeks Gloria is homesick for her own house and realizes she shouldn't have to give up her home just because her and Dick have separated. She moves back in and on impulse calls him. He misses her call but it gets relayed to him and, after weeks apart, he struggles to not go back to her. Seeing he isn't going to truly separate from his wife, Miss Briggs quits her job which leaves both her and Stanley in the past and Gloria and Dick happily reunite.

- Who is the villain of the story? Is there one? On the surface it appears it is suppose to be Gloria, that her "modern living" is destroying an innocent man who simply loves her but I'm not sure if that is how it is suppose to be. Gloria is extremely likeable. Her selfishness seems to simply come from the fact that Dick, in his desire to posses her (and sleep with her, in my opinion) has spoiled her and given her the impression he can provide her with a life that he can not actually afford. Why did he not explain to her his financial standing before marriage instead of giving her a gorgeous ring, having a house custom built, paying for her furnish it to her liking, and taking her on a glamourous honeymoon before telling her they now have to live a frugal life. 

    When they met Gloria was working as a typist, a profession that she is especially skilled at, and holding out for a wealthy husband. And her desire for a wealthy husband is not at all shallow. She has watched her parents work themselves ill to maintain the basics of life and she doesn't want to struggle that way. People can judge but it is her life and she has a right to choose if she wants to marry for love or money. The fact that Dick is so much older than her and essentially fools her into marriage makes it even more disgusting. Especially considering Dick did not even bother to get to know his wife before trapping her.

    For example Dick smokes. When Gloria grabs one of his cigarettes from the pack and asks for a light he responds by ripping it from her mouth, throwing it in the garbage can, and demanding "how long have you had this rotten habit?". Gloria tells him two or three years and is surprised he didn't know. Dick doesn't know his wife because all he cared was that she had a pretty face and he wanted to sleep with her.

- Gloria's best friend is a woman named May who is married to Dick's friend Dr. John. It is at a party of May's that Gloria and Dick meet. Dr. John puts all his time into his work and ignores May's needs for companionship. He doesn't spend time with his wife, take her out, attend social functions with her, etc. So May attends functions with her friend named Jim, and yes the are just friends. However the town gossips and Dr. John not only orders May to not speak or see Jim but to spend her time at home, alone in a big house. When May doesn't do this Dr. John takes his own life. Everyone blames May for "driving him to it" but all I could see it as is that Dr. John would rather kill himself than spend time with his wife. 

- Dick's coldness to Gloria and refusal to communicate is just childish and gross. It really feels like Dick enjoys degrading Gloria and making her beg him for his love just to then reject her. By the end of the book I couldn't stand him.

    If it weren't for the sexism I would give this book a perfect rating. It was constantly moving, enthralling, and I honestly couldn't put it down. Despite seeming to have an outdated, sexist message Gloria and May drop some amazing quotes that could certainly be labeled as feminist. To be honest the sexism is written in such a comically extreme way that it almost feels like Beatrice Burton was trying to make a mockery of it. 

    Burton was a talented writer and so it's very lucky for us that there is a sequel to this book. It's called Footloose and it follows May after she leaves town a widow. If you're able to laugh off the ridiculous parts about a women's supposed role in life then I would highly recommend this.  

Cherry Ames at Spencer

    (While cleaning out some old notebooks I found this review I had written years ago.)

    Cherry is back at her old nurse training school to work in the new children's wing. She has to take care of a little girl named Dot 'Mouse" Jepson. Dot's father, Jep Jepson, was convicted of robbing a pawnshop, sent to prison, and recently broke out. Cherry thinks that not only is he innocent of the robbery but that he's secretly working at the hospital. She sets out to prove both these theories.

- It was nice reading a book taking place at Spencer again. At first old teachers/nurses and incidents are mentioned but Spencer related things quickly stop being mentioned.

- A small side story is that two new doctors are competing for a position. Rumor has it that one of them is dating the chief doctor's granddaughter to get an advantage. After Cherry meets him for the first time and exchanges two sentences of conversation she says "He's just about the nicest doctor I've ever worked with and easily the best looking. I don't care what anyone says, he's not a backslapper." She's judging his content of character by attractiveness.

- The word flibbertigibbet is used twice, such an awkward word.

- On page 121 the chief doctor complains that Cherry and Dr. Lane don't hang out at the hospital after work. Toxic boss alert?

- Page 207 has a strange paragraph: "Cherry touched her lips to Midges wide, shapely mouth, whispering, "Of course not, darling. But don't you think you should great my feminine guest now?" What is going on? Why would she whisper into Midge's mouth and not her ear?

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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.

Judy Bolton: The Invisible Chimes

 

    The book starts out with Judy and her friends visiting an antique store/tea room. In the shop Judy sees a vase in the shape of a tree and decides she must have it. She plans on inquiring about the price on the way out but first the group wants to eat. 

    They go into the attached tearoom and enjoy eating and dancing to the player piano. Before long another boy and girl arrive but only the girl stays. She continues to keep the piano playing constantly and after dancing with her, Horace says the girl seemed scared. Soon her companion reappears and rushes her out.

    After not long the group begins to head back to the car but as they re-enter the antique shop they find many of the items have been removed, including Judy's vase. Although Judy suspects a robbery the others believe someone must have come in and made a large purchase. However they soon find that Arthur's car has also disappeared.

    They quickly call the police and Judy's father who arrive one after the other. Seeing the tire tracks of Arthur's car lead down a road that has a broken bridge, Judy's group heads down this road in Dr. Bolton's car, while the police go searching down a road that leads out of town.

    The road is dark, narrow, and winding but after awhile headlights begin approaching them and they quickly recognize Arthur's car. It is occupied by four men as well as the boy and girl from the tearoom. When the car tries to force it's way past them, Judy and her friends get out of Dr. Bolton's car and form a human chain blocking the road. Unfazed, the driver of the stolen car attempts to run them over but the girl occupant turns the wheel, sending them down a ledge into a gully where they crash into a tree.

    The occupants of the car are fine except for the girl who is unconscious and bleeding profusely from her hand and head. While Dr. Bolton attends to her the other criminals take off in his car leaving them to walk back with the unconscious girl in their arms.

    After a long night they manage to get home and make the girl comfortable in the Bolton's guest room. Judy and the Doctor try to inquire about the girl's identity but she claims to not know it or recall anything that has happened before the accident.  She is given the nickname Honey due to her honey-colored hair and father and daughter try to help discover her identity while she continues to live with them.

    After Peter's grandmother suffers a stroke Dr. Bolton is called to the Dobb's home and brings his wife and Judy to help. This leaves Honey home alone but she insists she will be fine. When the Bolton's arrive home an hour later they find Honey missing. Worried, Judy decides to wait up on the porch for her to return. The hour is late and Judy dozes off but awakes to Honey's voice speaking to a boy named Mike. Mike has handed Honey a package which she brings inside.

    Once inside Judy is settling for bed when the mysterious sound of chimes ring out. No one knows where the sound has come from. In the next few days the chimes are heard again; while Judy is in the living room and several times in Honey's room.

    A brain specialist is in town from New York and Dr. Bolton invites him to dinner so that he can secretly study Honey to see if she genuinely has amnesia, which Dr. Bolton doubts. The specialist happens to notice that Honey has a heart shaped thumbprint similar to a baby he had seen 16 years ago. Judy manages to have all the dinner guest take impressions of their thumbprints under the ruse of a fun party activity but really so the specialist can compare it with the print in his files of the baby.

    During dinner Police Chief Kelly shows up to inform Dr. Bolton that his stolen car was located in New York outside of a boarding house. Judy tasks the specialist's daughter, Pauline, with finding out the names of the people in the boarding house.

    While Mrs. Dobbs is still bedridden Judy and Honey pay her a visit. She takes a liking to Honey and suggests she visit her while Judy is at school, which she begins doing everyday. When Mrs. Dobb's condition worsens she begins to think Honey is her deceased daughter Grace and wants her by her side constantly.

    In the last book we learned that Grace, Peter's mother, ran away from home to marry Vine Thompson's step-son, James. They had two children; Peter and a daughter also named Grace. While away from home James was killed in an automobile accident. Grace, unaware of his death, wrote continuously to him asking for him to come home or send money as the family was starving and about to be kicked out of their New York boarding house. These letters unanswered, Grace eventually passed away. Vine Thompson was then notified by the boarding house landlord, Mrs. Vincenzo, of her death and that baby Grace was dying and Peter had been taken to an orphanage. Vine told the Dobbs about Grace's passing and Peter being in the orphanage but made no mention of baby Grace. Believing Peter to be the only child the Dobbs went to New York and brought him home.

    While Honey stays at the Dobbs Judy cleans her room and discovers floor nails in the waste paper basket. After inspecting the floor she finds where the nails were removed and upon lifting the floorboards discovers the tree vase from the antique store hidden underneath. Upon lifting it the mysterious chimes ring forth from it.

    Judy feels angry and hurt. She now believes Honey is a liar and thief and has been using the Bolton's as a way to hide from the police. She tells all this to her family and Peter who all insist Judy wait until Honey has a chance to explain herself.

    While Judy waits a letter from Pauline arrives. Pauline had gone to the boarding house and managed to get the names of the people there. Turns out it is Mrs. Vincenzo and she has two missing children; Rose and Michael. When Honey arrives soon after this discovery Judy shows her the letter. The Bolton's and Peter all gather and give Honey the chance to explain herself.

    Honey confesses that she is Rose Vincenzo and she participated in robbing the antique store with her brothers. She explains how she had no choice but to participate in this and many other crimes as she, and her little brother Mike, were victims of severe abuse at the hands of the other Vincenzos. Honey explains how she grew up uncared for in a criminal home with only the love of her little brother that she raised while still a child herself. She explains that crashing Arthur's car was not only an attempt to save Judy and her friends lives but also to kill herself and Mike as a way to free them from the abuse. To her the Bolton's taking her in was a rebirth, a chance for a new and honest life surrounded by people who cared about her. She also knew she had to keep her identity secret to protect Mike.

    On the night Honey had gone missing she had been meeting up with Mike. Worried about her Mike had tracked her down with only the knowledge that a doctor had been at the scene of the crash. Mike himself had escaped from the Vincenzo's and now had a job and home on a farm. He gave Honey the vase, which he had escaped his brothers with, as a get well soon present.

    With this information the Bolton's promise not to send Honey back to New York and to keep her and Mike's names quiet when they report the Vincenzo's to the police. Honey is given the choice to live with the Bolton's or the Dobbs and she chooses both so that she can help out both households.

    Peter and Honey go over Grace's old letters, the ones discovered in the last book, and are able to confirm that Honey's mother, Mrs. Vincenzo, was Grace's landlord. Honey offers to contact her to try and find out the whereabouts of Peter's sister's resting place as they believe she had passed away as a baby. But this is unnecessary as a message soon arrives from New York. Honey's thumbprint has been compared with the heart shaped thumbprint of the baby and it was a match, reveling that Honey is actually Grace Thompson, Peter's lost sister. With this new information Honey moves in with the Dobbs.

    The only loose end is the tree vase which needs to be returned to the antique store. As Dr. Bolton drives the girls there they spot Mike herding cows on a farm. They stop and Honey tells him of her discovered identity but says that Mike will always be her brother. He insists he also has a happy new life and will never go back to the Vincenzo's. After returning the vase, the store owner offers it as a reward to Judy who happily accepts it and that is end of the mystery.

- At the beginning of the book it mentions that Peter, Horace, and Donald all attend the same college and that Arthur has already graduated college for architecture. I was surprised by this as I always imagined Arthur to be the youngest of the boys and Peter to be the oldest, with Horace falling in-between the two. I don't know their ages except that they're all over 18. Judy, Lois, and Lorraine are all 15 and if Arthur and Horace were not brothers to two of the girls I would find the age differences uncomfortable for their friend group.

- I always find antique stores in old media fascinating. I've been in my fair share of antique stores and the items usually there did not even exist when this book was written. It makes me wonder what items you saw in these stores back then. I also love how the boys look at the antique weapons while the girls look at the pretty things. Very realistic to my experiences.

- Margaret Sutton had said that if the series had continued Horace and Honey's marriage to each other would have been in one of the books therefore I consider their marriage canon. With that it mind I found their meeting really cute. While in the tearoom everyone is dancing except Horace who is gazing over at Honey. He asks Judy if she thinks it would be appropriate for him to go ask her to dance. He's clearly interested in her from the first time he sees her and I think that is cute.

- The Vincenzo's are one of the many, many, many examples of anti-Italianism that was rampant in the U.S. at the time. Italians, specifically Sicilians, faced a lot of discrimination whether they were immigrants or Italian Americans. They were considered criminals by nature, something shown in this book by the repeated insistence that Honey does not have physical features of a criminal. The last book also focuses on Vine Thompson not being a blood relative of Peters as ignorant people believed criminality was passed through blood. It's unfortunate that many people in modern times are unaware of this bigotry and some even deny it ever happen. But books with stereotypes like these, which are a dime a dozen, are loud proof that it not only existed but was being taught to children.

- When I had originally read this book I was annoyed by Honey's coincidental relation to Peter, especially after Peter's coincidental relation to Vine in the last book. It still annoys me if I think too much about it but now I see it as setting up the foundation for the series. The first three books really lay the groundwork for everything. We meet and have time to get familiar with all the characters, from Judy and her friends to her grandparents and the Dobbs, as well as get familiar with Farringdon and the Bolton house. We also learn how all the characters interact with each other such as the Arthur-Lorraine-Judy love triangle. With these books done it feel like now we actually start the series in the next book.

    Overall it was good. It moves well and like I've said before, Sutton books have detailed plots that twist around each other but are still very easy to understand. My only complaint is that the cats could have been in it more.

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Judy Bolton: The Haunted Attic

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    After losing her home in the Rouslville flood Judy Bolton is excited to be moving into her new home in Farringdon. The home was offered to the Bolton family for free due to the fact that the house is considered haunted. A former tenant, gangster Vine Thompson, had been shot and killed in the house and people claim her spirit now haunts it. Aspiring renters and local thrill seeking teenagers all claim they have seen a ghost waving it's arms in the attic window as well as heard Vine Thompson's voice calling out. Vine's son also was allegedly seen going into the house but never exiting. Judy, along with her reporter brother are excited to solve this mystery. 

    Judy hopes that acclaim from solving the mystery will help her earn the friendship of Lorraine Lee. Lorraine is one of Lois Farringdon's best friends and as Judy and Lois have become close, and sealed their friendship with a ruby friendship ring, Judy thinks it only right that her and Lorraine have a friendship too. Problem is Lorraine is extremely snobby and takes a disliking to almost everyone, Judy included. Judy hopes that her upcoming Halloween birthday party and finding the Lee family's stolen jewels, which includes a friendship ring exactly like Judy's, will guarantee her that friendship.

    Judy's life soon splits into two, her unhappy life at school where the other girls question her morals and soon accuse her of having acquired Lorraine's stolen friendship ring. And her happier life at home where she spends evenings exploring the haunted attic with her brother, Horace, and her friends Peter and Irene. 

    As Halloween arrives Judy and Horace have solved the mystery of the alleged hauntings and host a successful Halloween party where all is reveled, including the parentage of Peter which had remained a mystery to him all his life.

    I planned on doing a long summary of this book but I forgot how involved Sutton plots are. I will have to remember to take notes as I read next time.

- I do not understand why everyone tolerates Lorraine's behavior. I think Lois' pledge to remain best friends with Lorraine, simply because the girls' mothers were best friends, is silly. If Lois and Lorraine really were best friends than Lois should be able to tell Lorraine how disgusting her behavior is and to stop it.

- I like Irene in this book (something that I can not say for later books) and I enjoy the concept of the mill girls who are all down-to-earth and friendly. Irene is such a fascinating character, especially when being compared to the wealthy characters. She's a teenager girl who seems to be the sole financial supporter of her household which includes just her disabled father and, in this book, a no-good boarder. She works at the silk mill during the day and attends the mill's night school with her co-workers. 

- I enjoyed Judy and Horace's relationship in this book. Horace is a really nice brother, always helping Judy and wanting to protect her but not in an overbearing way. I liked the scene where Judy screams out in the night and Horace runs over to check on her. She says she's fine but he waits in her room for 10 more minutes to make sure everything is ok before going back to bed. I thought that was really sweet. I like that they don't always get along perfectly either. I think their relationship is very realistic for siblings. 

- I didn't like the way Judy treated The Ghost, which is a cat Horace finds. He essentially gives it to Judy but Judy does not want it because it is half starved, dirty, and doesn't go with her room's color scheme. I also did not like how Judy waits to feed the starving cat until after it is bathed. 

- I also did not like how Judy seemed to take a casual attitude towards the mystery. At one point the attic door, which is located in her bedroom ceiling, begins to open in the night but even that doesn't light a fire under her to take things seriously. At the end of the book we find out someone has been coming and going from the attic but none of the family seem to find this disturbing. Even after hearing mournful cries in the attic, which Judy finds pitiful instead of frightening, she does not rush to investigate. I find this off-putting, especially considering the sounds were the cries of a starving cat who was trapped in an attic with a dead pet bird. This greatly upset me too, the fact that no one really seems to care that a poor pet bird was trapped in it's cage in an attic and starved to death. The mysterious voice was suppose to be intriguing but I just found it terribly sad that so many people had heard this voice and ran from it while it was essentially the bird calling out to the people for help, and their lack of help resulted in it's death. Even more I am disgusted that Horace carries around and handles the corpse of the bird which had been dead for months, it's body parts literally fall off while he displays the bird to the party-goers. 

- I think the mystery involving Peter's parents is a little unnecessary and at times it felt forced. Maybe it was forced as Sutton needed to get that into the story to set up for the next book's plot. I also dislike how Peter's father just happens to be Vine's step-son and therefore Peter's blood is not tainted by criminal blood. It seems so outdated and old fashioned. Like who cares if Peter's grandmother was a criminal, that doesn't mean he is and the belief that it should effect his social standing is ridiculous. I wish he was truly Vine's grandson as I find Vine Thompson to be such a fascinating character which is saying something since she never actually appears in any of these books since she has already passed. 

- One thing I love about this series is the way it progresses the same as real life. Some scenes can feel a little sentimental because I know the changes that happen in the future. For example the scene of Judy watching Irene play piano for her father in the living room while I know in the future he passes and Irene moves away and becomes a famous radio singer. Or the scene at the beginning where Judy is packing to move out of her grandparent's house and waving goodbye to them from the car while I know in the future they both pass and Judy and Peter make their home there. As silly as it may sound it really makes me appreciate these scenes the same way you appreciate moments in your life because you know they wont last forever.

    Overall I enjoyed this book. In my opinion the Judy Bolton series is above and beyond any other girls series ever written. The plots are always so detailed and can take you down a twisting road but always remain so easy to keep up with and never get confusing. 

    I've been in a reading slump for a long time thanks to the Barbara Ann series or as I like the call it, the four most boring books ever written. But thankfully this book really helped me with that and I got it read in two days. I'm very excited to continue the series and I will be re-reading the third book, The Invisible Chimes, next. Honey is one of my favorite characters and so I'm excited for her to come into the series. 

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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

Barbara Ann: Mystery Across the Boarder

 

    When Barbara Ann's father has to take a business trip to Mexico City Barbara and her best friend Beverly join him. Barbara's unofficial boyfriend Bob and his friends, Mort, Jerry, and Jimmy, all decided to take a trip to Mexico City too. 

    As they're driving through Texas on their journey Barbara's father allows her to take the wheel and do some driving. Unfortunately Barbara ends up in a minor bang up with a car parked on the side of the road. This car belongs to Mr. Stedman who begins to bawl out the teenage girl. However when he learns her name is Barbara his attitude completely changes to kind and friendly. 

    Once across the border the group of Americans stay at a quaint Inn suggested to them by Mr. Stedman. It is owned by Mr. Sweizer who tells Barbara about Stedman's tragic life; 

    Stedman, a widower, had lost his only daughter and son-in-law in an automobile accident. His only remaining family was his granddaughter, Barbara, who he had custody of and doted on shamelessly. One day while at the beach with her nanny the three year old child went missing. It was ruled that the child had drowned but as her body had never been found Stedman holds onto hope that she is alive. She would now be 16 years old. 

    Once in Mexico City the party pays a visit to Mr. Stedman and meets his nephew, Gordon. Barbara senses a coldness between the two which is enhanced when Gordon makes it clear to Barbara that he does not approve of his uncle's hope that little Barbara is alive. 

    I'm going to stop my summary here because when it comes down to it the book is mostly filler. Barbara Ann of course finds little Barbara in Mexico, completely by coincidence. The nephew, of course, organized the child's kidnapping, and grandfather and granddaughter, of course, are reunited. 

    Mexico was a very popular place for books to be set in and I have read numerous ones taking place there, specifically in Mexico City. However I've never read one in which Mexico is looked down upon so much. The food is described as disgusting and inedible, the women as fat, the children as dirty, and the locations are picked apart. Almost all these old books in Mexico include a trip to the floating gardens of Xochimilco and this one is no exception but instead of describing the beauty of the place and the thrill and excitement of mingling with floating musicians and merchants who pass by the place is called "beautiful from a distance" and a complaint is made about Mexicans tossing their food waste into the water as well as complaints about it turning into a floating market where natives make money off of tourists. 

    To me it appeared as if no one in their tourist party was enjoying the experience of a different country. So it felt very ingenuine when Grosby writes the characters as being sad to leave Mexico. From their reactions throughout the whole book I thought they would be happy to leave. 

    I don't have much to say about this book. It's a typical Barbara Ann book in that the mystery doesn't take up much space and there's plenty of filler events. I did however find it less tedious than I did after my first reading and I think it is a step up from the last book in the series. 

The Mystery of the Tolling Bell (Original)

    "Nancy becomes involved in another mystery when she accepts an invitation from Mrs. Chantry, a client of Mr. Drew, to vacation at her cottage in a picturesque seaside town. Carson Drew has promised to join his daughter, but fails to arrive. The alarming disappearance of Mr. Drew and the odd circumstances surrounding his rescue are only the start of a series of highly dangerous adventures for Nancy and her friends Bess and George. Mrs. Chantrey's story about a nearby cliff side cave reputedly inhabited by a ghost intrigues Nancy and she decides to investigate. Several frightened townspeople claim to have seen an apparition and heard the weird sounds of a tolling bell just before water rushes from the cave. Will Nancy discover the true cause of these mysterious occurrences?"

- Yet again Bess who is often described as simple minded and cowardly saves the day. She rescues herself and George from drowning.

- Too much goes on when Nancy goes to see her father at the hotel; being told to come, being told to not come, the note in the lobby, finding him, losing him, Ned losing Nancy, Ned getting false information. It was just too much misdirection going on while also trying to move the story forward.

- It seems that everyone in Candleton was very eager to give their life savings to a stranger traveling through town selling stock. Surprised these people haven't been duped before.

- Nancy and Ned drive to Yorktown in Ned's car yet Nancy grabs a map "that she always kept in the car". Clearly the writer forgot whose car they were in.

- If I were Nancy I would have been absolutely livid at the fisherman who tries to "rescue" her from the back of the cave by tossing a fishing net over her and hauling her up the cliff. If Nancy hadn't something to grab onto at the last minute she would have died because of this idiot.

- A dwarf man is compared to an elf many times and the villain of the book is physically deformed which is all a bit ableist. Also the other culprits are described as darker skinned, larger features, and all those racial villain stereotypes.

- I really like the names Sweet Chimes and Mon Coeur and the heart-shaped compact. Not hard to see why people would buy it, good packaging is so important with make-up.

- Nancy and George staying in the cliff house after Ned leaves for the police department is so dumb. They should have waited for him to return.

- George going down the tunnel after Nancy instead of going for help was also extremely dumb. She should know better by now.

- I think the culprits happening to be the one to rear end Ned was not necessary. Why did every unfortunate incident have to be them? That's too much coincidence.

- At the end when Ned and Nancy find the bell in the cave it says Nancy opened the door and walked back into the cliff house yet when they went down the tunnel it says they made sure to prop the door open so they wouldn't get locked in.

- I've never heard of the tired swimmers carry that Bess uses for George. I looked it up and could only find an old video from 1933. Not sure if it's an outdated technique or not.

Source: Dissolve

    This book is very coincidence heavy and most of it involves Nancy happening to be at the right place at the right time. I do enjoy the seaside setting and Ned's presence as well as the lack of Nancy getting a concussion or being caught and bound by the bad guys. I think it's a bit unethical of her to keep the bell at the end however.

    Overall it's one of the better Nancy Drew books and significantly better than the re-written version. The cover is also stunning.

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.

Barbara Ann: The Mystery at Mountain View

    Barbara Ann is on a 3 week class trip through Colorado. The group is spending one week staying at Mountain View Resort, where Barbara's friend Bob Allen is working for the summer. Strange things begin to happen to drive all the guest out of the resort. Together Bob and Barbara decide to get to the bottom of thing.

- One night at Yellowstone everyone is heading to their cabins for the night and the boys offer to open the cabin door for the girls because they assume the girls will be scared since it's dark inside. The girls are offended that the boys would think them so timid and frighten and the boys promptly mock them for being so "independent". The girls then head to their cabin very peeved at the boys. When they open the door a giant bear is in their cabin and they have to run screaming to the boys to protect them. The boys then rub this in their faces. Let this be a lesson to all you women out there; if you try to be independent you will be accosted by a wild bear in your home.

- The answer to the strange occurrences at Mountain View are almost all attributed to a radio broadcast. The lights going on and off, the telephones ringing, etc are all done with a radio broadcast which just isn't accurate. I don't know if Ruth Grosby knew this or not but I found it a little annoying.

- Similar to the last book Barbara, and Bob in this case, reveal all their evidence to the culprit while they are alone in an isolated area with them. Barbara learned nothing from her last kidnapping.

- When the forest fire is first spotted it is look upon as a nice, exciting thing. One of the boys calls it a "swell forest fire".

- The group of students and the teacher go to the forest fire to look for Bob and Barbara. They don't even call authorities first. Once at the site the fire is already out and they see Bob's scout pin and a charm from Barbara's bracelet and decide they're dead and all head back to the resort. Why would they not keep looking for the two in the hopes they are either alive or injured while one person goes back for the authorities. It's weird behavior.

- The three criminals get away and no ones cares. They don't complain about it or even mention it again. This bothers me so much because the bad guys are always suppose to be punished for their criminal actions. Even in books such as The Missing Formula the bad guy goes free but that's after he's been caught and the good guys have decided to let him go.

    The mystery is crowded in at the end and the majority of the book is more about Barbara Ann's fun school trip which was extremely boring. The only scenes I really enjoyed were the ones where Barbara was out in the woods. Everything taking place inside the resort and before they got to the resort was terribly boring.

    I didn't end up writing a full summary for this book due to a combination of feeling burnt out on writing summaries and because I kept setting this book down for long periods of time.