Terrible news! The newspaper reports that a plane has crashed on the deck of the 'Balaska', their Uncle's ship, and injured several passengers. A telegram is delivered that day to inform Lettie Briggs that one of those (minorly) injured was her father. The telegram giving the news is delivered by the plane's pilot's son.

All in a typical day at the Starhurst School for Girls.

The telegram boy ends up getting fired for being slow to return from jobs (his bicycle tires were flat, and then the bicycle got hit by a truck - excuses, excuses). The Dana Girls (and Evelyn Star, before she gets tired and gets out of the mystery) take sympathy on him and want to pump him for more information about his bad pilot of a father.

At the boy's home, they find the house in disarray: "Mother would never leave the house untidy!" Sure enough, there's a crook tossing the place and he almost gets away with a tin box full of cash. Except he runs in a peculiar way, turning in a circle before running off.

There is some doubt as to who actually owns the money as it was obtained dishonestly. The girls are asked to find the real owners and foil some other crimes along the way.

This was ridiculous and fun, but there were two strikes against it. First, there is the black cook at Starhurst, Amanda, who had had a brief cameo in 'By the Light of the Study Lamp', whose man friend resorts to theft to keep her supplied with fancy cologne. Oh man. I've talked enough about that garbage this week. Next! The other, more minor point, but still pointing to some underlying cultural rot, is the character of Lettie Briggs. The girls are constantly thrown together, and when the girls should react with sympathy or admiration with each other, they fall back on snobbery and cold shoulders. When Lettie and Louise are caught in the crossfires of a mad woman accusing them of vandalism (somewhat accurately, but don't let's get into that now) to a policeman. Jean creates a distraction and allows them to make a run for it. Lettie is thrilled, but the Danas impatiently wait for her to leave them alone before getting on with business. Later, at a fancy dress dance where the girls partner the girls as was the custom at a girl's school, Lettie tries fighting off a prowler on the grounds. It's even the frontispiece picture, but no one comments on her efforts except to say she was clearly losing. Written nowadays, the girls would develop a grudging respect for each other at least.

Dana Girls

Next: 'The Mystery of the Locked Room'

Previous: 'The Secret at the Hermitage'

'The Secret at the Hermitage' wastes no time in signalling to the reader that there are changes afoot. Louise and Jean are relaxing in their room after classes joking about an item in the paper. Jean is "sprawled" on the window seat and is described as "inclining to boyishness". A suddenly cheeky Evelyn Star appears in the doorway joking about the school food and is invited to grab a cookie. A quick trip to a shop to get a wristwatch repaired is suggested and Jean rushes out to grab the hat she left in Doris Harland's room. Who are these girls? It's an unremarkable scene, except for that we've never seen anything half as natural so far in the Dana Girls books. Mildred Wirt Benson brings a little life to the archetypes.

As is becoming traditional, the latest mystery really begins with the girls giddy with excitement at the chance to escape from campus, if only for a few hours. The article they were reading earlier in the paper had to do with the former warden of the women's penitentiary in Penfield. Howard Norton had been dismissed for negligence, especially after the escape of an inmate. Little do they know they're going right into the heart of case.

They are surprised at the bus stop by Mrs. Grantland, the woman for whom they retrieved a pearl ring in 'Study Lamp', who offers them a ride into town with a quick stop so they can admire her newest hobby: art collecting. There they admire a particularly fine statue signed N.R. that Mrs. Grantland was told had been made by an inmate of the prison.

Later, in the shop where watch is being repaired, the girls are accosted by Norton. He is near-sighted and convinced that the sixteen year old Louise is the much older escaped convict Nina Regan! This begins a bizarre game of cat and mouse where Norton continues to pop up in distant woods, parlors, and other locations to accuse Louise of being Nina.

The Warden's menace is such that Lettie Briggs comes up with a brilliant prank to spook Louise on a field trip by dressing up as Norton and scaring her. It works, but unknown to the fleeing Lettie, Louise is hurt and accidentally left behind by the class. Louise is hurt, alone in the woods, and winds up in a stranger's car and deposited 40 miles from Starrhurst. A hermit finds her and offers her shelter for the night, which Louise takes, but is genuinely freaked out by the whole situation.

Are things not weird yet? That's because I've forgotten the girls digging deeper into the story of Nina Regan, her wrongful conviction, and the plight of another inmate who is separated from her sick child. The solution rests in the hands of Mrs. X.Y.Z., if Jean doesn't get eaten by a tiger first. Yeah. you read that right. A tiger.

Bring on more of these, please.

Dana Girls

Next: 'The Circle of Footprints'

Previous: 'A Three-Cornered Mystery'

Quarrelsome Quartz by Mildred Abbott is the last book of the stack for these cozy Corgi mysteries and I have enjoyed my time with Fred and Watson. Soooo…let’s get started.

Amazon / Audiobook / Goodreads

MY REVIEW

Quarrelsome Quartz by Mildred Abbot is the last book in my stack of cozy Corgi mysteries. I have enjoyed my time solving mysteries with Fred and Watson.

The Cozy Corgi Bookshop and Bakery is doing great and Fred’s twin sisters just opened the New Age shop right beside them. A big to do is planned for the opening, but…it’s Estes Park and things rarely goes as planned.

The shop fits into the small town of Estes Park, Colorado perfectly. We have an eclectic group of people that keep life interesting.

What’s that? Watson smells a….dead body…and they are on the case.

Hunky Sheriff Branson is still pining after Fred, though she has made it clear they are only friends. Fred doesn’t know what she wants when it comes to romance.

Sue, one of the cops, and Fred have an antagonistic relationship, but Chief Briggs, who she’d only had one other encounter with, fills her with fear. Could it stem from her father’s murder?

I love Watson and all his Corgi cuteness and it sure was nice to visit with him and Fred, and the rest of her family, for lots of chuckles and a light mystery. Being fairly new to Estes Park, each book brings Fred closer to her family.

AND, we have a lovely quiche to prepare and you may enjoy while reading.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Quarrelsome Quartz by Mildred Abbott.

3 Stars

MY MILDRED ABBOTT REVIEWS

 

• Cruel Candy
• Traitorous Toys
• Bickering Birds
• Scornful Scones
• Chaotic Corgis
• Savage Sourdough

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This mystery novel for teen girls is by the same woman (Mildred Benson) who was the primary contributor to the multi-author Nancy Drew series for its first 25 titles or so. It's not hard to see; Penny Parker, the heroine of this and 16 other titles in her series, is very like Nancy in her intelligence, spunkiness, and rather unrealistic freedom of action. Penny is the daughter of a reliably supportive newspaper editor, and in the absence of law enforcement connections, the pursuit of a story on behalf of her Dad's paper becomes a somewhat plausible pretext for her investigations. Benson was in the newspaper business as well, and for me one of the most interesting passages in the book was where she described the actual workings necessary overnight in order to put out a special edition first thing in the morning.

This is a mystery without a murder; the clandestine gang who signal their meetings with an extra chime to the clock have mercenary motives. However, they're sufficiently brutish (and one has a nasty backstory with a hit-and-run resulting in the orphaning of a pathetic little girl), and you're glad, although not terribly surprised, when the masked leader of the gang is unmasked and held to account by a heroic little gang of journalists until the police arrive.

One of the things I noticed about Penny's story is the emphasis on the cars in her life (she has two!) This reminds me of another series, the explicitly named "automobile girls" by Laura Dent Crane, where ownership (or at least use) of a car is the key to a young woman's freedom to explore her world.

So I have trouble reading books with injustice in them. There's just so much in the world that when it crops up in my fiction I have a tough time handling it (it's why I had to stop reading Front Desk by Kelly Yang, I just had this overwhelming feeling of dread that her family was going to be taken advantage of in some huge way that I could not handle).

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry deals with some very heavy issues, but the story is so compelling I couldn't stop reading even when that injustice was placed front and center.