Mystery at Long Barrow House: What’s a Long Barrow?

Don’t worry—you’ll know soon enough.  Nancy Faukner (unclear whether she’s related to William Faulkner or not) answers that almost right away, on page 12—and the meaning’s important because the book’s about a search for a long barrow!

          This story follows the adventures of three children—particularly Becky Webster, our thirteen-year-old heroine.  She and her siblings—cousin Pat of the same age who was adopted after his parents died in a plane crash, and younger brother (by two years) Tim—are spending a few months in England at Long Barrow House while their father, a university professor, takes sabbatical to finish writing a book.  As our story opens, Becky is upset because the children are about to get a tutor, and she thinks he’ll be a boring old man who will keep them too busy to figure out the secret of the old mansion.  What’s the mansion’s secret?  Becky doesn’t have a clue; she just surmises that the mansion has one.

          As a matter of fact, she’s wrong and right—wrong about the tutor, Derek, a smart young Oxford graduate with a wonderful sense of humor and an interest in archaeology.  He hits it off with the kids and tells them the secret of the mansion—or not of the mansion specifically, rather of the property it sits on.  It seems, about a thousand years ago, England was inhabited by little dark men who were later overrun by big blond men that drove the little dark men away.  Both these groups held superstitious beliefs that when someone died, they went on a journey—sort of like the ancient Egyptians—and so, like the Egyptian pharaohs, they were buried with all their treasures.  Only, these people didn’t know how to build pyramids, so they made their resting places in long barrows instead—long and narrow mounds.  Legend has it that one of them sits on Long Barrow House’s massive property, and the former owner, Mr. Crowley, spent years looking for it.  He was a recluse who’d never allow anyone on the land, until one day, when he decided to throw a big party, at which he’d supposedly divulge the location of the barrow—unfortunately, he died unexpectedly before the date of the party, and no one ever found out where it was.  Derek the tutor really wants to find it so they can excavate it and learn more about the peoples that once inhabited England.

          Now that they know the secret, the kids want to find it—so they set off towards the woods to go looking for it.  After trekking through them, they come upon a clearing with a little stone house set in the edge of a hill.  Going up to it, they’re about to go in and search when they’re surprised by the appearance of a man who looks like he could have been one of the little dark folk Derek was telling them about.  The short fellow waves a club over his head, calls the kids “children of darkness,” and orders them “Away, before you anger the Ancient Ones of Britain!”

          He succeeds in scaring the kids off—they run home and tell Derek the tutor of their adventure.  He laughs it off and tells the kids that they’ve just met “Georgie the Ox,” a former farmhand for Derek’s grandfather who’s been a bit “balmy” ever since falling off a hay wain the summer before.  Derek assures the children he’s quite harmless, but nothing Georgie does throughout the rest of the book does anything to support this assertion.  The kids go back to the hut to search it—this time, they don’t run into Georgie, but a snowstorm comes up, and they get locked in the hut—

          And all this happens in just the first fifty pages of a 188-page adventure!  I don’t want to spoil the rest of the story for you, but let’s just say there’ll be a lot more thrills and chills before this book is over—plus a Christmas celebration and a neat festival involving the death of the Fool, which is supposed to be all fun and games.  Supposed to be.  My only complaint is that the main characters are a little unfocused—nervous about visiting the hut after their first trip there, they wait half the day their next opportunity to visit, intent on first building a snow fort and then having a snowball fight.  However, once they actually get down to business, they are pretty effective.  I was going to complain that they were a little too timid too—at least, I was until I reached page 176, but—that’s for later.  I’d never heard of Nancy Faulkner or this story until I found it at The Dusty Bookshelf in Lawrence, Kansas, and I must say, one of the main incentives for buying it was that it was only $2.95.  However, after reading it, I’d be sure to snap up any book by Faulkner I run across in the future.  For the best book ever written about long barrows, be sure to check out this story!

Tom Swift and His Jetmarine: No, That’s Not an Octopus…

          “Oh, come on!” you say.  “What else is big and red, lives underwater, and has eight tentacles it can use to go after submarines?”  How about a squid?  I don’t want to give too many spoilers, but…let’s just say the cover photo is not misleading.

          But, first, let’s find out a bit about Tom Swift.  This series, another one from the Stratmeyer Syndicate, actually went through a few iterations.  Other Stratmeyer Books, such as the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, were revised and rewritten in the late 1950s—those are the versions commonly read today.  This Swift Book, first published in 1954, is from about the same time period, and it is a part of a new series—as “The New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures” would certainly seem to indicate.  Unlike the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, though, in which the central characters stayed the same, this book follows a different character: Tom Jr., son of the star of the first books.  I’ve never read any of the original Swift stories (older and likely harder to come by), but fact that these are all new stories means you don’t have to worry about comparing the second version of the story to the first!

          As you might have guessed, Tom Swift, Jr., is the son of Tom Swift, Sr., the legendary inventor who now runs Swift Enterprises, a company as large as Google is today, but a company which deals with the latest scientific inventions, instead of tech devices.  Not that computers aren’t tech-y, but Swift’s devices are a little cooler to read about—oh, and in this series, Tom Jr. does most of the inventing.  In this book, the third in the series, he’s just putting the finishing touches on his latest scientific triumph, a jet-powered submarine.

          There’s an immediate need for the submarine’s services, though.  A devious gang of pirates is robbing ships all over the world’s oceans.  By some mysterious means, they’re causing everyone on the ships to suddenly lose consciousness—by the time the passengers and crew come to, supplies and stuff have been stolen, and the pirates have vanished without a trace.  This has been going on for some time at the start of the book, but things get even worse, as Ned Newton, good friend of the Swifts and father of Tom’s girlfriend, Phyllis (barely mentioned at all in this story) is taken prisoner by the pirates.  Tom theorizes that the pirates are using a pulsator from an airplane to knock everyone on the ships unconscious, and that a submarine then surfaces to pick up the loot from their captured ships.  He hopes to use his jet-powered submarine to track the pirates to their headquarters, wherever that may be, and bust up their gang.

          Meanwhile, a suspect emerges early on.  Sidney Dansitt, an erratic young pilot, nearly crashes into Tom’s sister when she’s flying a plane, then nearly runs over Tom when he lands.  The insolent youth is unapologetic when confronted by Tom, but seems interested in a Cuban peso with a dog’s head stamped over it that Tom finds on the runway.  Later that night, someone breaks into the Swift residence and steals the peso, as well as plans for Tom’s jetmarine.  Fortunately, Tom had left the plans incomplete, but he begins to wonder if Dansitt might be the pilot of the blackout ray plane.

          You’ll have to read the book for yourself, but let me promise you, the story is full of thrills.  It’s basically a Hardy-Boys type adventure, with more cool gadgets thrown in.  Tom doesn’t finish the submarine until about the middle of the book, but he’ll have many adventures in it throughout the second half—including the one with the squid.  If you run across this anywhere, be sure to snap it up!  You won’t be disappointed!

Cherry Ames: Country Doctor’s Nurse—Too Many Boyfriends!

          Those of you who have read The Great Topeka Adventure, Part 1 or The Great Topeka Adventure, Part 2, might remember that Madison Weatherby, the girl who was really an undercover secret agent, addressed all her letters to the CIA to a Ms. Cherry Ames—so that, if they were ever intercepted, a rival spy might think she was just writing a friend from Wisconsin.  That name was stolen from this series, and even though it’s more of a girl’s series, I thought I’d check it out for the benefit of you female readers out there.  Much to my disappointment (though maybe girls will appreciate it), the book does get rather girly sometimes—much more so than the Nancy Drew series.  However, it’s actually a pretty good story, well-written, with some neat intrigue built in.

          First, though, the boyfriends!  Well, there’s Wade Cooper, the dashing young pilot for Federal Airlines, whose one of Cherry’s steady dates—along with Dr. Lex Upham, the young physician who dates Cherry when Wade’s not around—or even when he is, as will so awkwardly be the case in Chapter 2—and then of course, there’s Harry Jenner, the handsome young candidate for mayor, but he doesn’t really factor into the story until later, so let’s forget him for now—I really must interject a public service announcement here, and encourage you young ladies that if you’re ever thinking of going out with a guy, go with one at a time, and don’t have a rotation in place.  Cherry Ames might get away with it, but this doesn't go so well in real life!

          Anyway, the plot.  Cherry, having just wrapped up a week off which she gets to spend at her apartment in Greenwich Village along with several of the other nurses she went to nursing school with, takes a position as Dr. Clem Brown’s assistant in Sleepyside, New York.  No, not Sleepy Hollow—though she will go see that on one of her dates (with Lex, if you were wondering who)—same day they go see Hyde Park (where Franklin Delano Roosevelt once lived), Harmon “where trains going north from New York change from electric engines to steam” (this book was written in 1955, but Harmon is still the end of electricity on its route), the Can Cortlandt Manor.  At another point in the book, Cherry and Lex will visit Sing Sing, the famous prison—but just as tourists—anyway, that gives you a pretty good idea of where the fictional town of Sleepyside is supposed to be located.

          But back to Dr. Brown—he needs an assistant because his regular nurse, Lola, is going on vacation for a week—Lola has worked for Dr. Brown for years, and all the patients in the small town have grown used to her—which will give Cherry some trouble as the unfamiliar nurse tries to win their confidence.  Upon arriving in Sleepyside, Cherry is taken to The Manor, a massive old house that now serves as the town’s boarding house, run by the bitter old Marcia Charlton, descendant of one of the town’s oldest families, who has strict rules which must be followed at all times at the house.  A sampling?  No keys are permitted.   The house closes at eleven o’clock PM for the night, and no one will be allowed in after that time.  Meals are never to be served inside the mansion.  Sounds quite inviting, doesn’t it?  The place gives Cherry the creeps the first night she stays there, though after she has a little argument with Miss Charlton about the food rule (which has no exceptions, even if someone falls seriously ill), she hears sobbing coming from a room below and wonders if Miss Charlton’s bitterness is an act?  There’s also some kind of feud between Miss Charlton and Dr. Brown—even though they’re probably the best-respected persons in the town, they never speak to each other—not even if they’re in the same room!

          On the way up to Sleepyside, though, Lex explains to Cherry that trouble is brewing in the town—as a result of the election coming up.  Cy Hillman, who’s been mayor for over 20 years, is the favorite to win, but he faces stiff competition from young Harry Jenner, a young lawyer who’s determined to get the town to build a new school and also redo the tenements, which he claims have fallen into a sad state of disrepair—Hillman argues that the tenements are in perfectly fine condition, and Jenner simply wants to rebuild them because he’s got a secret deal with a big, influential contractor worked out.  Of course, Cherry isn’t sure right away who to believe—but once she meets Hillman, she gets the sense that his cheerful, positive demeanor masks a man with a violent temper—a side most people don’t seem to know about.

          Her first day on the job, though, she meets Jenner—a man who agrees that Mayor Hillman’s not as pure as the townspeople believe him to be, though his grief is a little more personal—he nearly got run over by the mayor’s “reckless” driving.  There are no witnesses, but Hillman does have a very real scratch on his head that Cherry treats—the two become friends, and Cherry learns from Jenner that the tenements are in really bad shape, though Jenner can’t seem to get anybody to go visit and take a look for themselves.  The reason for this, he believes, is that Hillman controls the finances for the tenements, and he’s been directing the money from them into some mysterious endeavor—though nobody knows what, as Hillman doesn’t lead a lavish lifestyle or seem to have that much of a fortune.

          Of course, Cherry knows you can’t just take a politician’s word for something, but the next twenty-four hours bring her over to Harry’s side.  First, Mayor Hillman comes in for a routine checkup that evening—he impatiently interrupts one of Dr. Brown’s appointments by calling him on the Intercom—then lets Cherry take the blame for breaking the rules.  This doesn’t serve to put him on Cherry’s good side, and when Tommy Regan, one of the local paper boys, comes in with a scratched up knee and complains he got run off the road by Hillman, Cherry’s loyalties swing completely over to Jenner—that, and something else Tommy has to say later that evening.  Harry and Cherry are convinced that there’s some secret in the mayor’s past which explains the diverted funds from the tenements, and they go to a local warehouse which houses the town’s old newspapers to see if they can find out anything helpful—they get an exciting lead, but before they can follow it up, Hillman pays a visit to the warehouse—and though they can’t prove it, Harry and Cherry expect that he’s destroyed any information that might compromise his secret past.  Somehow, they must find out what his secret is before Election Day, or it could be too late for Harry!

          That’s all you need to know about the story right now, but if you read a lot, even if this is your first Cherry Ames book, you might recognize the name Julie Tatham.  She’s perhaps best known for having written the first six books of the Trixie Belden Series, and she also wrote books in other series—the Ginny Gordon Series and the Vicki Barr Series.  Some of these were published under the name Julie Campbell, but both these were her real names—she was born Julie Campbell but married Charles Tatham, Jr., in 1933.  So, unlike a lot of the Grosset and Dunlap books, this title was indeed written by Julie Tatham!  Interestingly enough, Tatham split the series with Helen Wells, but not in the way that you’d think.  You see, Wells wrote the first seven books of the series, and Tatham took over on Book 8, writing all the way through Book 16 (this would be her last Ames book).  After this one, though, Wells returned to writing the series and contributed eleven more titles.  All were published under the actual name of the author, and having only read this one thus far, I can’t say who was better—you’ll have to read some more yourself to find out!

The Bobbsey Twins at Mystery Mansion: Big Adventure at a Big House!

          This’ll be the first of many Bobbsey Twins books reviewed on this blog, for the simple reason that there are many Bobbsey Twins books in existence.  Only the first fourteen or so are still in print, but in its heyday, back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the series went up to a staggering 72 titles!  Thus, there’ll be plenty of titles to examine here.

          There are actually four Bobbsey Twins—for the simple fact that there’s a twelve-year-old set and a six-year-old set.  (At least, some of the books give the ages, though I don’t believe this one did.)  None of them are identical, sadly—they’re both boy-girl pairs.  Bert and Nan are the older, and Freddie and Flossie are the younger.  They live in the imaginary town of Lakeport, where their father owns a successful lumber mill.  Some of the stories take place in Lakeport, but often, the twins find themselves going to such strange and wonderful places as London, Egypt, Mexico, or other faraway destinations.

          This time, though, they’re at home in Lakeport, but the setting’s still exotic.  Sing Foo, an elderly Chinese gentleman who lives in a mansion outside of town, invites the twins to stay at his house, Mystery Mansion, while he goes to San Francisco for a few days in response to a telephone call.  The twins’ guardian at the mansion is Aunt Sallie Pry, a kind, old lady who is very deaf—this deafness will be a source of running gags throughout the story, as she’ll constantly not quite hear what is said.  Examples?  “You mean the flowers?” becomes “Oh, I hope it won’t shower”; “We saw a light last night” turns into “You saw a kite at night! Why would anyone fly a kite at night?” and “To get you all out of here” turns into “I never bet and I have no auto here”—still, everybody knows she means well.

          As for the mansion, it’s one of those massive houses you read about in books that you just wished you owned, the type with so many rooms in it, you keep discovering new ones that you haven’t explored—and they’re filled with incredible things, from a talking statue to a trick stage to a merry-go-round.  Sing Foo knows the children are detectives, and so he tantalizes them before leaving by suggesting that they search for the Golden Key, which is supposed to unlock something special.

          However, Sing Foo isn’t the only one who has secrets at mystery mansion.  Cars keep coming by in the night, and there are signs of mysterious prowlers.  Unknown strangers phone the residence and tell everyone to get out, for Sing Foo has sold the place.  I must confess, I’ve made fun of this series in the past for its lack of danger and excitement when compared with the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew series, Grosset and Dunlap’s more famous offerings.  However, everyone, from Bert and Nan to Freddie and even poor Flossie will be in danger before this book is over.

          It’s a delightful adventure that will keep you in suspense.  If you pay attention, you may be able to guess some things that are coming, but you have to be on your toes.  Also, the book has a number of little subplots that are the icing on the cake of a finely crafted story.  I knew it looked good when I saw it at the bookstore, and I must say, it exceeded my expectations.  If you like stories involving mysterious mansions, then this is definitely one for you!