Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Dana Girls #8 The Clue in the Cobweb

In Dana Girls #8, The Clue in the Cobweb, Katherine Blore disappeared mysteriously from Captain Dana's ship.  Captain Dana enlists the help of his nieces in locating the woman.  Jean and Louise check Katherine Blore's current residence only to find her gone.  The landlord becomes ill, so the girls help him get the house rented.  While in the house, Louise falls ill, and it is believed that an herb might be responsible.

On page 48, Ina Mason complains that Mrs. Crandall favors the Dana Girls.  This actually is true.  Mrs. Crandall lets them miss school all the time and very often lets them leave on the weekends.

On page 71, the girls need a taxi so that they can trail a suspect.  One of the instructors comes along, and Jean asks to borrow his car.  The instructor agrees.  This rather amazed me.  The instructor doesn't know why the girls need his car, and he's fine with them taking it.

On page 84, Mrs. MacVey offers to loan Louise any book that she might find interesting.  After Louise finds one, Mrs. MacVey tells her "don't be in a hurry about returning it."  Of course we know that Louise will return the book, but this kind of remark made to most people would likely result in the book never coming back.

I absolutely hate dialect in series books.  I cannot stand it.  Dialect makes the text unnecessarily hard to read, and in these old series books, the dialect is usually offensive.  I especially am annoyed when the author inconsistently writes the dialect.  As distasteful as the dialect is, at least the authors should bother to be consistent about it.  If the author is going to go there, then the dialect should not be written in a slipshod fashion.

On page 107, Wu Sing has an odd speech pattern.  "Young Amelicans crash-crash door and set Charlie free."  Also, "Charlie Young velly hard boy to clatch."

It's rather odd how Wu Sing sometimes can pronounce the "r" sound and other times cannot.  Wu Sing's speech pattern is an example of slipshod dialect.

It's a bit random for the Danas to fly out to a ranch in the west in the middle of the story.  The story bored me from that point on, and I skimmed to the end.  I didn't find the story that good even before the western excursion.

The book is overall good, but it is a weak Dana Girls mystery.

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