Detective Stories for Girls by Josephine Chase

In 2017, I became interested in the Detective Stories for Girls series by Josephine Chase.  The books were published by the Penn Publishing Company.

1.  The Mark of the Red Diamond, 1929
2.  The Green Jade Necklace, 1931
3.  Behind the Purple Mask, 1932
4.  The Golden Imp, 1933
5.  The Blue Shadow Mystery, 1935

I wrote about these books on my Facebook page on June 29, 2017.

I had owned The Green Jade Necklace for many years and had finally followed up on reading it during the summer of 2017.  I regretted that I had not tried it years before, since these books are extremely scarce and hard to find.  I had to have missed many purchasing opportunities.  I immediately set out to purchase the other four books, discovering quickly that completing the task was close to impossible.

I was able to acquire three of the four remaining titles in 2017.  I could not locate a copy of Behind the Purple Mask.  In the intervening time, I ran searches online quite often hoping that a copy, any copy, of Purple Mask would come up for sale, to no avail.

Several times I almost read the other three books in the set, but I held off hoping that Purple Mask would surface.  The books feature different characters, so it might seem silly that I did not go ahead and read the books I had.  I knew that if I were to read the other three and then later acquire Purple Mask, I would very likely never read Purple Mask.  I told myself that I would keep waiting.

I sometimes feel that certain actions in life can bring about other events.  I don't think that we can actually make things happen, aside from the obvious cause and effect, such as applying for a job can result in getting that job.  However, I like to think that certain decisions can somehow cause other things to come in line, in sort of a vague happenstance.

In August, I decided to try to get around to continuing to read the Grace Harlowe series, which I broke off reading in 2011.  I couldn't quite manage to start Grace Harlowe, so I decided to read Marjorie Dean.

Josephine Chase wrote the Grace Harlowe High School Girl and Grace Harlowe College Girl sets under the pseudonym of Jessie Graham Flower, A.M.  Chase also wrote the entire Marjorie Dean series under the pseudonym of Pauline Lester.

I must say that I thought of Josephine Chase's Detective Stories for Girls as I read through the Marjorie Dean books.  Perhaps my reading a set of books written by Josephine Chase brought about what I wanted to have happen.  Probably not, but I'd like to think so.

During the time that I was reading Marjorie Dean, I checked eBay one night and saw that a copy of Behind the Purple Mask had been listed on eBay.  That book had not been up for sale online to my knowledge at any time between June 2017 and August 2019, over two years.

I was able to purchase the book and knew that once I finished my reading of Marjorie Dean and possibly Grace Harlowe that I would immediately dive into the Detective Stories for Girls series by Josephine Chase.  This was a thrilling development which made me very happy.