The Mercer Boys #9 Air Cadets and #10 Steamboat Riddle

In the Mercer Boys #9, The Mercer Boys with the Air Cadets, the Mercers recently graduated from Woodcrest Military Institute and wish their time at the school was not over.  The boys receive a letter from the colonel that informs them of the new flying course that is open to graduates of the school.  Don, Jim, and Terry immediately sign up for the course.

Back at Woodcrest, the boys find their instructor, Sergeant Crispy, to be very difficult.  Crispy takes a strong disliking to the Mercers and their friends.  Meanwhile, the boys learn about the Hawk's Nest, the hideout of a group of outlaws based in the vicinity of Woodcrest.  The outlaws wish to destroy Woodcrest's flight school, so the boys take turns guarding the planes while they seek out clues.

I enjoyed this passage from page 11.

"Look how the automobile opened up this country and revolutionized modern living.  You can go anywhere on good motor highways.  Air lanes are going to make it unnecessary to build roads and all that sort of thing and all important traveling in the future will be that way.  Think what flying will do to bring the whole world together."

This book was published in 1932, long before commercial flight became common.  The above passage is prescient, accurate in most of its predictions.  Wyckoff was only wrong about how it would be unnecessary to build roads.  Roads are still quite important 86 years after this book was published.

This is an excellent book.

In the Mercer Boys #10, The Mercer Boys and the Steamboat Riddle, the Mercers and Terry visit Vench on his family's farm in Kentucky.  Soon after the boys' arrival, their horses are stolen, and they are left stranded in an old mill during a storm.  Once the boys finally arrive at Vench's farm. they learn that the locals are quite superstitious.  The superstition has been fueled by sightings of devils and mysterious figures dressed as Robin Hood and pirates.  The boys see someone dressed as a cat, and the man accidentally leaves the head behind, which came from a professional costume made many years before.

The boys learn that a group of men is searching for the loot from a bank robbery.  Meanwhile, three old steamboats rest abandoned in the nearby river, and mysterious figures are seen roaming on the steamboats at night.  As the boys investigate, some of them are captured by the outlaws.

Plot elements of this story loosely remind me of the Nancy Drew book, The Haunted Showboat.  The stories are completely different but do share some commonality.  Some examples are the people in masquerade, singing heard at night on the river, and a man on the steamboat acting out the role of captain.  The Haunted Showboat ends with a Mardi Gras parade, and this book has a parade of sorts near the end when the steamboats float away in a flood.

This is an excellent story.

The Mercer Boys series is excellent.  I am so glad that I was able to purchase all 10 books.  They are well worth reading.

The Mercer Boys #7 First Classmen and #8 Indian Gold

In the Mercer Boys #7, The Mercer Boys as First Classmen, the Mercers and their friends begin their final year at Woodcrest.  After a football game, Don overhears a strange conversation about whether a man has well water.  He recalls the conversation later after the city's water supply is jeopardized when the dam is blown up.  Don and his friends search for the men who had the conversation as more acts of sabotage occur.

This book is not compelling.  I didn't care about whether the dynamiter was ever caught, since the acts of sabotage never cause any real damage.  Nobody's home or business gets flooded badly, and nobody goes without water for very long.  It never mattered at all to me.

It's silly how one or more of the boys get locked up by the culprits three different times during the story.  The plot truly does go in circles.

This is still a good book, but it is nowhere near as interesting as the other books in the series.

In the Mercer Boys #8, The Mercer Boys and the Indian Gold, Dr. Morgan is seeking the lost treasure vault of the Ozarks.  In the days of the Spanish expeditions, the Spanish took over the Indian mines in the Ozarks.  The mines contained a central storage area, a vault full of priceless gold treasure.  When the Spaniards learned that the French were entering the Mississippi valley, the treasure vault was sealed.  Nobody knows the present location.  One man had clues, but he is believed to be deceased.  Dr. Morgan was told the clues before the man's death, and Dr. Morgan plans to search for the vault.  Don, Jim, and Terry join Professor Scott and Dr. Morgan on a treasure hunt in the Ozarks.

Gaither Mountain is mentioned in this story, and one of Capwell Wyckoff's stand-alone books is titled The Mystery of Gaither Cove, which is set at Gaither Mountain.

I find it fascinating how modern these old books sound at times.  In this passage on page 157, Terry's usage of "cool" doesn't sound odd to a modern reader until he explains the context to Jim.  He sounds ahead of the times when he first uses the word.

"He may be some special friend of Ralph Plumley's," Terry observed.  "Anyway, he's something of a shady doctor, and they are engaged in a shady game.  So the whole thing ought to be cool!  See the point, Jim?"

"No!" said Jim coldly.  "I don't see any point."

"Shady doctor, shady game, the whole proposition is a cool one!  In the hot summer time people go in the shade to get cool, see! So—"

"Any joke that has to be explained as elaborately as that one is a total failure," said Jim, crushingly.

This is an excellent book.

The Mercer Boys #5 Beach Patrol and #6 Summer Camp

In the Mercer Boys #5, The Mercer Boys on the Beach Patrol, Woodcrest Military Institute closes down temporarily after a dam breaks, and the school is flooded.  The Mercers and Terry receive an invitation from Harry Douglas to come visit his family on the coast of Massachusetts.  After the boys' arrival, they get an opportunity to help the coast guard patrol the coast looking for ships in distress.

The boys learn that the Douglas family lost their original estate years ago when a man named Odell presented what appeared to be the deed to the property.  The boys learn that the deed was fake and that the real deed is missing.  The Mercers and their friends try to find the real deed.

This book is good until around page 100 when the mystery of the missing deed is revealed.  From that point, the story is excellent and very engaging.  I greatly enjoyed reading this book.

In the Mercer Boys #6, The Mercer Boys in Summer Camp, the second and third classmen of Woodcrest go to summer camp.  Don, Jim, and Terry have recently advanced to the second class and will attend the summer camp.  Before the young men depart, Dick Rowen makes his intense jealousy of the Mercers known to all, and he causes them endless trouble during summer camp.

After the young men become established in summer camp, they learn that the surrounding area is said to be haunted.  True to the rumors, strange figures are seen at night, and vandalism occurs.  Dick Rowen gets Jim in trouble by blaming him for one act of mischief.  The Mercers and their friends must find the true culprit so that Jim's innocence can be proved.

I was amused as I read this book and characters keep using the phrase "go chase yourself."  I thought of what people say nowadays.

This is an excellent story.

The Mercer Boys #3 Treasure Hunt and #4 Mystery Case

In the Mercer Boys #3, The Mercer Boys on a Treasure Hunt, Don accidentally hits a baseball through the window of a small house that belongs to Professor Scott.  When Don goes to pay for the window, Professor Scott invites him inside.  The boys learn about a letter that Professor Scott just received from his son, Ned.  Ned lives in Lower California and is in search of a sunken Spanish galleon.

The professor plans to join Ned in search of the galleon, and he invites Don and Jim to go with him.  Terry later joins the expedition.  In Lower California, the boys soon learn that others have heard about the missing galleon.

It is an extremely unlikely coincidence that Terry meets the professor on page 38 in San Francisco.  The world is a large place, but the Mercers' best friend just happens to encounter them during their trip.

I am sure that many of us can identify with this passage from page 81.

The professor enjoyed his day of solitude.  Long years of serious study and instructive reading had made him one of the men who prefer being alone to mixing with a noisy crowd.  Not that the professor was the least bit snobbish or unsociable, but he loved the quietness of inner thought and the companionship of a book.

Captain Blow, who is a character in The Mercer Boys' Cruise on the Lassie, makes an appearance on page 183.

This is a very good book.

In the Mercer Boys #4, The Mercer Boys' Mystery Case, Don and Jim begin their second year at Woodcrest Military Institute as third classmen.  Colonel Morrell assigns the boys the task of locating all of the old cups received in previous years for various achievements.  The boys are unable to locate the 1913 cup.

Morrell tells the boys how Arthur Gates won the 1913 cup in an academic contest in which he had bested William Long in an earlier round.  After Gates won the cup, Long had some type of argument with him and seemed bitter.  Long was to present the cup to Gates, since Long was the senior class captain.  Long kept the cup overnight in his room, where it vanished.   Long was widely believed to be the person who took the cup and has since lived in disgrace.  The Mercers believe that Long was innocent and set out to prove it by finding the cup.

On page 5, the boys are said to be in their early twenties.

On page 48, Long remarks that some of his classmates "are resting in France.  I was there, too, and it is just by the mercy of the Almighty that I am not resting there now."  This quote gave me pause to reflect on the death toll of World War I.

This is an excellent and highly engaging story.  I was captivated as I tried to figure out the solution to the deeply engaging mystery of the 1913 class cup.

The Mercer Boys #1 Cruise in the Lassie and #2 Woodcrest

The Mercer Boys series consists of 10 books published originally by A. L. Burt and reprinted by World Syndicate.  The books were written by Capwell Wyckoff.

1.  The Mercer Boys' Cruise in the Lassie, 1929
2.  The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest, 1929
3.  The Mercer Boys on a Treasure Hunt,1929
4.  The Mercer Boys' Mystery Case, 1929
5.  The Mercer Boys on the Beach Patrol, 1929
6.  The Mercer Boys in Summer Camp, 1929
7.  The Mercer Boys as First Classmen, 1930
8.  The Mercer Boys and the Indian Gold, 1932
9.  The Mercer Boys with the Air Cadets, 1932
10.  The Mercer Boys and the Steamboat Riddle, 1933

The first six books were reprinted in very slightly revised editions by Falcon Books.  The titles of volumes five and six were changed for these editions.

1.  The Mercer Boys' Cruise in the Lassie, 1948
2.  The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest, 1948
3.  The Mercer Boys on a Treasure Hunt,1948
4.  The Mercer Boys' Mystery Case,
5.  The Mercer Boys with the Coast Guard, 1949
6.  The Mercer Boys in the Ghost Patrol, 1951

A. L. Burt edition

I read The Mercer Boys' Cruise on the Lassie in the Falcon Books edition in June 2017 in order to see if I should purchase the rest of the Mercer Boys books.

In The Mercer Boy's Cruise in the Lassie, Don and Jim Mercer are the sons of the owner of a lumber company.  Mr. Mercer recently gave the boy a 30-foot sloop and permission to sail it on an excursion during the summer.  The brothers are joined by their best friend, Terry Mackson. During their voyage, the boys encounter a group of marine bandits and help bring them to justice.

I overall enjoyed the book, but not enough to want to read any additional titles.  For some reason, I struggle with books that are set on the shore with sailing on boats.  I do not know why this is, but my lukewarm reaction to the first book in the set is likely due to this aversion.

That said, I still did not know if I would like the Mercer Boys series and put off reading any additional titles.

In March 2018, I read Capwell Wyckoff's Mystery Hunters series.  I greatly enjoyed them, so much that I knew that I needed to give the Mercer Boys series another try.  I decided to read the second book in the series, The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest, which I also already had on hand in the Falcon Books edition.

I started reading The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest and became immediately confused.  The book opens with a scene where the boys are about to receive a ride to the military school in a station wagon, which is described as having headlights, and the driver steps on the starter.  There is no doubt that the station wagon is a motorized vehicle.  I was confused because the boys sit on seats made from "plain board planks" with their feet dangling down.  Terry pulls a trick on the sergeant, who sits in the front seat, by pinning up his trousers.  I was so confused about the entire situation, because I had trouble understanding the scene.  Since I was reading the revised Falcon edition, I knew that my confusion had been caused by a change in the text.

I realized that I didn't want to read the Falcon books because of my confusion, but I had quite a dilemma.  I would have to purchase the Burt editions, which are extremely scarce and usually quite expensive, and I had to be certain that such an investment was wise.  Could I be certain to like the books?

I found the Mystery Hunters books to be excellent, and that told me that I probably would like the Mercer Boys.  However, I had also read at least one comment online from someone who doesn't like the Mercer Boys books as much as Wyckoff's other books.  What to do?

Meanwhile, some nice Burt editions with dust jackets were up for sale.  The clock was ticking, and I had to make a decision.  I finally decided to go for it.  I was able to acquire all 10 Mercer Boys books in Burt or World Syndicate editions in a period of just 15 days from start to finish.  That's probably some kind of record, and a good amount of both luck and money was involved.  Eight of the books are Burt editions with dust jackets in varying condition.  Two of the books are World Syndicate copies that are missing their jackets.

Since then, I have read the entire set.  Did I make the right decision?  Absolutely yes!

A. L. Burt edition

Once I had the The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest on hand, I immediately checked out the first scene in the book.  I quickly grasped the situation.  The "vehicle" is said to be a "station wagon" in the original text, but the station wagon is actually pulled by horses.  Now I understand the planks and the dangling legs since the boys ride in a wagon that is pulled by horses.  This is why revisionists should be careful what they change.

In The Mercer Boys at Woodcrest, Don and Jim Mercer begin their training at Woodcrest Military Academy.  The original building, Clanhammer Hall, is closed up and no longer used.  Terry accidentally enters it to discover that an old man lives there.  Sensing a mystery, the three boys investigate.

This is a very good to excellent book.

I have been curious about how extensive the revisions are in the Falcon books editions.  I compared part of the text of the two versions of The Mercer Boys' Cruise in the Lassie.

In the original story, Don is 20 years old while Jim is 19.  In the revision, Don is 17 while Jim is 16.  In the original books, the boys are in their middle twenties by the end of the series, even though later books do not mention their ages.

On page 26 of the original text, Terry remarks, "This is great."  On page 26 of the revised text, Terry's statement was changed to "This is swell."  Reading the text now, "great" sounds normal while "swell" is dated.  They should have just left it alone.

On page 29, "Hello" was changed to "Hey, look!"

On page 35, "causing the ice to thump around inside the ice-box" was changed to "causing the dishes to clatter inside the cupboard."

I did not check any further for text changes.  The original text has 239 pages, and the revised text has 214 pages.  While the lower page count implies that the story was shortened, the text was reformatted, and each page has more words on it in the revised text.  The Burt books have 28 lines of text per page while the Falcon books have 29 lines per page.  Also, each line of text is slightly longer in the Falcon edition. For those reasons, I believe that both versions are nearly identical with only minor text changes like the ones I mentioned.  This means that it probably doesn't matter if the original or revised text of each book is read, except for instances where minor changes would be confusing like what happened to me.

Reviews of the rest of the Mercer Boys set will follow.

The Sea Runners' Cache and Secret of the Armor Room by Capwell Wyckoff

In The Sea Runners' Cache, friends Bruce, Cal, and Scotty stay with Scotty's Uncle Ed on the south New Jersey shore.  Uncle Ed is having trouble with people sabotaging his fishing business.  Uncle Ed also wants to purchase an old home that is on the nearby shore, but the home is taken off the market and unknown persons are prowling inside the house.  The boys work on solving both mysteries as they enjoy their time on the coast.

I tend not to like books that are set on the coast and are centered around fishing and lobster boats.  I have no idea why I do not enjoy this setting, but I almost always have trouble enjoying the stories or enjoy them much less than books with other settings.

The setting caused me not to enjoy this book as much as Wyckoff's other books.  The story is fine, and this is probably a very good book.  However, I was bored during parts of the story, and I was especially bored during the climax of the story.  During the climax, too much happens simultaneously, and I did not care about any of it.

In The Secret of the Armor Room, Dave, Ren, and Dilly learn that Professor Sterns is having trouble with prowlers inside his house.  Items keep getting moved around in the room where the professor keeps his artifacts.  The boys begin to investigate, and they soon have several suspects.

I did not make any notes about this book when I read it, so I don't have any further comment except that I did enjoy the book.

North Point Cabin Mystery and Mystery of Gaither Cove by Capwell Wyckoff

The North Point Cabin Mystery and The Mystery at Gaither Cove were published by A. L. Burt in 1932.  The books were later reprinted by Saalfield.

In The North Point Cabin Mystery, Lance, Tim, and Brad stay in a cabin on Desolate Lake.  They learn about a mail carrier who was accused of a theft several years before.  The mail carrier vanished, so everyone believes him to be guilty.  The boys uncover a clue that reveals that the mail carrier had been abducted.  The boys search for additional clues in hopes of solving the mystery.

This is a very good book.

In The Mystery of Gaither Cove, Ken, Brent, and Laurie travel across country by automobile to visit their old friend, Ted, who now lives in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas.  The four boys go on a camping trip near a cabin where a strange old man lives.  The man lights a lantern each night while he hides nearby watching his cabin.  The man is generally believed to be superstitious, but the boys feel that there is another explanation.  Meanwhile, Dana, a chicken thief encountered by the boys as they traveled to Arkansas, is staying in the woods near them.  The boys try to capture Dana as they investigate the strange old man who lights the lantern.

This is also a very good book.

In the Camp of the Black Rider and Mystery at Lake Retreat by Capwell Wyckoff

In the Camp of the Black Rider was published by A. L. Burt in 1931 and was later reprinted by Saalfield.  In this story, Ted Thorn is the son of the owner of a lumber company.  He and his best friend, Buck Dalton, have been working at the lumber company during the summer.  They plan to go camping soon before they begin college.

Mr. Calvert summons Ted to a meeting.  Mr. Calvert proposes that Ted and Buck take the boys of the Boys' Club on a camping trip to Black Riders' Camp, which is in a remote area in the woods.  The camp is named for a group of men who performed raids during the Revolutionary War.  The camp is said to be haunted by the Black Riders.  Soon after the Boys' Club's arrival in camp, strangers prowl the camp at night, performing mischief.  Ted, Buck, and their young charges keep watch and try to find the culprits.

Much of the action occurs at night in the middle of the woods with no light except for lanterns or a campfire.

This is an amazingly good book.  I was not bored by a single paragraph.  Every single passage is interesting.  This is a very captivating book, and I cannot praise it enough.  Series books do not get better than this one.  This book is equal to the best of the best of all series books and is excellent to the nth degree.  I was disappointed when I finished the story, because I wanted it to last longer than it did.

After reading a book like In the Camp of the Black Rider, the next book read ends up a disappointment, because few books can compare.  I read The Mystery at Lake Retreat next.  It was lackluster in comparison, but that does not mean that the book is bad.

The Mystery at Lake Retreat was published by A. L. Burt in 1931 and later reprinted by Saalfield.

In The Mystery at Lake Retreat, Dave, Dilly, and Ren travel to Lake Retreat to go camping.  Soon after the boys are settled, they discover prowlers around their camp.  They learn about a strange recluse who lives nearby, and soon, they realize that the recluse, known as the Lakeman, threatens their safety.

This is a good to very good book, but it pales in comparison to In the Camp of the Black Rider.

The Mystery Hunters Series by Capwell Wyckoff

The Mystery Hunters series was first published by A. L. Burt and was reprinted by Saalfield.  The Saalfield editions are not hard to find, but the Burt editions are quite scarce.

1.  The Mystery Hunters at the Haunted Lodge, 1934
2.  The Mystery Hunters at Lakeside Camp, 1934
3.  The Mystery Hunters at Old Frontier, 1934
4.  The Mystery Hunters on Special Detail, 1936

My Mystery Hunters books are the original A. L. Burt editions and are in rough shape.  Even though the books are not very nice, they come from excellent series book collector lineage.  I purchased my books from Bob Chenu's daughter, so the books came from his collection.  Bob Chenu was a prominent collector who was a top contributor to Yellowback Library during the 1980s.

In Mystery Hunters #1, The Mystery Hunters at the Haunted Lodge, Barry Garrison, Kent Marple, and twins Mac and Tim Ford stay at Bluff Lodge on Lake Arrowtip.  The boys hope to learn who is prowling around the old lodge and trying to scare the lodge's occupants.  Meanwhile, a wealthy boy from school, Carter Wolf, also stays at the lake.  Carter is always causing trouble for the Mystery Hunters ever since they proved that he was the one stealing things out of lockers.  Between Carter and the mysterious intruder, the Mystery Hunters must stay on constant alert.

On page 57, the boys wash themselves with warm water while camping in freezing temperatures.  Even after drying off, the boys had to be cold from the water!

This story is very good to excellent.

In Mystery Hunters #2, The Mystery Hunters at Lakeside Camp, the four friends stay at Lakeside Camp with the boys from Frontier College.  The Mystery Hunters will soon attend Frontier College, so this is a good opportunity for them to become acquainted with their future classmates.

The boys learn about a robbery that occurred a couple years ago at the abandoned opera house that is adjacent to the lake.  A man who was accused of the robbery has been in hiding ever since that time.  The boys meet the man and feel that he is innocent.  The Mystery Hunters work to clear his name.

This is an excellent book.

In Mystery Hunters #3, The Mystery Hunters at Old Frontier, the boys get settled at Frontier College.  They are soon interested in the mysterious events that occur at the abandoned hospital that is just across the canal from the college.  Prowlers roam the property at night, and mysterious sounds are heard.  When the boys learn of a bank robbery, they soon have reason to suspect that the culprits are hiding out at the old hospital.

I found it interesting that the professors are understanding of the young men, such as their wish for information after certain events occur.  Most series books feature teachers and professors who bully the young people and have little understanding of their feelings.

This book is mostly very good, but the story dragged for me towards the end.  I also skimmed through the part of the book that features a football game since I did not find it interesting at all.

In Mystery Hunters #4, The Mystery Hunters on Special Detail, Mr. Winstead's valuable treasures continue to disappear out of his locked treasure room.  The room has only one entrance, and it is a mystery how the treasures vanish.  Mr. Winstead hires the Mystery Hunters to stay at his home over the summer in hopes that they can solve the case.

This book is especially thrilling, particularly towards the end.  I loved it.

The Mystery Hunters series is a solid series that I overall greatly enjoyed.