Ted Wilford #13 Abandoned Mine, #14 Shamrock, and #15 Greenhouse Mystery

In Ted Wilford #13, The Abandoned Mine Mystery, the mine in East Walton has been closed for years after an explosion.  Mr. Dobson wants Ted to investigate after he receives a letter that suggests that the explosion was not an accident.

Exploring an old mine at night is always exciting. 

I don't have any specific comments about this book, but I greatly enjoyed it.  The story is excellent.

In Ted Wilford #14, The S.S. Shamrock Mystery, Ted and Nelson take jobs on a freighter in the Great Lakes.  The boys are to investigate strange happenings on the ship.

This was the very first Ted Wilford book that I read when I was trying to figure out whether I should build a set.  I enjoyed the book but not enough to know whether I should commit to buying the other books in the set.  The story was nothing special.

When I later read the Sandy Steele books, I found that having already read this book was most helpful as I read Stormy Voyage.  The S. S. Shamrock Mystery describes a long boat in great detail, really in too much detail for my taste.  Because of that great detail, I knew everything I needed to know about a long boat while reading Stormy Voyage and was able to visualize it well. Stormy Voyage does not describe much about the long boat.


After I read the other Ted Wilford books approximately six months after I read this book, I decided to read The S.S. Shamrock Mystery again to see whether I would like it better.  There was way too much historical and technical information, which I skipped.  By page 45, I decided that I wasn't interested in reading the book again.  The S.S. Shamrock Mystery is my least favorite book in the series, and it is interesting that I read it first.

In Ted Wilford #15, The Greenhouse Mystery, Ted and Nelson investigate a theft from a nursery that breeds roses.  Soon, the boys learn that someone may be trying to steal the rights to a special rose.

I decided not to read this book again in order to review it, but I greatly enjoyed it when I read it a couple of months ago.  It was the second Ted Wilford book that I read.  I enjoyed it so much that I acquired all of the books that I was able to find, thus resulting in a partial set of 10 out of the 15 books.

Like other Ted Wilford books, the plots moves slowly but is very engaging.

Ted Wilford #11 Baseball Mystery and #12 Rainbow Gulch

In Ted Wilford #11, The Baseball Mystery, Forestdale hosts a baseball tournament.  Ted helps run the tournament.  Soon, Ted suspects that some of the players are fixing the results under someone's orders.

The information about baseball was too much for me.  I didn't understand all the descriptions, since I only have rudimentary knowledge of baseball.  The baseball games were not interesting to me, since I am not interested in baseball at all.

This is why I didn't choose to read this book as one of my first few Ted Wilfords.  I purchased Shamrock first, read it, but was not able to determine if I wished to continue.  I was able to purchase this book and Greenhouse Mystery at the same time.  When I chose the second book to read to make a final decision, I chose Greenhouse Mystery because I suspected that a book about baseball would not accurately tell me whether to purchase additional books in the series.

I did enjoy Ted walking from one part of the two to another.  My favorite series books are almost always stories that feature the characters walking and exploring very close to their home or wherever they are staying.

I got a little confused telling the teams and coaches apart.  It would have helped if the name of the city would have been used more often with the name of the team.  I was partway through the book and had forgotten which team was the Forestdale team, which caused my confusion.

The story ends quite abruptly, and I was surprised to turn the page and realize that I was finished.  I felt like at least one more part of the plot could have been resolved a bit more, but I know why it was left loose.  The reader can't get bored with a book when the story ends quickly without excessive explanation.

Even though much of the baseball discussion was over my head, I greatly enjoyed this book.

In Ted Wilford #12, The Mystery of Rainbow Gulch, Ted and Nelson stay at Bob Fontaine's ranch.  As the boys arrive, a plane crashes, and one occupant vanishes.  Meanwhile, a mystery surrounds an old hermit, and footprints indicate that someone has been watching the ranch.

A fire that spreads through the woods towards the end of the book is quite thrilling.  I couldn't be sure how it would work out, since a fire in another book didn't work out well at all.

This is a very good book.

Ted Wilford #7 Stolen Plans and #9 Big Cat

In Ted Wilford #7, The Stolen Plans Mystery, Ted has two mysteries.  Mr. Sawyer, who works for the newspaper, has disappeared.  Meanwhile, petty thefts have occurred at many stores in Forestdale, and those stores are the ones participating in the Town Crier's contest, in which a computer will choose the winning entry.

The two mysteries which turn out to be completely unrelated to each other.  In most series books, multiple mysteries in the same book always turn out to be the same mystery.  This is another example of how these books are not as predictable as the typical series book.   

The identity of the thief is extremely obvious.  I was pleased when Ted and Mr. Dobson draw that conclusion fairly quickly instead of acting like they have no idea.  It's an insult to the reader when a solution is obvious and the characters act like they don't know.

The cover art is hideous.

In Ted Wilford #9, The Big Cat Mystery, Ted tracks down rumors of a leopard in the woods near a summer camp.  Only one person has seen the leopard, and another person has found tracks.  Ted and Nelson try to determine whether the leopard is real or whether someone is perpetrating a hoax.

On page 11, the camp manager suggests that someone has started the leopard rumor in order to drive the camp out of business.  Nelson proves himself to be a levelheaded young man.

"I should think a story like that might help business," said Nelson shrewdly.  "Wouldn't it attract a lot of curiosity seekers out here?"

Thank you, Nelson!  In most series books, it is assumed that anything scary will always drive all people away.  No, some people like excitement!

The next paragraph spoils part of the plot, so skip it if you don't want any type of spoiler.

Nelson finds what he believes to be an adult black cat.  Later, the boys learn that the cat is actually a black leopard cub.  I looked at photos of black leopard cubs, and they do not look like domesticated cats.  The boys should have known that the cat was not ordinary from the moment they saw it.  This part of the story is neat, but I found it not very believable that they would have made that mistake.


Aside from what I just mentioned, these books are realistic in a way that most series books are not.  There is a fire, and without getting specific, the end result is not good at all.  In most series books, fires are always put out just in time.  Not so in this book.

This is an excellent story.

Ted Wilford #3 Star Reporter and #5 Empty House

In Ted Wilford #3, The Star Reporter Mystery, Ronald Wilford searches for Barry Knight, a newspaper reporter.  Barry has earned quite a few enemies in his career, and Ron suspects that one of those people might have acted against Barry.

Ted does not appear in this book until page 71.  This story is primarily Ron's mystery.

On page 128, Ron explains, "His crime wasn't what we would call a major one, and anyway our society has made enough progress so that we don't hold a son responsible for what his father may have done."  This idealistic thinking sounds wonderful, but in my experience, far too many people even today hold all relatives accountable for another relative's actions.  I know this from personal experience.  It's sad, but true. 

I like that in these stories that once the main characters figure something out, the reader gets to know.  In some series books, the main character figures something out but acts mysterious, not telling anyone else, including the reader. 

What's nice about independent series is that they don't follow the predictable pattern of the typical series formula.  You wouldn't have an entire Dana Girls book told from the perspective of Lettie Briggs.  I must say though that the idea of entering Lettie's warped mind would be interesting.

Like the other Ted Wilford books, the plot moves slowly but is interesting.

In Ted Wilford #5, The Empty House Mystery, a man advertises in the Town Crier for a lost notebook that has a zipper with a lock on it.  The notebook is turned in, and Ted decides to deliver it to the man's address.  The trouble is that the house is empty.  The phone rings, and the man tells Ted to leave the notebook.  Later, Ted realizes that he was tricked, but even more puzzling, the house has no phone service.  How did the phone ring?

I laughed every time the boys insist that telephones must have wires.  From page 141:

"Who's there to answer?  There's nobody home.  Well, what do you make of it?  Another telephone, and no wires."

"What's the matter, you old-fashioned or something?  You think telephones need wires?"

If the boys only knew...

This is an excellent book.  There's something about an empty house, especially when a telephone rings with no telephone service.  Spooky!

Ted Wilford #2 The Locked Safe Mystery

In Ted Wilford #2, The Locked Safe Mystery, Ted is put in charge of a charity carnival.  After the close of the carnival, all of the money collected is stolen from the school's safe.  The prime suspect is the assistant principal, Mr. Clayton, who suddenly left town right after the carnival and shortly before the money was discovered missing.  Everyone is certain that Mr. Clayton is guilty, except Ted, who sets out to prove Mr. Clayton's innocence.

This book is a good whodunit.  I paid careful attention to the scene in which the money was stolen, and I had a hunch as to the identity of the culprit.  Even though I thought I knew, I was not at all certain and was greatly intrigued throughout the story as further information was revealed.  I was correct in my hunch, but I still did not know until the end exactly how the theft occurred.  I was thoroughly engaged as I tried to figure out how it was done.

I enjoyed this passage from page 26.

If a vote had been taken on the dullest thing in the paper, Ted felt sure the book-review column would have won easily.  As Nelson once remarked, "It might be fun to read a book, but who wants to read about a book?"  Few students had read, or would read, the particular book reviewed, and the whole thing seemed too much like an English exercise.

I agree, and it does not escape me that I have quoted this passage in a book review.  Since I find long summaries boring, I tend to keep quite short any summary I make of a book's plot.  I find that many series book reviews tend to be very long, giving a lengthy play-by-play of the entire plot.  And that is why I don't read them.  I'd rather read the book.  Also, reviews with lengthy summaries tend to give away important parts of the plot, and I would rather not have that information if I have not read the book yet.

In the case of a book like The Locked Safe Mystery that is about impossible to find, a detailed summary mentioning most all of the book's events might be appreciated by many readers.  However, I don't have the patience to write it up, and besides, a lengthy summary is never the same as reading the book.  

On page 79, Ted and Margaret try to get Mrs. Clayton to convince her daughter to come back to school.  Margaret tells Mrs. Clayton, "No one is going to snub her, or anything like that.  There are a lot of us who would like to help her if we could."  Sure, in a perfect world, everyone would understand that Mr. Clayton is innocent until proven guilty and would treat Mr. Clayton's daughter with kindness.  In reality, some students would end up snubbing the daughter regardless of how many other students agree with Ted and Margaret.

Events and characters from the first book are mentioned a number of times.  While I couldn't appreciate those parts of this book since I do not own a copy of the first book, I was still able to enjoy the story.  The plot of this book moves quite slowly, but the text is engaging.

Purchasing the Ted Wilford Series

The Ted Wilford series by Norvin Pallas is lauded as an outstanding juvenile series.  The series is extremely difficult to complete.  A number of the books are nearly impossible to find or are impossible to find.  The higher-numbered titles are easier to find than the lower-numbered titles.  I wanted to try this series, but I quickly determined that I could not put forth the investment in purchasing more than one or two books without making certain that I would end up liking the series.  The series consists of 15 titles.

 1. The Secret of Thunder Mountain, 1951
 2. The Locked Safe Mystery, 1954
 3. The Star Reporter Mystery, 1955
 4. The Singing Trees Mystery, 1956
 5. The Empty House Mystery, 1957
 6. The Counterfeit Mystery, 1958
 7. The Stolen Plans Mystery, 1959
 8. The Scarecrow Mystery, 1960
 9. The Big Cat Mystery, 1961
10. The Missing Witness Mystery, 1962
11. The Baseball Mystery, 1963
12. The Mystery of Rainbow Gulch, 1964
13. The Abandoned Mine Mystery, 1965
14. The S. S. Shamrock Mystery, 1966
15. The Greenhouse Mystery, 1967

I found a copy of #14 The S.S. Shamrock Mystery to try.  I had the book in my possession for a while before I finally read it.  While I enjoyed the story, I was not able to determine whether I liked it enough to want to purchase any additional titles.  I looked over the online offerings, but most of the books available were not in very good shape and were a bit expensive overall.

I kept having this nagging feeling that I needed to read another Ted Wilford to see what I thought.  I did manage to find copies of #11 The Baseball Mystery and #15 The Greenhouse Mystery which were priced reasonably enough for me to be willing to purchase them without being sure of how much I would enjoy them.  Around five months passed before I finally got around to reading The Greenhouse Mystery.  The plot moves slowly, but the story is interesting and very engaging.  I greatly enjoyed the book, enough to finally make the difficult decision to commit to purchasing as much of the set as I could.

My goal was to get the few copies in dust jacket that I could and then to acquire library bindings with the picture on the front cover.  That way, I would have a book with a cover illustration regardless.  Besides, I enjoy library editions and do not mind library editions.  As long as I had a representation of the cover art, I would be happy.

A few books can be found for under $30, but the supply is very limited.  Most titles will cost more than $30, and some of the books are practically impossible to find.  Furthermore, the books will be reading copies, not collector editions.  I managed to acquire 10 of the 15 books, most of which are reading copies.

All books are library discards except for The Big Cat Mystery, which is a copy sent out by the publisher for review. 

After I finished reading other sets of books that I had recently acquired, I commenced with reading the second book in the Ted Wilford series.