What Happened to Amy? by Jane Edwards and Blue Treasure by Helen Girvan

In What Happened to Amy? by Jane Edwards, Joyce Farrell takes a job as the secretary to a famous author, Miss Penrose.  Miss Penrose's previous secretary, Amy Dekker, suddenly quit and eloped.  As Joyce learns more, she begins to suspect that Amy's disappearance involved foul play.

Miss Penrose reads the first chapter of her upcoming book at a town social event.  Hours after Miss Penrose and Joyce return home, a fire breaks out in the room where the manuscript is kept.  The manuscript burns up, leaving Miss Penrose and Joyce devastated.  Joyce wonders whether something in that chapter worried someone and could be a clue to some nefarious activity.  Joyce begins to search for Amy Dekker.

This book reads much like an old Nancy Drew book.  In fact, the climax of the book is rather similar to a portion of an old Nancy Drew story.  It's best not to say which one, since doing so would reveal what happened to Amy.

This is an extremely good and very engaging story.

In Blue Treasure by Helen Girvan, Anne McClure inherits a property in Bermuda.  She isn't even related to the former owner, but nevertheless, the property will be hers provided that she lives there for one year.  Soon after Anne and her family arrive, relatives to the former owner make themselves known and promise that Anne will not end up inheriting the property.

Anne soon learns that a missing Vermeer painting may be located on the property, and she begins searching for it.  Meanwhile, the unpleasant relatives also search for the painting and cause mishaps on the property, hoping to drive Anne away.

The location of the missing Vermeer is very easy to guess, and the mystery is quite mild.  However, the story is very interesting and pleasant to read.  The book was originally published in 1937 and reads in a similar fashion to Augusta Huiell Seaman's books of the 1930s.  I greatly enjoyed it.

When Midnight Comes and Beware of This Shop by Carol Beach York

In When Midnight Comes, Joan's cousin Wilma comes to stay with the Bridgeport family.  Wilma is fat, plain, and will not talk.  Joan and the rest of the family feel very uncomfortable around her.  Soon after Wilma arrives, strange things happen.  The back door is left open one day, and the Bridgeports' cat disappears.  Mrs. Bridgeport develops insomnia, and Emily must sleep with her light on.  The grandfather clock that doesn't work begins ticking during the night.  The entire family is spooked, but Wilma remains unresponsive.  Joan desperately wants Wilma to return to her home.

In Beware of This Shop, Isabel buys a ring in a gift shop, while Hester purchases a small figurine.  Hester notices that the figurine is no longer pretty once she gets home with it, and she feels that the figurine is giving her nightmares.  Hester breaks the figurine and immediately feels better.

Hester visits Isabel to find her deathly ill.  Hester gets the ring away and destroys it, and Isabel recovers quickly.  Unfortunately, the townspeople continue to visit the gift shop, and soon, the store owner manipulates Hester into working for him.  Hester fears for her life, but she cannot figure out how to break the spell.

Both of these books would have fit in well with the Dark Forces and Twilight Where Darkness Begins series, which were both published at around the same time as these two books.  If you enjoy either of those series, then you will most likely enjoy these books.  I greatly enjoyed both of them.

I have sampled a few other books by Carol Beach York, and I did not like them.  This is an author where some books are great and others are not that good.

Hidden Clues #2 The Scarcity of Nancy Drew #55 and #56

Some collectors have heard that Nancy Drew #55 Mystery of Crocodile Island and #56 The Thirteenth Pearl are scarce and think that all copies of those two books are scarce.  Actually, most copies currently up for sale are very common and not worth purchasing on value speculation.

The matte picture cover editions of these two titles are scarce; the flashlight edition picture covers are quite common.  At the time of this writing, current eBay listings show 34 copies of Mystery of Crocodile Island up for sale.  29 copies are the flashlight edition, and only five copies are the matte picture cover edition.  For The Thirteenth Pearl, 48 copies are up for sale.  41 copies are the flashlight edition, and only seven copies are the matte picture cover edition.  The flashlight edition of both titles is very easy to find as compared to the matte edition.

This photo shows the front cover of the matte picture cover edition of both books.

The matte picture cover edition has a cover that is not glossy.  The books do not have a flashlight logo near the top edge.

The flashlight edition books have been in print since 1986.  #1 The Secret of the Old Clock and other lower-numbered books are probably available in slightly higher quantities, simply because people tend to buy the early books first.  However, the entire set of #1-56 has been available for 32 years in the flashlight edition.  No previous format of Nancy Drew was ever in print for 32 years.  All copies of Nancy Drew #1-56 in the flashlight edition are extremely common and are more common than any other format of Nancy Drew book.

Seen below is a scan of the front cover of the flashlight edition of Nancy Drew #55 and #56.  The books have a glossy cover and the flashlight logo near the top edge.

The flashlight edition of #55 and #56 should be purchased if you need to complete your set of flashlight editions or if you simply need a copy of the book to read.  If your objective is acquisition of a scarce book, then purchase the matte picture cover edition of #55 and #56.

Donald Price's Victory and Wyman's Other Books

In Donald Price's Victory, Donald Price wants to lumber a piece of land that he inherited from his father.  Donald has no money, and the bank will not finance him, due to an enemy who wants to make certain that Donald fails.  Donald finally secures financing at rather unfavorable terms.  If Donald does not deliver the lumber by a certain date, he will be fined each day that the lumber is late.  Donald feels certain that he can be successful, but he doesn't realize that several people are doing all that they can to make certain that he fails.

Donald Price is nearly 24 years old.  He is brash and assertive and takes risks.

On page 161 Cap'n Seth makes an appearance.  Cap'n Seth was also in The Golden Boys on the River Drive, although he is captain of a different boat.

This is a very good book.

In The Mystery of Eagle Lake, Mr. Shaw's men are building a lodge on Eagle Lake.  The work is not going well, and the men think that the camp is haunted.  Mr. Shaw has his sons, Bud and Jack, go to the camp to figure out what is going on.

This book blurs together in my memory with some of the Golden Boys books.  The plot is very similar to some of them.

This is a good book.

I also read part of The Haunted House Mystery awhile back.  I did not enjoy it.  I was thoroughly bored by halfway through the book and could not finish it.  I expected a mystery about a haunted house.  I did not expect the boys to spend all of their time traipsing about a gully and cave.  The book is not anywhere near as interesting as it could have been.

I tired to read The Battalion Captain.  I couldn't get into it at all, so I abandoned it after just a few pages.

I have not yet gotten around to reading the Lakewood Boys series by L. P. Wyman. 

I have mixed feelings about the L. P. Wyman books that I have read so far.  Some of the books like the Golden Boys series are quite excellent while others are uninteresting to me.

Hunniwell Boys #7 Caribbean and #8 Non-Stop Flight Around the World

In the Hunniwell Boys #7, The Hunniwell Boys in the Caribbean, Jim and Gordon's friend, Slim Togus, lives in Cuba.  He invites the boys down to his home.  Upon their arrival, they learn that Slim wants to dive for a sunken ship in the Caribbean.

On page 51, the boys visit a village on an island.  The village consists of a bunch of natives and a white store owner.  Slim tells the brothers, "I guess that man at the store is a kind of king here.  He's the only white man I saw in the village."  So I guess the implication is that the natives just naturally regard any white person as if a king.  Then why do the natives attack the boys at every turn?

This story consists of the boys looking for the sunken ship, then dodging natives who keep attacking them.  The cycle repeats over and over until the story mercifully ends.  The story is not bad, but it is also not very interesting.  Also, there's that problem of Bill's name still being Jim for some unknown reason.  I still cannot deal with it.

In the Hunniwell Boys #8, The Hunniwell Boys' Non-Stop Flight Around the World, Jim and Gordon decide that they want to be the first people to fly all the way around the world non-stop.

The Hunniwells' plane is once again named the Albatross after being the Falcon for the last two books.  However, Bill is still Jim, and this is still a deal-breaker for me.

The book is good, and I enjoyed it more than the previous two books in the set.

The Hunniwell Boys series is very good to excellent up through #5 in the set.  #6 through #8 have the name changes, and I struggled with all three books.  So for me, the Hunniwell Boys series ends with five books, since the last three do not feel authentic to me.

Extended! 10% Discount on eBay and Etsy

I decided to extend my eBay and Etsy sale through Tuesday evening so that it would last until the day after Cyber Monday.  I have had pretty good results and am pleased that a few stagnant items have sold.
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All of my listings are discounted 10% on both eBay and Etsy through Tuesday evening.  If you read this post after the sale ends on November 27, 2018, the offer will be null and void.

Jennifer's Series Books on eBay

Jennifer's Series Books on Etsy

The Etsy promotion for free shipping on orders of $35 or more is still active.  Many items on both sites have free shipping with no minimum purchase required.

It's worth running some searches on Etsy right now.  Some Etsy sellers are really desperate and are running crazy Black Friday sales.  I purchased a small bulk lot of books that had a nice discount and free shipping.  

Hunniwell Boys #5 Longest Flight and #6 Gobi Desert

In the Hunniwell Boys #5, The Hunniwell Boys' Longest Flight, Mrs. Green's son, Fred, left a year ago for Australia in hope of mining for gold.  Mrs. Green is heartbroken.  Bill and Gordon decide to fly to Australia to find Fred.  Along the way, the boys rescue a few people and encounter various adventures.

The aviation feats of the Hunniwell Boys are quite improbable, but for the most part, I simply ignore it.  I had to stop and think about it when the boys' plane climbs to 14,000 feet on page 17.  The oxygen level is thin at that altitude; additionally, the temperature is only 9.1 degrees Fahrenheit.  Nothing is mentioned about lack of oxygen or the cold.

This book contains many highly judgmental statements about the Aboriginal people of Australia.  I find these kinds of judgmental statements to be very offensive.  On page 169, Fred tells the Hunniwells that the natives are "hardly human they're so feeble-minded."

Indigenous peoples who live off the land in various parts of the world, even though they may not be in contact with the modern world, are intelligent and capable people.  They just have a different lifestyle, and there is nothing wrong with that.  In fact, they are much more intelligent about living off the land than modern-minded people are.  I hate reading judgmental comments about people who are different.  Just because someone is different doesn't make them stupid.

On page 194, Gordon observes, "These fellows may be lazy and all that but, take it from me, they know their stuff when it comes to springing a surprise."  Right, which means that they are not stupid.  They are knowledgeable about what is important to their way of life, which is simply different from ours.

This is a very good story.

In the Hunniwell Boys #6, The Hunniwell Boys in the Gobi Desert, Jim and Gordon Hunniwell fly to the Gobi Desert in their plane, the Falcon, to find a missing professor.

Did you catch that?  Inexplicably, the two brothers are now named Jim and Gordon instead of Bill and Gordon.  Not only that, but the Hunniwells' plane is now the Falcon instead of the Albatross.  Needless to say, the series pretty much lost me at this point.  I am not at all forgiving of sudden illogical name changes, especially when the series was supposedly all written by the same person with none of the books ghostwritten.  This makes no sense!

The book appears to have been written by Wyman as far as I can tell.  Certain phrases and colloquialisms are present, just like in his other books, but why did he change Bill to Jim?  UGH!!!

I had trouble enjoying the book.  In fact, I really didn't like it at all.  It partially bored me, and I skimmed towards the end.

Hunniwell Boys #3 Secret Service and #4 Platinum Mystery

In the Hunniwell Boys #3, The Hunniwell Boys in the Secret Service, Bill and Gordon enter a contest to see which plane can fly to San Francisco and back the fastest.  Naturally, the boys win.  As a result of the contest, they become friendly with Rogers, who works for the government.  Rogers requests that the boys help him figure out who is smuggling liquor across the border into the United States.

This is an excellent book and is a good detective story.

In the Hunniwell Boys #4, The Hunniwell Boys and the Platinum Mystery, Rogers enlists the boys' help in finding a lost cache of platinum in Hawaii.  The lost cache is on land once owned by Rogers' family and was left there by one of his forebears.

I noticed that the electric cell is now called a battery.  It's about time.

This story consists of several unrelated mini-adventures that occur while the boys look for the platinum.  Gordon even jokes about the mini-adventures on page 185, remarking, "Probably we'll see a ship on fire or a whale with a sore toe."

The racism present in the Hunniwell Boys books bothers me due to the overtly judgmental basis of it.  The boys become friendly with a "Jap" after a rough start.  On page 194, Gordon speaks positively of him, saying, "He's a regular fellow if his skin is a bit on the yellow shade."  He's saying that the man is okay despite his skin color.

For the duration of this book, no villains are after the platinum, which makes the story more realistic than most series books.  It's not necessary always to have somebody who knows one's intimate plans.  The boys run into plenty of trouble without having anyone privy to their plans.

This is an excellent book.