Wallace Boys #19 Missing in the Mekong and #20 The Pagodas of Pahang

In Wallace Boys #19, Missing in the Mekong, Bruce and Nigel begin their return to Singapore after their encounter with pirates.  The boys spot what appears to be an abandoned boat near Vietnam.  After investigating the boat, the boys discover an occupant, Nguyen Mah Vinh.  Mah Vinh is searching for his father, Marvin Wynne, an American who disappeared on the very day that Saigon fell to North Vietnam.  Can the boys help Mah Vinh find his father?

This is a moving story.  Much of the text consists of flashbacks to Vietnam during the war including the events leading up to Marvin Wynne's disappearance.

I have never been very interested in the Vietnam War, since it was still underway at the time I was born.  I have always been much more interested in events that happened well before my lifetime, such as World War II.

I have always been familiar with the names of events like the Tet Offensive, but they never meant anything to me.  I never cared to learn about them.  This book shows what happened in Vietnam to citizens during the Tet Offensive.  The reader also learns about the devastating environmental effects of Agent Orange and how it caused health problems and birth defects.

This might not sound interesting by how I describe it, but I found the presentation to be excellent and extremely interesting.  I now know more about the Vietnam War than I did before.

This is an outstanding book.

In Wallace Boys #20, The Pagodas of Pahang, Crown Prince Karl-Franz's sister, Flavia, is abducted by Communists while traveling by train in Malaysia.  Bruce and Nigel are camping in Malaysia at the same time with their friends, Kheng Peng and Zainal, and they cross paths with the kidnappers.  The four boys try to rescue Flavia with disastrous consequences.

This book only partially interested me.  I had to skim a lot of it.

I overall enjoyed the Wallace Boys series, but parts of many of the books required a lot of skimming.

The Highview Mystery by Lawrence A. Keating

The Highview Mystery by Lawrence A. Keating was published in 1944.  I saw this book advertised on one of the dust jackets from the Roger Baxter books.  It looked interesting.  I was fortunate to find an inexpensive copy up for sale.  This was two years ago.

As of a few weeks ago when I read this book, there were just two copies for sale online, neither inexpensive.  I believe both were available two years ago when I instead found the cheap copy.  Interestingly, those two books have now both sold.  I mentioned this book on Facebook a few weeks ago with a brief review, and I suspect that I may have helped those books sell.  Regardless, this is an extremely scarce book.

In The Highview Mystery, various items have been stolen from the hospital, including money that will ruin a fundraiser.  Foxy, Tom, and Rick work on solving the case.

The boys are sophomores in high school, although the jacket makes them look like grown men.

I was struck by some slight similarities to the Three Investigators and Brains Benton series.  The three boys have a club that they call the "Three D's," and their motto is "Daring, Dependable Doers!"  The leader is Foxy, who is overweight and intelligent. The clubhouse is in a garage near one boy's house. A sensor placed outside rings a bell when someone approaches the clubhouse.

Nowadays, the illicit use of drugs to get high is such a big problem that the subject is common knowledge.  On page 80, naive Tom asks, "Why would anybody want to steal narcotics?"  Tom is told about addicts and "dope peddlers."  Tom then asks, "Yes, but why would a person become an addict?"  Tom is then told that some do it out of "foolish curiosity" and that others use it "to keep on with their jobs," presumably because they would be more energetic.  Tom is also told that some people become addicted because of chronic pain.  This passage was probably quite enlightening to many young readers in 1944.

This is a very good book.

Wallace Boys #17 Treasure of the Tiger and #18 Sultan of the Sulu Sea

In Wallace Boys #17, The Treasure of the Tiger, Nigel and Bruce arrive in Singapore, staying with Zainal and Kheng Peng.  Kheng Peng shares a copy of a radio mayday message from World War II which has been handed down in his family.  The message holds a clue to a sunken Japanese ship that supposedly carried a great treasure.  The boys search for information, then they depart on a journey to try to find the sunken ship.

This book is highly suspenseful.  The boys encounter some extremely dangerous situations in which the reader expects the boys to face certain death.  The book is excellent all the way through.

In Wallace Boys #18, The Sultan of the Sulu Sea, the boys finish their hunt for treasure on the sunken Japanese ship.  They begin their return journey to Singapore.  Shortly into the trip, the boys discover a ship trailing them.  It soon becomes apparent that the ship is a pirate ship, which intends to take over the Silver Spray.

The boys use every evasive tactic at their disposal, but they are unable to get away from the pirates.  The Silver Spray is taken over, and the boys are forced to go to the pirates' headquarters.

This is an excellent and highly suspenseful book.

Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys 2017 Matte Flashlight Editions

I collect library editions, and the current format from the company Bound to Stay Bound is what I refer to as the "flashlight library edition."  The flashlight library edition uses the flashlight logo seen on the flashlight editions that are published by Penguin under the Grosset and Dunlap imprint.  Here are photos of the flashlight library editions that I have, most of which came from the same library.

The last two seen in the above photo are variants.  I like the flashlight library editions better than the regular flashlight editions from the publisher.  For those who aren't familiar with the various formats of Nancy Drew books, the following photo shows the regular flashlight editions

The regular flashlight editions are too glossy and gaudy for my taste.  I would like them a lot better if they were more in the style of the flashlight library editions.  Since I do not care for the regular flashlight editions, I do not own a set.

Recently, I spotted this photo in an eBay search.

It caught my eye immediately, and I felt certain that I was viewing some of the Bound to Stay Bound flashlight library editions.  What a pretty blue on the cover of Hidden Staircase!  I decided to purchase the books.

When the books arrived, I saw the spines first.

I was a bit surprised, since the spines are identical to the regular flashlight editions. The books are not likely library editions as I had thought.  But what are they?

The books are just like the regular flashlight editions except that the finish is matte and the front cover design is different.  I examined the books, determining for certain that the books had not been rebound and appeared to be in the original binding.  I could tell that the books are absolutely brand-new and must have been printed recently.  I was flummoxed, because I do not see unexpected variants very often.  I had heard nothing about these books, and word usually spreads quickly when collectors spot variants in stores.

I knew these books had come from somewhere, but I did not know from where.  I have learned that asking questions on Facebook sometimes doesn't work as well as one would expect.  Therefore, I simply put the pictures up with the statement, "Check out these neat books!  They are flashlight editions with matte covers."  I knew that the mystery would be solved shortly.

I quickly was informed that the books came from the store Five Below.  They had been seen in that store five to six weeks ago.  Nancy Drew #1 and 2 as well as Hardy Boys #1 and 2 were available.

I went to one of the Five Below stores today and was able to get Nancy Drew #1 and Hardy Boys #2 to complete both sets.

I like these books.  If you have a Five Below store nearby, you might be able to get the books.  I understand that some stores may be low on stock while others may still have plenty available.

Ghost Hollow Mystery and Mystery at Ding-Dong Gulch by Page Carter

The Ghost Hollow Mystery was published in 1951, and Mystery at Ding-Dong Gulch was published in 1956.  The books were written by Page Carter.

In The Ghost Hollow Mystery, cousins Bucky, Christopher, Melinda, and Jane stay at their grandmother's house.  When Melinda learns that the town school has no books, she organizes a book drive.  The books that are donated will be sold at the general store, and the money raised will purchase books for the school.  Meanwhile, the children learn of a series of thefts in the surrounding area. When items are stolen from their grandmother's home, Bucky and Christopher begin investigating the deserted cabin in Ghost Hollow.

This book has too many characters that are introduced too quickly.  Even worse, each character's dog is introduced by name at the same time that the character is introduced.  I could hardly keep anyone straight.  Authors come very close to losing me completely when they do that.  I am always very tempted to shut the book and not read it.

Just imagine what kind of books would have been donated to the children, since the book was published in 1951.  They would have gotten lots of very old books that are no longer seen nowadays.

This is a very good book.

In Mystery at Ding-Dong Gulch, Bucky and Christopher go to visit Melinda in her new home.  The children investigate several mysteries.  One man keeps his house barred with the doors nailed shut, yet he somehow comes and goes from the house.  Meanwhile, a new rancher is disliked and might be up to something.  Ding-Dong Gulch is another mysterious place that might have a mystery. And then there's the nearby ghost town.

This book is not that interesting because none of the multiple mysteries amount to much.  It's like the author had a number of half-formed ideas and tossed them together in one book.  The story would have been much more interesting if the author had concentrated on one mystery and made it interesting.

I did not like this book.

Wallace Boys #15 Monks of Montafon and #16 South from the Seychelles

In Wallace Boys #15, The Monks of Montafon, Bruce and Nigel learn that Archduke Prince Karl-Franz of Ruritania is missing!  Karl-Franz has been writing a biography of his grandfather, and Karl-Franz's research led him to the Montafon Monastery.  Bruce and Nigel learn that the monks are hiding a terrible secret and that Karl-Franz is in danger.

Bruce's prize possession is a Casio Moon Graph watch, which figures out latitude and longitude as well as when the moon and sun rise and fall.  I had never heard of this watch, so I had to check into it.  I am pleased to report that Casio does still sell a similar watch, so at least Bruce isn't using archaic technology.

I enjoyed this book.

In Wallace Boys #16, South from the Seychelles, Barry Jones gets in touch with Bruce and Nigel.  Barry wants the boys to help him with a trip to the South Indian Ocean.  Some Germans wish to visit a remote island in a dangerous part of the ocean, just because the trip sounds like something they want to do.

Not surprisingly, the Germans have a sinister motive, since they would be daft to visit a remote island for no apparent reason.  Bruce and Nigel are shocked to discover that the Germans are some of their enemies.

Interestingly, most of Bruce and Nigel's friends from past adventures appear in this book.  The same scenario occurs in one Biff Brewster book, Mystery of the Ambush in India.

The first part of this book is boring.  Once the boys set sail, the book is very good.

The Spotlight Club and the Lookouts Mystery Series

I have been trying a bunch of books that I have needed to read for a long time.  These are books that I will not be keeping.

The Spotlight Club series was written by Florence Parry Heide and Roxanne Heide. These books were written for pretty young readers.  I first read The Mystery of the Missing Suitcase.  This book has short, repetitious sentences.  Words are repeated often, and the book is similar to a reader.  The mystery is almost nothing.

Next, I tried the Spotlight Club book, Mystery at Keyhole Carnival.  This book is rather similar to many series books that are set at carnivals.  The carnival is plagued by accidents, and the children must figure out who is responsible.  This book was written on a slightly higher level than The Mystery of the Missing Suitcase.  I liked it better, but it was not very compelling.

I also tried Mystery at the Weird Ruins, which is a title in the Lookouts Mystery series by Christine Nobel Govan and Emmy West.  The children go to government property upon which they see circles of rocks, supposedly placed there hundreds of years before.  The children dig around, moving the rocks.  I had trouble accepting that the authors seemed to think it fine for the children to tamper with an archaeological site on government property.

The children speak in dialect, and I always struggle when books are partially written in dialect.  Most of it was fine, but there were a couple of dialect words that I could not decipher.  That always bothers me.

I did not enjoy Mystery at the Weird Ruins very much.

Wallace Boys #13 Nemesis of the Nefud and #14 Terrorists of Tibesti

In Wallace Boys #13, Nemesis of the Nefud, Nigel, Bruce, and Hanafi stay in the Saudi Arabian desert to learn more about the terrorists.  The terrorists are holed up in a narrow canyon.  Nigel infiltrates the camp while Bruce and Hanafi wait above the canyon for word from Nigel.  Bruce grows impatient and jumps into action prematurely, endangering all three boys.

The terrorists use sheets of camouflage secured by tent pegs to cover their railway tracks so that satellites and aircraft will not spot the railway.  In modern times where everything can be seen from above via satellite, the criminals have to think creatively to cover their tracks.

It was as I read this book that I suddenly realized that to this point in the series, females play no role in the books.  Some females have been mentioned, but they do speak or do anything important.  These are boys' books through and through.  A few females do have minor roles in later books.

I enjoyed this book, but I had to skim many of the lengthy descriptions.

In Wallace Boys #14, The Terrorists of Tibesti, Nigel spots one of the men responsible for the temple massacre while dining in a restaurant in Egypt.  The boys follow the man and later turn him over to the police.  Prior to that, the boys take a shoebox from the man's room.  The shoebox contains a map of the Tibesti Mountains in Chad, so the boys plan a trip to that location via lightweight aircraft.  The trip ends disastrously with the boys once again imprisoned by terrorists.

In this book, the wife of the cab driver, Mahmoot, helps the boys with the stakeout.  She never speaks, which is typical of how this series keeps women in the background until the last few titles in the set.

I also had to skim a lot of this book due to lengthy descriptions that were not interesting to me.  Aside from that, I enjoyed the book.