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Post by dem bones on Oct 30, 2012 13:59:32 GMT
Mystery Stories For Girls (Hamlyn, 1984; Originally 1967; first Hamlyn abridged edition 1980) Sheila Ward - Stranger's Quay Lilias Edwards - Adventure In The Highlands Elizabeth Clark - The Coral Reef Mystery Michael Jarvis - Jungle Quest Peter Grey - Trapped! Don Peterson - The House With The Green TowerBoth title and cover painting promise much, but, like the early volumes of the Armada Ghost Books, could be that Mystery Stories For Girls is aimed at too young an audience to deliver. A note, "Acknowledgements are due to Odhams Press Ltd. for permission to feature the stories in this book" suggests the possibility that they may originate from a pre-war anthology? From the J. Oxenham illustrations, Don Peterson's is the only ghost story (of sorts) though will likely attempt Michael Jarvis's safari girls caper at a later date. The unabridged 1967 original also includes Anne Digby's Jill of 21 Newlands Park and Oliver Griffiths' Jamaican Holiday. Don Peterson - The House With The Green Tower: "You mean it's someone dressing-up?" Twelve-year-old Jane Baxter and pudgy little sister Ann journey from London to visit their uncle, Henry Penhurst, at Cantellon House, a gloomy cliff-side mansion in the Welsh mountains. Both girls take an instant dislike to a fellow passenger, a surly-looking bearded fellow, but he's soon forgotten when they arrive in Meggawyn Halt where the misery guts of a coach driver rhubarbs on and on about how you wouldn't catch him setting foot in Cantellon House, the d**ded place is haunted, and so on and so on. Thoroughly unnerved, the girls arrive at the suitably imposing House With The Green Tower, where who should be there to meet them but the creepy gent on the train. He is Jordan, Henry Penhurst's butler, or that's what he tells the girls. An even bigger surprise awaits Jane. Her single previous meeting with Uncle was eight years ago, but she's certain the man who introduces himself as Henry Penhurst is an imposter. There's nothing for it but to go snooping around after dark, even if it means another encounter with a spectral Gay Cavalier who walks the halls. And that's how when they discover there's a man imprisoned in the cellar. Who can it possibly be? As you've doubtless guessed, there is no ghost, just the usual gang of ruthless jewel thieves and jailbreakers adopting a rubbish supernatural ruse to keep the local yokels away from their hide-out. Can our plucky girls smuggle a message to the village Bobby, Constable Morton?
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