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Le Cafe Singe Bleu Serving generous portions of history and mystery from our monthly menu Volume 1, Issue 1, January 2003
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The Arabian Pearl Marian J. A. Jackson 1990
Time period:: 1900 Should you read this book? Peut-�tre ....(Perhaps...) |
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The Cast Abigail Patience Danforth - her ambition is to be the world's first female consulting detective Maude Cunningham - Abigail's 'Dr. Watson' Kinkade - Abigail's manservant Jacqueline Bordeaux - Abigail's maid Charles Osgood - a buyer of horses, the first victim
Polecat - a drifter
Jake - leader of the posse
Mr. Dade - owner of the fastest horse in Kansas City
It is the year 1900, and Miss Abigail Patience Danforth has turned 18. A woman, even a wealthy woman, does not have an easy time of it in Victorian England or even the McKinleyan United States. Any woman, regardless of her social sphere, who tried to go outside the mold was looked down upon not only by men but other women as well. Abigail Patience Danforth, inspired by the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, wishes to become the world's first female consulting detective, and she intends to pursue this ambition regardless of the many obstacles placed in her way. There are five books in the 'Miss Danforth Mystery' series. The Punjat's Ruby takes place in England and pits her against Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Arabian Pearl brings her to the United States of America where she meets Marshall Bill Tilghman. In The Cat's Eye she meets Jack London. In Diamond Head the mold is broken - Earl Derr Biggers won't visit Hawaii until 1919, although his model for Charlie Chan, Chang Apana, is no doubt there....a missed opportunity! The final book in the series so far is The Sunken Treasure in which Miss Danforth must solve a locked room mystery on board a ship, with the aid of Harry Houdini. These brief descriptions sound promising. Unfortunately, the books fall down in execution. Let us take for our example The Arabian Pearl. [If we play the game 'Six Degrees of Separation,' in 1928 Earl Derr Biggers wrote The Chinese Parrot in which he mentions Marshall Bill Tilghman, in The Arabian Pearl Miss Danforth matches wits with Tilghman, and wins]. Miss Abigail Danforth and her companion/chronicler Maude Cunningham are journeying across the United States (New York to San Francisco) via train. (The only way to do it in 1900, much as it is in 1925 when John Quincy Winterslip accomplishes the same feet in The House Without A Key.) Miss Danforth is journeying with her prize horse, Crosspatches, and also on the train is Charles Osgood, who has purchased a stallion sire for the famous lawman Marshall Bill Tilghman. Intrigue surrounds Miss Danforth. Her 'major domo', Kinkade, is actually a spy in her father's employ, to ensure that she does nothing of which he would be ashamed. Maude Cunningham's husband, Charlie, has been murdered (as recounted in The Punjat Ruby) and it is the intention of Miss Danforth to solve the mystery of his death when they reach San Francisco. However, the Baxter gang holds up the train. Although they intend to do it without bloodshed, they have made the mistake of enrolling a psychopath - Curly - in the gang, and when Curly is confronted by Charles Osgood, he kills him. The gang ride off with sacks of what they believe to be gold - only later they learn that what they have are bricks. Meanwhile, Mulehead and Polecat have been abandoned by the Baxter gang (and why this should be so when they would certainly turn around and identify the gang members who thus treated them so poorly?) and in order to escape the train steal the Arabian stallion and Miss Danforth's Crosspatches. The two horses are incredibly fast, as Mulehead and Polecat soon learn. Miss Danforth is shocked when Osgood is killed - indeed she faints when she sees his body. But it is only upon discovery that her beloved Crosspatches has been stolen that she is consumed with rage and determined to track down the thieves. The men of the posse set to go out after the thieves will not let her accompany them - so Miss Danforth must use her brains instead. And, the plan she comes up with to retrieve the lost horses is indeed, ingenious. She won't need to search after the horse thieves - they will come to her. Meanwhile, Curly and the rest of the Baxter gang have a falling out over the bricks that should have been gold, and Curly sets upon a course of revenge that ultimately leads him to Miss Danforth herself. Despite the fact that Miss Danforth chooses as her model the stories of Sherlock Holmes (in which very few people are killed), her adventures in the Wild West are most bloody. The Arabian Pearl is a rip-roaring adventure, almost like a Western serial. Plenty of chases, death and destruction, and a heroine who uses her brain to offset the Marshall who only uses his brawn. Unfortunately, the book is flawed. Marian Jackson's writing style is obtrusive. The reader is never lost in the story, sharing the adventure, he (or she) is always aware of the written word separating the two worlds. Jackson is an omnipresent narrator, which means she tells of the thoughts and feelings of every character, and this is not done in a seamless manner and gets irritating sooner rather that later. Then there is Miss Danforth's character. Whether intentional or unintentional on the part of the author, the fact that Miss Danforth does not decide to act in the case until she discovers that it is her horse that has been stolen, turns her into a rather unpleasant character. The tears she sheds are tears for her horse, Crosspatches, perhaps being brutally treated by the horsethieves, rather than for Charles Osgood, a young man cut down in the prime of his life. Read this book then, for the ingeniousness of Miss Danforth, if not for herself alone.
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