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The Bluebird Books #3
Mary Louise Solves a Mystery
Mary Louise Solves a Mystery is the third in the series of girl detective novels featuring Mary Louise Burrows and her friend Josie O'Gorman. When Antoinette Jones dies leaving her daughter Alora and her entire estate to her estranged husband something appears to be amiss. Mary Louise decides to find out.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1917
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 6, 2011
This is the third in a series of girl detective novels L. Frank Baum created featuring Mary Louise Burrows and her friend Josie O'Gorman. They appear fairly late in the book with the beginning given over to the sad story of Alora Jones. Her wealthy mother dies when she is 10, leaving Alora and her inheritance in the care of her ex-husband, who Alora had never met. He is sullen, secretive and unsupportive, and Alora is neglected for several years while her father forces her to live with him in a remote Italian villa. Mary Louise meets Alora and her father while traveling with her grandfather in Italy. Befriending Alora, Mary Louise senses there is a mystery, and seeks to find out what is behind the strained relationship between Alora and her father.
Baum's young adult novels usually involve class issues and this book is as much about class as it is about mystery. While the setting is out of date, the detective work is well crafted and will keep the reader interested.
Baum's young adult novels usually involve class issues and this book is as much about class as it is about mystery. While the setting is out of date, the detective work is well crafted and will keep the reader interested.
February 5, 2010
this one had me in suspense! except not so much.
April 22, 2014
This is like reading giallo lite for kids--relatively violent, but no murders. Part of it is even set in Italy, and a character gets locked in a grape shed for several days. I could see Dario Argento doing something with this if he ever wanted to go back to the vein of his "Animals" trilogy. Stephen Kane from _The Flying Girl_ is here, although he doesn't take an active role in the story. We know only that he has established an airfield in Dorfield and that Jason Jones takes lessons there from an unnamed instructor that is presumably not Stephen himself.
Unlike the first two books, Mary Louise does not appear until after the establishment of most of the major new characters, and Josie O'Gorman arrives particularly late, just when I was wondering if she was going to appear in it at all. Even if she looks cuter in my head than her description suggests, she's consistently a fascinating character. I always love to cite John W. Kennedy's quote, "Compared to Josie O'Gorman, Nancy Drew is a girly-girl." Clearly, this book should stand up for modern readers if that series can.
I was a little disappointed with the resolution of the book. Jason Jones is a confounding character, and so I hoped his ventures with the Kane aircraft were resulting in him flying to California and doing something spectacular, since Jason Jones (who is almost always referred to with both names) is vividly described and one senses some sympathy from Baum with regard to the struggling artist. This is not a spoiler because my hopes were dashed, and the ending is a bit more romanticized, and is the mystery that Mary Louise solves in lieu of Josie O'Gorman, who is involved in more of a rescue operation than much mystery-solving this time out.
The book could definitely use a better title, if Hungry Tiger Press ever gets around to putting it in their Pawprint Adventures series, especially since every Mary Louise book thus far has had mystery solving as a major component to it.
Overall, this is a highly underrated book. Rumor has it that Harry Neal Baum contributed part of the content, but I have no idea what, if anything, might have been his. Although there are seven more books in the series, only one more, Mary Louise and the Liberty Girls, in which I understand Stephen Kane makes a brief appearance, is by Baum. No one is quite sure who wrote Mary Louise Adopts a Soldier, although I was once told by a Mary Louise fan at an International Wizard of Oz Club convention that she thinks the book is built around a Baum fragment. The remaining five books are by Emma Speed Sampson, using the Edith van Dyne pseudonym. Her first is called _Mary Louise at Dorfield_, a title as nondescript as _Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John_, since Dorfield and Uncle John are regular parts of the series (and don't even get me started about Josie O'Gorman).
Unlike the first two books, Mary Louise does not appear until after the establishment of most of the major new characters, and Josie O'Gorman arrives particularly late, just when I was wondering if she was going to appear in it at all. Even if she looks cuter in my head than her description suggests, she's consistently a fascinating character. I always love to cite John W. Kennedy's quote, "Compared to Josie O'Gorman, Nancy Drew is a girly-girl." Clearly, this book should stand up for modern readers if that series can.
I was a little disappointed with the resolution of the book. Jason Jones is a confounding character, and so I hoped his ventures with the Kane aircraft were resulting in him flying to California and doing something spectacular, since Jason Jones (who is almost always referred to with both names) is vividly described and one senses some sympathy from Baum with regard to the struggling artist. This is not a spoiler because my hopes were dashed, and the ending is a bit more romanticized, and is the mystery that Mary Louise solves in lieu of Josie O'Gorman, who is involved in more of a rescue operation than much mystery-solving this time out.
The book could definitely use a better title, if Hungry Tiger Press ever gets around to putting it in their Pawprint Adventures series, especially since every Mary Louise book thus far has had mystery solving as a major component to it.
Overall, this is a highly underrated book. Rumor has it that Harry Neal Baum contributed part of the content, but I have no idea what, if anything, might have been his. Although there are seven more books in the series, only one more, Mary Louise and the Liberty Girls, in which I understand Stephen Kane makes a brief appearance, is by Baum. No one is quite sure who wrote Mary Louise Adopts a Soldier, although I was once told by a Mary Louise fan at an International Wizard of Oz Club convention that she thinks the book is built around a Baum fragment. The remaining five books are by Emma Speed Sampson, using the Edith van Dyne pseudonym. Her first is called _Mary Louise at Dorfield_, a title as nondescript as _Aunt Jane's Nieces and Uncle John_, since Dorfield and Uncle John are regular parts of the series (and don't even get me started about Josie O'Gorman).
March 24, 2017
I would never want to read any Oz books, but since this book was free on audio and being that I love old mysteries, I gave it a spin. It was a sweet lovely little story. A tween or younger aged teen might really enjoy it if they like classic type stories, but it was rather droll for me since it was not at all suspenseful and very light on the mystery.
September 4, 2016
Antoinette Jones dies and leaves her daughter Alora and her entire estate to her estranged husband... But something most unusual is amiss and Mary Louise decides to find out...
February 21, 2014
I highly recommend!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews