Puzzle in Purple

A Connie Blair Mystery #3

by Betsy Allen

When Connie Blair goes to art school she enters an exciting new world in which glamour and mystery mingle. Connie expects to meet unusual and colorful personalities, and she is not disappointed. But she hasn't bargained for a skeleton named Adam who turns up in a purple cloak at the midwinter fancy dress ball and leaves his signature scrawled across the ceiling!

From that moment on, tension mounts in the stately old Philadelphia mansion that houses the art school. Who is back of the debacle of the masked ball? Eric Payson, the shy, sensitive young painter whose mural was the only one not defaced? Roby Woodward, irresistible young dilettante who despises Eric for his ability? Fritz Bachman, sharp faced and sardonic, and determined to win the Fairchild Prize by fair means or foul? Sensing the impending catastrophe that later dwarfs the episode of the ball, Connie tries feverishly to fit into place the scattered pieces of the puzzle. How she accomplishes this, and what she sees when the picture finally becomes clear is told in a thrilling mystery story set against the fascinating background of art school.

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Fiction

213 pages, Hardback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Betsy Allen was a pseudonym used by Betty Cavanna for books one through eleven of the Connie Blair mysteries. The author of book 12 was Anne Warner Miller of Philadelphia.

Reviews

[William Land · Rating 5 out of 5]

Connie's third adventure takes place at the art school at which she's registered for evening classes for art lessons; the ambitious young girl is not intending to remain a receptionist for long!

Connie immediately becomes aware of the school's plans for a fancy dress ball and is asked by a shy student, Eric Payson, to be his date. Connie thinks it would be fun to go to this party with Eric and plans to ask her identical sister Kit to accompany her and Eric. Kit's escort will be Connie's Reid and Renshaw co-worker, Ken Cooper.

Mischief abounds at the art school. Just before the ball begins, guests are startled to learn that paintings of fairy tale characters are destroyed with crisscrosses purple paint! All paintings are damaged save the one completed by young Payson.

The Blair twins are costumed as identical Snow Queens (the dustjacket art illustrates a lovely Connie, looking fetching in her becoming costume), and escorts and guests alike have trouble distinguishing between the two beautiful costumed sisters. One young man unwittingly offers a clue to the vandalism to Kit, thinking she is Connie. Kit later reveals this startling conversation to her twin sister.

The Monday following the festivities, priceless paintings from a distinguished borrowed collection are returned to the Reid and Renshaw offices. Soon after their arrival, it is discovered that these valuable canvases, too, have been destroyed in similar fashion to the students' paintings.

Is Eric Payson responsible for these crimes? Is another person scheming to discredit the young artist? What is the motivation behind the destroyed artwork?

Connie follows slim clues to solve this mystery and restore harmony to the art school community.

[Gina House · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5🌟 What I love about the Connie Blair mysteries, besides the suspense and clever conversations, is the warm feeling you have when you're done reading.

It's also so comforting that each book continues from the previous story, though you could probably still read them out of order and enjoy the mysteries without reading the one before. But, it's even more fun when you are reunited with her twin sister Kit, friends from the previous books and her co-workers at the advertising agency.

I love that all of the characters have both strengths and weaknesses—everything is more balanced overall. There are also far less derogatory physical appearance comments about women, like there are in Nancy Drew. The women in these stories are intelligent and clever, but also thoughtful and kind.

Throughout each of the books that I've read in this series, there is an underlying foundation of making things right and helping others—even when they might not "deserve" it. That makes the Connie Blair mysteries so much more interesting and worthwhile for me to read.

I love a hopeful and positive book that also includes mystery, a little romance and good writing! I'm still very much enjoying these books by Betsy Allen (aka Betty Cavanna)!

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

SUMMARY:
Connie has just enrolled in a local art night school and on her first day she meets two boys who take an interest in her; handsome and cocky popular boy Roby Woodward and shy and awkward Eric Payson who is Mr. Woodward's protégé. The school is having a fancy dress ball in two weeks.

The art school is located inside of an large, old residence and the Fairy Tale Ball is to be held in the ballroom. Some of the senior students have been tasked with painting murals of fairy tale scenes to hang in the room for the event. Eric is creating a Rapunzel mural and for reference has borrowed an expensive purple cape from Miss Catherine, an elderly woman who admires Eric and so happens to be Roby's aunt. On Connie first day the cape goes missing from the models locker which causes Eric worry.

A week later Eric musters up the courage to ask Connie to the ball and she decides to go with him and invite her twin, Kit, to come too. The next day Roby asks Connie to the ball but she informs him she already plans to go with Eric. Roby laughs and insists he'll deal with Eric and Connie will go with himself instead. Connie gets furious at Roby's conceit and tells him off.

Kit arrives and the two girls dress as Snow Queens for their ball costumes. They are so identical in looks, voice, and costume that no one can tell them apart. As the dance is about to start the ballroom doors are opened and inside stands a skeleton, used by the school for anatomy reference, draped in the missing cape and all the murals, with the exception of Eric's, have been covered in purple X's...You can read the rest of this summary on my blog post, Puzzle in Purple

REVIEW:
- Fritz was just...not necessary. I didn't include him in my summary because his inclusion in the book so pointless. He is a very badly written and an obvious red herring. He is only included in the story at times where Connie needs to be suspicious of someone other than Roby. Also his German name, tragic backstory, and mannerisms all made me visualize his character as an old fashion communist stereotype with a Russian accent which, I would guess, is not what Betty Cavanna was going for.

- Eric is described as being awkward and shy but instead of these being flaws Connie actually finds them endearing. Meanwhile smooth, confident Rob gets on her nerves. I thought this was nice. Normally characters are likeable despite their awkwardness but never for it.

- This book reminded me of Nancy Drew Files with how the three suspects were laid out and all had their moments that make them look suspicious.

To continue on with examples of how the Connie Blair series is in fact not sexist:

- Connie is working fulltime and going to school. She supports herself with her job and she earned her school tuition through her work in the last book.
- Kit is still running the hardware store and going on buyers trips alone despite her young age.
- Miss Catherine is a strong, independent woman and described as being "made of iron".
- Roby is good looking and charming yet Connie does not fall for his smooth talking and chooses for herself who she wishes to attend the ball with.
- Yet again no mention is made about Aunt Elizabeth being single and childless.

- You can read the rest of this review on my blog, vintagegirlsbooks.blogspot.com

- You can see all the art work for this book and many others at Pinterest.com/nancydrewart

[Mikayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so excited to finally read this!! I love Betsy Allen's writing style because she doen't dum it down for kids. These are really young adult books.
The only thing I did not like was the three times a very mild bad word was used. As I mentioned, it was very mild, but that does make me ask, why put it in at all?
I really enjoyed seeing more in Connie Blair's life!

[Sallie]

I've never read any of these, so I shall be searching for them to read.

[Randy Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Connie Blair Mystery series, and the third one I've read. Once again, Connie is living and working in Philadelphia, and this time she enrolls in art school, which is where the mystery takes place. Art school in a big city in the late Forties seems like a an enticing setting. It's not exactly “Art School Confidential,” but it is a somewhat cynical look at the personalities of the young people in question. There are some baffling crimes, of course, and among the possible suspects we get a pretty good cross-examination of three very distinct types—three different young men who all seem to excel in this particular program, but also have flaws. The three are also somewhat vying for the attention of the new girl at school, Connie Blair—and she completes fairly thorough character profiles of each of them in the course of both deciding who she likes best while also considering them as suspects. The crimes involve the defacement of art—on both a prank level and a serious, criminal level—which is also an interesting twist in the mystery. I hope it doesn't give anything away if I say the outcome is a bit “Scooby-Doo-ish”—but what it comes down to, that's not really the most interesting part of the book, I don't think. For me, I like the social aspects, and the well-drawn characters that we get to know. And, kind of a bonus, Connie's twin sister, Kit, is somewhat more involved in this book—so we get a little identical twin mischief, which is always fun.

[Jane Irish Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Connie begins an evening art class she (naturally) encounters another mystery. Why did Miss Charlotte's purple cloak disappear? Who could have sabotaged the panels created for the masquerade ball? And, finally, who would even think of damaging pieces of artwork? As Connie puts the clues together she finally realizes the truth.

[JalapenoSoup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most of these Nancy Drew-esque mystery novels, the "detective work" is pretty laughable, but the characters were more interesting and less starkly black and white than I've come to expect from 1940's Grosset and Dunlap stories. The art school and advertising company backdrops were interesting, and overall, I enjoyed it.

[Kristen (belles_bookshelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"My, but it's fun to be young!"

I have a few random books from my mom's old collection and this is one of them. Honestly, the way it's set up is, to me, a lot more realistic than the Nancy Drew books. Connie has a job, but is looking to further her wish of working in advertising by attending an art school. The mystery herein takes place over several months which is a way more realistic timeline for an investigation than a couple days like in Nancy Drew.