The Ruby Ray Mystery: A Rick Brant Science Adventure Story

Rick Brant Science-Adventures #19

by John Blaine

It's midnight in Copenhagen when the phone rings in the hotel room of Rick Brant and his pal Scotty. It's Steve Ames with JANIG, the secret intelligence agency in Washington D.C. He has a special job for the boys, tailing a high-profile scientist. It isn't supposed to be anything dangerous, just simply following the guy around. What Steve doesn't know is that he just assigned the boys to follow a man into a deadly rendezvous with Russian and Chinese Communists, Humanitarians, and Anti-Communists radicals. All are bent on their own goals regardless of the other groups. Rick and Scotty find themselves in the middle of a caravan going who knows where. Who is following who? Was the agent in the alley one of their own or an enemy. Join Rick and Scotty as they face off with agents, radicals, and patriotism in this fast-paced adventure through Switzerland and the beautiful Alpine foothills. Will they make out with their lives and the life of the man they've been assigned to follow or is death waiting for them around the corner?

133 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

"John Blaine" was a pseudonym of Harold Leland Goodwin and Peter J. Harkins.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rick and Scotty are attending a conference in Denmark with Dr. Brant when they're contacted by Agent Steve Ames of JANIG in this volume and trail an American scientist across Europe to keep his laser research out of the hands of the evil communists. Rick and Scotty are pretty much on their own throughout the book, which suffers from the lack of Spindrift support and infrastructure and familiar supporting characters. The suspension of disbelief factor is high, as it's hard to believe that the two boys are the best assets the government can muster against the red menace. They don't do any scientific work, just somewhat questionable spy activity. This is one of the last books in the series, and is shorter and weaker than the superior early volumes. The Rick Brant books were a series of boys' (today they'd just be labeled "y.a.") scientific (originally called "electronic") adventures that were written between the late '40s and '60s. They were in many ways superior to the better-known Tom Swift, Jr. books; they were more realistic and included descriptions of projects and puzzles that engaged the reader, as well as having more down-to-earth settings and set-ups and more realistic and likable characters. Rick lived on Spindrift Island, the location of a small but superior scientific facility headed by his father, Hartson Brant, along with his friend Scotty (who was originally an ex-Marine veteran of World War Two), his younger sister Barby, his mother (who was never named other than "Mom" so far as I can recall, and a large and expanding likable cast of scientists, and including Dismal (Diz), the family dog. Spindrift was a lovely and wonderful location, as detailed by the map on the endpapers in each volume, with a farm, a rocket launcher, cliffs and woods, a pirate's field, a dock and airfield, an orchard, a large house and laboratory facility; in short, everything a right-thinking young person of the 1950's could ever need. There was a fine and ever-changing cast of supporting characters in addition to the Island residents, including Chahda (an enterprising and bright young friend from India), and Agent Steve Ames, government liaison beyond compare, whom I always believed to be related to Harlan Ames, the security chief in the Tom Swift, Jr. books. Typically the stories started at home, on Spindrift, and then took the boys to some remote and exotic location in the company of one or more of the cast of scientists, where they would have adventures, solve mysteries, and perform valuable scientific experiments and research. They're fun and exciting stories despite inevitable dating, and I am enjoying revisiting them.

[Steve Gross · Rating 3 out of 5]

#19 in the Rick Brant series. Surprisingly sophisticated for a 50 year old boy's book.

[Kent Archie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the series, this is a straight up spy story.
Pretty updatable, but several scenes would be removed as they wouldn't need to arrange a flyby of the chateau, just look at satellite photos. The wouldn't need to get a kid to buy train tickets, just buy them on the phone.
Also, as in other of the books, the Megabuck network wouldn't be as needed, they are replaced by phones.
A pay-as-you-go phone could be used to track the cars.
I understand that climbers use cams rather than pitons these days, so the worries about noise during the climb would be less.

The renting of a very expensive sports car (Mercedes 300SL, now selling for millions) seems unlikely.

A couple of plot points would have to change.
The Anti-Communist stuff and the ACTION group would have to change as the Soviet Union is gone.
Also, using lasers in surgery isn't unusual enough to warrant the plot.

I enjoyed the story a lot, it showed off how clever Rick and Scotty have become.

[Devrun Ellerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant read

If you enjoy Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys you will probably like this book. It made me think of Johnny Quest as a young adult.

[Soc Page]

Hardy Boys type of story

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent youth mystery.

At 66 I was rereading the Rick Brant mysteries I loved as a boy. Found memories and great science introduction.

[Elizabeth Castro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rick and Scotty accompany Rick's father to a science conference in Denmark. The boys get a phone call JANIG, asking them to keep an eye on Dr. Keller. Following Dr. Keller is harder than it seems and the boys must cross several countries by train, car, and jet.
The Ruby Ray Mystery plotline incorporates a communism and spy theme straight out of Hollywood. This book leaves little to the imagination and the action is believable. I found myself flipping through the pages wondering which organization did what.