Mystery of the Midnight Message

Spotlight Club Mysteries

by Florence Parry Heide, Roxanne Heide Pierce, Seymour Fleishman

Halted on their bus trip by a winter blizzard, Cindy and Jay learn of a crime being plotted and embark on a treacherous mission to warn the intended victim

128 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

"What do I like about writing for children? Everything," says Florence Parry Heide, the award-winning author of more than sixty children’s books, including the classic THE SHRINKING OF TREEHORN, illustrated by Edward Gorey. "I like the connection with children," the author says. "I like the connection with all kinds of book people. And I like the connection with my childhood self, which is the most of me. It is the most welcome and familiar of worlds. There miracles abound--indeed it is magical that something I might think of can be put into words, stories, ideas, and that those words end up in the heads of readers I will never meet."

Florence Parry Heide wrote SOME THINGS ARE SCARY, a humorous look at childhood bugaboos, more than thirty years ago. "I had finished another book and was in the mood to write something else," she says. "I decided to get some kindling from the garage, reached into the kindling box and--good grief!--grabbed something soft and mushy. I fled back to the house, scared to death." A brave return visit to the kindling box revealed the object of terror to be nothing more than a discarded wet sponge, but the thought remained: some things are scary. As she recalls, "What scared me as a child was that I’d never learn how to be a real grownup--and the fact is, I never did find out how it goes."


One thing Florence Parry Heide does have a good handle on is the concept of friendship, in all its humorous manifestations. THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR, a tongue-in-cheek tale cowritten with Sylvia Van Clief in 1967, pokes at the tendency of well-meaning friends to offer advice instead of help, and presents a valuable lesson about what true friendship means. "One of my many (true) sayings is ‘A new friend is around the corner of every single day,’ " the author declares. "Also true: Friendships last. And last."


Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Florence Parry Heide worked in advertising and public relations in New York City before returning to Pittsburgh during World War II. After the war, she and her husband moved to Wisconsin, where they raised five children, two of whom have cowritten critically acclaimed books with their mother. Florence Parry Heide now lives in Wisconsin.

Reviews

[Katt Hansen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kids are taking a bus home from a visit when they get stranded in a hotel for the night, plunging them deep into a mystery. It's a case of a mistaken identity leading to thrills and chills.

This is an interesting premise which is so dated that I'm not sure modern kids will even understand how any of this can happen (the idea of two children having their own hotel room for the night is a little mind-boggling to the modern mind as well). The characters were fun, but the ending is a little over the top - there's no way on earth any adult is going to take kids with to see how things pan out.

Interesting read, but not one I'd pick up again.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Traveling on the bus on their way home from a cousin’s birthday party, Cindy and Jay Temple become stranded at a motel overnight during a snowstorm. Just as they’re drifting off to sleep, they are awakened by a mysterious phone call about a crime scheduled for the next evening. As they attempt to put together the pieces of the puzzle and figure out what to do, they become involved with a dangerous criminal who doesn’t want them to talk. Unsure of whom they can trust, Cindy and Jay put their detective skills to use and try to prevent a robbery.

“Mystery of the Midnight Message” by Florence Parry Heide and Roxanne Heide is the third book in The Spotlight Club Mysteries series, which was published in the 1970s and recently revived in April 2013 with “Mystery of the Blue Ridge Cemetery.” “Mystery of the Midnight Message” contains various black-and-white illustrations and bears the hallmarks of children’s mysteries, with minor action and mildly frightening situations. Comparable to such books as Lois Gladys Leppard’s “Mandie” series, Gertrude Chandler Warner’s “The Boxcar Children,” and “The Three Investigators” series, The Spotlight Club Mysteries are not as exciting as Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys but nevertheless provide entertainment for fans of juvenile detective stories. Young modern readers may encounter confusion due to the antiquated atmosphere and detecting methods, while older readers may enjoy reminiscing about old-fashioned items such as door-to-door salesmen, rotary telephones, and correspondence courses.