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Dale of the Mounted #1
Dale of the Mounted
159 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1951
6 people want to read
About the author
Joe Holliday
30 booksLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Joe Holliday.
Born on the Rock of Gibraltar in 1910, Joe Holliday has always seemed to have a taste for things policewise. His father was a police constable in Gibraltar. Joe started his writing career over circumstances involving policemen, and before World War II he wore the uniform of a prison guard for a twelve-month “stretch”. He started writing in 1932, dabbled in sports fields for a start, graduated to writing stories about radio, stage, sports and movie stars, then handled publicity promotion and advertising. During the early 1940’s he was publicity-photographer with deHavilland Aircraft of Canada, helping publicize the grand work of their Mosquito bombers in overseas operations. This provided him with aircraft knowledge that stands him in good stead in his adventure tales. A former resident of New York, his family moved to Canada in 1919, and he has lived in Toronto ever since. He says his father’s side is descended from a member of the Black Watch who was with the garrison force. He has written short stories, articles, radio scripts, has edited and published his own weekly paper and edited tabloids. He likes photography and woodwork, loves reading adventure stories, and loves to write them. [from the dust jacket of Atomic Plot.
Born on the Rock of Gibraltar in 1910, Joe Holliday has always seemed to have a taste for things policewise. His father was a police constable in Gibraltar. Joe started his writing career over circumstances involving policemen, and before World War II he wore the uniform of a prison guard for a twelve-month “stretch”. He started writing in 1932, dabbled in sports fields for a start, graduated to writing stories about radio, stage, sports and movie stars, then handled publicity promotion and advertising. During the early 1940’s he was publicity-photographer with deHavilland Aircraft of Canada, helping publicize the grand work of their Mosquito bombers in overseas operations. This provided him with aircraft knowledge that stands him in good stead in his adventure tales. A former resident of New York, his family moved to Canada in 1919, and he has lived in Toronto ever since. He says his father’s side is descended from a member of the Black Watch who was with the garrison force. He has written short stories, articles, radio scripts, has edited and published his own weekly paper and edited tabloids. He likes photography and woodwork, loves reading adventure stories, and loves to write them. [from the dust jacket of Atomic Plot.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 17, 2019
Three stars is kind of an average. I might have rated much of the later part of the book four stars but the beginning of the book was very corny and, while I was reading it, I was thinking "Oh, no, this is going to be awful."
At the beginning of the book, Dale and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are introduced to readers when Dale and his father attend the Royal Winter Fair Horse Show. Dale's age wasn't revealed right away but, from the dialog, I assumed that he was about 9 or maybe 10 years old. When it was stated that he was 18 I was puzzled because I knew that Dale was the person in the title of the book but it was obvious that the character had something going on with his maturity level that would disqualify him from the RCMP.
Fortunately, Dale's issues clear up. It's not a spoiler to say that Dale's application to the RCMP is soon accepted. The book improved a lot when he reached the RCMP equivalent of basic training. In the rest of the book, he has one dangerous and exciting adventure after another, there is a lot of detail about Canada and the RCMP, and Dale meets up with lots of interesting characters from Eskimos, and Indians, to trappers and cowboys, oilmen and industrial saboteurs.
While there is nothing that locks girls out of reading this book, it is typical of a "boys" book. Dale loves his mother and sister but isn't much interested in his sister's friends who find his red uniform romantic and they are pretty much only mentioned in the book. Dale explains that there is no point in dating since new mounties couldn't get married anyway. They were required to have completed several years of service first and to get permission from their commanding officer.
In this book Dale is 18 years old but, in Branton's illustrations, Dale and his friends look more like 35. I happen to like the old fashioned real-photo dust jackets of the Canadian edition but they look very much like travel brochures of decades past. The covers on the U.S. edition are a completely different style and much less dated.
Page 35: Dale not only smokes but (this book was published in 1956) he smokes on an airplane.
At the beginning of the book, Dale and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are introduced to readers when Dale and his father attend the Royal Winter Fair Horse Show. Dale's age wasn't revealed right away but, from the dialog, I assumed that he was about 9 or maybe 10 years old. When it was stated that he was 18 I was puzzled because I knew that Dale was the person in the title of the book but it was obvious that the character had something going on with his maturity level that would disqualify him from the RCMP.
Fortunately, Dale's issues clear up. It's not a spoiler to say that Dale's application to the RCMP is soon accepted. The book improved a lot when he reached the RCMP equivalent of basic training. In the rest of the book, he has one dangerous and exciting adventure after another, there is a lot of detail about Canada and the RCMP, and Dale meets up with lots of interesting characters from Eskimos, and Indians, to trappers and cowboys, oilmen and industrial saboteurs.
While there is nothing that locks girls out of reading this book, it is typical of a "boys" book. Dale loves his mother and sister but isn't much interested in his sister's friends who find his red uniform romantic and they are pretty much only mentioned in the book. Dale explains that there is no point in dating since new mounties couldn't get married anyway. They were required to have completed several years of service first and to get permission from their commanding officer.
In this book Dale is 18 years old but, in Branton's illustrations, Dale and his friends look more like 35. I happen to like the old fashioned real-photo dust jackets of the Canadian edition but they look very much like travel brochures of decades past. The covers on the U.S. edition are a completely different style and much less dated.
Page 35: Dale not only smokes but (this book was published in 1956) he smokes on an airplane.
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