Phoebe Daring

The Daring Twins #2

by L. Frank Baum, Miriam Esther Goldman (Narrator), Phil Chenevert (Narrator)

A headstrong female detective strives to clear a good man's name in this children's mystery by Oz author L. Frank Baum. Summary by Miriam Esther Goldman

Genres: Classics

6 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

also wrote under the names:
* Edith van Dyne,
* Floyd Akers,
* Schuyler Staunton,
* John Estes Cooke,
* Suzanne Metcalf,
* Laura Bancroft,
* Louis F. Baum,
* Captain Hugh Fitzgerald

Lyman Frank Baum was an American author best known for his children's fantasy books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, part of a series. In addition to the 14 Oz books, Baum penned 41 other novels (not including four lost, unpublished novels), 83 short stories, over 200 poems, and at least 42 scripts. He made numerous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen; the 1939 adaptation of the first Oz book became a landmark of 20th-century cinema.
Born and raised in Chittenango, New York, Baum moved west after an unsuccessful stint as a theater producer and playwright. He and his wife opened a store in South Dakota and he edited and published a newspaper. They then moved to Chicago, where he worked as a newspaper reporter and published children's literature, coming out with the first Oz book in 1900. While continuing his writing, among his final projects he sought to establish a film studio focused on children's films in Los Angeles, California.
His works anticipated such later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high-risk and action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work).

Reviews

[Orion · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second of a two-volume series that started with The Daring Twins, a story of how the twins restore their family's lost inheritance with the help of Toby Clark, a teen-age orphan. Toby broke his foot helping the Darings and walks with a limp as we begin this second which features the twin Phoebe. Her brother has gone off to college after the twins graduated high school in the first book.

In this second volume Toby is falsely accused of stealing money and papers belonging to Mrs. Ritchie, a widow who doesn't trust banks and stores her money as well as her papers with her lawyer Judge Ferguson in a locked box that he keeps with other such boxes in a secure cupboard. The orphan Toby has been taken on by the lawyer as a clerk. When the Judge dies and the box goes missing Mrs. Ritchie accuses him of taking her box.

When evidence of the theft shows up at Toby's little shack by the river and he is arrested, Phoebe decides to try to find out who is the real thief in order to free her friend. While it looks like Toby is being framed, the true extent of the situation is much more complex and takes all of Phoebe's resources to uncover the truth.

The book starts slowly and it was almost the middle of the book before I became caught up in the mystery of the stolen box. Baum wrote several girl detective mystery series and if you liked the others you may find this one interesting.

[Lanelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of twists and turns in this mystery. The author brought up some interesting moral viewpoints.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written by Frank L Baum. A fun story with a surprising ending. A worthy read. This would be great read aloud in single chapters and used as cliffhangers.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ignoring the brief instances of dialect, this is a pretty good story, albeit with a rather abrupt ending.

[Janelle]

Dnf. Wasn’t happy with all the Librivox narrators.