Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Mary Louise Gay , along with her brother, mother, and friend Jane Patterson, travels to Shady Nook to spend the summer at their family cottage. Shortly after they arrive, they discover that the neighboring cottage recently burned down. The owner, Cliff Hunter, is suspected of starting the fire to collect the insurance. However, the girls believe in Cliff’s innocence due to his reputable character. Soon after Mary Louise begins investigating the suspicious fire another Shady Nook landmark establishment is mysteriously burned to the ground and Cliff Hunter is arrested. To save her friend and her family cottage Mary Louise must find out who is behind these deadly fires and why.

The Review:

Mary Louise Gay and her family anticipate a serene summer holiday. Alongside her best friend, Jane Patterson, they envision a summer filled with canoeing, flirting, swimming, tennis, and carefree moments. However, their plans take an unexpected turn when they arrive at the family cottage and learn about their neighbor’s vacation house, which has been mysteriously reduced to ashes. With no witnesses, suspicion falls on Cliff Hunter, who is believed to have set fire to his cottage for insurance money following his father’s demise.

Cliff Hunter, a charming young man with a penchant for card tricks and a budding romance with Jane Patterson, finds himself in a precarious situation when a local eatery is burned to the ground. A pack of his playing cards is discovered in the ashes, casting suspicion on him. This incident marks the beginning of a series of arsons that Mary Louise is determined to solve.

Having solved a crime a few months previously, Mary Louise has a real bee in her bonnet about solving the series of arsons plaguing the little town. She is more abrasive and determined in this mystery than in her first story, in that she often leaves Jane and her family behind. On her own, Mary Louise is competent- if a bit obsessive in her investigation, and the more light-hearted interplay with Jane is left at the wayside, which I missed. The girlish asides of gossiping and planning crazy schemes brought a sense of reality to this YA adventure and is sorely missed.

There’s more emphasis on Mary Louise trying to prove to herself that she’s a good detective, and she falls victim to lone wolfing it. Rather than relying on her brother “Freckles,” who has a more expanded role- he’s even a half-hearted suspect at one point, or her mother, the only parent who seems to care where her children are and fear the growing danger, she is often tramping through the woods alone.

There’s a good sequence where Mary Louise saves a little girl from a burning house, and the final action set piece where Mary Louise is kidnapped and imprisoned in a mental institution under a false name is genuinely terrifying. I think these action sequences, which are the crowning jewels of the book, work so well because they are solo adventures. Still, I would have liked the two girls, aided by her trusty dog Silky, to have gotten into a sticky situation early in the mystery to establish the stakes better and incorporate both girls.

One of the more unsettling aspects of the story is the portrayal of a mentally disabled character. This character, who wanders the woods in search of ‘clean water,’ is depicted as a witch-like figure, adding to the book’s eerie atmosphere. While her role is crucial in setting up Mary Louise’s imprisonment in the sanitorium, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the frequent use and exploitation of disabled characters in children’s mysteries during this era. It’s a trope that I find deeply troubling. The Mystery of the Fires didn’t come together for me like Lavell’s previous work, The Mystery at Dark Cedars, but it was an easy read.