Jane Withers & the Phantom Violin

 Jane Withers & the Phantom Violin (1943) by Roy J. Snell

Jane Withers and her friends Jeanne and Greta head to the shoreline in the boundary waters just this side of the Canadian border and find the ideal place to stay--a wrecked boat called the Pilgrim that a helpful young man named Sven helps them fix up enough to shelter them. Greta has been sent north for the crystal clear air to help her with hayfever. She's supposed to be resting--if climbing all over the ridge on the shore for adventurous funsies can be called resting. But the girls soon find themselves in the middle of mysteries--ranging from a black schooner with diving men to hauntingly beautiful violin music that drifts down from the ridge (which is supposed to be uninhabited). Of course, they can't resist a mystery and set out to discover what's happening.

If this book is any indication, Snell couldn't plot his way out of a wet paper bag. At least not if it had to be one plot that made complete sense. There is just too much going on in this one--it's as if Snell couldn't make up his mind between about four different mysteries and decided to use them all. There is the mysterious black schooner with men diving in the water and trying to climb on board the wreck where Jane and her friends are staying, there's the "headhunter/poacher, there's the mysterious violin music, and there's the girls' fixation on a buried barrel of gold (an idea which just suddenly pops into Jane's head out of nowhere). And there are more mysteries that pop up along the way just for fun. He jumps from scene to scene and even from one day to the next without warning. It isn't easy to keep up with him.And then there are the girls...None of them have ever been to the area before, but they blythely go off alone into the wilderness and even though they may tumble down ridges or into abandoned copper mines, they magically find their way back to their latest camp or the boat or wherever it is they came from.

Then there is our star, Jane. Jane is contradictory in the extreme--one moment she's all for heading up the ridge and searching for adventures and answers to the various mysteries that have popped up and then when Greta mentions something mysterious that she's obsverved while off wandering alone (as one does in the strange wilderness where one has never been), Jane dismisses it. Greta thinks she's seen a kidnapping. Jane says the people involved could be perfect little law-abiding citizens and they shouldn't disturb them. 

There are so many loose threads left over when this book screeches to a halt that I'm not sure I could even tell you how many of the mysteries are solved. The source of the mysterious music--yes. Exactly why the black schooner had men diving in the water and who was behind it--no. I'm not sure why this book leapt off the local library's used bookstore shelf and insisted I needed to bring it home. I had no idea who Jane Withers was at the time--an American actress who was a child star around the same time as Shirley Temple--so that wasn't the draw. Maybe just the idea of a phantom violin? I don't know, but I don't feel like it lived up to whatever promise I saw in it six years ago. ★★

First line: "Jane! They saw me!"

Last line: That which remained they placed in the bank, a treasure hoard to be spent, in part, at least, on some future adventure.