JUDY BOLTON-LIKE ADULT MYSTERY SERIES

THE FOXGLOVE CORNERS MYSTERY SERIES
by Dorothy Bodoin


This adult cozy mystery series of sixteen books by Michigan writer Dorothy Bodoin is very much like the Judy Bolton Mystery series by Margaret Sutton; any Judy Bolton fan or juvenile girls mystery fan is sure to love it. The series features Jennet Greenway as its heroine. She is a school teacher in a suburban Detroit high school and lives in a country area an hour north of the city dotted with lovely lakes and forests. Within it lies Foxglove Corners, an out-of-the-way neighborhood of Victorian homes and thick mysterious woods that yields far more than its fair share of mystery and suspense. It's a magical place, like Judy Bolton's Potter County PA, and like Potter County, it has a real-place alter-ego, Metamora, Michigan.

The Judy Bolton books are sometimes mentioned in the Foxglove Corners books. In the first book, Darkness at Foxglove Corners, Jennet moves into her new house at Foxglove Corners and buys herself a housewarming gift - a first edition copy of The Haunted Attic, Judy Bolton #2, at a nearby antique store. In the sixth book in the series, my special favorite, The Snow Dogs of Lost Lake, it is Christmas time, and Jennet buys herself a copy of The Secret of the Musical Tree, Judy Bolton #19, a Christmas mystery, at her favorite antique store.


The books are also similar to the Judy Boltons insofar as the mysteries are very cozy, usually concern friends and acquaintances, and they are constructed with eerie and magical plots, very much like the Judy Bolton books. Jennet also meets the man of her dreams in the series, Deputy Sheriff Crane Ferguson, and a relationship develops with him throughout the books. These books also feature dogs as important characters, usually collies, and Jennet has her own personal pet collie named Halley.


The titles are:


DARKNESS AT FOXGLOVE CORNERS
CRY FOR THE FOX
WINTER'S TALE
A SHORTCUT THROUGH THE SHADOWS
THE WITCHES OF FOXGLOVE CORNERS
THE SNOW DOGS OF LOST LAKE
THE COLLIE CONNECTION
A TIME OF STORMS
THE DOG FROM THE SKY
SPIRIT OF THE SEASON
ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST
WHERE HAVE ALL THE DOGS GONE?
THE SECRET ROOM OF EIDT HOUSE
FOLLOW A SHADOW
THE SNOW QUEEN'S COLLIE
THE DOOR IN THE FOG

 In this terrific mystery, Jennet's house in town is destroyed by a tornado and she moves into her dream home in Foxglove Corners out in the country an hour north of the suburbs. It offers her bucolic peace and a new romance with a handsome lawman. But there is a secret in the old yellow Victorian house down the lane that threatens her new life when murderous revelations in an old tornado-tossed journal put an evil plan of revenge and terror into motion.

This is my personal favorite and a very special book. It is Christmas time and Jennet is warming up to a happy holiday season, finally meeting her boyfriend Crane's family from down south. But a chance encounter in a snowstorm at nearby Lost Lake with three ghostly white collies pulls her into a mystery about the legend of 'the snow dogs of Lost Lake', ghost dogs whose sightings are said to be harbingers of bad things to come. When murders in the snowy woods begin to accompany the sightings of the ghost dogs, and Jennet stumbles upon a mysterious painting of the very same dogs in an antique shop, she knows she has to get to the bottom of the eerie mystery no matter what dangers she may have to face.


Some of these books were originally published by Hilliard and/or Five Star and are now listed on online sites for very high prices, often $100 or more. Even the current editions by Wings ePress are listed at very high prices on some sites. You don't have to pay the high prices.


All of the Foxglove Corners books are now available directly from the new publisher Wings ePress for a reasonable price ($11.95 or $12.95) plus shipping. They are beautiful trade size paperbacks and promptly arrive in the mail within a few days. They are also available as ebooks in various formats at half the book price.


The website is http://www.wings-press.com/


Ms. Bodoin also has written other mysteries which are not part of the Foxglove Corners series. These are similar cozy mysteries usually set in and around the same Michigan area, often with ties of some sort to the Foxglove Corners stories. One of her specialties is winter cozies and the Foxglove Corners series has a few great ones. Among the standalones, Snowhedge and A Shadow on the Snow will really get you gettin' all comfy and cozy. Others are The Cameo Clue, Love Deadly Love, Ghost Across the Water, and Secret for a Satyr. Most of these titles are available in mass market paperbacks by World (Harlequin mystery) on eBay and Amazon for low reasonable prices.


You can read more about Dorothy Bodoin and her books, including complete first chapters, at her website:


www.dorothybodoin.com


Don't miss out on these books! They are terrific!

RICK BRANT GOLDEN DRAGON 2

THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN DRAGON
 or THE SOUTH SEAS CITY OF DEATH MYSTERY


A fan-written Rick Brant adventure from 1959. A sequel to The Phantom Shark.
To get all the chapters now available click on 'Golden Dragon' under Labels on the side bar.




Chapter Two: THE GOLDEN DRAGON

All chapters currently available are now at this alternate site:
THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN DRAGON https://sites.google.com/site/rickbrantfanfiction/dragon

RICK BRANT GOLDEN DRAGON

THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN DRAGON
or THE SOUTH SEAS CITY OF DEATH MYSTERY


A Rick Brant fan-written adventure from 1959. This book could be considered as a sequel to The Phantom Shark. To get all the chapters currently available on this blog click on GOLDEN DRAGON under 'Labels' on the side bar.




Chapter One: STEALTH IN THE NIGHT 

All current chapters are now available on this alternate site:

THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN DRAGON https://sites.google.com/site/rickbrantfanfiction/dragon

MARGARET SUTTON SHORT STORY

TWICE HAUNTED (Part 3)
by Margaret Sutton, author of the Judy Bolton mystery books

Sweet Sixteen Magazine - January & March 1947
Click on images to enlarge for reading. Then click on URL at bottom left of image to enlarge further.

MARGARET SUTTON SHORT STORY

TWICE HAUNTED (Part 2)
by Margaret Sutton, author of the Judy Bolton Mystery books

Sweet Sixteen Magazine November 1946
Click on images to enlarge for reading. Then click on URL at bottom left of image to enlarge further.

Click HERE for Part 3!

MARGARET SUTTON SHORT STORY

TWICE HAUNTED (Part 1)
by Margaret Sutton, author of the Judy Bolton books

Sweet Sixteen Magazine Aug.-Sept. 1946
Click on images to enlarge for reading. Then click on URL at bottom left of image to enlarge further.

Click HERE for Part 2!

FIRST JUDY BOLTON DAY 1991

JUDY BOLTON DAY 1991

This is the news article from the local Coudersport newspaper announcing the first annual Judy Bolton Day fan get-together in Coudersport PA in 1991. This year, 2014, will mark the 24th annual convening of fans of the mystery series by Margaret Sutton. Judy Bolton fans have met every year since 1991 in early October for a festive fun-filled weekend in the beautiful PA mountains, visiting Judy Bolton sites and the people who live in and around them.



Judy Bolton Day is a Judy Bolton Fans event. Formal visits and events have taken place each year since 1991, sponsored throughout the 1990s by Adelphia Cable Company, which was headquartered in Coudersport, and the Potter County Chamber of Commerce.

Some of the fans who go there now have taken claim to the inception of the event and count the years only since 2000 when they first came. They claim that nothing had been going on there before they first came. The truth is, everything they do from the hotel they stay in to the places they eat dinner to the sites they visit were in effect long before they ever came. These articles are proof of that. Our visits during the 1990s were real. LOL! Yes, we were really there. We even took Margaret Sutton back to the place of her birth, the Dry Brook Hollow house, in 1998, for a late morning brunch.

The first year this group attended there was a Judy Bolton Day parade in town, and a Halloween-themed square dance sponsored by Adelphia like the one in the Judy Bolton book The Haunted Road. I would call these 'formal' events and there just is no reason for the continual claim that nothing was going on before they came there and started things.

                                  Click on to enlarge for reading.

BRITISH HARDY BOYS

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT MIDNIGHT?

This is the dust jacket cover of the British Harold Hill & Sons edition of this book from the 1940s. It sort of makes you wonder 'what really happened at midnight?' The story eventually tells us that Joe got abducted, but here it looks more like he's gonna get a surprise smooch from this thug, eh?

BRITISH HARDY BOYS

THE GREAT AIRPORT MYSTERY
British edition dust jacket

Harold Hill & Sons British DJ 1940s (click to enlarge)

JUDY BOLTON GRADUATION PHOTOS

Judy Bolton HIGH SCHOOL Graduation Photos

These photographs sit atop a piano in an old farmhouse in Potter County PA near Coudersport, the real location of 'Farringdon' in the Judy Bolton Mystery series books. They are from the early 1940s and highly resemble what the main characters in the books would have looked like in that era - Judy Bolton, the main character, of course, her brother Horace, Arthur Farringdon-Pett, and Peter Dobbs, the fellow Judy eventually marries.

Judy Bolton fans visit this house every year on Judy Bolton Day weekend and marvel over these likenesses, who are family members of those who live in the house. The house itself also has a real Judy Bolton association: the father of Margaret Sutton, author of the Judy Bolton books, helped to build the house and also built some of the furniture still used in the house.

Judy, Horace, Arthur, and Peter!

JUDY BOLTON AUTHOR SHORT STORY

TWICE HAUNTED by Margaret Sutton

This spooky short story was serialized in SWEET SIXTEEN Magazine for Girls in late 1946 and early 1947.


THE COMPLETE TEXT WILL BE POSTED HERE SOON!


 "When the twins planned a vacation to New York, they didn't plan to spend it with a mystery!"

                                  click to enlarge

MILDRED WIRT BENSON BIBLIOGRAPHY

MILDRED WIRT/CAROLYN KEENE/NANCY DREW/PENNY PARKER are only some of the names we associate with Mildred Wirt Benson, who wrote dozens of juvenile mystery books for boys and girls such as the Nancy Drews, Dana Girls, Penny Parkers and so many more.

Here is a bibliography of all the titles Millie wrote using both pseudonyms and her own names. Click on the photos to enlarge.

HARDY BOYS BOOKS FORMATS

ORIGINAL HARDY BOYS FORMATS SHEET

This is the original Hardy Boys formats sheet used throughout the 1980s by collectors before the self-appointed guru guide makers came up with their totally speculative and bibliographically incorrect  versions of guide books, based on the theme first set up here.

                                      click on to enlarge!

JUDY BOLTON SNOW MANSION

JUDY BOLTON'S FARRINGDON-PETT MANSION IN WINTER

This shows the Judge Lewis House in Coudersport PA, which was used as the Farringdon-Pett mansion in the Judy Bolton Mystery Series by Margaret Sutton, who grew up in the northern PA town. The house is visited yearly by fans on the annual Judy Bolton Day held in early October, and it is currently being renovated into a Bed and Breakfast Inn, hopefully ready to accomodate guests soon.

This fabulous Victorian red brick home is located on Route 6 North just east of the town center, and it is one of the few remaining homes of its type in the northern tier of the state, most of them built in the late 1800s by the local tycoon lumber barons.

(click on photo to enlarge)

more HARDY BOYS EASTON PRESS

HARDY BOYS EASTON PRESS EDITIONS

Here is an additional advertisement for the fabulous Easton Press editions. Does anyone know how many of the books were actually produced in these editions?

(click on pictures to enlarge for reading)