Book Review: Winged Mystery by Alan Gregg
The Conroy family has come into possession of a plot of land in Southern California, and they’ve decided to move there for Mrs. Conroy’s health. The three grown children of the Conroys, Mark, Alison and Reed (just out of high school) go out first to scout the place. They’re shocked to find a near-ruined house with no amenities and a general lack of the “good acres” the former owner promised. There is, however, a clump of palm trees not far away.
It’s rather a shock when a pilotless plane crashes into the palms. Mark sends his younger siblings into town to report the incident while he stays at the building and attempts to locate the pilot. A sandstorm hits, and in the process of seeking shelter, Mark is bitten by a sidewinder! When he wakes up, his life has been saved by a Border Patrol officer…who promptly arrests Mark on suspicion of being involved in alien smuggling!
In town at the Border Patrol office, we learn that Alison and Reed have also been arrested due to having picked up a hitchhiker who left them with a loaded weapon they couldn’t explain. The Border Patrol officers badger the young folks, attempting to get them to confess to–something. They’re finally released when at least some of their story checks out, though they’re advised not to wander off.
The Conroy parents have vanished, and even more weirdness happens at the ranch. Can the trio work out what’s going on and clear their names?
This “juvenile” novel was first published in 1940, when the Border Patrol was under the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard and the big worry about people coming over the Mexican border was the Chinese. It’s the first in a series of books starring Reed Conroy, who joins the Border Patrol as a trainee at the end of this story.
Good: There’s some engaging mystery; why is there a flock of goats with silent bells? Also an exciting knock-down drag-out fight between Mark and the Tarantula, a notorious smuggler, that winds up with both of them in the hospital. Mark actually stays there for the remainder of the book!
While Alison doesn’t get as much involvement with the adventure as her brothers, and gets some “girls are scaredy-cats” moments, she is also useful thanks to her sharp memory and skill as a sketch artist.
Less good: During the first few chapters of the book, the Border Patrol agents are assholes. They’re far more interested in trying to use the third degree to bully or trick the Conroys into confessing crimes than in finding out what the kids actually know. And they never apologize for this or admit it was a mistake. The closest thing we get is one saying that it’s more important to get results than to do things the right way. (Even though they would have gotten good results in half the time if they weren’t jerks.)
But in the second part of the book, we’re supposed to see these same Border Patrol agents as unambiguously heroic figures that Reed is inspired by and wants to become like. It doesn’t really track.
There’s also some casual ethnic prejudice against Mexicans, including by our protagonists.
Content note: One of the Border Patrol agents carries around whiskey on the job.
This is an okay young adult thriller, but the dated aspects may make it tough going for today’s kids.
