The Bradys and the Girl Smuggler; Or Working for the Custom House - Frances Worcester Doughty

I'm continuing with my experiment of finding books I normally wouldn't read. This time, I wanted to dive into the world of dime novels, or penny dreadfuls as they were called in Victorian England. I chose this particular one, because the title intrigued me. A girl smuggler? I'm in!

The heroes of this novel are Old King and Harry Brady. They're on the trail of a diamond smuggler, and they soon identify the target. The rest of the novel is about them trying to capture the criminals and make sure they find the diamonds.

There were many times I thought the Bradys caught the criminals, but then the villains would pull off a daring escape, and the chase would be on again. From my research, it sounds like this is a common formula for these novels, so if I'd read a few it might get repetitive. Since this was my first one, I truly enjoyed it.

You've still got some definite "clews" that this was written in 1900, but it wasn't as obvious as some of the other older titles I've read.

I definitely plan on seeking out a few more of these. This was a fun book, and even with the minor issues, I had a good time reading it. For the next one, I'm going to try and find some different genres. I'm especially interested in trying a gothic novel, so we'll see what I can find. Fun book!

Betty Zane (Ohio River Trilogy #1) - Zane Grey

I've been purposely going outside my comfort zone, and my next choice was a book by Zane Grey. I remember seeing copies of his books at my grandparent's house, so I thought I'd see what the fuss was about. The book itself made me curious about the author and his inspiration. It was interesting and thought I'd share a bit about him.

Pearl Zane Grey was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1872. Though his life started there, he later attended college in Pennsylvania and eventually settled in California. He didn't only write fiction, he also wrote books about baseball and fishing. In all, he wrote more than 90 books. His works have been adapted into over 100 films and even a television series. Pretty impressive, especially for the the time period in which he lived.

This particular book, written in 1903, covers the lives of the people living in a settlement where attacks by Native Americans are commonplace. It's basically a novel of life on the frontier with a romance running through it.

The writing was good and more interesting in some places than others. I was confused why he chose to title the book Betty Zane since she's just one of a number of characters, but she is a main character and the completion of her romance is the end of the book. I also picked up a few little gems of genius that I liked. For example, "Happy hours speed away on the wings of the wind." But, there's also rampant racism and some real cringe-worthy moments.

I wouldn't say that I enjoyed the book (a dog died after all), but I was glad I read it. The main reason I got interested in Grey's life was the way he wrote the book. At times, it reads like a history book, and the epilogue covers what happened to the people mentioned in the book. It sounded like he was talking about real people, so when I read about the founding of various towns in Ohio, I couldn't help but do some research. His maternal great-grandfather, Ebenezer Zane, was a real person and is a main character in the book. Many facets of Ebenezer's family and life are written into this book, and it made it more interesting to me.

While I don't think I'll be reading any of Grey's other titles, I understand and appreciate his mark on the literary world. Zane Grey died in 1939 at the age of 67. He's had more works published after his death, and he's easily one of the most influential authors I've read.