THE BLACK PEARL & THE GHOST OR ONE MYSTERY AFTER ANOTHER

Two very short, very broad spoofs in picture-book format. The first is as clunkingly obvious as "great detective" Dr. Aramy's mistakes when he is called to a resort hotel to solve the mystery of a stolen pearl. Dr. Aramy constantly interrupts the lined-up staff members' accounts of incidents surrounding the pearl's disappearance, accusing each in turn on the basis of far-fetched conclusions, until he finally hits home with the manager, the only one left. The outlandish solutions proposed by famous ghost catcher Mr. Dibble in the second story are less hollow and a bit more ingenious, but still pretty creaky. At least his contraptions—involving a silver bell on a silken cord, a one-eared black cat, chicken fat and honey on the stairs, etc.—all work, and Bleek Manor's ghost eventually packs up. Quackenbush writes some extra jokes into the pictures, but overall his illustrations are so loud that they drown out the words—a fate that the first story deserves and the second is too weak to overcome.