Category Archives: Unsolved

292I: A Royal Family ‘roman a clef

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Back in the l980s or early 1990s, I read a recently-published ‘roman a clef’ about the British Royal Family.  Cannot remember the title or the author.  The main character was “Princess Louise’ (aka “Louie”) who was clearly modeled on the real-life Princess Anne.  She was widowed, lived in Kensington Palace, and had a pet parrot.  In the novel, she had been born into the Russian (Romanov) Imperial Family but had married the heir to the British throne.  Part of the plot may have involved a potential kidnapping.  I am not sure, but there may have been a sequel (or two).

292H: The Weiry Wax

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I am looking for  a children’s book . . .

Title:      (not sure)     The Weiry Wax         Alternate spellings: Wiery, Weary       Wacks

Approx publication dates:   older! I read it sometime between 1945 and 1950. It could have been a 1930s publication. I’m born 1941. Been seeking this book for 60+ years, for my grandchildren, and myself. Contemporaneous with PING, the Chinese duck and the junk boatman.  I mean, I was reading these books at roughly same time. Also that Brownie book, of 1930s or ’40s.  Barbar….that era.

Description:  children’s book, roughly that picture book format/size, glossy cover, with the 30  or so pages of text and  art.

The main characters, I believe on the cover, were the Weiry Wax  (or ___ Wacks, or Weary ___), but I think the spelling was like a ‘weir’ (low dam) They were roundish, something like a mummer meets a sea urchin. Black.  A coal-black snowball, with spines.

I’m reminded of them whenever I see the soot sprites in Miyazaki’s TOTORO–the little black dust balls. These guys were bigger than that, but not more than knee or waist high on a child.

I can’t remember the other characters….was there a human? don’t know. It’s just that the Weiry Wax themselves scared me mucho, but they weren’t too evil, I think, and I came to be fond of them. Wanted one for a pet.  (They may have been dreadful: I was a weird kid, only child, active imagination.)  Pretty sure they had eyes, like the Miyazaki sprites, and not much else.  Stubby legs/feet maybe. Like a Shmoo, but definitely in the dark part of any shmoo universe. I don’t think they were there to help.  Guess they lived in a forest. They might have carried a staff or spear, ergo hands/arms.

292G: On a bluff overlooking the water

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I remember reading this book in the early to mid 1970s – gothic mystery, paperback, set in a big mansion on the coast of NC. A woman is hired as a secretary, to a wealthy man, and moves to (New Bern, NC?) to work for him, in his home. She rarely sees her boss, who has some strange rules about where she can and cannot go in the house – one of which, I believe, is a central courtyard area, where she discovers a number of young women walking around at night. At some point, she finds a hidden doorway to an elevator – an entrance to a basement harem of beautiful women who are basically being held against their will, guarded by eunuchs. When she is discovered, (if I am recalling this correctly), she gets added to the harem but eventually manages to escape. Focus was leading up to the discovery of and being held in the harem. The escape was only the last 1/4 of the story if I recall correctly.

It’s been quite a while since I read this so my facts may be slightly off. It was a really good story, badly written – but I would love to find the name of it again and re-read it. No idea who the author was or the main character’s names – Seems to me the cover was a photo of the house with the ocean behind it – maybe her in a dark red dress, fleeing the house which is up on a bluff overlooking the water.  Very dark and foreboding. Any help finding this one would be appreciated. I’ve searched and searched….

292E: The Middle Child

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Possible title The Middle Child? Shy young pioneer girl defends her lone apple tree from drought, locust and pigs, but Native Americans arrive and enjoy eating all but the last apples. She learns she is brave and generous.

291Y: Father benignly deceives son

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I’m looking for a chapter book in which a father amazes his son by seeming to do a magic trick on a city block, involving a building which is either being built or torn down. The father doesn’t really do anything magical–he just has information that the son doesn’t, so he can frame it as something enchanted. The son totally believes the illusion and is in awe of his father. This episode, which extends over several weeks, is a plot point in a book that I don’t think was aimed at kids or YA but involved children. It was written, perhaps, in the 60s or 70s? I thought it was by William Goldman, but I haven’t been able to find it.

291X: A voyage aboard a research vessel

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The book I am looking for is about the oceans. I read in in the late 1970s. It was written by a man who was participating in an ocean voyage aboard a research vessel. I think he may have been a Canadian, and the book may have been published via McGill University. He described the oceans as having four levels, each level’s current went counter to the level above or below it.

Thanks and good luck. I would love to read this book again.