THE BLOOD AND THUNDER ADVENTURE ON HURRICANE PEAK

A new, full-length story in the wildly imaginative vein of Non-Stop Nonsense (p. 296/ C-46). Here, a number of craftily named characters—including a magician-schoolmaster (Heathcliff Warlock); a gifted scientist-inventor (Belladonna Doppler); a wicked industrialist whose products all malfunction (Sir Quincy Judd-Sprockett); and a pair of thugs (Voltaire and Amadeus)—are involved in a lively plot that involves: finding the long-lost headmistress, Mrs. Thoroughgood; making her six-pupil school appear presentable to the dreaded school inspectors (e.g., seeming to emphasize math and science); getting Heathcliff and Belladonna married; and, of course, foiling Sir Quincey. All of this is accomplished with the help of, or in spite of, two talking cats, a periodic hurricane that whirls around the "Unexpected School," two cases o f hidden identity, and a Midsummer Night's Dream-like forest, conjured up by Heathcliff, in which the action comes to a satisfyingly comic climax. Always wise as well as clever and funny, Mahy uses an underlay of serious ideas—for instance, the marriage of science to art rather than to unscrupulous commerce—to give her story depth and a satirical edge, yet without slowing the rollicking pace or hampering the whimsical humor. A splendid romp, with suitably cartoon-like drawings.