The Girl Next Door and Three Sides of Paradise Green by Augusta Seaman

In The Girl Next Door, Janet has come to visit Marcia, who is staying in New York City with her Aunt Minerva.  Marcia has become fascinated with Benedict's Folly, an old mansion that is next to the high rise apartment building.  Miss Benedict still lives in the family home, but she keeps all windows shuttered and seldom leaves the house  When Miss Benedict does leave, her face is completely covered with a veil.

Marcia and Janet watch the house and are shocked to see a girl her own age looking out of a window.  Later, the girls realize that this girl is confined to the old mansion, possibly against her will.  Marcia and Janet persist in their investigation and finally make the acquaintance of the girl, learning her strange story.

On pages 180 and 181, Marcia talks about how gossip can ruin other people's lives.  "It just goes to show how unhappy we can make people by talking about them and their affairs."  And later, Marcia adds, "What an awful thing—that two people's lives should be spoiled just by unkind gossip!"

Parts of this story have a lot of racist comments directed towards the Chinese.  On page 193, a man writes that "the Chinese language is the most confusing and idiotic jargon ever invented by the mind of man."  I cringed.

There is some speculation about an Englishman who might have married a Chinese girl and had a child.  This is said to be "horrid" on page 205.  Quite a few other remarks are made that are quite derogatory towards a person who is a mixture of Caucasian and Chinese.  I usually read racist commentary in old series books in a detached fashion, since I view it through the context of history.  In this case, I found it quite distressing.

This is an excellent book.  The story is very absorbing, and this is such a good mystery.

In Three Sides of Paradise Green, Sue, Carol, and Louis each live on a different side of Paradise Green.  Two roads meet at an angle, making up two sides of a triangle.  Another short road connects the other two sides, making a triangle.  An old man comes to visit Louis, and he treats Louis like royalty.  Louis considers himself an American through and through, and he does not understand why his guest wants him to be like a French nobleman.  Sue and Carol try to solve the mystery, but Sue's younger sister, the Imp, knows more and will not tell them.

Most of this book is written as a diary.  I overall enjoyed the book until two-thirds of the way through, then I completely lost interest and skimmed the rest of the story.  This book is not very interesting and is my least favorite Augusta Seaman book so far.