Beverly Gray's Assignment
By: by Clair Blank.
Series: Beverly Gray #17
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Published: 1947
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 212
Subjects: Gray, Beverly (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction.; Women detectives -- Juvenile fiction.; Adventure and adventurers -- Florida -- Juvenile fiction.; Mystery and detective stories.
Genres: Juvenile mystery fiction
Description: Charlie Blaine asks Beverly to investigate the disappearance of rival reporter Kay Merrill.  Beverly and Lenora visit Kay's apartment and become acquainted with Doreen Hampton, a girl who lives upstairs.  Doreen explains that she and Kay met while in New Orleans when Doreen lost her purse and Kay returned it to her.  Doreen had been kept virtually a prisoner on her family's plantation by her aunt.  Doreen escaped, came to New York with Kay, and enrolled in art school.  Doreen is waiting for her Uncle Dennis to send her some money so that she can stay in New York.  Doreen says that she does not know where Kay is.  The police soon learn that Kay was seen leaving on a train bound for New Orleans on the night that she disappeared.  Kay became ill while on the train and left in the company of a white-haired man shortly before reaching New Orleans.  Charlie Blaine sends Beverly and Lenora to New Orleans to trace Kay's whereabouts. 	

Beverly and Lenora run into Jim in New Orleans.  Jim takes them to dinner with a banker, who is able to tell them where the Hampton plantation is located.  The girls take a boat to the island on which the plantation is located.  They are surprised when Kay Merrill greets them.  Soon, Doreen and her Uncle Dennis arrive.  The girls eavesdrop and learn that the Talmadges are worried about a man named Maxim coming after them.

Doreen tells Beverly and Lenora that her aunt and uncle are trying to help her remember where her parents' treasure is hidden.  Doreen starts back to the city with Beverly and Lenora but is hit by a car during a storm.  The accident causes Doreen to regain her memory about the treasure.  Following her directions, the friends find Mr. Hampton's old partner, Captain Jock, who has a clue to the treasure's location in safekeeping.  Captain Jock sails with Beverly and her friends to the right location, and they recover a fortune in valuable gold coins.  Maxim tries to steal the treasure, but he is caught, leaving the treasure in possession of Doris and her family.