Posted on by TracyC

The Perilous Gard

The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope, 1974.

Kate Sutton and her sister, Alicia, live in the household of Princess Elizabeth in the year 1558. Alicia hates the Hatfield palace because it’s dreary and poorly maintained, apparently on purpose because Queen Mary Tudor resents Princess Elizabeth and wants her and her household to be uncomfortable. Kate and Alicia are maids in the household, and Alicia decides to write a complaining letter to Queen Mary about the condition of the house. Alicia thinks of herself at trying to help Princess Elizabeth by explaining how bad the conditions there are, but her letter gets heated and insulting toward the queen. Alicia is accustomed to getting away with things and with people not being angry with her because she’s pretty. However, Kate has to be the one with a brain, and she sees immediately that Alicia’s letter is bound to cause trouble.

When Princess Elizabeth receives a reply to Alicia’s letter, she summons the sisters to see her. Queen Mary is very direct in her letter about what she thinks of Alicia Sutton’s letter, but she ultimately blames Kate for it because Alicia is a favorite of hers and Kate reminds her too much of her father, who she never liked. She believes that Alicia is only a sweet innocent and that Kate is a corrupting influence, which is unfair. Queen Mary has decided to separate the sisters, taking Alicia into her own household and sending Kate to Sir Geoffrey Heron at his house, Elvenwood Hall, in Darbyshire. The queen wants Kate to stay at Elvenwood Hall and out of her sight or hearing from now on. Kate has no idea where Elvenwood Hall is, other than in Darbyshire, and she doesn’t know Sir Geoffrey Hall. Although Alicia is initially pleased that the queen doesn’t blame her, she becomes remorseful when she realizes that Kate is taking the blame for the letter, when she knew nothing about it. She offers to write to the queen again and confess everything, taking full responsibility for the letter, but Princess Elizabeth, Roger, and Kate herself all tell her not to. The queen’s mind is made up, and another of Alicia’s letters might make it worse.

Princess Elizabeth asks her tutor, Roger, if she knows anything about Sir Geoffrey Heron, and he says that he’s heard of him. The house, Elvenwood Hall, has another name, Perilous Gard. The word “gard” indicates that the place was once a castle, but Roger knows that the house has been rebuilt with old parts cleared away. The other part of the name “perilous”, indicates that there is a superstitious element to the place, like places rumored to be inhabited by fairy folk or associated with pagan religion. One of his old pupils told him some stories about the place, but Roger would rather not repeat them. The accounts that Roger has heard of Sir Geoffrey say that he is an honorable man, so he thinks that Kate will be safe in his household.

Other than that, Kate has little idea of what to expect from Elvenwood Hall. She doesn’t think that Alicia’s dire fears that Kate will be thrown into a dungeon are true. The queen wants her out of her sight, and that’s why she’s sending her to a relatively remote area where she won’t have to deal with her and putting her under the supervision of a supporter of hers, who is supposed to keep her out of trouble. Kate isn’t actually under arrest.

The journey to Elvenwood Hall is rough. On the way, the traveling party meets an old harper, Randal, who Sir Geoffrey says is a little addled since he suffered from a serious illness. When they tell the harper that Kate is coming to stay at Elvenwood, Randal asks if she might be lost like the last girl. Sir Geoffrey seems upset about what Randal says and hurries Randal away to get some food. Then, Kate hears a laugh and sees a strange woman looking at them from the hill. Then, her horse acts up, and when Kate looks again, the woman is gone.

When Kate sees Elvenwood Hall, it doesn’t seem to be very old due to the recent rebuilding, and its interior is luxurious, compared to the house where Princess Elizabeth is living. It is surrounded by ancient stone walls and battlements, and the older parts of the house are more castle-like and crumbling. Sir Geoffrey is still in the process of renovating the castle and turning it into a luxurious manor. The elderly Dorothy, former nurse to Sir Geoffrey’s wife, is the manor’s housekeeper, and Master John is the estate’s steward. Master John seems cold and unfriendly, but he is in charge whenever Sir Geoffrey is away.

Much to Kate’s dismay, Sir Geoffrey will be leaving Kate under Master John’s supervision while he makes a trip to Norfolk. Kate gets the impression that Sir Geoffrey doesn’t like being at Elvenwood, in spite of its renovations, but under the queen’s orders, Kate is required to stay at Elvenwood and not to travel away from it. Sir Geoffrey also tells her that the queen will not allow her to write to anyone or communicate with anyone outside of Elvenwood without Sir Geoffrey’s permission, of in his absence, Master John’s permission. Sir Geoffrey says that he will not be back at Elvenwood until All Saints’ Day, so Kate will be under Master John’s authority for months.

Elvenwood used to belong to Sir Geoffrey’s wife’s family, the Wardens, and old Dorothy doesn’t like Sir Geoffrey or any of the Heron family. Dorothy says that Sir Geoffrey’s brother, Christopher Heron, was responsible for the death of Sir Geoffrey’s daughter, that he had admitted it, and that Sir Geoffrey never punished him for it. Sir Geoffrey knows that Dorothy has been gossiping with Kate, but he is not upset with Kate for it. He also doesn’t offer any further explanations about what Dorothy said before he leaves on his trip to Norfolk.

Elvenwood Hall is pretty comfortable and nobody there mistreats Kate, but she is often lonely because the place is isolated. The farthest Kate is allowed to go from Elvenwood Hall is to the nearby village, but there isn’t much there. When Kate visits the village, people stare at her and act like they’re afraid of her. Even the village priest makes the sign of the cross at her, as if he thinks that she is something evil. Mostly, Kate has Dorothy as her companion.

Then, one day, she notices a pair of visitors, and Dorothy says that they are pilgrims, coming to visit the holy well on the grounds. Kate knows that some people believe that holy wells have the power to heal or make people more beautiful. Dorothy says that the holy well in the cave here will take away sorrow and pain, if a visitor offers a gift in exchange. The gift is for “those who rule over the well”, who Dorothy says were in this land long before saints and Christianity, but she hesitates to say more about it. She says that Kate can ask Master John, if she wants to know.

When Kate decides to take a look at the well herself, Christopher Heron finds her, grabs her, and hauls her away from it. Kate is startled, and he explains that he thought that she would fall in and be lost in the chasm under the rocks there. Kate thinks that’s silly because the well has a wall around it, but Christopher explains that’s what happened to Sir Geoffrey’s daughter, Cecily. At least, that’s what Christopher thinks happens to her.

He explains that Cecily was a little girl and that her mother was dead when he and his brother came to live at Elvenwood. One day, Sir Geoffrey left on one of his trips, and Christopher was responsible for Cecily. Cecily liked playing a kind of hide-and-seek game, but that day, Christopher found her antics irritating. He left her with Master John and went for walk to visit the well. However, he spotted Cecily following him, so he made a mock wish at the well that Cecily, being a spoiled child, would be in the care of someone else. And, that was the last time he saw Cecily. He supposes that she must have fallen when he wasn’t looking, although he didn’t actually see her fall, and they never found her body. They only found one of her shoes on the path. Christopher feels horribly guilty about losing Cecily, and he knows how her loss has hurt his brother, who has been the only person who loved and cared of him since his mother died giving birth to him. For him to lose Cecily when Geoffrey trusted him to take care of her was terrible, and he knows that his brother has not looked at him in the same way since. As a penance, Christopher has been living in the old leper’s hut on the estate whenever his brother is not in residence.

It’s sad, but Kate thinks that Christopher has been spending too much time feeling sorry for himself. She thinks it would be more sensible if he made a confession to the local priest to clear his conscience rather than brooding over what he could have done or should have done. Christopher says that it’s none of her business what he does, and he will give himself whatever penance he thinks is fitting. Kate thinks that Christopher is indulging in pride and self-pity over what was merely an accident.

When Kate helps to rescue a local boy from a flooded river, his grateful mother talks to her about the guardians of the well, insisting that it’s really the fairy folk. She says that they live in a cave under the hill, that the strange woman Kate saw on the hill is their queen, and that they sometimes steal away children to be their slaves … or worse. She and others in the village think that’s what really happened to little Cecily and that the people at the castle know it, too. She thinks they’re purposely letting Christopher blame himself so that Sir Geoffrey won’t learn that his daughter is really alive and a captive of the fairies.

It does seem to Kate that everyone but the Herons genuinely believes in the fairies and that’s what Dorothy was talking about when she was talking about the guardians of the well being older than the saints. She reflects that Roger believed that the stories about fairies are just references to pagan gods and religious practices, and she starts to wonder if the people of Elvenwood, or the Perilous Gard, are secretly practicing pagan rituals with their traditions about the well. If the fairies are only superstition and the remnants of old religion, though, who was the mysterious woman who was watching Kate’s arrival? Could that have actually been a real fairy queen?

Kate tries to discuss it with Christopher, but he’s convinced that he knows what must have happened to Cecily. Then, they have an encounter with Randal, who tells them that the fairies have stolen away his wits. He knows he’s a bit addled and missing some memories, but he insists that the fairies did it to him because they couldn’t use a musician as one of their sacrifices, so they sacrificed his wits instead. Then, he claims that he has seen a little golden-haired girl dancing with the fairies and that she gave him her slipper to show to someone. To their astonishment, Randal produces a little girl’s slipper that matches the one Cecily lost on the path the day she disappeared! This slipper is much more worn than the other one, indicating that the girl who wore it continued to wear it after she disappeared.

Realizing that Cecily is still alive, Christopher wants to make a thorough search of the chasm beneath the well, but Kate urges caution. Whatever is going on at the well and whatever happened to Cecily, she’s sure that the people at the castle know about it, like the woman from the village said. If they don’t want to find and rescue Cecily themselves, it’s because they have something to hide. Sir Geoffrey’s wife seemed eager to leave this place, where Kate is now trapped by the queen’s orders, after her marriage, and Sir Geoffrey only returned here after she was dead, apparently unaware of the dark things that have happened here and still may be happening. Whatever is going on, the people of Perilous Gard are involved, and Kate and Christopher cannot expect any help from anyone in the castle.

People leave coins and gold as gifts to the well when they ask it for something, and Christopher wonders if that could be the secret source of money for the estate that has funded all the luxurious renovations. Master John could be secretly taking all of the offerings the pilgrims leave. On the other hand, the name of the family that once owned this estate was “Warden”, a name that indicates the caretaker for something. Were they once the caretakers of the well, of a remaining cult of pagans that still practices the old religion and its rituals … or perhaps of actual fairies? What was Sir Geoffrey’s wife afraid of in her old family home, and where is little Cecily now? Was she taken as a hostage to ensure that Sir Geoffrey wouldn’t interfere with whatever the people at the castle are doing … or as a potential sacrifice to fairies or pagan gods? They reflect that the story of Tam Lin, about a lover who rescued her beloved from the fairies, was set on All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween). Cecily’s father plans to return on All Saint’s Day, the day after All Hallow’s Eve (November 1). Kate and Christopher need to get word to Sir Geoffrey or rescue Cecily themselves before it’s too late!

This is a Newbery Honor Book. It is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction and Some Spoilers

This book was fascinating and suspenseful! From the beginning, I wasn’t really sure whether or not this was a fantasy story. It turns out that it’s what I call pseudo-fantasy. It has all the trapping of fantasy, and there are points when it seems like something supernatural might be happening. However, it seems that, in the end, the “fairies” are humans practicing pagan rituals and who have convinced themselves that they are somehow different from the other humans who live above ground, out of the caves. There may be things that indicate that they might be more than that, but overall, Kate believes from the very beginning, that they are merely humans with strange and dangerous practices. As she puts it, “There were never any heathen gods, only heathen people who believed in them.”

Ancient Religion and Folklore

In their attempts to free Cecily, Christopher and Kate become the captives of the “fairies”, and Christopher is in danger of being used as one of their sacrifices. During their captivity, Kate gets to see some of their practices, and she realizes that they control people through things they give them to drink that affect their minds, and she learns what she needs to know about their rituals and beliefs to thwart their plans. In real life, there are a lot of gaps in our knowledge of pre-Christian religion in Britain because the practitioners didn’t leave written records. Mostly, what know about them is based on archaeology and accounts left by the Romans, which may not be entirely accurate. In the story, the “fairies'” beliefs are based around the idea of sacrifices, energy from humans and the earth, pieces of folklore, and probably the use of some kind of psychedelics. The most interesting and revealing part of their beliefs comes when Kate discusses the need for sacrifice with the fairy queen, and the two of them face off with their respective religious beliefs. During their discussion, they compare their beliefs on the subject of God/gods, power, and the purpose of sacrifice.

The fairy queen says that sacrifice is necessary to take the power from a human life and put it into the land and people through to keep them alive. In spite of her group’s isolation and life in the caves, she seems to understand some of the basics of Christianity, and she says that Kate should understand the notion of sacrifice because Christianity is built around one particular sacrifice. The fairy queen compares Christ’s sacrifice to the sacrifices that her cult holds – one person must give their life for the sake of the others as a way of transferring their life energy. Kate is a Christian, and she knows this description of Christ’s sacrifice isn’t completely accurate, but she tries to convince the queen that Christ’s sacrifice makes other sacrifices unnecessary. She says, since Christ gave Himself for the sake of humanity, He has guaranteed humanity’s safety so no others need to pay the price He paid. The queen argues that Christ’s sacrifice happened a long time ago, that His life energy has passed, and their cult holds a sacrifice on All Hallow’s Eve every seven years to renew the energy. Kate argues that Christ was special as the son of God, the only God that truly exists, and that His energy never dies, that it has transferred to living humans. She uses the story of Christopher’s namesake, St. Christopher, as an example of Christ’s power extending to humans. Unfortunately, the queen takes that to mean that Christopher holds some of Christ’s power in him, so sacrificing Christopher would not only give them the power of his life force but the power of Christ as well. Kate realizes that she can’t persuade the fairy queen or make her understand because the queen will just take everything she says and try to fit it into her views and what she has already decided needs to be done.

The philosophical and theological discussion between the two of them was fascinating, but the only way Kate can disrupt the sacrifice and save Christopher is to use the power of stories these people already believe. Kate never cared much for folk tales and ballads before, but she knows that the queen believes in the legend of Tam Lin and that the method the heroine from that story is the only one that can save a sacrifice like Christopher. When Kate finds out that the queen completely believes in that story, she realizes that she has to use the heroine’s solution from the story to rescue Christopher.

This is a point where the actual ritual differs from the magic in the story of Tam Lin. In the story of Tam Lin, he is physically changed into various forms that are frightening or difficult to hold onto, but his lover has to keep hold of him for him to be released from the magic. In this story, Christopher is not actually transformed into anything. It’s more psychological. The fairies believe that people who are going to be sacrificed need to give themselves to the sacrifice willingly, so they use psychological manipulation to convince Christopher that he has nothing to live for, playing on his feelings of guilt for not protecting his niece better and other traumatic pieces of his past, like his mother dying while giving birth to him and his father resenting him because of it. To hold on to him, like the heroine in the story, Kate has to speak up and convince him that the fairies are lying to him and that he does have things to live for. She needs to hold on to his mind and get him to assert his own will to survive while the fairies try to convince him that the only purpose he has left is to offer himself for sacrifice. “Holding on” in this case means holding on to one’s sense of self and one’s purpose, even in the face of doubts, insecurities, personal trauma, and the toxic influence or manipulation of other people.

Personal Growth

In her arguments with Christopher to get him to see that his life is worth living, Kate also confronts her own inner demons and insecurities – that everyone prefers her pretty sister, that she was blamed for things her sister did, etc. Their experiences with the fairies and confronting their personal demons are traumatic for Christopher and Kate, but they grow through them and come away with a better sense of self and greater self-assurance. Kate’s growth shows in the end both because she other women realize that she no longer fits into her clothes and will need new ones and in her maturity with dealing with her old insecurities when she sees her sister again.

There is a point when, because Alicia is thoughtless in the way she talks and has a habit of giving people the wrong impression about things, Kate thinks that Christopher has fallen in love with Alicia as the prettier sister and that he is going to marry her. This is crushing for Kate because Alicia is often favored by people and because she has fallen in love with Christopher through their shared experiences. The fairy queen makes a last appearance in which she offers to give Kate something to make Christopher fall in love with her, but Kate rejects it. While it would hurt for Christopher to reject her in favor of Alicia, and it would add to past hurts she’s had about Alicia being the favored girl, Kate has grown emotionally through the story. She is above the manipulations of the fairies, and whatever she encounters in her life that might cause her hurt, she has the emotional strength to handle it and do the right thing in spite of it. Her rejection of using dirty tricks is rewarded when Christopher proposes to Kate. Her doubts of his love were only because Alicia is thoughtless in the way she says things to people and because of Kate’s remaining insecurities. Kate is happy that she can accept Christopher’s honest love for what it is without attributing it to any manipulation. They’ve been through the worst together, they’ve seen each other’s insecurities, and they love each other all the more for it.

It isn’t just Christopher and Kate who grow through their experiences. Sir Geoffrey realizes that his own bad decisions and blindness to what was going on contributed to the danger his daughter was in. He had no idea what his steward was involved in and what was going on around the castle. He also realizes that little Cecily needs the attention of someone who can devote herself more to the little girl without distraction and a life in a more settled place with greater access to broader society, so he sends Cecily to her aunt’s house in London. Sir Geoffrey’s acceptance of his own failings absolves Christopher of the last of his guilt over Cecily’s disappearance/abduction.

I also appreciated that characters in the story didn’t hate each other even when they had suffered hut because of them. Sir Geoffrey didn’t stop loving his brother when he thought that Christopher had failed to protect Cecily. He found the loss of his daughter difficult to take, and his brother’s role in that was hard on his feelings for his brother. However, Sir Geoffrey never sought to banish or punish Christopher for it, and when he finds out that Christopher is in trouble, he races to the rescue! In the end, Kate also cares about Alicia. Even when she was punished for the letter that Alicia wrote and thought that she might lose Christopher to her, she didn’t let spite and resentment take over. I appreciate the characters’ growth, and I also liked the way they dealt with their emotions when they were hurt and things were difficult. They still care for their family members because, deep down, they still love them and want to do right by them, even when it isn’t easy.

Posted on by TracyC

The Case of the Gobbling Squash

The Case of the Gobbling Squash by Elizabeth Levy, illustrated by Ellen Eagle, 1988.

This is the first book in the A Magic Mystery series, which is about a couple of kids who like magic tricks. In every book in the series, there is a section in the back with direction for performing the magic tricks in the story.

It’s Thanksgiving, and all of the kids at school are participating in a Thanksgiving Fair. Different kids are doing different things for the fair, and Kate has a booth where she is advertising her services as a detective. Unfortunately, she gets more teasing than people approaching her with mysteries to solve. Then, Max tells her that he needs her help.

Max is an amateur magician, and he keeps a couple of rabbits to use his act. One of his rabbits is missing. When Kate goes to his house to investigate, it doesn’t take her long to figure out where the missing rabbit is … and the rabbit has become a mother, which presents the kids with a new problem to solve. Max’s mother won’t let him keep that many bunnies.

Fortunately, Kate comes up with an idea to use Max’s magic act in their Thanksgiving play at school to provide the bunnies with new homes. However, when she and Max are preparing for the show, the bunnies disappear in a non-magical way. Someone has stolen them! Max points out that they were supposed to give the bunnies away anyhow, but Kate says they can’t let the matter rest until they’re sure that the bunnies are safe in a good home.

Once again, Max and Kate use Max’s magic tricks to expose the bunny thief and to turn their Thanksgiving magic act into something extra special!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

The mystery is a little cheesy, but I thought that the kids were clever in the way they used concepts from magic tricks to solve their problems. Whether they would work so well in real life is questionable, but I though the concept was creative. The first mystery about where the missing rabbit is was easily resolved, but they have to figure out who took all the bunnies. I thought that the solution to that mystery was also obvious because there was really only one person who seemed to have a reason to mess up their magic act, but the mystery may seem more mysterious to young children.

The story gets some credit from me for being set at Thanksgiving because it’s a less popular holiday for kids’ books than Christmas or Halloween. Like other kids’ Thanksgiving books that aren’t set at the First Thanksgiving, this one is set at a school and involves a cheesy Thanksgiving celebration. The Thanksgiving play in the story involves some of the kids being dressed as Pilgrims and Native Americans, and the Native American aspects are also cheesy and stereotypical. It actually reminds me of actual school plays from my own childhood, which were equally cheesy and embarrassing to me when I was a kid.

I really liked the section in the back of the book that explained how all of the magic tricks in the book were done, even the one for their grand finale! The tricks include a card trick, making a coin disappear, and pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Posted on by TracyC

Meg Mackintosh and The Stage Fright Secret

Meg Mackintosh Mysteries

Meg Mackintosh and The Stage Fright Secret by Lucinda Landon, 2004.

The mystery club at Meg’s school is putting on a play, and Meg’s friend, Liddy, says that they should try out for parts. The play is a Halloween mystery called The Trick or Treat Mystery with a detective called Sureluck House. Meg is nervous during the try-outs and rushes through her lines, so she doesn’t get the part of the detective. However, the club’s advisor, Ms. Morse, gives her the role of announcer. The announcer is like a narrator, introducing scenes of the play. Meg still wishes that she had a regular part in the play, but being the announcer gives her a chance to be involved.

The kids begin assembling costumes and props. Meg creates signs for each scene, including signs to invite the audience to figure out clues during the performance. Once the play gets started, the story takes the form of the play itself. All of the dialogue is presented as part of the play and other information as stage directions, and Meg’s signs invite readers to figure out clues to the mystery.

In the play, Sureluck House gets a letter from Old Jane, a woman who lives in a spooky cottage near a cemetery, asking him to find who stole her stuffed raven. The raven has glowing red eyes, and Old Jane likes to put him on her porch on Halloween to scare away trick-or-treaters.

Sureluck and his friend Witson visit Old Jane, who tells them that three trick-or-treaters have visited her: a witch, a mummy, and a pirate. Then, Old Jane got distracted, chasing one of her kittens, and when she returned to her porch, the raven was gone. She thinks one of the trick-or-treaters stole it. Sureluck and Witson interview the three trick-or-treaters and point out evidence that each of them left at the scene, but they all deny taking the raven.

Then, there is a spooky part of the play where the actors are scared by lightning and thunder, and the lights go out. Readers and the audience can tell that the actors are also confused at this part of the play, and the Ms. Morse sticks her head out from behind the curtain to say that they’re experiencing technical difficulties.

When the lights come back on and the curtain opens again, Sureluck is lying on the ground, having apparently fainted from fright, and only Witson and Old Jane are on the scene. Witson says he thinks he can solve the mystery and invites the audience to guess which suspect stole the raven and where it is. When the audience says where they think the raven is. They guess the correct suspect, but the raven isn’t where it’s supposed to be. Also, Meg has suddenly disappeared, leaving her sign behind. Now, everybody, audience, actors, and Ms. Morse seem really confused.

Has an actual raven theft occurred in the middle of the play? Is Meg the culprit? Where is she?

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

I liked the unusual format to this book, having most of the mystery be in the form of a play within the story. Like other books in this series, readers are given the opportunity to spot the clues and solve the puzzle along with Meg. Because of the play format, we are also like part of the audience, watching the play and trying to figure out where the mystery in the play leaves off and where the mystery that Meg needs to solve begins. The ending is a little unusual because Meg seems to disappear briefly. I didn’t think it was too hard to figure out where Meg went, but I still enjoyed the story, and I though a spooky mystery play was a nice idea for a Halloween story!

Posted on by TracyC

The Pumpkin Head Mystery

The Boxcar Children

#124 The Pumpkin Head Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner, 2010.

The Aldens are getting ready for Halloween, and they go to the Beckett farm to get some pumpkins. Mr. Beckett has been having trouble this year because he broke his leg. He’s been letting a hired assistant, Bessie, handle the pumpkin patch, but she is short-tempered and not very good with customers. Mr. Beckett fired her once before, but he had to take her back this year because he was desperate for help.

Mr. and Mrs. Beckett’s daughter, Sally, has been trying to persuade them to sell their farm and come live near her and her children in Florida. She thinks they’re getting too old to manage the farm by themselves and that this recent injury of Mr. Beckett’s proves it. The Becketts say that they don’t want to give up their farm and that they’re not ready to retire. Then, one of the farm hands, Jason, says that Mr. Beckett broke his leg while chasing a pumpkin-headed ghost, but Mr. Beckett denies that it exists.

Later, someone trashes the pumpkin patch and smashes a lot of pumpkins, and for some reason, Bessie faints. The real estate developer who is pressuring the Becketts to sell their farm, Dave Bolger, shows up again and tries to persuade the Becketts to sell. Sally thinks her parents should take the offer, but they still refuse. The Aldens help clean up the pumpkin patch in time for the next hayride, so the Becketts won’t have to cancel it, and Sally tells them that the farm is haunted and that the stories Jason has been telling about the pumpkin-headed ghost are true.

A glowing pumpkin has been seen floating through the fields at night, seemingly with no body underneath it. When it appears, they hear scary voices, telling them to leave the farm and leave the spirits in peace. Mr. Beckett did injure his leg while trying to chase after it on his horse. The Aldens think this sounds scary, and they ask Sally if the farm was always haunted. Sally admits it wasn’t, but she is serious that she thinks her parents should sell the place and move closer to her and her family.

The Aldens want to help the Becketts, and they start doing some seasonal work at the farm, making flyers for their hayrides and dressing up in costumes as part of the spooky attractions. Then, someone steals the scarecrow that Benny made from the Aldens’ house, and a new pumpkin-headed ghost appears on the farm!

Are there actually any ghosts, or is someone pulling a trick on the Becketts? Is it one of the people trying to pressure the Becketts to sell the farm or someone else, for a different reason?

My Reaction

I enjoyed this spooky mystery! The author did a good job of making multiple characters look like good suspects for playing ghost on the farm. Mr. Bolger and Sally both want the Becketts to sell the farm, and scaring farm workers and visitors away from the farm would add pressure to the Becketts. Bessie isn’t very good at her job, but the Aldens discover that she needs money because her husband is sick. Could she have been paid to commit some sabotage on the farm or could she be trying to get back at the Becketts for firing her last season? Jason has worked on the Becketts’ farm for years and seems to love the place, but he’s been arguing with Mr. Beckett about the way he runs the farm. Maybe Jason wants the farm for himself! There are some good possibilities for suspects.

There were some clues that I thought were obvious, like the connection between the disappearance of Benny’s pumpkin-headed scarecrow and the sudden appearance of a new pumpkin-headed ghost on the farm, but child readers may find the mystery more challenging. Even though I thought some parts were obvious, because there were several suspects, each of which seems to be doing something sneaky that they want to cover up, I wasn’t sure whether some of them might be working together or not.

The book has the right amount of spookiness for a Halloween story without being too scary for kids. In some ways, like with all Scooby-Doo style pseudo-ghost stories, I thought that it was a little silly for the plot to frighten people away from the farm to succeed. My reasoning is that, since this story is set in the Halloween season and some parts of the farm are deliberately set up as haunted attractions with people running around in costumes, I would think most farm workers and visitors would just attribute the pumpkin-headed ghost to either a Halloween prank or just part of the act at a spooky attraction.

One of the possible motives that they never discuss in the story is that the ghost act could be a publicity stunt to draw more visitors to the park. While the premise of the story is that people are being scared away, in reality, there are a lot of curiosity-seekers who would want to go to a supposedly haunted attraction to see what all the fuss is about. Publicity isn’t the real motive of the fake ghost, but I’m just saying that it could have been a real possibility that was overlooked. There are a lot of places, like hotels and restaurants in historic buildings, that capitalize on any potential ghost stories to attract curious thrill-seekers.

Something I appreciated is that the real estate developer is Dave Bolger, which is a homage to Ray Bolger, who played the role of The Scarecrow in the 1939 movie of The Wizard of Oz. Is that a hint? I’ve decided not to spoil the solution of the mystery!

Posted on by TracyC

The Zombie Project

Boxcar Children

#128 The Zombie Project by Gertrude Chandler Warner, 2011.

The Alden children are staying in a cabin at Winding River Lodge because their grandfather is friends with Maude Hansen, who owns the lodge. They’re enjoying the fall weather in the woods, and Violet is taking pictures and videos of their trip with their new camera.

There are other people staying at the lodge, too. A newspaper reporter named Madison can’t help but stay on top of the news while she’s there. She tells everyone about a wealthy businessman, Matthew Donovan, who vanished after apparently stealing millions of dollars from his company’s investors. Surprisingly, the charity golf tournament he sponsors is still taking place in his absence. Madison also has a blog about haunted places, and she tells Maude that she’d like to include the Winding River Zombie on her blog. Maud says that the zombie is only a story that her great grandfather made up and that it doesn’t really exist. Benny asks what a zombie is, and his older siblings reluctantly tell him that it’s an undead monster from the movies that eats people. They hope that the idea of the zombie won’t give Benny nightmares.

That evening, when people are telling stories around the campfire, Maude’s teenage grandson, Jake, tells everyone the zombie story. He says that there used to be an old hermit who lived in the woods, and one day, his great grandfather found the old hermit dead. He reported the death to the local sheriff, and they tried to locate the hermit’s family, but they never found out who he really was or where he came from. With no one else to make funeral arrangements, the Hansens arranged for the old hermit to be buried in a nearby cemetery. Then, not long after, a camper had a frightening encounter with a strange man who tried to grab him and bite his arm with bloody teeth! The Hansens found out that someone had dug up the old hermit’s grave and that the body was gone. People believed that the old hermit had turned into a zombie and still lurked in the woods. Jake’s teenage friends love the zombie story, and Jake claims that he’s seen the zombie before.

When Benny thinks he sees a zombie in the woods and lights in the woods at night, the Aldens wonder if the zombie story could be true or if something else is going on. Do the Hansens fake the appearance of the story to keep the legend alive? Could Madison be faking the zombie or getting someone to play zombie so she’ll have a more exciting story for her blog? Or is there something or someone scarier lurking in the woods?

My Reaction

I was a little surprised at the zombie theme of the story because, although The Boxcar Children series has other spooky stories, the lumbering, cannibalistic undead seems more gruesome than this series normally gets. The unusual darkness of the subject shows in Benny’s siblings’ initial reluctance to explain to Benny what zombies are, for fear that he’ll have nightmares. However, the story doesn’t get overly scary, considering the theme. They don’t explain, for example, that zombies in movies typically want to eat human “braaaaiiiiiiinnnnns!” It’s scary enough that they might just generally want to eat people. Maude is also careful to say from the very beginning that there was never any truth to the story. It was always just something her family made up for the benefit of the tourists.

As some readers might guess, the missing businessman has something to do with the appearance of the “zombie”, but that’s not the entire explanation. There are multiple people involved in the so-called zombie sightings, which confuses the issue for the Aldens. I thought the other people involved were obvious because of some of the things the characters said, but younger readers will probably still find the story thrilling. It’s very much a Scooby-Doo style pseudo-ghost story mystery, not too gory or gruesome, but exciting for kids who like things a little spooky.

Posted on by TracyC

The Vampire Mystery

The Boxcar Children

#120 The Vampire Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner, 2009.

The Alden children are introduced to a local author by their grandfather. Charles Hudson lives in an old house that his family has owned for years, next to a graveyard. He is known for writing a book about a vampire, and he explains to the Aldens that he was inspired to write the story because there are local stories about a vampire in that graveyard. He grew up hearing those stories, and he used to scare his brother with them when they were kids.

Mr. Hudson is now trying to sell the house. He doesn’t really want to, but he’s getting older, and the house is really too big for him to easily maintain it by himself. However, strange things have started happening since he decided to sell. His For Sale signs have been stolen and vandalized, people have been hearing strange sounds coming from the cemetery, and one of his neighbors, Mrs. Fairfax, found what looks like blood on her porch. His nervous realtor, Josh, seems to think that the vampire stories are real and that the vampire is trying to stop anyone new from moving into the house. He got that idea from the author’s book, where the sale of a house near a cemetery awakened the vampire’s wrath. Of course, Mr. Hudson and Mr. Alden say that’s just a story, but it’s still spooky to the Alden children. When they went outside to explore the cemetery, they also saw a mysterious figure lurking around. Mr. Hudson worries that the stories about the vampire will make it hard for him to sell his house.

The author says that he needs to out of town to meet with a movie producer about making a movie based on his book, and he’s a little worried about not having anyone to look after the house while he’s away. The Alden children offer to look after his house while he’s away, watering the plants and keeping things tidy for potential buyers. Mr. Hudson gratefully accepts their offer of help.

However, the next time the children go to the house to check on it, they find that the police are already there because someone vandalized the house during the night. The vandal ripped out some flowers in the garden and left a threatening message painted in red on the porch: “Leave me to rest in peace or you will be sorry.” The neighbor, Mrs. Fairfax accuses the children of doing the vandalism because she doesn’t like kids. Fortunately, Josh the realtor is there and vouches that the children are friends of Mr. Hudson and are just helping him with some things while he’s away.

At a local bake sale, the children have an odd experience when Benny bumps into a man who looks a lot like Mr. Hudson. In fact, he thought for a moment it was Mr. Hudson. The man left quickly, and he dropped a vial of something red, which the kids think looks a lot like blood!

Who could be behind the vandalism at Mr. Hudson’s house? Is Mrs. Fairfax so worried that a family with children will move in that she would fake the return of the legendary vampire to prevent anyone from buying Mr. Hudson’s house? Is Josh really as scared of the vampire as he pretends, or does he have his own reasons for wanting to sabotage the sale of Mr. Hudson’s house? What about the mysterious man who looks a lot like Mr. Hudson? Was that really blood in that vial, and could he actually be … the vampire?

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

I enjoyed this mystery! It’s mildly spooky, but not too scary. The children and the adults around them, for the most part, are pretty sure that whoever is doing these things isn’t a real vampire. They’re just not sure who’s pretending to be a vampire. There are some spooky moments, where someone is lurking around the cemetery, and later, someone enters Mr. Hudson’s house during the night, and the kids almost catch that person there. The person does some things to scare and distract them, but nobody gets hurt.

I had a couple of theories about who was doing what, and in a way, they both turned out to be right! It’s a bit of a spoiler, but there are two people who are doing secretive things in the story, and they’re not working with each other. They have separate motives for what they’re doing. Their separate plots just kind of build on each other’s, further building up the legend of the vampire.

It’s a fun, mildly spooky mystery that would be fun to read about Halloween, although it’s not specifically a Halloween story.

Posted on by TracyC

The Secret of the Haunted Mirror

The Three Investigators

TIHauntedMirror

#21 The Secret of the Haunted Mirror by M. V. Carey, 1974.

Mrs. Darnley has collected mirrors for years, and she has some pretty impressive ones in her collection. Her strangest mirror by far is the goblin mirror that her friend in another country, the Republic of Ruffino sent to her. There is a legend surrounding the mirror that says it was once owned by magician who used it to communicate with goblins under the earth. Supposedly, the magician went inside the mirror himself and now haunts it.

A man called Sr. Santora has been pestering Mrs. Darnley to sell the mirror to him, claiming he’s a descendant of the magician who created it. He insists that the legends about the mirror are true and that terrible things have happened to previous owners of the mirror. Mrs. Darnley didn’t believe these stories at first, but now, she and her grandchildren have seen this ghost in the mirror and heard unearthly laughter in the night. That isn’t the only strange phenomenon they’ve experienced. Someone tries to steal the mirror from Mrs. Darnley’s house, and Mrs. Darnley, not knowing what to do, asks the Three Investigators to find out what the mirror’s secret really is.

The Three Investigators are pretty sure from the beginning that someone is faking the ghost, although they don’t know exactly how. At first, they think that Sr. Santora hired the man who tried to steal the mirror, but when they follow the attempted thief, Pete sees him attack Sr. Santora!

Jupiter spends a stormy night at Mrs. Darnley’s house and has an encounter with the “ghost” that reveals how the haunting was accomplished and reveals connections to another magician who once owned Mrs. Darnley’s house and to the president of the Republic of Ruffino. It seems that the mirror contains secrets that aren’t entirely magical. There are two competing forces trying possess these secrets.

When Mrs. Darnley’s grandson is kidnapped, the kidnapper demands that she turn over the mirror in an abandoned warehouse. The Three Investigators must hurry to find the kidnapped grandson, discover which side in this power struggle is responsible for the kidnapping, and what the real secret of the mirror is before it’s too late!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

The part I enjoyed the most about this mystery was the creepy legend and haunting of the mirror. One of the features of the Three Investigators books that I like is that they have some spooky mysteries in the pseudo-ghost story fashion of Scooby-Doo, and some of their supposed ghosts and supernatural creatures are much more original than in other series. The idea of a haunted goblin mirror and Jupiter’s encounter with it on a spooky, stormy night are delicious to a Scooby-Doo style mystery fan!

There are echoes of the first Three Investigators book in this one because there are secrets to Mrs. Darnley’s house that she doesn’t fully understand, and the haunting is based on magic tricks. There is some political intrigue to the story, too. The Republic of Ruffino isn’t a real place, so readers find out about its circumstances along with the Three Investigators. There is also a secret room and a clever hiding place for something in the solution to the mystery.

Posted on by TracyC

The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow

The Three Investigators

#12 The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow by William Arden, 1969.

The mystery begins when Bob and Pete are bicycling by the old Sandow estate and they hear a call for help. Although it’s dark they can’t see who yelled for help, they can tell that the person threw something small that lands near them. They pick it up and discover that it is a small gold amulet. Then, Bob and Pete have to hide when a dark, shadowy figure comes looking for the amulet. The figure appears humpbacked and has a weird laugh that Bob and Pete have trouble describing.

They tell Jupiter what happened, and he joins them in searching for the person who called for help and figuring out the significance of the amulet. Someone steals the amulet from Jupiter, although Jupiter manages to save a message that was hidden inside the amulet. Then, they consult an expert in Native American languages and antiquities and learn that the amulet may be part of the Chumash treasure hoard, a treasure stolen from the Spanish settlers of the area many years ago by Chumash Indians (Native Americans) who once lived in the area. People have searched for the treasure for many years, but no one has found it. However, the message that was hidden inside the amulet is written in a language that belongs to the Yaquali Indians of Mexico (this is a fictional group, not the Yaqui), a remote tribe mostly living in isolation but known for their climbing skills. The expert is puzzled because he can’t figure out what the connection can be between the Chumash and the Yaqualis. The two group don’t live in the same area, their languages aren’t related, and the Yaqualis had nothing to do with the lost Chumash treasure hoard.

Jupiter says that their next move should be to investigate the Sandow estate. At first, they plan to make an excuse that they’re researching the Sandow estate for a school project, but to their surprise, Ted Sandow, grandnephew of Sarah Sandow, who owns the Sandow estate, shows up at Jupiter’s uncle salvage yard. Ted is just a few years older than the Three Investigators, and he explains that he came from England to visit his Great-Aunt Sarah after his father died. He says that his aunt wants to clean out a bunch of old things that have been in storage on the estate and that someone recommended the salvage yard to him. He invites the boys to the estate so he can show them some antiques that Jupiter’s uncle might want to buy. It seems like quite a coincidence that Ted Sandow would just come looking for them and give them an invitation to the Sandow estate just when they were planning to investigate the place, but the boys can’t pass up the invitation.

At the Sandow estate, the boys are amazed at the antiques that Sarah Sandow is offering to sell, and they’re sure that Jupiter’s uncle will be interested. They spend some time chatting with Ted, Great-Aunt Sarah, and Mr. Harris, a friend of the Sandows who has started a Vegetarian League with the help of Sarah Sandow. Sarah tells the boys that the reason she wants to clean out some of the clutter around the estate is that they recently had a burglary. They all explain to the boys that a small gold statue (the amulet) was stolen from the estate by an unknown boy. It was one of a pair that used to belong to Sarah’s brother, who was Ted’s grandfather. The boys explain that they are investigators and that they would be happy to help them recover the little statue, without telling them that they had it in their possession at one point or about the message they found with it. The Sandows hire boys to find it, promising them a reward if they’re successful, but some things about their offer don’t ring true.

For one thing, Ted Sandow asks the boys about the meaning of the question marks on their business card before he even looks at the card, indicating that he already knew about their investigation business and that he sought them out for that purpose rather than just to sell things to the salvage yard. It’s also strange that he stresses that they will reward the boys for the return of the amulet with “no questions asked” about how they found it. What are the Sandows hiding, and what is the meaning of the message that was with the amulet? Do they know the location of the Chumash hoard, or do they have it themselves? Who was the mysterious shadow with the weird laugh? Lives may hang in the balance as the boys struggle to learn the identity of the laughing shadow.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

I like books that reference history, but this book bothers me a little because of the introduction of the Yaquali. The Chumash are real, but the Yaquali are a fictional group, and it just feels strange to have the book start with a real group of Native Americans and then incorporate a fictional group. It also makes the story feel a little contrived that the villain needs the Yaquali for their excellent climbing skills to reach the treasure when it doesn’t seem like the Yaquali had anything to do with placing the treasure where it’s hidden.

The explanation behind the laughing shadow also feels a little contrived. There’s a logical explanation but at the same time, it depends on the villain having a pet that makes a sound that sounds like a laugh, and this pet’s origins point to the villain’s origins.

The part of the story that I thought was most interesting was that, while the Three Investigators are suspicious of the Sandows, it’s implied that the suspicious is mutual. The Sandows offer the Three Investigators the job of finding the amulet with “no questions asked” about how they found it, and there is an implication that they suspect that the boys stole it. The implication that the “no questions asked” is actually an invitation to the boys to return what they took with a promised reward and no repercussions. However, at the same time as the boys accept the job from the Sandows, they have their own suspicions about what the Sandows are doing and what the meaning of the message in the amulet is. They see the investigation job as a way to learn more about what’s going on. The interesting part is that, while each of them has some reason to suspect each other, the real culprit in this situation isn’t either of them.

Spoilers

Although the boys suspect Ted at first, the real villain is Harris.  Years ago, Sarah Sandow’s brother, Ted’s grandfather, learned that the Chumash hoard was located on their property, but for reasons that no one seems to know, he killed the only person who could tell him where it was and had to leave the country.  Ted was born in England, and he has been visiting his Great-Aunt Sarah.  He met Mr. Harris on the way here, and Harris introduced himself to Sarah on the pretext of getting a donation to help set up a society for vegetarians in the area.  He had already figured out where the hoard was located on her property, and he had convinced some young Yaqualis from Mexico to come to the United States to help him get it. 

The treasure is hidden in a cave which can only be reached by experienced climbers, and the Yaqualis are known for their climbing skills.  One of the Yaqualis realized that what Harris wanted them to do was illegal and that he was planning to do away with them when it was all over.  He managed to get word to his family, and he put the message in the amulet in the hopes that someone would find it later and help him and the others. 

Jupiter figures out that Harris is the villain when he realizes that the mysterious laugh isn’t human; it was caused by a kookaburra, a pet of Harris’s from Australia.  His shadow only looked humpbacked because the bird was sitting on him at the time.  Jupiter gets the police to check with the Australian authorities, and they learn about Harris’s criminal past.  By then Harris has taken Bob and Pete hostage, and they must stage a daring rescue to save them.  For a while, Bob and the young Yaqualis are trapped in the cave with the treasure, but a couple of other Yaqualis who have been searching for them help to rescue them.  At the end of the book, the ownership of the treasure still has to be determined, but many museums are hoping to acquire pieces for their collections.

Posted on by TracyC · 3 Comments

The Mystery of the Talking Skull

The Three Investigators

#11 The Mystery of the Talking Skull by Robert Arthur, 1969.

Jupiter reads in the newspaper about a public auction of luggage abandoned at hotels. He is curious about the auction and persuades Bob and Pete to come with him. On a whim, Jupiter bids on an old trunk at the auction and gets it for a dollar. Even the auctioneers don’t know what’s in the trunk because it’s locked. However, shortly after Jupiter buys the trunk, others show up offering to buy it from him.

It turns out that the trunk used to belong to a magician called the Great Gulliver, who disappeared about a year earlier. His signature trick was a talking skull called Socrates, which is still inside the trunk. The Three Investigators study the skull because Jupiter is curious to see how the trick works, but he can’t find anything about the skull that would explain how the trick was done. However, when the skull begins to speak to the boys, it suggests an even more puzzling mystery.

In the middle of the night, the skull tells Jupiter to go to a certain address and use the skull’s name, Socrates, as the password. When Jupiter goes there, he meets a gypsy fortune teller called Zelda, who tells him that Gulliver isn’t dead but he’s no longer among the living. She also tells him that there are people who want money, but the money they want is hidden. Zelda says that maybe Jupiter can help, and she tells him to protect the trunk and listen to anything else the skull might say.

When the Three Investigators look through the trunk again, they find a letter hidden inside, under the lining. The letter is from a man Gulliver once knew in prison, Spike Neely. The man was dying, and he wanted to tell Gulliver where he hid some money he stole years before. Because he knew the authorities would read any letter he sent, he could only hint at the location. The letter was short, and it doesn’t seem to say much, but The Three Investigators are sure that there’s a clue to where Spike hid the money somewhere in the letter.

However, The Three Investigators find themselves questioning how much they want to investigate this particular mystery. Jupiter was followed by a strange car on the way home from Zelda’s, probably the men Zelda spoke of who are looking for the money. Then, Jupiter’s Aunt Mathilda gets spooked by the skull when it says “boo” to her, and she tells Jupiter to get rid of it. The boys decide to sell the trunk to Maximilian, a magician who was interested in buying it for the sake of the talking skull and other tricks inside. When Maximilian takes the trunk, they think that’s going to be the end of the matter for them, but the next day, Police Chief Reynolds comes to see them because Maximilian was in a car accident. He says that another car forced him off the road and a couple of men stole the trunk!

Chief Reynolds tries to see Zelda, since she seemed to know something about the hidden money, but when he goes to the address where Jupiter met her, Zelda and the other gypsies are gone. Then, somebody mails the trunk back to Jupiter! When the boys open the trunk again, Socrates the skull says, “Hurry! Find–the clue.” It looks like they’re on a hunt for stolen money whether they like it or not!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

The idea of a mysterious talking skull that used to belong to a vanished magician is exciting by itself, and I remember liking this story the first time I read it. As an adult, the parts about the gypsies seem a little cringey, the stereotypical stuff of vintage children’s books. A mysterious fortune teller is compelling and reminds me of similar type characters that appeared in the original Scooby-Doo cartoons, but The Three Investigators aren’t really big on accuracy when it comes to cultural representations. That sort of thing never occurred to me as a kid. All I cared about was an interesting story, and this book does have that. It’s just that, when you’re an adult and you know more about the world, you can tell when a character or culture is really just a cardboard cutout with no depth to it, more of a stock element pulled out of an old bag of tricks, and it hits you differently.

The talking skull element was cool, and I loved the idea of buying a mystery trunk cheaply and finding an amazing mystery in side. It’s the sort of thing I would have loved to do or envision doing as a kid, although in real life, the contents of the trunk would probably have turned out to be far less exciting, like a bunch of rusty hardware or somebody’s collection of water-damaged magazines. It’s that sense that, when you open it, there could be anything inside that’s compelling, and the best books have that sense of anticipation, too.

The solution to this mystery involves the Three Investigators examining the letter to figure out where Spike hid the clue to finding his loot. There is one part of his letter that seems to hint at something personal, a person who doesn’t really seem to exist, but that’s only half of the clue. The other part lies in the stamps he used and also in Spike’s distinctive trait of having trouble pronouncing words with the letter ‘L’ in them. It’s the sort of multi-layered clue that might appear in a Sherlock Holmes story. From there, the Three Investigators have to track down the house that Spike’s sister owned, where he was apprehended after the robbery, which proves more difficult than they anticipated because all of the houses from that neighborhood have been moved to a new location and were given new numbers. There were parts of the treasure hunt that were exciting and others that seemed to drag a little, but there are definitely some violent characters looking for the money, too.

Someone is obviously using the Three Investigators to try to find the money on their behalf, urging them on by using the talking skull, and that adds layers to the mystery. Who is trying to use them to solve the mystery, or is it more than one person or group of people? When people approach them with information or ask for their help, who can they trust? By the end of the story, we do learn where Gulliver is (if you haven’t guess it already) and the full story behind Spike hiding the money and what led to Gulliver’s disappearance.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place

The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry, 2014.

The story is set in England in 1890. There are seven girls at the proper Victorian boarding school known as Saint Ethelreda’s School for Young Ladies on Prickwillow Road in Ely. As the beginning sections of the book explain when they introduce the girls and members of their families and acquaintances, they were all sent to Saint Ethelreda’s because their families want them to become proper Victorian young ladies, ready to make suitable and socially-acceptably marriages. Some of the girls have defects in their characters or personal interests that are considered entirely unsuitable, and their families are hoping that the school’s discipline and propriety will cure them.

The seven girls are:

“Dear” Roberta Pratley – Her mother died while she was still young, and her father remarried. It was her stepmother’s idea to send her to boarding school, thinking her too soft, clumsy, awkward, and overindulged by her late mother. Her stepmother hopes that boarding school will strengthen her and turn her into a more graceful young lady. Roberta is known for being gentle and kind. She’s good at sewing.

“Disgraceful” Mary Jane Marshall – She was sent to boarding school by her mother, who has noticed that Mary Jane, while still rather young, is very pretty and precociously flirtatious, with a tendency to attract disreputable and penniless young men. Worse still, Mary Jane enjoys the company of these disreputable young men and regularly slips away from her mother to see them on the sly. Fearful that Mary Jane’s recklessness with young men will lead her into a disastrous marriage too early in life, her mother enrolled her in an all-female boarding school to keep her away from boys and, hopefully, give her a chance to mature and improve herself. So far, it’s not working. The only non-disreputable young man who interests her is the young local police constable.

“Dull” Martha Boyle – Martha has four brothers at home who make her life miserable with their pranks and teasing. Boarding school gives her an escape from them. She isn’t considered very bright, but she has a talent for music. She has a crush on a nearby farmer’s son.

“Stout” Alice Brooks – Poor Alice has a tendency to put on weight and is often compared unfavorably to her cousin Isabelle, who seems to be able to eat anything she wants without putting on an ounce. Alice doesn’t really hate Isabelle for this, but she’s tired of her grandmother’s criticism over it. She has a crush on a young law clerk.

“Smooth” Kitty Heaton – Kitty’s mother died when she was only four years old, and Kitty has no other siblings, which is a disappointment to her father, who hoped for a son to take over his business enterprises one day. Kitty’s father largely ignores her, and he has not yet noticed that Kitty is developing some shrewd business skills herself.

“Pocked” Louise Dudley – Louise’s face is scarred because she contracted smallpox at a young age. She survived this potentially-deadly illness because her devoted uncle, a talented doctor, nursed her through it. Ever since, she has revered her uncle and looks up to him as a mentor. Her uncle enjoys sharing his scientific and medical knowledge with her, he encourages her studies, and he thinks that she has the potential to a be doctor herself. Unfortunately, Louise’s parents don’t think that this is a proper profession for a young lady, so they sent her to boarding school to learn the kind of skills young ladies need to know to be wives and mothers. However, Louise has not given up her scientific interests.

“Dour” Elinor Siever – Elinor has a macabre side to her personality. Actually, her macabre side is most of her personality. When she was younger, she started sneaking out at night to explore, and she watched with fascination as the old grave digger in her town exhumed bodies to rob them or sell them for medical experiments. When the old grave digger spotted her watching him, she gave him a fright, and when her parents found out what she’d been doing, they packed her off to boarding school to put an end to this morbid interest and encourage her to be a sweeter, more cheerful, and more normal girl. None of that is working, but her morbid interests are about to come in handy when death comes to the little school.

One evening, while the headmistress of the girls’ school is dining with her visiting brother, both the headmistress and her brother are poisoned. The girls are saved because they were not eating the same food. Realizing that the headmistress and her brother are dead and quickly concluding that they were murdered, the girls debate about what to do. They consider calling a doctor, but it’s obviously too late for that. They could get the police, but before they do, the girls stop to consider what this will mean for themselves.

They have no idea who poisoned the headmistress and her brother. The girls prepared the food they were eating, so the poisoner could have even been one of them, or at least, they could be potential suspects. At the very least, the death of the headmistress means the end of the school, and the girls will all be sent home to their families. The truth is that the girls don’t want to go home. Each of them has some sort of tension at home or a reason why they were sent away, and they’ve all become like sisters to each other. More than anything, they want to be able to stay together and have some freedom from their tensions at home.

With their headmistress gone and no adults around to tell them what to do, what not to do, or how to be, the girls realize that they have unprecedented freedom to do as they like and be themselves, but that’s not going to last if they’re suspected of murder. Kitty is the first to suggest that they not tell anyone that the headmistress and her brother are dead, but she’s also the first to realize that, if they don’t find out who killed them, there will be a scandal, and each of the girls will be under suspicion for the rest of their lives. While Kitty relishes the idea of taking charge of the other girls and having them organize their own lessons and self-study from now on, according to the subjects that interest each of them the most, they also need to investigate and solve the murders. There is little hope for any of their future prospects if they have to go through life as murder suspects.

Their first problem arises when some friends of the headmistress and her brother show up unexpectedly as part of a surprise party for the brother’s birthday. Acting quickly, the girls hide the bodies and convince the guests that the brother has gone to India suddenly to tend to a sick relative and their headmistress has gone to bed because she was feeling unwell. However, one of the girls accidentally injures the ankle of the choir teacher, who has to spend the night at the school, causing them further complications. Desperately, the girls try to cover up the fact that their headmistress is dead and buy themselves time to investigate.

Although none of the girls is what their families consider a proper Victorian young lady, they each have skills that are useful to their deception and investigation. Kitty is good at organizing and managing people, and Mary Jane knows how to charm them. Elinor isn’t afraid of handling the dead, and Louise has scientific knowledge. Alice is the right size to pose for their headmistress in her clothes, and she has some acting ability.

Can the girls find the real murderer before someone figures out that two murders have taken place and blame the girls for them? What will the girls do if it turns out that the murderer is one of them? And, if it’s not one of them, what’s to stop the murderer from trying to kill again if he believes the girls’ ruse that their headmistress is still alive?

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

This is a humorous mystery with delightful characters! Although none of the girls is quite what their families or society wishes they were, readers will see that some of their supposed defects are actually strengths and skills. The humor in the story is dark, and the girls are unsentimental about the deaths of their annoying headmistress and her odious brother. They explain the reasons for their lack of sentimentality through their explanations of the victims’ characters. Neither of them was ever very nice to the girls, and they both had dark sides to their personalities.

Because some of the girls have morbid tendencies or possibly scandalous sides to their personalities that they need to cover up, it is plausible from the beginning that one of them could have had a reason to kill the headmistress, leaving readers more in suspense about the identity of the murderer. Although the girls love each other like sisters, there are moments when even they question whether they can really trust each other. However, the introduction of the headmistress’s friends and associates add other possible suspects to consider.

The first half of the book is largely about the girls getting themselves organized and covering up the deaths of the headmistress and her brother. They get more into solving the murders about halfway through the book, although they begin developing suspicions before that. I was pretty sure from the beginning that none of the girls did it, although the book does a good job of making it plausible that they could have. However, the girls soon learn that there were sides to their headmistress and her brother that they didn’t know about.

Early on, I had a theory that there could be more than one murderer involved. The headmistress and her brother didn’t seem to have exactly the same symptoms when they died, so I thought that it was possible that they were poisoned by different people coincidentally at the same meal. That’s not quite the right answer, although the parts of the story that made me think so are actual clues to what really happened. There are multiple villains in the story, some working together and some not. Some of what I suspected turned out to be true, but not all of it, and I didn’t figure out the whole situation before the characters explained it.

During the course of their adventures, the girls remain friends, and they also come to realize some things about themselves. Some of the girls develop budding romantic interests. Whether or not those fully develop, we don’t know, but it appears that there’s someone out there for everyone. Even Elinor finds someone to bond with over her morbid fascination for death. Some of the girls also come to realize talents they didn’t fully consider before and begin developing ambitions for their future. Kitty comes to reckon with her father’s lack of interest and emotional connection with her, and she also comes to realize that she shares some traits with him, even some of the less desirable ones. She realizes that she doesn’t want to be like her father, cold and commanding. While she felt little for her old headmistress, she was primarily motivated by her warm feelings for her best friends and fellow students, whom she regards as sisters. Because of her father’s detachment, she desperately guards the only warm connections she has in her life. Fortunately, the book has a happy ending. Circumstances allow the girls to continue with their education together in a way that supports all of their interests and under the guidance of someone who truly cares for them and understands them.