The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright, 1983.
Amy is upset because she constantly has to look after her sister Louann, who has developmental problems. Louann is only a year younger than Amy, but her condition makes her think and act like a small child all the time. Amy loves Louann, but having her around all the time makes it difficult for her do things on her own and to make friends. It’s frustrating because the girls’ mother doesn’t seem to understand the pressure Amy feels.
One day, she has an argument with her mother about it and runs away to her aunt’s house. Aunt Clare normally lives in Chicago, but she has returned to her home town to sort out the things in her grandparents’ old house. Sympathizing with Amy, Aunt Clare offers Amy the chance to stay with her for a couple of weeks, without Louann.
Aunt Clare and her brother, Amy’s father, used to live with their grandparents when they were young, and Aunt Clare says that she has unhappy memories of that time. While helping her aunt go through some of the old things in the house, Amy discovers that there is a dollhouse in the attic made to look exactly like the grandparents’ house and dolls which look like the grandparents, Clare, and her brother. Amy thinks the dollhouse is wonderful, but Aunt Clare seems to find it disturbing.
When Aunt Clare refuses to talk about her deceased grandparents, Amy looks at some old newspapers at the library to learn more about them. To her shock, she learns that they were murdered in the house and that the killer was never found. Soon, strange things begin happening with the dollhouse. The dolls move around on their own, mysterious lights appear, and crying noises can be heard. The dolls seem to be acting out the events of the night of the murder. After all this time, the dolls seem to be trying to tell them something, if they have the courage to listen.
The book is currently available online through Internet Archive (multiple copies). There was a movie version of this book made in 1992 (Sometimes called Secrets in the Attic), but it’s difficult to find copies of it now. Sometimes, the movie or clips of it appear on YouTube. Apart from that, it’s very difficult to see it.
My Reaction and Spoilers
I remember liking this book when I was a kid, although I was often a timid kid who was easily scared by scary stories. I think it was the mystery angle, solving the old murder, that intrigued me the most, although I also enjoyed the characters in the story. I felt impatient with both Amy and her mother at times, but I liked the way the family eventually worked through their problems and came to understand each other better.
Aside from revealing the murderer’s true identity, the dolls settle other troubling matters in Amy’s family. For years, Aunt Clare has blamed herself for the way she behaved around the time her grandparents were killed. She was afraid that something she did might have even led to their deaths. But, none of it was really her fault, and her grandparents want her to know that she needn’t blame herself anymore. In some ways, I felt a little cheated by the answer to the murder mystery because the murderer is a person we never see and who has been dead for years, so there was no way readers could have known it was him, and he is never brought to justice. However, learning the identity of the murderer is important because it gives Aunt Clare some closure. When Aunt Clare realizes the truth, she feels like a great weight has been lifted from her. She begins coming to terms with her past and appears to be headed for a better future.
Amy also comes to terms with her sister’s condition and values her even more highly when Louann’s lack of fear of the dollhouse gives Amy the courage to see the dolls’ final message. Louann might have been less scared by the dolls than Amy was because Amy understands more of the situation behind the haunting, but the dolls aren’t actually malicious, and there’s no need for the girls to be afraid. Louann is a tender-hearted girl who loves the dolls and dollhouse immediately, and Amy finds that Louann’s willingness to see what the dolls have to show them gives her comfort and courage. Because Aunt Clare understand the feeling of guilt, she helps Amy to see that some of the ways that her mother behaves regarding Louann, babying her a little too much and trying to make Amy more responsible for her, also come from a feeling of guilt. There was nothing Amy’s mother could have done that would have changed Louann’s condition, but Amy’s mother feels guilty anyway. Her guilt is a problem because she’s been holding Louann back from experiences that would help her develop more and give Amy a little more freedom from having to look after Louann so much. In the end, Amy’s family does make changes to help Louann become a little more independent and to allow Amy a little more independence of her own.
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, 1971.
With their family suddenly much larger, David’s father bought a new house for them to live in. Actually, it’s a very old house just outside of a small town. People call it the Westerly house after the former owners. Not long after the family moves in, they find out that people used to say that the Westerly house was haunted. Mr. and Mrs. Westerly used to travel around the world with their two daughters because Mr. Westerly worked for the government, but after they settled down to a quieter life in this small town in the late 1800s, strange things started happening in their house. Rocks would fly around the house, seemingly thrown by invisible hands, and someone (or something) cut the head off the carved cupid on the fancy staircase banister. The head was never found. These incidents were reported in the local paper, and people believed that the Westerly family was haunted by a 
Amanda is fascinated by stories of the poltergeist. A friend of hers where she used to live (one her mother didn’t approve of) was teaching her about the occult and how to do magic spells. When David tells Amanda that he thought that his mother was psychic, Amanda is surprised, and she offers to teach David and the other kids about magic over the summer. David eagerly accepts the offer because he finds the subject fascinating and because it’s the only thing that Amanda really seems interested in. The other kids are also fascinated at the idea, even the littlest ones, which takes Amanda by surprise. She had expected them to be scared.
Just as with the Westerly family years ago, rocks are thrown around the house or found just laying around. Things are broken in the middle of the night. Have Amanda’s rituals somehow awoken the poltergeist once more? David has his doubts, suspecting that it’s part of Amanda’s playacting, but she is accounted for when some of these strange things happen. The younger kids are still more fascinated than frightened by these strange happenings, but their stepmother finds them particularly unnerving.
There are some elements of the happenings, particularly the reappearance of the cupid’s head, that are never fully explained, although David ends up knowing more than Amanda by the end. Some aspects of the situation are hinted at. There may be a real supernatural event at the end of the story. Blair appears to have inherited psychic abilities from his mother, and there is a distinct possibility that the Westerly sisters who once lived in the house were just as unhappy with their parents for the changes in their lives as Amanda was with her mother. Although the “poltergeist” as it first appears doesn’t exist, it may be that the “poltergeist” of the past remembers what it was like to be young and unhappy and that she wanted to make amends for past wrongs and to help another troubled young girl to make peace with her life and family. But, if you don’t like that explanation, there is a more conventional, non-supernatural explanation that David considers, which equally possible. Personally, I think it’s a combination of the two, but it’s not completely clear. I think the author left it open-ended like that to make readers wonder and to preserve the air of mystery after the other mysteries have been cleared up.
Midnight Magic by Avi, 1999.
The Mystery of the Haunted Trail by Janet Lorimer, 1989.
The Ghosts of Cougar Island by Peggy Parish, 1986.
The Haunted House by Peggy Parish, 1971.
One Ghost Too Many by Drew Stevenson, 1991.
Sarah persuades Clark and his friend “Frog” Fenniman to join her investigation of the house, but besides the resident ghost, they will also have to deal with a local group interested in psychic phenomena and a mysterious stranger who is paying the local bully to spy on the house.
The Ghost on the Hill by Grace Maccarone, 1990.
When they reach the state park, Dennis Ten Foot Bridge, who is the last of his tribe, tells the students about his tribe, teaches them wilderness skills, and leads them in group activities. One evening, Joey goes out to practice some rowing on the lake by himself, and he sees what looks like a large ghost at the top of a hill However, everyone knows that Joey lies about a lot of things, so at first, no one believes him. At least, no one except Adam.
Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories 