Posted on by TracyC

Meg Mackintosh and The Mystery in the Locked Library

Meg Mackintosh Mysteries

Meg Mackintosh and The Mystery in the Locked Library by Lucinda Landon, 1993.

Meg, her brother Peter, and their grandfather are visiting their grandfather’s cousin, Alice, who was introduced in the first book of the series as the one who created the treasure hunt to find his missing Babe Ruth baseball when they were young. Grown up Alice is now a librarian, and she has created another treasure hunt for them.

One morning, she leaves them a note saying that she has a dentist appointment, but she wants them to go to the library and find something valuable that she’s hidden there before the library opens at noon. Readers follow along with the clues that Alice has left for them to solve and the pictures in the book, seeing if they can solve each part of the mystery along with Meg. In keeping with the library and book theme of the story, the clues are based around books, particularly Sherlock Holmes books.

When Meg and her family arrive at the library and begin following the clues, they discover that there are other people in the library, even though the library isn’t officially open yet. Caroline is the assistant librarian, and Gerry also works there. Then, a man named Horace Plotnik shows up, saying that he’s an antiques expert and that Alice asked him to come to appraise something.

They discover that Alice didn’t make it to her dentist appointment because someone locked her in the library’s book repair room. It turns out that the valuable item that Alice hid was a first edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that recently came to the library in a donation of books, but when Meg and Peter finish the treasure hunt and go to the place where Alice did the book, it’s gone! Was it stolen by the person who locked Alice in the book repair room, and if so, who was it?

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

My Reaction

I always enjoy treasure hunt stories, and like other Meg Mackintosh mysteries, this story gives readers the opportunity to figure out the clues and puzzles along with Meg. The information readers need is in the pictures of the story. When I was a kid, I particularly liked puzzles based around solving a secret code, and there is a secret code puzzle in this book that readers can solve themselves.

This treasure hunt is fun because it’s based around library and book themes, particularly focusing on Sherlock Holmes. The idea of hunting for a lost copy of a first edition Sherlock Holmes book was timely for when the book was originally written because, as the story indicates at the end, the book was written around the 100th anniversary of the character of Sherlock Holmes!

Posted on by TracyC

Meg Mackintosh and The Mystery at the Soccer Match

Meg Mackintosh Mysteries

Meg Mackintosh and The Mystery at the Soccer Match by Lucinda Landon, 1997.

Meg and her brother Peter play on opposing soccer teams, the Hawks and the Panthers. Peter is brags about how good he is at being a goalie, and Meg hopes that, in this game, she can score a few points off him. There are prizes for this soccer team, and the winning team will get to keep a medal that Coach Lee won playing international soccer until next year’s game. Everybody admires the medal, which is displayed on the awards table.

Meg’s teammate, Alex, is less thrilled about the game. He has an injured leg and can’t play, and his mother is busy campaigning against awarding prizes for children’s soccer. She thinks that giving prizes isn’t fair and hurts the feelings of kids who don’t get prizes.

It’s true that there is some pressure from the parents for their children to play harder to win prizes than the kids really want. Peter accidentally collides with one of his teammates, Heather, and they both end up with scrapes and are temporarily removed from the game for first aid. Heather’s father pressures her to get back in the game as soon as possible and win, but Heather privately admits to Peter that she doesn’t really feel like playing anymore. She only does it because she knows her dad would feel bad if her team doesn’t win.

It starts to rain during the game, and the adults and kids cover the awards table with a blanket. When they remove the blanket later, the gold medal is gone! Who could have taken it? Meg invites Alex to join her detective club and help investigate the mystery while she plays soccer!

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

My Reaction

Meg inviting Alex to help her investigate the case and consider motives makes this book a little different from other books in the series, where Meg usually does that herself. The mystery is good because there are several suspects to consider, each of whom was seen near the table and left signs of their presence there. Did Heather’s dad take the medal because he once almost won a similar soccer medal and was jealous that Coach Lee won the prize he didn’t? He certainly seems very prize-oriented. Did Alex’s mother take it because she disapproves of sports prizes and wanted to make a statement about it? Could one of the children have taken it, either because they wanted to claim the prize they didn’t think they could win honestly or because they wanted to impress one of their parents?

As with other books in the series, readers are given the chance to review the evidence Meg and her friends have collected and see if they can spot the clues along with them in pictures taken at the scene. There was a clue that I thought was pretty obvious in one of the pictures but which Meg and the other kids didn’t spot at first. They only notice it when another clue makes them take a second look at one of the pictures. I think many young readers might also spot the clue I did, although if they do, it might make them feel clever for noticing something before Meg and her friends do.

When I first noticed that clue, I was inclined to think the solution to this mystery was too obvious, but there is another twist to the story that makes it more interesting. The medal was actually stolen twice. After the original thief put it back, someone else took it again, so there are two thefts to figure out instead of one.