Three Cousins Detective Club

#13 The Mystery of the Gingerbread House by Elspeth Campbell Murphy, 1997.

Sarah-Jane lives near a couple whose names are Jack and Jill. They live in an old Victorian gingerbread style house. They have been fixing up the old house, and Sarah-Jane has been acting as a messenger, carrying samples of wallpaper to them from her mother, who is a decorator.

Sarah-Jane brings her cousins to see the house, and Jill shows them an old photograph that she and her husband found of the children who used to live in the house a hundred years ago and a friend of theirs. When the kids first arrived at the house, they startled someone who was working in the parlor. However, Jack and Jill insist that it was not either of them. They look in the parlor and are surprised to see that someone has continued the work they were doing, removing some of the old wallpaper that needs to be replaced. Why would someone sneak into the house to continue their work?

Someone has learned an important secret about the house and something hidden inside, and they are trying to find it before Jack and Jill stumble across it in their renovation work.

The theme of this story is Proverbs 25:13, “A trustworthy messenger refreshes those who send him. He is like the coolness of snow in the summertime.”