Category Archives: Mystery

338A: The Mystery of the Missing Twin (or maybe sister)

8 Replies

This is a kids mystery book, probably written in the early 70s.  The author’s last name was at the end of the alphabet–Mayba a W.  
Two sisters–I think twins, but they may be triplets, where two are identical and the third isn’t.  The girls are on vacation in either Newfoundland or Nova Scotia.  They run into another girl who looks exactly like one (or two) of them.  the non-identical sister is convinced she’s adopted, and that the girl they saw is the actual twin (or triplet) of the others.  They try to find the girl again, but she’s been kidnapped.  
 
There’s a whole mystery involving caves and some missing jewelry? The parents are kind of cagey about why they’re In Canada, so they’re not a lot of help, although they are present. They’re at a lawyers office quite often, giving the girls unsupervised time.  They use the resemblance between the kidnapped girl and the sister to trap the crooks somehow, with the fathers involvement.

 
At the end, it’s revealed that the kidnapped girl is their cousin, which is why she looks like them. I think the parents were trying to arrange to adopt her.
 
I’ve been trying to remember this for awhile, but can’t.  Googling just brings up a lot of results, which aren’t helpful.
 
Thanks for any help!

 

337X: Brother Who Grows Pot and Sister Who Works As Barista

Leave a reply

This book appears to be written by an ex-boyfriend and girlfriend who agree to write alternating chapters. The book includes their email conversations as they struggle over where the plot will go and rehash relationship mishaps.  It is very funny.  The mystery plot involves a brother and sister who live in a rural area.  He grows pot illegally and she works as a barista….

337H: Murder mystery where a fake town in Europe is created to prevent solving

5 Replies

Think I read this in the 90s. May have been translated from French (or another language?) I think the book starts in America in modern times - late 20th century. A person's friend/partner/significant other(?) dies or is killed. The person, who I think is male, goes to a city in Europe, possibly Paris, to find out more. During his investigating, he talks to various people, goes into buildings, etc. One of these people is a nurse who eventually gets her throat slit, and he either sees it happen or finds the body. ***spoilers coming*** Some time after this, he sees the nurse, alive, on the street, and no longer a nurse. He goes back to some of the buildings where he had talked to people, only to discover that they are completely empty abandoned buildings. . . an entire scenario had been set up that didn't actually exist. He realizes that everyone he has talked to and all the places he has been were in fact people playing characters and places that were only set up to trick him into not solving this murder. I really thought this book was called either Facade or Charade, but the books I've found online with those titles are not this book. . . so maybe it's a one word title.

336F: Children Find Fine Art

2 Replies

This was a 90’s children’s mystery novel that I read as a 3rd or 4th grader in 1996 or so. It was an un-illustrated chapter book. I can’t remember much else about the plot other than the characters were sorting out someone’s estate and found a very fine piece of stained glass art (lamp, vase or pitcher perhaps). The author did an excellent job describing the art – that’s what all my friends and I loved about the book. I also remember at the end of the book they are able to see all of the other pieces of the art collection that belonged with it.

335W: Luton Cabbie Mystery (Solved!)

2 Replies

Mid-1990s to mid-2000’s publication date, more likely 1998-2003. Mystery novel set in Luton, England. Protagonist is black cabdriver of West Indian/Caribbean origin. Unfortunately, I can’t recall the mystery he gets involved in. I liked the author’s portrayal of an overlooked airport town, the character and the look into his culture. Although I read a lot of British mysteries, this one’s setting was unusual and the mood of it has stayed with me. I have wondered if it was part of a series or a one-off.

 

334V: Mystery series probably published 1940-1970 (Solved!)

8 Replies

I do not know the name of any of the books in the series, but I can describe at least one of the covers. Our library had 4 books but there may have been more. All of the books had a deep purple cover. One had a mansion or haunted house on top of a hill or cliff. For some reason murder mansion, Whispering Hill, sticks in my head. I believe there were 2 or 3 kids and one had an odd name. Definitely not the more prolific series, Three Investigators, Hardy Boys, etc. The books were hardcover and not very thick, 70-80 pages and meant for grades 3-6. I hope you can find the series I am looking for.

332Y: The Figure In The Shadows (Solved!)

Leave a reply

So here’s what I have:  I have very few details about this book. Read in late 1970’s-1980 (no later than 1980, but believe to be earlier).  Book (paperback) was a gift so I think it could be earlier than 1970s.  Geared toward 10-12 year olds.  Category: suspense, supernatural or mystery.

In the beginning of the book a boy (think it’s a boy, could be girl) is walking down the street when a newspaper or flyer wraps around his leg.  He looks at it and reads the word veni in Latin (I come or I am coming) and smells wet ashes.  Later in the book the figure/ghost is beckoning him to jump in a well (?) or off a cliff – he’s saved by someone, but that’s all I remember.  Hope you can help.

Edit: The author of this post found the title of the book before I got around to posting their Stumper: The Figure in the Shadows!

327L: Sort of like the Boxcar Children but in ancient Rome (or was it Greece?) (Solved!)

11 Replies

I read it in the 1970s, probably published then or perhaps in the late '60s. A young boy (maybe 10 or 11) and his older sister (young teenager?) from a noble family become embroiled in a mystery and they run around town (possibly Athens, but I think it was ancient Rome) hunting for clues.  They wear togas. 🙂

325Y: Boy Spends Summer At Beach Solving Mystery

10 Replies

I believe this book is for middle grade and from the 1970s or before. It is about a boy who spends the summer away from home, near the ocean or on an island. The first night there, he see someone using Morse code to spell out his name. Later, he learns it is another boy who wants to be friends. (They become friends.) There is some type of mystery to be solved and a man (maybe a relative?) tries to kill the boy at the end of the book. There are caves or some kind of natural phenomenon where at the right tide, the wind/water rushes through, sounding like ghosts moaning. When the man is after him, the boy has to face his fear and enter the caves to escape.