Holly Beth Walker
Whitman, 1967
Genre:
Mystery
Description
Meg is shocked to discover that Mrs. Partlow's house has
been broken into. However, it appears that nothing was stolen even though the
old lady has a lot of valuables. Mrs. Wilson is also surprised since Mrs.
Partlow had inherited her family's diamonds, which she knows have been taken
out of the family vault in preparation for her niece’s wedding. On her way to
Kerry's house, Meg stops by Mrs. Partlow's house and discovers Mike, Kerry's
brother, staking out the house as he wants to be a reporter and is always on
the lookout for a good story.
Meg and Kerry go to the pet shop to get food for Meg's cat,
Thunder. While there, she sees a pretty collar and wants to buy it but is told
that the collar belongs to a Mrs. Glynn and is for one of her dogs. She is an
actress who is in town from New York
City. Just then, Mrs. Glynn comes into the shop with
her three dogs who happen to be tiny toy poodles named Child, Little One, and
Toy.
Meg and Kerry are invited to a luncheon at Mrs. Partlow's
house with the other neighbors to see her diamonds. Unfortunately, the party is
crashed by Mrs. Glynn and her dogs. For a while, the party is commandeered by
Mrs. Glynn wanting the spotlight on her. When everyone stops paying attention
to her dogs, Mrs. Glynn tries to say that the diamonds can't possibly be real.
Everyone thinks that she's very rude. When the box gets back to Mrs. Partlow,
the necklace, earrings, and diamond covered snood are missing. Only the
bracelet remains. Mrs. Glynn also announces that the toy gun for Toy's cowboy
costume is missing. She accidentally trips into the food table and discovers
one of the missing earrings in the icing of the cake. Mrs. Glynn insists that
everyone should be searched but nothing else is found. The girls find Cissie,
Kerry's cousin, hiding in the bush nearby and confront her because she's a bit
of a kleptomaniac.
Later that day, Mrs. Glynn shows up at Meg's house. She has
brought Thunder the collar that Meg was admiring in the pet store. Meg realizes
that the bells don't make it nice twinkling sound and instead make a thudding
sound. She figures that Mrs. Glynn found the collar to be defective and didn't
want it anymore. The next day while Meg is practicing ballet moves outside Mrs.
Glynn shows up to ask how her cat likes his new collar. When Meg tells her that
the cat is off wandering about Mrs. Glynn seems concerned.
Later that night, the radio announces that Mrs. Glynn's
poodle's diamond crown is missing. Meg had warned her that she shouldn't have
put something so valuable on her dog. There is also news that the pet store has
had a birdcage stolen. Later that night she hears the sound of a cat outside
and tries to investigate. The only thing she notices is a light outside of Mrs.
Partlow's house. She grabs a flashlight and discovers Mrs. Glynn hunting around
the outside of the house. In the morning she investigates the area and finds a
piece of pink velvet just like one of the bows the dogs wear. When she returns
home she sees a man leaving in a car and realizes that he had been in the
house. When Meg is practicing her ballet again, Mrs. Glynn shows up once more
asking about the cat. Meg wonders why she's so concerned since she has said
that she hates cats. Cissie shows up and looks at the gun holster on Toy. She
grabs it and runs, angering Mrs. Glynn who chases after. When Meg returns to
her house she finds Cissie waiting for her. She hands Meg a ballet slipper that
she stole and inside Meg finds the missing snood—minus the diamonds. Cissie
won't say anything about where she found it and Kerry is upset at the thought
that Cissie possibly stole something so valuable.
As he girls hunt for one of Cissie's hiding spots, Meg
notices that on the outside fireplace the vines appear to have been disturbed.
Moving them aside she discovers a secret hiding spot and inside it she finds
the dog crown, Toy's gun, and Child's pink velvet bow. She also sees an oddly
shaped piece of leather on the ground—it is the bottom of a high heel shoe. The
only person in town who wears shoes like that is Mrs. Glynn. Meg thinks she
might have the mystery solved. She calls Kerry and asks her to meet her in the
meadow. Meg finds all three of Mrs. Glynn's dogs there. When she pats her leg,
the dogs go wild and she discovers that certain body signals tell the dogs to
do certain things. Meg picks up Little One and discovers under the dog's coat
Mrs. Partlow's diamond necklace. Meg realizes that Mrs. Glynn must have
reported her own dog's crown missing to throw suspicion off of her.
Meg and Kerry hear Cissie crying and see her emerge from
some bushes with Mrs. Glynn on her tail. She grabs Cissie's doll and finds the
toy gun holster. She screams, “Where's the snood?” and grabs Cissie by the
hair. Mike runs at her and Mrs. Glynn slaps him. Cissie runs to the bridge and
emerges with Thunder in a birdcage. A man appears out of nowhere and grabs the
cage from her. Mrs. Glynn demands the collar but the man refuses. Thunder
scratches him and escapes. Luckily, the constable shows up and the adults
suddenly act all nice but Meg tells him about the diamond necklace.
Meg explains how Mrs. Glynn used the dogs as a way to hide
the stolen jewels in plain sight. As the criminals are lead away, Meg realizes
that both the man and Mrs. Glynn seemed super concerned about Thunder. She
unbuckles his collar and discovers the reason the bells don't sound like bells
is because the missing diamonds from the snood are hidden inside!
Thoughts and
Nuggets of Wisdom for Research
Meg appears to suffer from a condition many series book
heroines suffer from—the girl detective with the dead mother. We learn that Meg
and her father also live with a Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. Mrs. Wilson is the
housekeeper. There are a middle aged couple who are easy to live with and Meg
considers them as much a part of her family as her father. Thunder, Meg’s cat, is
Meg's dearest pal. He makes up, a little, for the mother, brothers, and sisters
she does not have. Meg's father is an important man who works in government in Washington, D.C.,
but lives in the “country. Work took her Dad away from home quite often. Unlike
the fathers of Nancy Drew or Penny Parker, Meg’s father is pretty non-existent.
Mrs. Partlow is an interesting character. She represents old
money. She is described as the “‘First Lady’ of the village of Hidden Springs, Virginia.
She lived at Holly House. Her oaks and maples had been planted before the Washingtons built Mount
Vernon. Up here in horse country a Partlow was not
just a Virginian. A Partlow was Virginia. That was not poor” (p. 15). The
small town atmosphere is also readily described when, after the diamonds are
stolen “she did not have to ask Mrs. Wilson what happened next. She knew. Mrs.
Wilson had called Miss Culpepper, who called Mrs. Wayburn, who had called Mrs.
Hosey. That's the way news got around in Hidden Springs. Neighbors were
longtime friends. No matter what the news, everyone knew it” (p. 85-86).
The other characters of importance who are described are
Kerry and Mike’s parents. Unlike Meg who has supportive Mr. and Mrs. Wilson,
Kerry has Ma’am and Sir. She has five brothers and a small sister and “so many cousins came and went that Meg
lost count. At the present time Cissie was living at the farm. Meg did not know
how many horses the Carmodys owned. She did know life was lively on the Carmody
farm, and no living thing was neglected” (p. 35). They tend to be pretty strict
about things.
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