Meg and the Mystery in Williamsburg - Mystery #6 in a series

Alas, with this book, we come to the end of the Meg Duncan series by Holly Beth Walker (or whatever ghostwriter actually wrote this final mystery).  It has certainly been a fun journey, trailing along with Meg and her best friend, Kerry Carmody, as they stumble across one mystery after another, no matter where they are. The mysteries have become a bit more complicated and more mature in theme as the series has progressed, and the character of Meg certainly acts like someone much older than a girl barely in her teens.  And despite the likelihood of different ghostwriters for the books (especially for this one, whose writing style and sentence structure definitely differs from the previous books), the characters have, for the most part, remained consistent.  It's a shame the publisher did not commission more books, either during the series' first run or when it was later reprinted by Golden Press.

 

Meg and the Mystery in Williamsburg sees Meg and Kerry join Meg's Uncle Hal on a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia to help out at a vintage toy show.  This obviously caught my attention right away, having a house full of vintage and collectible toys myself!  But the toys that are the focal point of this mystery are dolls and a doll house that date back to the colonial days.  The girls are staying with Lucy Cameron, a friend of Meg's now-deceased mother, and she introduces them to one Miss Mariah Collins (yes! Collins! a shame more of the Collins' family didn't enter the story...), a quirky old woman who has agreed to allow her family's toys be displayed at the show.  Only, her toys come with a story - and a mystery!  It seems many years ago, when Mariah's cousin came for a visit (back when Mariah was a little girl), her cousin brought her two small children with her. The children had a quarrel and ultimately wrecked the play room, breaking toys, smashing the dollhouse her grandfather had built, and pulling the arms and legs off of Mariah's special doll named "Paris."  But worst of all, when the room was cleaned up, it was discovered that two clothespin dolls that had been carefully displayed in a glass cabinet were gone (p. 31).  Miss Mariah's grandfather did eventually find the two dolls, but he hid them away so they could never go missing again.  And so begins the mystery...

 

Miss Mariah has spent most of her life searching for those clothespin dolls.  She keeps the upstairs toy room locked so no one else can enter.  She has searched the secret room just off the toy room.  She has looked through the doll house.  In fact, her father told her if she turned the house upside down, she would find them - but she has searched her plantation home from basement to attic, and she has never found the dolls. Meg and Kerry are excited with the idea of another mystery to solve, and they are determined that before they leave Williamsburg, they will do their best to locate those dolls.  In the meantime, they must put on colonial-style costumes and greet guests at the toy show, giving memorized speeches about the toys themselves, and answering questions from the visitors.  What they do not expect is that the mystery of those missing dolls will cross over into the toy show, as strangers begin to start asking very pointed questions - about the dollhouse, about Miss Mariah's doll "Paris," and ab out the Collins' collection of toys.  The mysterious Mr. Adam, who takes an intense interest in Paris.  The friendly but overly-curious Stephen Anderson, who is more than determined to get a closer look at the dollhouse.  Then there is the unknown man that the girls see talking to both Mr. Adam and Stephen Anderson.

 

Someone tries sneaking up the stairs of Miss Mariah's house to her playroom.  Someone enters the toy show during lunch and makes a mess of the toys, which are in a roped-off room that no one is allowed to enter.  Someone steals Paris, but then leaves her at the door to the playroom.   Someone chases Meg and Kerry through the woods, determined to get their hands on that doll.  What has caused the roof of the dollhouse to not seal properly?  Why does the secret room in the dollhouse, modeled after the one in the real plantation, not have a door knob?  What has caused Paris to no longer say "Mama" like she did years ago? And why is Meg so certain the clue to unraveling this whole mystery has been in front of her face the entire time?

 

This was definitely a mystery worthy of Nancy Drew and some of the other "great" teenage detectives. If the series had to end, this was definitely a fantastic way to close it down.  The author integrates a number of real Williamsburg sites into the story - from the Duke of Gloucester Street (p. 16) to the Brush-Everard House (where the toy show is) located next to the Governor's Palace (p. 20); from the Raleigh Tavern Bakery (p. 52) to the holly maze located on the grounds of the Governor's Palace (p. 83).  You have to love it when an author includes actual locations in the book, providing readers with an opportunity to explore the same locations in the real world and truly follow in their favorite sleuths' footsteps!

 

The artists for the covers and the interior remain the same as the previous five books - Cliff Schule provided the cover for the original hardback edition, as well as the interiors for both, while Olindo Giacomini provided the cover for the later paperback edition.  Both covers depict the scene where Meg and Kerry are running back to River House Plantation to escape the man chasing them, and are ready to sneak in through the chimney door.  It is interesting that while they both depict the same scene, and both accurately portray Meg and Kerry in the correct costumes they are wearing in the story, the hardback gives us a perspective from above, looking down them as the come around the chimney to the door, while the paperback gives us a perspective from the side, watching the girls run around the corner of the house and directly into the door located in front of the chimney. 

 

On a complete side note, when Meg reads an article giving the history of the two clothespin dolls, which were said to have been made by George Washington for his sister, Betty, the article reveals that "when Betty was a grown woman, she had given the dolls to a girl named Nell Benson..." (p. 92).  I had to laugh out loud at that name, because there was a character by that very same name on General Hospital a few years back - a character who turned out to be quite a dastardly villain, but one who I grew to love immensely!  Funny coincidence!

 

And with that, we reach the end of the Meg Duncan series.  One can only wonder how many unrecorded mysteries Meg and her best friend, Kerry, solved, and whether either of them went on to find boyfriends (as none whatsoever are mentioned in these six books) and went on to college and careers...

 

RATING:  10 fresh-baked ginger cookies out of 10 for ending the series on a high note, with a well-plotted mystery with a great mix of real and fictional history!