And now we come to the fourth and final book in the Penny Nichols series. The third book made no reference to this one at the end, perhaps because the publisher (Goldsmith) was not sure whether the series would sell well enough to warrant a fourth book. Regardless, it took three years before this fourth book was published in 1939, and sadly, it was the last book to feature Mildred Wirt (Benson)'s fearless sleuth. As Goldsmith was not one of the bigger publishers of children's mysteries (unlike Grosset & Dunlap or Cupples & Leon, who published a myriad of different series for boys and girls), perhaps they simply did not have the marketing tools or distribution that the bigger companies did, and so their books did not make it on as many shelves. Plus, the fact that all four books feature the same cover could have confused young readers (as well as their parents) into believing they already had the book, since there was no different in the cover other than the title (which was not prominently featured, but rather in small letters just below Penny Nichols' name). Whatever the reason, this final book ended the mystery-solving career of Penny Nichols.
Penny Nichols and the Knob Hill Mystery has Penny joining her father on yet another vacation. This time, Mr. Nichols has rented a small place on Knob Hill, where he intends to enjoy some peace and quiet with no work, no mysteries, and no one to bother him! Penny is not overly excited about the trip, but she knows her father needs the time away, so she willingly joins him. Little do they know another mystery with plenty of adventure waits for them on the supposedly peaceful Knob Hill!
Meanwhile, back to the book. The mystery begins when Penny and her father offer to give a ride to a man whose car had driven into a ditch. Walter Crocker is not a happy man, and while he accepts the offer of a ride, it is clear he is upset with his uncle, Herman Crocker, who he believes has been stealing his inheritance from him. When they arrive at the sleepy little village of Kendon, located at the foot of Knob Hill (p. 25), Mr. Crocker takes off without a word! Well, as it turns out, the cottage Mr. Nichols rented for the stay happens to be owned by none other than Herman Crocker. Mr. Nichols warns Penny to stay out of it, because they are there for a vacation, but Penny can't help herself. She knows something is amiss, particularly when Walter Crocker disappears without a trace, and she finds his car hidden away in Herman Crocker's garage. Then there is Mrs. Masterbrook, who the Nichols hire to cook and clean for them while they are staying at the cottage - Penny catches her snooping in her father's room and is left to wonder what the woman's true intentions are. And there is also the stranger who shows up at the cottage looking for Herman Crocker - he says his name is Michael Haymond, but Penny believes there is more to his story. Mr. Nichols hires him as a handyman to fix up the cottage, and he tells Penny not to create mysteries where there are none. One would think that after solving three mysteries that even the police couldn't solve, Penny's father would have more faith in his daughter's intuition.
This mystery is a tad bit darker than the previous three, as it also concerns a young boy who is the grandson of Herman Crocker. Penny tries to befriend the boy, but Mr. Crocker makes it clear she is to stay away from him and never talk to him. Penny discovers the boy is being held captive in the house, not allowed to go to school, and quite possibly malnourished. When Mr. Nichols is convinced to look into some local robberies, a toy lantern discovered at the scene of one of the crimes provides a vital clue that links the robberies Mr. Nichols is investigating to the multiple mysteries Penny is trying to solve. Once again, as with the Mystery of the Lost Key, Wirt weaves into the story a long-lost relative, a stolen inheritance, and a family revelation.
The one disappointing thing about this story is that there is no true resolution to what happened to Herman Crocker's grandson, Perry - one would think that he would have been placed with the relative that is revealed in the story, but Wirt makes no discussion whatsoever of that. Instead, the reader is left without any clue as to what happened to poor Perry after his grandfather is arrested for stealing the money intended for his deceased sister's son. It's not like Wirt to leave a plot thread hanging, but perhaps with everything else going on in the story, this part fell by the wayside.
Nevertheless, the final Penny Nichols story ends on a rather amusing note, as Mr. Nichols informs his daughter that after everything that took place in Kendon, they are leaving. When Penny asks where they are going, Mr. Nichols replies, "I don't know ... but it will be to some nice quite place where I can have a vacation." (p. 250) What neither Mr. Nichols nor Penny (nor, for that matter, readers!) knew was that the vacation was to be a permanent one!
One last thing to mention - while all four books in this series were published by Goldsmith, the books that I have are not all the same - books 1 and 3 are the standard size, in the same dimensions (height and width) as a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books; however, books 2 and 4 are slightly larger in height, about a half-inch taller. Not sure if the taller editions are later printings, earlier printings, or if the series was simply published that way - were all four published in the standard size AND the taller size, or were only certain books published in the taller size? As someone who prefers a uniform series, it is a bit disconcerting to have two of the four books taller than the other two!
RATING: 9 broken down wood-burning stoves out of 10 for ending this series with a well-written mystery, even if a bit darker than the previous ones
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