Elizabeth Honness

Nancy, Barby, and Doug Holland looked forward to summer in New Hampshire without realizing what exciting secrets came with their new home. The summer would hold more than swimming and horseback riding, blueberry pancakes and picnics at the lake, but they didn't begin to guess how much more until Nancy bid for an old trunk at a country auction. The Hollands were vacationing in an old house which had once belonged to a New Hampshire primitive artist whose paintings had lately become fashionable and valuable. A menacing art dealer, Mr. Cummings, was on the trail of yet undiscovered paintings and would stop at nothing to get hold of them. The children were afraid he might even get their marvelous house away from them. The suspense mounts until the very end of the book, when a squirrel, a secret hiding place and its peculiar contents help the Hollands outwit Mr. Cummings and solve the mystery hidden in the old house. Elizabeth Honness's mysteries have built up a large audience for the author's special brand of action and excitement.

The Holland children were happy enough looking forward to spending Christmas in New England. When they discovered the wooden Indian and found themselves in the middle of a mystery, they expected almost anything to happen. Nancy, Barby, Doug, and their dog, Crystal, have an excioting time finding the answers to the puzzle.

When Abby and Kit Hubbard moved into the family homestead on the New England coast, they were unprepared for the surprises the historic old house had in store for them. Into their lives, for the first time, came their mother's elderly half sister, Miss Ann Pingree. From her they learned about the secret closet, the smugglers' tunnel which no one had ever been able to find--and about one of their ancestors who was captured by pirates in the early eighteenth century. He was never heard of again and was believed to haunt their old house Tangled family relationships, a caretaker who arouses their suspicions, and a disappearing desk result in the uncovering of a clever racket. And a dangerous exploration undertaken by Abby and Kit leads to a gruesome discovery.