The Dollhouse Murders

Written by Betty Ren Wright

Scholastic Inc., 1995

Genre: Children's fiction; mystery

Reading Level: Ages 9-12

160 pages

The Dollhouse Murders is an exciting children's mystery book about a young girl investigating her family's terrifying past. The book starts out with Amy, the main character, at the mall with her friend Ellen, and her sister, Louann. As usual Amy is just trying to be normal and have fun with her friend and her sister Louann is making it impossible. Louann is handicapped and has a habit of wandering off, asking too many questions, and according to Amy scaring off all of Amy's friends. As Amy and Louann head home, Amy again gets in trouble for "neglecting" Louann by her mother and Amy runs away from the house in anger. Amy decides to go see her Aunt Clare, who is staying at Amy's great grandparent's old house to clean it up and clean it out. Amy enters the big house and goes to her aunt who is up in the attic. That's when Amy is first introduced to the dollhouse. She finds it absolutely amazing. It is an exact replica of the big house in it's old condition. Including little books, chairs, and even people that represent Amy's dad, Aunt Clare, and Amy's great grandparents. It's obvious Aunt Clare doesn't like the dollhouse and resents it even because she had a rocky relationship with her grandparents. Aunt Clare explains to Amy that after her and Amy's dad's parent's died they came to live with Amy's great grandparents and Aunt Clare and her grandma didn't get along at all. After they leave the attic Amy explains to her aunt why she ran to her and how she's fed up with taking care of her sister and getting in trouble with her parents. Aunt Clare is very understanding and says that maybe Amy does need a break and suggests that she should come stay with her for awhile. Amy's parents reluctantly concede and both Amy and her aunt are completely thrilled. Soon after Amy gets all moved in she has her friend Ellen over and shows her her new room and the dollhouse of course. Ellen, just like Amy, is enthralled with it and the girls play with it and put each of the dolls at the dining room table. Aunt Clare calls them downstairs to eat fudge and reluctantly they leave the dollhouse. Realizing that she left the dollhouse open Amy returns to the attic, but she hears a weird scurrying sound like a mouse, she goes over to the dollhouse and sees that the grandma figurine has been moved to the parlor. Amy runs away and tells herself, "dolls don't move by themselves." Before Ellen heads home, Aunt Clare suggests that since both Amy and Ellen's birthdays are coming up they should have a double birthday party at the big house. Of course the girls are very excited. Amy decides the next day that she wants to know more about her great grandparent's death so she goes to the library and search through old newspapers. She finds an article about the murder of a prominent couple and the little boy the police found in a closet. As Amy tells Ellen about the murders, she is overheard by Aunt Clare who gets mad at her and kind of flips out, Amy is extremely surprised and apologizes over and over. Aunt Clare claims that she is sick and cruel, and shows Amy the dolls in the dollhouse and how they've moved into positions described in the article as where they were murdered or found, and creepily Amy didn't put them there. Later that night Aunt Clare apologizes to Amy and explains that she is still torn up about the murders because she and her grandmother had had a fight that same night. Amy stops by her house the next day to pick up some tapes for her party and accidentally mentions it to Louann who of course wants to be included and gets very upset when Amy says no, and Amy's mother gets mad at her. That same night Amy has to go up to the attic again to get a blanket, she dreads it for good reason as she sees a light in the dollhouse and actually saw a doll move. The next day Amy and Ellen's party happens, Louann shows up because of an emergency with Amy's mother's friend. Amy is devastated but with the help of some of the friends invited to the party it doesn't ruin the night. After the party guests have left and Ellen is asleep, Amy wakes up and realizes that Louann has left her bed. Amy finds her in the attic with the dollhouse and she hears crying coming from the dollhouse and the light again and the books fall from the shelf of the parlor. Amy and Louann freak and run out of the attic. The next day after a bike ride Louann and Amy return to Aunt Clare's house. Again she was furious thinking that Amy had put the dolls in the murderous positions. Between Amy and Louann they convince Aunt Clare that they didn't do it and that the dollhouse is haunted. Aunt Clare reveals that she feels guilty for the death of her grandparents because she was secretly engaged to an easily angered man who they forbid her to see, and the same night her grandparents were murdered he was killed in a car crash and Aunt Clare is sure that he killed her grandparents and it's all her fault. Amy feels terrible for Aunt Clare and despite her fears she decides to investigate. Amy and Louann go up to the dollhouse that night and they hear footsteps, and the crying dolly and a scream. They are terrified and run to Aunt Clare. Aunt Clare decides that the house is trying to tell them something. They go to the parlor with the books like the grandma doll and search through the books, they find a letter written (in a book called the Dollhouse) by the grandma that says the gardener Reuben did it. Aunt Clare is relieved of the guilt and the mystery is solved. Amy returns home with a new appreciation of being a sister to Louann, who ends up getting the dollhouse as a gift from Aunt Clare.

I would recommend this to any child that enjoys a scary mystery.

I think that the only conflict that could come from this book would be that it is a little scary.

Even when i was younger i really enjoyed this book. It's unique, suspenseful, and terrifying and i absolutely loved it. It is well written, easily read, but still interesting to someone older and at a higher reading level.

My rating: 5 out of 5