Mystery #32: Claudia and the Mystery in the Painting
Okay, this book is another in the series of really-this-all-happens-in-one-small-town?!
Basically, there was a folk artist named Grandmother Madden who was under-appreciated in her time, and after a show which received particularly harsh reviews, it was said that she destroyed all of her paintings that weren’t either hanging in a museum or gifted to a family member or friend. She stopped painting and instead began teaching others to paint. (Also we never find out Grandmother’s real first name. Punk rock.)
Fast forward years later, Grandmother Madden is dead and her grandchildren have been fighting over her estate. When they realize her paintings have been destroyed, they acquiesce in the decision to allow Rebecca Madden’s inheritance of her grandmother’s house.
Rebecca Madden, in Stoneybrook to clear out her grandmother’s home for an estate sale, has a son named Jimmy who’ll need a baby-sitter. Enter the BSC! Claudia is the one who gets the call and she’s psyched AF and does some pre-research about Granny M. Claudia theorizes that Grandmother Madden couldn’t possibly have destroyed her paintings — because what artist could? — and hopes maybe she can find them while in the house.
Claudia is not the only one looking for the missing paintings, though; one of Rebecca’s cousins and the son of the estate appraiser have teamed up to try to snag them and sell them. The BSC — who all end up helping around the house — find plenty of shady characters to be suspicious of, but when it comes down to it, Claudia is the one who figures out that Grandmother Madden had her students paint over her own work. Unfortunately, she realized it just in time to have a run-in with the two thieves, who shove her in a hidden storage compartment (!) and run off with the paintings.
Luckily, Jimmy and his dad find Claudia and let her out, and she explains everything. The police get involved and the thieves are caught at the airport as one of them tries to flee to Japan. Whew. Let’s all take a breath. Can’t wait to see some of Claudia’s Grandmother Madden-inspired folk art!
