THE HOUSE ON MAYFERRY STREET

Number 17 Mayferry Street, for 200 years the residence of the Ramsay clan of Edinburgh, provides the foundation for Dunlop's sentimental mystery. Since Mr. R's sudden death and seventeen-year-old Marion's car accident which has left her unable to walk, Mother has had to let rooms and can't even afford a flute for eleven-year-old Colin who wants to join the school orchestra. Then one day a top-to-bottom housecleaning turns up a letter, written in 1914 by an Alan Farquhar to a long-lost Ramsay uncle, which alludes to a stolen trunk presumably still hidden in the house. What exactly is inside the trunk? Well, suffice it to say that both Colin and Marion soon begin hearing the haunting melody of a flute coming from a spooky upstairs room. (Unaccountably, the British title--A Flute on Mayferry Street--appears on every left-hand page.) Inevitably Colin and Marion's scavenger hunt leads to the valuable instrument plus flute music composed by Farquhar, which when played by Colin not only gets lame Marion back on her feet but has her walking--practically Straight into the arms of Farquhar grand fils who has suddenly appeared on the scene. The goopy-fairy tale finale is just one more reason to pass by Mayferry Street.