MYSTERY AT MAPPING

Mappins is for moppets more British than American: it is well written, certainly, landscaped with details of English rustic life, and the mystery comes down to who has used weed killer to wipe out Major Clevedon's trout farm and also vandalized his flower beds. Major Clevedon is a surly old man in a wheelchair and Mr. Meredith becomes his temporary estate manager. The three Meredith children are very busy; they pry and they poke (so does the story) when Leonie, the only girl, and she's the most instrumental in it, discovers that some of his trout are ending up on the luncheon table in a local rooming house. She takes a job there in the kitchen to discover who's responsible; she gardens; and she helps in raising a local library.... At its best, wholesome, at its most active, meddlesome.