Mystery #32 Claudia and the Mystery in the Painting Ch. 11-15
Okay! So! This took way longer than I expected. But between trying to figure out what to get people for Christmas, idiot clients at work, and then yesterday I had psychosomatic carpal tunnel so it took a while. BUT HEY GUESS WHAT! It'll be over soon. Which, thank Zeus, because this book had it's snark moments, but for the large part it was really boring.
Ch. 1-5
Ch. 6-10
Chapter 11:
Everyone's finished cleaning and organizing and dusting and whatever other boring task they were doing yayyy! The girls find out that Ms. Madden needs the money from the estate sale to go to art school. Yup. Art school, everyone. I swear this book is just slapping me in the face with a fish... no, wait... a crappy painting of a fish.
Either way Claudia is obsessed with the painting Mr. Cook/Mr. Ogura had that was maybe a Madden. And of course now that everything has been sorted and organized, Claudia's chances of finding a Madden are, "fading fast". Okay, really, Claudia? What do you expect to do when you find one? Prove you were right and gloat? They're not going to let you keep it. Ms. Madden will likely sell it for that art school tuition or give it to the museum. But nothing will stop Claudia! She rushes to the library to get the books her mom put on hold for her because she can't bear to go to the museum before she sees what's in them.
Mrs. Kishi is expectedly surprised that her daughter has returned to that place with all the book things and hands over the books to her. She thumbs through them and finds that her list she found is the same as the list of paintings BUT WAIT! The list has checks next to painting names meant they were in museums while the ones that were struck through were owned by individuals. And the book also tells her one is owned by a D. Ogua- WHAT A TWEEST!
She hurries to the estate company and finds out that there are TWO Mr. Ogura's. The one she is looking for is the young one and the receptionist buzzes him. The receptionist says, "I'm sorry, but Mr. Ogura doesn't answer." What? How... That's the wrong tense. It's not even a natural sentence. Like I've said before, I'm a receptionist and when someone doesn't respond I say, "So-and-so isn't available" or "I've paged So-and-so, but he didn't respond" which both sound like what normal people say. W'ver, as I also said everyone in this book is an idiot.
Then Mr. Cook comes by the estate company with a painting! Claudia acts like a little beeyotch asking him, "What the hell you doin' here Cook?" and he's all, "I'm having this appraised for the sale, duh." Claudia accepts this and leaves, realizing she can't keep stalking him... well, not directly. Instead she sits on a bench where she can see him but he can't see her. Ohoho, Miss Kishi, touche.
She also spots Ogura's car but has to run off because it was 4:15 when she left to go to the estate company and now it was almost meeting time. They discuss this whole Madden thing and NOT babysitting so once again Kristy's bossiness goes out the window when she has a vested interest in a non-mystery. Claud asks why the thought of art school pisses Mr. Cook off and then answers her own damn question by saying it's because he hates art. They go through more mystery crap and settle on the idea that Ms. Madden has a conspiracy to sell off the paintings without sharing with her family- a likely story if the truth wasn't so damn obvious.
Zeus' Mystery Notebook Entry #1: I'm barely paying attention at this point since I solved this thing in chapter 1.
Chapter 12:
Hearts over the i's in the notebook entry. Moving on.
Stacey's at the museum for the showcase of the kids' art with a sad Corrie Addison when Mal arrives with Pukeo and Abby wanders up with MA. Everyone's bursting with the thought that the kids' art is going to be showcased tonight and go through things like, "it's like a writer being published!" and realize there is no term for an artist getting their art put up in a museum. I agree, there really is no term... and... I thought about it for a second and moved on because I did not want to have to go look that up.
Corrie wants all her paintings removed and no one knows why. She finally reveals it's all Abby's fault because she used a crap analogy for Corrie's painting abilities. She said Corrie was like Pele, the soccer player, and when Corrie found out who Pele was she thought Abby meant she painted like some jock from the 80s. Abby explains that she meant Corrie was as good at painting as Pele was at soccer because hello, children don't get analogies.
Mrs. O'Neal takes a step back to get all hand-to-pearls again about the kids painting around all these people. This woman... She took a million steps forward and then fell into quicksand all in the span of a few chapters. Why even give her the opport- CLAUDIA OUTFIT ALERT.
She's in:
Stacey sees Mr. Cook come in with Jimmy and Ms. Madden, realizing that he was the delivery guy she saw! He was bringing over artwork to be used for Ms. Madden's art school review. Well, that's one mystery solved, am I right? Hah. I'm right. And actually didn't see that coming... not because it was well written. It was because Stacey was a crap witness and barely described the guy other than that he looked too good to be a delivery guy.
But once they get over that shock, Claudia points out Stacey's nail polish is chipped and she can see the previous color through where the chips have fallen away. A spark ignites in Claudia's brain and she's FINALLY figured out the mystery. EVERYONE TO THE MYSTERY MACHINE! I mean Junk Bucket. I won't sully the good name of the Mystery Machine. The girls make Charlie drive them to the Madden's, but alas, the spare key is gone and breaking-and-entering is out of the question. So everyone goes home and Claudia can't sleep because she just HAS to... I dunno, deface some paintings I guess.
Chapter 13:
Claudia is up early on a Saturday due to all the anxiety. She knows about the paintings and today is the sale and oh goodness she has to be right about everything! When did she turn into Karen?
She hurries to the Madden house and uses the spare key, that is back, to get in before everyone starts swarming in to buy crap. The studio is open and there's the Japanese painting. She measures it and it's 10 inches across and 20 inches tall... It's two Maddens on top of each other! She MUST peel off the paint NOW to see if she's right. A small piece. You know, so if you ruin it, you can just cover that corner with a potted plant or something. She instead goes to the little hidey-hole Jimmy used to hide the painting and finds a stack of paintings with a paper that says HOLD over them.
As Claudia continues a'solving, someone comes in behind her. It's that weirdo woman from before! She's here to pay for those paintings Claudia is hoarding in her artsy, sugar filled arms. This is supposed to be tense, but I get distracted by the fact that, "ten x ten" is spelled out the way that it is. I get not typing out the numbers, but why use the X instead of "by"? It makes no sense. In fact, kids would probably read that, "ten ex ten" which makes even less sense.
The woman reveals herself to also be Ms. Madden and Claudia fails to have any understanding of family by being all, "NO, WHO ARE YOU WHAT IS HAPPENING?" The woman has to explain the concept of cousins as Goldie walks into the room- looks like this cousin has the cat. Again Claudia fails at knowledge of family by saying she though the cat was "catnapped" because Ms. Madden said her aunt had the cat. REALLY, CLAUDIA? The aunt is the MOTHER of the cousin. She could have given the cat to her DAUGHTER. I swear to Zeus...
Whatever, Ogura shows up and gets all up in the other Madden's face about how those are HIS paintings and how Ms. Madden said HE could have them. Claudia then gets even worse by narrating, "What was he doing here? Where were Ms. Madden and Mr. Cook? I thought about screaming."
...
You thought...
...
You thought about screaming... because you were confused about two adults arguing... Essentially, Claudia is Kramer in the following clip:
Yep.
But hark! The Ogura-Madden duo gets a Great Idea! They... lock Claudia in the hidden cabinet. I know this is terrible and would be horrifying for a child, but as I read it, alone in the break room at work, I laughed. I laughed, I laughed more, I ate some salad, and then I stopped laughing. I was still smirking though.
Chapter 14:
Claudia is locked in the closet! Danger is afoot! Claudia is worried for her safety is thinking about how she was right about those paintings. The Madden-Cook duo, the good guys, free Claudia who tumbles out with her hair askew, her trendy clothes coated in a light coating of dust. Her cheek ruddy and slightly scraped and her nail, broken. She weeps.
...not really.
She instantly starts running her mouth about the paintings and how there's stuff under them! None of the adults thought of this apparently. Not even the ones who, oh I don't know, took them to the appraiser who saw they were the right size and would have probably seen the chips in the paint on some of them...
Then they realize there are two people out there with stolen goods and Ms. Madden says she has the beeper number for the office. Ha ha... beepers... Why would an office have a beeper? Unless it's one of the Oguras' beeper... Hah... beeper. I can't get over how funny that word is. Even now when they've all but died outside of hospitals.
They call the police who catch Ogura at the airport where he was going to flee to Japan with the paintings. Apparently it only takes about 10 minutes to get to the airport, find the man, and arrest him. Either SB has the best police force ever or Ogura was driving 4 miles an hour. Oh, and, hey, Ogura, newsflash- no one in Japan wants or cares about some folk art from some mid-sized town in Connecticut. No one.
Chapter 15:
The BSC arrive at the Madden house after the whole police deal goes down. Claudia recaps everything that happened in the book and we have the requisite, "Oh that? That's not a mystery, I knew what was going on because I'm an adult who doesn't have to tell you about every thing I do."
Basically: G'ma had her students paint over her work -> Ogura knew and was trying to scrape off the paint to confirm -> He and Madden's cousin teamed up to get them -> They tried to double cross each other -> Claudia gets dumped in a closet -> I was right the whole time.
The missing catalog was with Mr. Cook because he couldn't match the painting he had to anything in it. He knew if the older Ogura, the non-sketchy one, could identify it they would have been rich and Madden could have gone to art school. Turns out Madden painted it and not her grandmother, hoping to please her. G'ma said that it was her style and that her granddaughter had to find her own style which causes Madden to be all, "Ho hum, I'll never get into art school!"
Mr. Cook then reveals that the acceptance letter came earlier and he was waiting to tell her. Turned out he was grumpy because he was stressed out over whether or not his wife would get in, hoping she would. It's a sweet sentiment, but Claudia ruined it all with her damn mystery. He also says he doesn't hate art, he just doesn't understand it and hopes his wife and son can teach him.
Then everyone fawns over Claudia for solving the mystery and the book is OVER.
Whew... that was rough. I swear, no one in this book can critically think until like... the last 10 pages. I'm mulling over what to do next and am also trying to see if I want to try a different format. Audio? Group audio ala a book club. I don't know yet, but it's my favorite time of the year and I'm feelin' good!
Ch. 1-5
Ch. 6-10
Chapter 11:
Everyone's finished cleaning and organizing and dusting and whatever other boring task they were doing yayyy! The girls find out that Ms. Madden needs the money from the estate sale to go to art school. Yup. Art school, everyone. I swear this book is just slapping me in the face with a fish... no, wait... a crappy painting of a fish.
Either way Claudia is obsessed with the painting Mr. Cook/Mr. Ogura had that was maybe a Madden. And of course now that everything has been sorted and organized, Claudia's chances of finding a Madden are, "fading fast". Okay, really, Claudia? What do you expect to do when you find one? Prove you were right and gloat? They're not going to let you keep it. Ms. Madden will likely sell it for that art school tuition or give it to the museum. But nothing will stop Claudia! She rushes to the library to get the books her mom put on hold for her because she can't bear to go to the museum before she sees what's in them.
Mrs. Kishi is expectedly surprised that her daughter has returned to that place with all the book things and hands over the books to her. She thumbs through them and finds that her list she found is the same as the list of paintings BUT WAIT! The list has checks next to painting names meant they were in museums while the ones that were struck through were owned by individuals. And the book also tells her one is owned by a D. Ogua- WHAT A TWEEST!
She hurries to the estate company and finds out that there are TWO Mr. Ogura's. The one she is looking for is the young one and the receptionist buzzes him. The receptionist says, "I'm sorry, but Mr. Ogura doesn't answer." What? How... That's the wrong tense. It's not even a natural sentence. Like I've said before, I'm a receptionist and when someone doesn't respond I say, "So-and-so isn't available" or "I've paged So-and-so, but he didn't respond" which both sound like what normal people say. W'ver, as I also said everyone in this book is an idiot.
Then Mr. Cook comes by the estate company with a painting! Claudia acts like a little beeyotch asking him, "What the hell you doin' here Cook?" and he's all, "I'm having this appraised for the sale, duh." Claudia accepts this and leaves, realizing she can't keep stalking him... well, not directly. Instead she sits on a bench where she can see him but he can't see her. Ohoho, Miss Kishi, touche.
She also spots Ogura's car but has to run off because it was 4:15 when she left to go to the estate company and now it was almost meeting time. They discuss this whole Madden thing and NOT babysitting so once again Kristy's bossiness goes out the window when she has a vested interest in a non-mystery. Claud asks why the thought of art school pisses Mr. Cook off and then answers her own damn question by saying it's because he hates art. They go through more mystery crap and settle on the idea that Ms. Madden has a conspiracy to sell off the paintings without sharing with her family- a likely story if the truth wasn't so damn obvious.
Zeus' Mystery Notebook Entry #1: I'm barely paying attention at this point since I solved this thing in chapter 1.
Chapter 12:
Hearts over the i's in the notebook entry. Moving on.
Stacey's at the museum for the showcase of the kids' art with a sad Corrie Addison when Mal arrives with Pukeo and Abby wanders up with MA. Everyone's bursting with the thought that the kids' art is going to be showcased tonight and go through things like, "it's like a writer being published!" and realize there is no term for an artist getting their art put up in a museum. I agree, there really is no term... and... I thought about it for a second and moved on because I did not want to have to go look that up.
Corrie wants all her paintings removed and no one knows why. She finally reveals it's all Abby's fault because she used a crap analogy for Corrie's painting abilities. She said Corrie was like Pele, the soccer player, and when Corrie found out who Pele was she thought Abby meant she painted like some jock from the 80s. Abby explains that she meant Corrie was as good at painting as Pele was at soccer because hello, children don't get analogies.
Mrs. O'Neal takes a step back to get all hand-to-pearls again about the kids painting around all these people. This woman... She took a million steps forward and then fell into quicksand all in the span of a few chapters. Why even give her the opport- CLAUDIA OUTFIT ALERT.
She's in:
- Long, full, black skirt with red, orange, pink, yellow, and turquoise flowers embroidered on the hem
- Necklace she made out of papier-mache beads painted to match said flowers
- Black beret
- Beaded earring
Stacey sees Mr. Cook come in with Jimmy and Ms. Madden, realizing that he was the delivery guy she saw! He was bringing over artwork to be used for Ms. Madden's art school review. Well, that's one mystery solved, am I right? Hah. I'm right. And actually didn't see that coming... not because it was well written. It was because Stacey was a crap witness and barely described the guy other than that he looked too good to be a delivery guy.
But once they get over that shock, Claudia points out Stacey's nail polish is chipped and she can see the previous color through where the chips have fallen away. A spark ignites in Claudia's brain and she's FINALLY figured out the mystery. EVERYONE TO THE MYSTERY MACHINE! I mean Junk Bucket. I won't sully the good name of the Mystery Machine. The girls make Charlie drive them to the Madden's, but alas, the spare key is gone and breaking-and-entering is out of the question. So everyone goes home and Claudia can't sleep because she just HAS to... I dunno, deface some paintings I guess.
Chapter 13:
Claudia is up early on a Saturday due to all the anxiety. She knows about the paintings and today is the sale and oh goodness she has to be right about everything! When did she turn into Karen?
She hurries to the Madden house and uses the spare key, that is back, to get in before everyone starts swarming in to buy crap. The studio is open and there's the Japanese painting. She measures it and it's 10 inches across and 20 inches tall... It's two Maddens on top of each other! She MUST peel off the paint NOW to see if she's right. A small piece. You know, so if you ruin it, you can just cover that corner with a potted plant or something. She instead goes to the little hidey-hole Jimmy used to hide the painting and finds a stack of paintings with a paper that says HOLD over them.
As Claudia continues a'solving, someone comes in behind her. It's that weirdo woman from before! She's here to pay for those paintings Claudia is hoarding in her artsy, sugar filled arms. This is supposed to be tense, but I get distracted by the fact that, "ten x ten" is spelled out the way that it is. I get not typing out the numbers, but why use the X instead of "by"? It makes no sense. In fact, kids would probably read that, "ten ex ten" which makes even less sense.
The woman reveals herself to also be Ms. Madden and Claudia fails to have any understanding of family by being all, "NO, WHO ARE YOU WHAT IS HAPPENING?" The woman has to explain the concept of cousins as Goldie walks into the room- looks like this cousin has the cat. Again Claudia fails at knowledge of family by saying she though the cat was "catnapped" because Ms. Madden said her aunt had the cat. REALLY, CLAUDIA? The aunt is the MOTHER of the cousin. She could have given the cat to her DAUGHTER. I swear to Zeus...
Whatever, Ogura shows up and gets all up in the other Madden's face about how those are HIS paintings and how Ms. Madden said HE could have them. Claudia then gets even worse by narrating, "What was he doing here? Where were Ms. Madden and Mr. Cook? I thought about screaming."
...
You thought...
...
You thought about screaming... because you were confused about two adults arguing... Essentially, Claudia is Kramer in the following clip:
Click to viewYep.
But hark! The Ogura-Madden duo gets a Great Idea! They... lock Claudia in the hidden cabinet. I know this is terrible and would be horrifying for a child, but as I read it, alone in the break room at work, I laughed. I laughed, I laughed more, I ate some salad, and then I stopped laughing. I was still smirking though.
Chapter 14:
Claudia is locked in the closet! Danger is afoot! Claudia is worried for her safety is thinking about how she was right about those paintings. The Madden-Cook duo, the good guys, free Claudia who tumbles out with her hair askew, her trendy clothes coated in a light coating of dust. Her cheek ruddy and slightly scraped and her nail, broken. She weeps.
...not really.
She instantly starts running her mouth about the paintings and how there's stuff under them! None of the adults thought of this apparently. Not even the ones who, oh I don't know, took them to the appraiser who saw they were the right size and would have probably seen the chips in the paint on some of them...
Then they realize there are two people out there with stolen goods and Ms. Madden says she has the beeper number for the office. Ha ha... beepers... Why would an office have a beeper? Unless it's one of the Oguras' beeper... Hah... beeper. I can't get over how funny that word is. Even now when they've all but died outside of hospitals.
They call the police who catch Ogura at the airport where he was going to flee to Japan with the paintings. Apparently it only takes about 10 minutes to get to the airport, find the man, and arrest him. Either SB has the best police force ever or Ogura was driving 4 miles an hour. Oh, and, hey, Ogura, newsflash- no one in Japan wants or cares about some folk art from some mid-sized town in Connecticut. No one.
Chapter 15:
The BSC arrive at the Madden house after the whole police deal goes down. Claudia recaps everything that happened in the book and we have the requisite, "Oh that? That's not a mystery, I knew what was going on because I'm an adult who doesn't have to tell you about every thing I do."
Basically: G'ma had her students paint over her work -> Ogura knew and was trying to scrape off the paint to confirm -> He and Madden's cousin teamed up to get them -> They tried to double cross each other -> Claudia gets dumped in a closet -> I was right the whole time.
The missing catalog was with Mr. Cook because he couldn't match the painting he had to anything in it. He knew if the older Ogura, the non-sketchy one, could identify it they would have been rich and Madden could have gone to art school. Turns out Madden painted it and not her grandmother, hoping to please her. G'ma said that it was her style and that her granddaughter had to find her own style which causes Madden to be all, "Ho hum, I'll never get into art school!"
Mr. Cook then reveals that the acceptance letter came earlier and he was waiting to tell her. Turned out he was grumpy because he was stressed out over whether or not his wife would get in, hoping she would. It's a sweet sentiment, but Claudia ruined it all with her damn mystery. He also says he doesn't hate art, he just doesn't understand it and hopes his wife and son can teach him.
Then everyone fawns over Claudia for solving the mystery and the book is OVER.
Whew... that was rough. I swear, no one in this book can critically think until like... the last 10 pages. I'm mulling over what to do next and am also trying to see if I want to try a different format. Audio? Group audio ala a book club. I don't know yet, but it's my favorite time of the year and I'm feelin' good!