Rereading: PROBLEM PARTY by M. E. Atkinson

Cover and illustrations by Stuart Tresilian

The tenth book in Atkinson’s holiday adventure series about the Lockett family and their friends is unusually complex, as it gathers many of the characters from the previous nine books to an elaborate house party over the Christmas holidays.

It begins with Evelyn Standish, the girl met in “The Monster of Widgeon Weir” who wears leg irons or braces to help her walk, and who can’t do many of the things her sister Brenda does, though her wealthy family and attentive servants help her a lot. Evelyn is a big fan of the Locketts, and knows their books well, so she was thrilled to meet them the previous summer on the Thames, when they were camping there (in “The Monster of Widgeon Weir”), and Evelyn was able to be a small part of that adventure. Now she has a plan: to gather as many people from the books as possible, including the Locketts, for an after-Christmas party in London. Her mother and sister are willing to help, and invitations go out, but soon after, Brenda comes down with scarlet fever, making the London party impossible. All Evelyn’s plans are dashed, but then her mother agrees to open up their country mansion for the party, and things are going ahead again. New invitations are sent out, and many are accepted.

Once at the country house, which is large and impressive, we finally get to see the children interacting and doing games and sports together, but the main focus soon turns to Nina, one of the older children, who has found an expensive pearl necklace in her room and decides to wear it to the costume ball. Later, the necklace disappears. Has it been stolen? Would-be detective Terry is soon on the case, which turns out to have many twists and turns, and a number of suspects.

There are too many characters in the book for all of them to get equal time, and in fact the Locketts, and even their frenemy Fenella are almost pushed to the background at times by the mystery of the missing necklace, but it’s a fun read all the same. Recommended.

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