78 pages • 2 hours read
Betty Ren WrightThe Dollhouse Murders
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1983A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 16-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “It Could Have Been Just Anyone”
A storm moves in, making the situation at Aunt Clare’s house more frightening. Amy and Louann want to go home, but their parents are still away. Aunt Clare apologizes for getting angry and invites Amy to make cookies; while they do so, Aunt Clare confesses she believes her former fiancé murdered Grandma and Grandpa Treloar.
Amy’s mother calls to say she’s still caring for her sick friend. Amy realizes “her mother hadn’t made up the emergency after all” (126), and she feels bad for her earlier thoughts. Amy wants to go home, but she can’t leave Aunt Clare so emotionally vulnerable. Amy has to “uncover the secret of the dollhouse” (127).
Chapter 17 Summary: “Someone’s Walking on the Dollhouse Stairs”
That night, there’s a terrible thunderstorm. Amy and Louann go to the attic to look at the dollhouse. The murder of Grandma and Grandpa starts to play out, complete with an unseen doll (the unidentified murderer) walking through the dollhouse. Amy and Louann run downstairs to Aunt Clare’s bedroom “as if the killer himself were right behind them” (132).
Chapter 18 Summary: “More Ghosts, Amy?”
Aunt Clare brings Amy and Louann downstairs for cocoa and to discuss why they ran into her bedroom. The power goes out from the storm, and Amy’s terror returns. Amy explains that they saw the dolls move and the murders play out. Aunt Clare now believes there is “something angry and full of hate” in the house (136).
Amy remembers how the books fell off the dollhouse parlor shelves the night before and believes Grandma Treloar wants them to find something. The three take books off the shelves in the real parlor, and a letter falls out of a copy of the play A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. Grandma Treloar wrote the letter just before she was murdered. It identifies Reuben Miller, Grandma and Grandpa Treloar’s handyman, as the killer.
Aunt Clare’s fiancé didn’t kill Grandma and Grandpa Treloar. With that realization, years of tension lift from Aunt Clare, making her “younger, gentler, prettier than Amy had ever seen her before” (140). The storm stops, and the power comes back on.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Like a Real Family”
The next morning is “washed fresh by the storm of the night before” (142). Aunt Clare and Amy both feel lighter and more carefree. Amy’s parents come to pick up Amy and Louann, and Aunt Clare makes cookies for them to take home. Amy gets into an argument with Louann about something she thinks Louann can’t do and then realizes that Louann can do things because she is “a real person” (146).
Aunt Clare takes Amy’s parents upstairs to show them the dollhouse. No longer in the places they were on the night of the murder, the dolls are now seated around the dining room table, having moved there on their own. Aunt Clare wants Louann to have the dollhouse. Amy’s father observes, "Best thing in the world—a family” (149). Amy agrees, but Louann is too busy playing house with the dolls to respond.
Chapters 16-19 Analysis
The weather in these final chapters matches the build-up and release of tension. In Chapter 16, the dollhouse’s secrets are mounting, and a storm brews in the sky. While the dollhouse plays out the murder, and during the subsequent search for the truth, the storm is at its worst. As soon as the truth is discovered, the storm subsides, and the following morning is a fresh start, both for the characters and for the weather.
Aunt Clare offers Amy and Louann cocoa when they are frightened in the middle of the night. This comforting beverage carries over into the search for the truth and the calm that follows. The book ends with Louann playing with the dollhouse and having the dolls eat cookies. In the wake of food being shared, the family tension present throughout the story resolves.
Aunt Clare learns she is not indirectly responsible for Grandma and Grandpa Treloar’s deaths. The guilt she carried for years dissipates, and she can move forward with her life. Amy’s realization about Louann being her own person mirrors Aunt Clare’s change. Amy releases her guilt about Louann’s disability and how Amy has treated her sister. Only then does Amy look forward to going home and accept she can live her life the way she wants despite Louann.
Louann and Amy work together during the hunt for the truth. The situation frightens the two of them in different ways. Louann fears the thunder, and Amy fears the dollhouse. They have different abilities and disabilities in this situation, and these differences allow them to rely on one another. Their strong teamwork leads them to the letter and the truth about the murders.
The dollhouse comes alive for the final time in these chapters. Throughout the book, these episodes grow in intensity, foreshadowing the search for and discovery of the truth. In the final chapter, the dolls move to sit around the dining room table like a family. The truth is known, and the family is united, much like Amy reunites with her family.
