45 pages • 1 hour read
Lindsay CurrieThe Mystery of Locked Rooms
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | BCEA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 26-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary: “Hot Garbage”
West finds a message that encourages them to keep going straight ahead. The three friends are perplexed when they encounter a dead end, but Hannah finds a small passage to the side that leads them into another mirrored room. This time, the mirrors are all triangular, and an empty shallow pool lies in the center of the room. As West tries to walk out of the room, he accidentally steps onto a button that reveals three new doorways in the walls. A new message tells the Deltas that they must pick a door at random, and they realize that they made a mistake in the previous mirror room, which means they have failed the challenge.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Lottery Tickets Suck”
The news sours Hannah’s mood, and Sarah tries to cheer her up. However, she is also disheartened with she realizes that it is a game of luck and she cannot control the outcome of their choice. She already feels out of control in her life and desperately wants to make things better for her family. Thanks to West and Hannah’s encouragement, she soon gets her spirits up again and picks the third door.
Chapter 28 Summary: “The Best Things in Life Are…”
As the Deltas enter the passage, they hear police sirens getting closer. A police officer with a megaphone warns that they know Sarah, Hannah, and West are inside the funhouse, and officers are coming in to get them. Sarah asks her friends whether they want to give up or continue their search, and West and Hannah opt to keep going. They find themselves in a room full of distorted mirrors and, while looking for clues, can hear the police trying to enter the house. Hannah finds a message on a mirror that informs them that there is only one room left. West pushes the button next to the message, revealing a doorway behind a mirror.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Deltas Forever”
To Sarah, West, and Hannah’s dismay, the final room is empty. There is only a slide opening in a corner, and they know that it will take them outside. Sarah breaks down in tears, frustrated that the treasure does not exist, but the three friends quickly resolve to face the consequences of their actions together. Hannah and West go down the slide first, and Sarah gets ready to follow them. However, she notices a triangular opening above the slide that contains one last note from the triplets. She pockets it without reading it and goes down the slide.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Fate Sucks”
Sarah emerges outside and is immediately embraced by her worried mother. Hannah and West are nearby with their families, and police officers are roaming around the grounds. Sarah apologizes to her mother and explains that she only wanted to help her family. Her mother comforts her but tells her she will be grounded. When Sarah is given a few minutes to say goodbye to her friends, they read the note she found together.
Chapter 31 Summary: “Charlie Bucket”
The note is a message from the triplets congratulating them for completing the funhouse. It also contains the deed to the house, to do with as they please. The Deltas are incredulous and compare their situation to a fantastical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ending. Overjoyed, Sarah runs to her mother with the news.
Epilogue Summary: “Six Months Later”
On Halloween, six months after the end of Chapter 31, Sarah and her family drive to the funhouse for its grand opening. They sold the house to William Taters, Stefan Stein’s great-grandson, who brought it back to life and named it the Delta Game after Sarah and her friends. The money helped Sarah’s family keep their house and send Sarah’s brother to college, and her father is in remission from CFS.
The atmosphere is joyful as crowds gather to try out the funhouse’s challenges. The now-famous Deltas greet the guests and listen to Taters’s opening speech as he thanks them for helping the triplets finally achieve their dream. He invites Sarah, West, and Hannah to enter the funhouse with the other guests, but, since they have already completed it, they decide to head out to a brand new escape game in town instead.
Chapter 26-Epilogue Analysis
In these final chapters, Sarah completes her character arc, achieving Emotional Growth Through Challenge. Sarah, West, and Hannah go through the triplets’ final challenge when they end up in the Triangle Room, where Sarah confronts the last remnants of her insecurity. That room reminds her of the symbolism of the Rule of Threes, as it is covered in triangular mirrors and offers three possible exits toward the final room. This time, however, the doors are identical, and the clue is stamped with a wishbone, which symbolizes luck. Hannah is the first to realize that this final challenge seems tailored to Sarah’s control issues, saying, “This could be your test, […] You hate taking risks” (208). When West points out that the triplets couldn’t have designed the test for Sarah, Sarah reflects, “They didn’t need to know me, […] They learned the hard way that sometimes you can’t control or predict things. Life is…challenging” (209). Her understanding of the triplets’ situation reflects the theme of Parallels Between the Past and the Present, as Sarah is able to put herself in the triplets’ position and empathize with them because of her own experiences.
Throughout the novel, Currie uses the triplets’ challenges to directly reflect the children’s struggles. Not only does this emphasize the Deltas’ almost fated connection with the Stein brothers, but it also underlines the narrative role of the funhouse. Indeed, that setting is used to represent the characters’ emotional arcs through a physical, cathartic journey. This is especially true of Sarah’s character arc, which concludes in these chapters. In the Triangle Room, Sarah breaks down because she feels a loss of control over the outcome of her quest to find the treasure. She then draws a parallel with her own life, in which she feels unable to help her overworked mother and her disabled father despite her best efforts. This final challenge pushes her to embrace chance, a thought that she initially finds terrifying. However, Sarah concludes: “I can’t control life no matter how much I want to. Maybe I need to accept that I can’t control this mirror maze either. […] If I’m strong enough to face all [the challenges of the funhouse], then I’m strong enough to face this room” (210-11). Significantly, Sarah is only able to find the treasure through one last bit of luck, although she could not have reached it if she had not overcome all of the triplets’ challenges, as she points out: “Life throws curveballs sometimes. We can’t always plan, can’t always predict. But maybe, just maybe, with hard work and a little luck, we’ll be okay” (241). Sarah’s emotional arc concludes when she embraces luck fully, illustrated in the epilogue when she adopts the wishbone as her personal symbol and wears it on a necklace.
The novel ends with Sarah winning the deed to the funhouse and saving her family from financial trouble, a conclusion reminiscent of works like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or the film Goonies, which the characters even mention directly. Like The Mystery of Locked Rooms, those middle grade narratives reimagine the hero’s journey for a younger audience. Centering the story on typical teenage characters makes their adventures both thrilling and relatable to the intended audience. The Mystery of Locked Rooms therefore draws inspiration from such popular works to convey Sarah’s story in a similarly fast-paced, emotionally driven, light-hearted narrative.
The epilogue ends the novel on a cheerful, hopeful note, highlighting the shift back to a lighter tone. William Taters, who was previously mentioned as an eccentric treasure-seeker, now reappears as a Willy Wonka-esque figure and brings the funhouse back to its former glory. Sarah, West, and Hannah symbolically honor the Stein brothers’ legacy, concluding the theme of the Parallels Between the Past and the Present by proving themselves as worthy heirs to the triplets. At the very end of the story, the Deltas forgo another journey through the now-restored funhouse in favor of a new escape room. This decision highlights the end of their emotional journey as well, as they have processed everything the house has to offer and are ready to move on to new challenges. Finally, Sarah, Hannah, and West’s deepened friendship and enduring passion for escape rooms pave the way for the next book in the series.
