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.
Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Lasers and Lava”
Sarah Greene is trying to get out of an escape room with her friends West and Hannah. The three of them call themselves the Deltas because of their shared love of math, riddles, and escape rooms. They eventually find the solution to the final clue and the exit door opens. The three friends are proud and excited because they just beat the Lasers and Lava game, a particularly challenging escape room that only a small number of people have completed successfully.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Mom Never Cries”
When Sarah goes home, she finds a foreclosure notice on the front door. Her mother comes home from her job as a dental assistant and gets dinner ready before going to her second job at a candy store. Her father is sleeping upstairs because he has chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Sarah also has an older brother, Sean, who is preparing to go to college. She loves her family but feels helpless about their situation and becomes even more worried when her mother starts crying about the foreclosure notice.
Chapter 3 Summary: “The Triplet Treasure”
Sarah calls an emergency meeting with the Deltas to give them the news. West and Hannah try to cheer her up, but Sarah explains that if they lose their house, her family will have to move. Hannah jokingly suggests that they try to find the Triplet Treasure in nearby Maplewood, and Sarah seriously considers it. A local urban legend claims that three brothers, triplets, built a funhouse in the 1950s and hid a treasure inside to attract visitors. The funhouse is now abandoned, but over the years many people have unsuccessfully tried to find the treasure. Sarah, West, and Hannah agree to try and find the treasure with their escape game skills but decide to research the funhouse before they go.
Chapter 4 Summary: “The Reader, The Banker, The Cabinetmaker”
At West’s house, the Deltas research the three brothers, Hans, Stefan, and Karl Stein. The triplets were orphans who were adopted separately and reunited later in life. Hans became a cabinetmaker, Stefan became a banker, and Karl worked at a bookstore. They decided to build a funhouse together, but Stefan died before it opened, so the project was abandoned. However, rumors about a hidden treasure made it a local legend, and people like William Taters and a TV show host named Art Conley have been arrested for trespassing when they looked for it.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Chuck E. Cheese and Cold Feet”
Sarah, West, and Hannah take a train to Maplewood, where the funhouse is located. They walk from the station to the now rundown building, surrounded by empty fields and a few farmhouses. Sarah starts second-guessing their adventure because it could be dangerous, and they risk getting arrested. She is especially worried about the fact that they do not have a phone signal, but Hannah and West convince her to keep going.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Fortune Favors the Bold”
The three friends walk around the house to find an entrance. The building looks strange: the facade is painted with colorful scenery, there is a twisted slide going down from the roof to the yard, and oddly shaped windows feature on every wall. Sarah finds an illustration of a wishbone in a frame on the side of the house. When she turns it, the Deltas can hear a mechanism unlock. They accidentally push against the brick wall, which reveals a door. Sarah, Hannah, and West open the door and enter the house. They find themselves in a room that looks like the inside of a circus tent, with a sign on the floor that reads “Fortune favors the bold” in Latin (44).
Chapter 7 Summary: “A Big Top Entrance”
West’s foot goes through the wooden floor. Hannah and Sarah help him out but remind themselves to keep an eye out for other traps and potential dangers. The three friends then notice a clown doll, which Sarah accidentally animates when she steps on a hidden button. They also find a locked door, which someone has evidently already passed through, with three keyholes and another wishbone painted on it.
Chapters 1-7 Analysis
These first chapters of The Mystery of Locked Rooms introduce the story’s main themes and characters and set up the tone and recurring symbolism of the narrative. The novel is narrated by Sarah, who is about 12 or 13 years old. Her narrative voice is generally cheerful, but she occasionally experiences moments of doubt and anxiety. By presenting the story from Sarah’s point of view, Lindsay Currie develops her character early on, offering insight into her character traits. She is caring and thoughtful, often thinking through problems to find a solution, and very loyal to her friends and family.
Currie also establishes the relationship dynamic between the friends in these opening chapters, establishing the theme of Teamwork and Friendship. In the first chapter, Sarah is completing an escape game with her friends West and Hannah. They exit the room victorious after proudly beating the buzzer, a feat that highlights their skills as problem-solvers and the way that they work together, illustrating the importance of teamwork. Their different strengths, and the way they contribute to the team, are highlighted to foreshadow their roles in the rest of the story:
Hannah has such good balance, [and] [West] has the best memory of anyone I know. […] I was our decision-maker. Ever since starting to learn about probabilities, I’ve loved them. If you understand probabilities, you understand risk. And taking too many risks in an escape room is a bad idea (4).
Sarah’s assessment of her own character also establishes the trajectory of her character arc, in which she will eventually learn to balance her caution with confidence.
While Chapter 1 establishes Sarah’s relationship with her friends, Chapter 2 introduces her family. When Sarah goes home, the narrative focuses on her family life and provides insight into their situation, including Sarah’s father’s chronic fatigue syndrome, her mother’s two jobs, and their financial problems. When Sarah finds the foreclosure notice on their door, it acts as the inciting incident that will drive the rest of the plot, connecting her family life with her escape room hobby with the Deltas. Sarah’s decision to seek the triplets’ treasure to save her family’s home shows the depth of her anxiety about her family situation—she has already been characterized as someone who is risk-averse but is willing to act despite her reservations. Currie highlights the tension in Sarah’s family by showing her mother crying, which Sarah notes is unusual, upping the stakes of Sarah’s decision.
The seriousness of Sarah’s home situation is balanced by her adventures with the Deltas, including the introduction of the funhouse and the Stein triplets. Initially, the Deltas do not take the urban legend about the treasure seriously, which adds to the sense of realism since the idea may indeed seem fantastical or preposterous. Sarah’s willingness to believe it, however, emphasizes how desperate she is. The narrative then provides further information about the triplets’ lives and their project by framing it as preparatory research. The mystery that surrounds the funhouse creates anticipation and a sense of wonder. This feeling is also enhanced by the mention of the eccentric William Taters and the art lover Art Conley since they symbolize the longstanding history of the legendary treasure as well as the reputation of the funhouse as a quirky, artistic place. Once Sarah, Hannah, and West arrive at the funhouse, their first impression reinforces this sense of oddness. The upside-down mural on the façade foreshadows its unexpected challenges by hinting at the triplets’ playful sense of humor and the upended nature of reality inside.
Inside the house, the three friends also uncover numerous symbols and clues that hint at their upcoming trials. For instance, the presence of the wishbone, the deck of cards, and the compass later proves crucial in understanding the different types of tasks. The motto engraved at the entrance, “Fortune favors the bold” (44), suggests that they will need to rely on their bravery and determination. Those qualities contrast with Sarah’s initial self-doubts and risk-averse personality, suggesting that she will undergo Emotional Growth Through Challenge throughout the story. Potential dangers that may await them are foreshadowed by small obstacles like West’s foot getting caught in the broken hardwood floor, enhancing suspense and narrative tension. This paves the way for the following chapters to further develop those symbols and themes and thereby enhance Sarah, West, and Hannah’s emotional journeys.
