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 16-25Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “And Something You Know”
Thanks to a breeze coming from behind the brick wall, the Deltas realize that it is fake. Sarah, West, and Hannah pull the bricks out to reveal a tunnel, and Hannah volunteers to go first. She crawls through the passage and points out a message on the wall that reminds them that there is only one correct direction in the Library Room. The tunnel gets narrower and narrower until it seems to reach a dead end. Sarah and West, who are following Hannah, start to get worried, but Hannah can open a passage that leads them back into the library through one of the bookshelves. There, they realize that the room must contain four exits, one for each cardinal direction, but only one will lead them to the next room. The slide, marked with a “W,” represents the Western passage.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Beauty and the Bookshelves”
Back in the Library Room, Sarah, West, and Hannah decide to try using the rotary phone they noticed earlier. The phone’s plate shows letters instead of numbers, and when Hannah picks it up a recorded voice tells them to enter an answer. Looking at the letters available to them, Sarah realizes that they must spell one either North, South, West, or East, and they already know that West is incorrect.
The three friends search the bookshelves for clues and, after a while, Hannah points out that the books seem to be ordered randomly. Sarah, however, figures out that they are categorized alphabetically by topic rather than author. Some of the books Hannah is looking at are about noodles, narwhals, and napping, while West is looking through a bookshelf about oceans, ornithology, and ophthalmology. The final book topics begin with R and T, thus spelling out “North.” West triumphantly enters the code into the telephone, causing a trap door to open in the ceiling with a ladder descending from it.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day”
Hannah climbs up first and calls out to her friends in wonder. Sarah and West follow her, and they find themselves in a large room full of Doric columns and life-size statues. West finds them off-putting because they remind him of a Halloween-themed wax museum he once visited, but Hannah finds the statues rather fun. At the far end of the room, the Deltas find a locked door without a keyhole, indicating that they do not need to look for a key. There are also three empty pedestals, so the three friends guess that they must move some of the statues to trigger the door mechanism.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Operation Beat the Triplets”
Sarah, Hannah, and West are confused about what they need to do now, so they start looking around for clues. When West tries to pick up a dog statue, the smallest one in the room, he accidentally drops and breaks it. The Deltas wonder if they are really meant to move the statues, because they seem too heavy for children, and West suggests they try to stand on the pedestals themselves.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Nose to the Grindstone”
Once the three friends are on the pedestals, their weight activates a mechanism, and the pedestals start sinking into the floor. Sarah’s and West’s only move a few inches, but Hannah’s keeps descending, which leads them to think that it could be a secret passage. However, it turns out to be a cage, and metal bars trap Hannah in a cylinder under the floor. Sarah and West reassure Hannah that they will get her out, and a clue written inside the cage tells them that they need to find a key to free Hannah. She notices a magnet hanging above her head but, the cylinder is so tight that she cannot grab it. Sarah then suggests that Hannah slide the magnet toward Sarah and West with her nose. Hannah is afraid of accidentally dropping it, but her friends cheer her on.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Just Like Operation”
Slowly and carefully, Hannah slides the magnet up toward the metal bars. Sarah tries to keep her friend calm by reminding her how good she is at the board game Operation. Eventually, Hannah gets the magnet close enough that Sarah can slip her fingers through the bars and grab it. The three friends celebrate briefly before Sarah and West look around the room for the key to Hannah’s cage.
Chapter 22 Summary: “A Grate Discovery”
When they examine the statues more closely, Sarah and West notice that three of them appear identical. Remembering the articles about the funhouse, they realize that the statues represent the triplets. All three are looking in the same direction, so Sarah and West follow their gaze and find a small grate in the floor with a deck of cards engraved on it. Inside it is a key, which Sarah retrieves with the magnet. They unlock Hannah’s cage and pull her out, which triggers the door to open. At the same time, one of West’s lanterns goes out.
Chapter 23 Summary: “A Glowing Booty”
The three friends are concerned about spending too much time in the funhouse and losing light, but Sarah suggests opening one of the boarded-up windows in the next room. However, there is already a board missing from one of the windows when they enter, so they are able to see much better. Sarah, Hannah, and West find themselves at the entrance of a mirror maze and, just as they are about to walk into it, Hannah’s phone rings.
Chapter 24 Summary: “The Ding Heard Round the World”
Hannah’s phone only briefly has a signal, long enough to receive a text from her parents. When they did hear from her, Hannah’s parents found articles about the funhouse on her computer. They now know where the Deltas are and have possibly alerted Sarah and West’s parents as well. The three friends decide to keep going anyway and finally enter the mirror maze. When they get to the first crossroads and cannot see any clues about the right direction, Sarah picks a route at random. However, they quickly find out that it is a dead end.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Make Your Mark”
Sarah, Hannah, and West retrace their steps, and Sarah realizes she can use Hannah’s lip gloss to mark wrong turns on the mirrors. The Deltas continue searching for a way out while discussing the possibility of being arrested for trespassing. In one of the mirror hallways, they stumble upon a box with a message inside that tells them to “use the thing you shouldn’t waste” (195). While West and Hannah start bickering about what the message means, Sarah realizes that it is referring to their breaths. The three friends fog the mirrors with their breath to uncover invisible messages.
Chapters 16-25 Analysis
In the third section of the novel, tension ramps up as the narrative builds up toward its climax. The stakes for the Deltas grow even higher as the challenges become more difficult and dangerous. First, the Deltas get a second chance to beat the Library Room. They find a possible clue about the treasure, which reinforces the claims about its existence and foreshadows the ending.
Sarah’s character arc continues to develop as she faces increasing risk with more resolve, highlighting her growth. The triplets’ cryptic message about the treasure reignites Sarah’s determination: “I imagine it sitting in the final room waiting for us. Maybe it’s a chest like you’d see on a pirate ship. Or maybe it’s just a plain brown bag filled with money. Whatever it is, I want it. No, I need it” (131). Although Sarah started on this journey to try to help her family, she is also a lover of puzzles and games. While her need for the treasure revolves around her family, the want she mentions comes from the desire to solve the puzzle of the funhouse, illustrating that although helping her family was the impetus for the search, it has also become about the puzzle for her as well.
In these chapters, Currie uses pop culture references to build an unsettling atmosphere and show the darkening tone of the funhouse. West shares, “It just reminds me of this wax museum I visited with my parents once [that] was all Halloween-themed. Had figures of Jason and Michael Myers, Ghostface, you know. Those guys. But some of them were real people just standing still and pretending to be made of wax” (148). His reference to movie serial killers creates a sense of dread and anticipation, while the idea that some of the wax figures were in fact real highlights the power of illusion and deception.
This darker tone heightens the impact of Hannah’s unexpected predicament when she is caught in a cage in Chapter 20. However, her solution to the problem shows how far she has progressed in her character arc of emotional growth. In the Statue Room, Hannah experiences a new emotional challenge when she is forced to work slowly and patiently to slide the magnet out of her cage, a feat that is directly at odds with her usually impulsive demeanor. Her success prompts Sarah to comment, “I’m actually really glad Hannah got that experience. Maybe now she’ll finally believe in herself again” (171). This demonstrates Hannah’s Emotional Growth Through Challenge following her breakthrough in the Box Room. Although Hannah uses patience and perseverance to get out of the cage, contrasting with her earlier impulsivity, she also relies on the Teamwork and Friendship of the Deltas for support. West states: “We’re right here with you. If you fail, we fail. We’re a team, Hannah. You’re not doing this alone” (166). Hannah has learned not to make decisions without consulting her friends first, while West and Sarah reinforce this need to work together to beat the funhouse’s challenges.
Similarly, Sarah later notes that West is also more confident about his abilities after opening up to his friends earlier: “‘Of course, I [remembered to keep the keys safe],’ [West] says, laughing. ‘It’s impossible not to, remember?’ I smile back, my heart warming with the idea that for once, West isn’t embarrassed by his gift. He looks proud” (190). This also impacts the Deltas’ dynamic, which, as Sarah underlines, has deepened through their journey: “I never realized how much I trust West and Hannah until now, and based on the secrets they’ve both shared today, I’m not sure they did either” (191). With this comment, Sarah illustrates how much the friends have learned about each other and the depth of their relationship.
The Deltas are nearing the end of the funhouse challenge in these chapters, and the challenges are becoming more and more complex as they go, increasing tension and suspense. When they reach the Mirror Maze, a staple of 1950s funhouses, the Deltas are now armed with more experience and confidence in their abilities. Sarah points out: “Lesson learned. Never trust anything in a mirror maze. Also, never trust the triplets” (186). Tension is also increased by Hannah’s brief connection, through her phone, with the outside world. The text from her parents marks a turn in the Deltas’ journey: They are now under additional pressure with their parents and police officers on their way, which means they are rushed by time and the possibility of facing negative consequences. This is illustrated by Sarah and West’s newfound impulsivity as they decide that “there isn’t time to be safe” (195). The phone call therefore starts a countdown toward the narrative climax. It also pushes the protagonists to act more carelessly, thereby foreshadowing Sarah’s final emotional challenge in the last section of the book.
