"I guess they just don't appreciate art the way I do." Mystery # 11 Claudia and the Mystery at the Museum

I don't really know what to say about this particular mystery. (Maybe I should have done the Stacey mystery I was looking at this morning? But this is one of the books I picked up on "vacation" and I'd never read it before.) It's pretty predictable and corny. Even I figured out whodunit before the thief was unmasked, and I'm no Nancy Drew myself. Ha! I made a funny.

Well, there's a new museum opening in Stoneybrook, and Claud is just dying to see the art gallery section of it, and specifically, an exhibit by a Stoneybrook native, sculptor Don Newman. So when it opens, she gathers up Corrie Addison ("who was one of my favorite art pupils") and the Arnold twins. Yeah, my eyebrow went up too. While they're dinking around in the Science Room, Discovery Room, and the Music Room, Claudia remembers why she's there and starts herding the kids toward the Newman exhibit. En route, they hear the fire alarm go off, and Claudia hears the sound of breaking glass. While passing the room in which she heard the breaking glass, Claudia slows down and peeks in. Then, another alarm goes off, the place goes into lockdown, and she and the kids run outside into a courtyard. [I always thought a courtyard was an enclosed outdoor space in the center of a building surrounded by four walls. Which, in the event of a FIRE, wouldn't be the safest place to be.] But the alarms are turned off, and Claudia and the other people in the courtyard are taken inside and searched by guards, because the museum has been robbed! Gasp! Good thing Claudia is there, because being an eyewitness will help her and the club solve the mystery, just that much sooner!

Their suspects include: Mr. Snipes, curator of the museum, because he's a dick and out of the last four museums he worked at, three got robbed; a weird guy at the museum who has one blue eye and one green eye; a troop of Brownies and their adult leaders; and a custodian who works at the museum. Obviously, the troop of Brownies is eliminated from the suspect list, because the only place they could stuff the stolen coins is "in their beanies." The gang, including Shannon but minus Mary Anne and Mallory, goes back to the museum on a Saturday afternoon to case the joint, and end up having more fun than finding any clues. Things drag along until Claudia finally gets to the Newman exhibit and starts groping all the pieces. She decides one sculpture, named "Daphne", doesn't feel the same as it did when she saw it in New York City. And since the artist just happens to be a Stoneybrook native, Claudia gets his number from 411 and calls him. She explains why she's harassing him, and he invites her to the black tie party that's being given on the last night of the exhibit. He tells her they will inspect the sculpture together and see if there's anything wrong with it.

Party time! Claud wears a "long, silky pale green robe embroidered in gorgeous colors. ... The silk felt soft and light against my skin. It seemed to float around me. ... The blue and green colors of the kimono set off my black hair, and the long fluttering sleeves looked romantic." She puts her hair up in a "modified French twist," and doesn't describe her earrings. So I'm guessing they match and are appropriate for the kimono--and a black tie event?

At the party, all of Newman's sculptures have been packed away for shipment to the next show and are awaiting their fate in Storage Room B. Claudia and Newman are on their way to check the Daphne sculpture when they see a museum custodian (the same one Claudia was trapped with in the Courtyard of Fire!) heading in the direction of Storage Room B also. The custodian doesn't see them, nor does he hear them, because he's wearing a walkman. Not paranoid much? One thing leads to another, and Claudia and Newman are making out Claudia and Newman are seeing, with their very own eyes, the custodian removing the stolen coins from the statue! All of a sudden, the man with the different colored eyes is there, and he tackles whoever's in the room. Turns out he's a Federal agent, assigned (along with the curator) to keep an eye on the museum, because it's likely to get robbed. (?) Right. Oh well. Mystery's solved, and the curator makes Claud an honorary trustee of the museum. Which, to her, means that she can go to all the exhibit opening parties and take along whoever she wants!

Subplot: Mrs. Pike's been putting in a bunch of overtime at the temp agency, and with references like every other page to how Mallory's tired, worn out, exhausted [foreshadowing Mal's bout with mono!], Mrs. P. needs a bunch of sitters all the time. And Claire Pike's been bitted by the acting bug. While clothes-shopping at Washington Mall with the fam and Mary Anne, Claire spots a set-up where she can make a "professional" video of a scene from The Wizard of Oz or Annie. She warbles out "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and then gets the idea that she can be a Star. She gets her people to call Rosie Wilder's people and from Rosie, Claire gets the names of a few agents. She starts sending her tape out all over, but with her first rejection slip, Claire's dreams come crashing down. Then she gets a part in her class play.

WTF Moments:
*This whole book is a WTF moment.
*The thing with the Pikes' station wagons. Claudia says that someday maybe they'll be able to get a mini-van. I have a mini-van, it seats seven. Not ten.That would be a passenger van that seats fifteen.


Continuity Issues:
Not much to speak of here. Well, referring to the Daphne sculpture. At first, it's got quotes around the name. Later in the book, the quotes disappear.
*This mystery takes place while Dawn is in California on her extended visit, before she permanently moves back. And actually, the next mystery is hers, #12 Dawn and the Surfer Ghost.


Next up I think will be Mary Anne and Too Many Boys. It's been a long time since I read it, and being it's the equivalent of Boy-Crazy Stacey, (Fun and Sun and Lust at the Jersey Shore) I'm kind of excited to read it.