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Original poster

PLEASE HELP!!! me find this book. Someone must know what it is.

182 replies

NotTheDuchessOfCambridge · 26/10/2017 20:37

Hi all, hoping to find a book I read back in the 90s, though the book could be 80s.
It was a condensed book in a readers digest hardback book (4 different books in 1).
It was about a man (investigator??) who had to get all his clues to a treasure from an old painting.
The painting was obscure (think Salvador Dali), it had a chess board on the floor and all the people facing left had tears on their cheek because they were lying (the clues they gave were false).
There was a tree on a hill. A ladder maybe.
I cannot remember the name of the book or the author and it’s driving me crazy as I really want to read it again!
It has the feel of a Dan Brown book, following ancient clues.

OP posts:
Ahardmanisgoodtofind · 28/10/2017 21:38

Lunar girl I love you Flowers

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 28/10/2017 21:30

Thanks, Polly, but I don't think that's it.

pollyhemlock · 28/10/2017 21:09

RemusLupin- the Switzerland one could just possibly be a book called Timpetill by Manfred somebody, can’t remember the full name. It’s about a Swiss village where the children are all terribly naughty, so their parents all go off for the day to teach them a lesson. However, they mistakenly cross a border and are all detained, so the children have to cope on their own. Ring any bells?

LunarGirl · 28/10/2017 20:48

@Ahardmanisgoodtofind sounds like the year of the cat trilogy?

Ahardmanisgoodtofind · 28/10/2017 20:37

Ohhhh can anyone help me!? I read it in the 90s. Trilogy about a new girl in (an american) town. Something to do with turning into panthers. Pretty sure it was panthers.
Also another trilogy BUT may have been the same one about girl moves to (possibly) Salem discovers she's a witch, not Sabrina btw. Something to do with different covens and there's a boy involved and onyx being an evil stone.or something. The good with has a name beginning with D (not main character, may also have pulled that from somewhere else). My Google searchs have been fruitless

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 28/10/2017 20:36

Can't help, I'm afraid, but if anybody can get this one I'd love them forever!

All I can remember is that it was a girls' school and they had some kind of festival where each year group had different coloured sashes on their dresses. And I think they might have done some kind of exercises in the open air, maybe on a cliff. Reading this back, there's no wonder I've never managed to find the damn thing!

There was another one too - about some kind of village full of orphans. It might have been in Switzerland, or somewhere else with mountains,

I read them both at my grandparents' house.

pollyhemlock · 28/10/2017 20:31

Satsuki, could it be The Sea Baby, by Eleanor Farjeon?

Fozzleyplum · 28/10/2017 16:51

Mary is the daughter of a teacher (the head?) at a boys' boarding school and William is a pupil who is staying at school for the holidays. The shell transports them to various underwater worlds, including a tank at an aquarium.

SatsukiKusakabe · 27/10/2017 23:39

I'm always autocorrecting to Satsuma on here, I might just change it Grin

SatsukiKusakabe · 27/10/2017 23:38

Thank you - it could be a possibility but it's hard to tell from the synopsis, I can't find too much about it and I recall so little of it myself! Think there may have been a boy and a girl though and there can't be too many books with an underwater theme. A couple of the other Penelope Farmer titles seem familiar, I read Charlotte Sometimes, so likely I would have picked up others. I might have to track it down and read it to know for sure Smile

elkiedee · 27/10/2017 22:23

William and Mary is by Penelope Farmer if that helps jog any memories.

Fozzleyplum · 27/10/2017 09:55

Satsuki even - blimmin autocorrect.

Fozzleyplum · 27/10/2017 09:54

Satsuma, was it "William and Mary", about a girl who has a shell which transports her under water?

GymBunnieWannabe · 27/10/2017 09:49

No bored. It wasn't that. But thanks for trying

Boredomismyenemy · 27/10/2017 00:43

Is it When Marnie Was There gymbunny

SatsukiKusakabe · 27/10/2017 00:31

Yes, don't forget the dog!

No emmagrundy - definitely along the right lines plot wise I think but I am too old Sad I read it late 80s/early 90s when I was 8-10, and think it would have been contemporary rather than a classic. Not Water Babies. Thanks, though.

I read a lot of Diana Wynne Jones and Vivien Alcock and always wondered if it was one of theirs but can't find one that fits the bill and remember most so think by someone different but must have been on the shelf with them.

Interested to know gymbunnie's one too!

GymBunnieWannabe · 26/10/2017 23:55

I have one if these that's driven me crazy for YEARS.

Children's book. A lot of illustrations.

A young girl goes to the seaside at dark and the tide is out. She walks until she finds a city that is usually plunged underwater. I think people live there. And the tide starts to come in and she's running to beat the water.

I honestly don't know if I've made it up at this point. It's driven me crazy for decades.

I was born in 1984 if that helps. Was under 10 when read.

EmmaGrundyForPM · 26/10/2017 23:46

Satsuki if you're quite young, could it have been "Ingo" ? There's a girl in that who goes to an underwater world.

KateMiddletonsOtherMum · 26/10/2017 23:45

The Water Babies was about a chimney sweep called Tom.

KateMiddletonsOtherMum · 26/10/2017 23:43

No shark, but a dog, a tin of pineapple and a lost afternoon in Hampton Court Maze.

toomanysmallpeoplecallmemom · 26/10/2017 23:04

Water babies?

SatsukiKusakabe · 26/10/2017 22:57

Yes I tried a few times I like a challenge!

There is a book I've been desperate to remember from childhood and I have had no luck whatsoever on my own behalf, I don't have enough detail, only a girl went to some kind of underwater world where she saw creatures and it was the first time I read the word "gossamer". These things can drive you crazy.

Original poster
NotTheDuchessOfCambridge · 26/10/2017 22:43

Ah no! Really! I tried google but I’ve obviously not been putting in enough info.
It’s quite a good book, would probably be a bit dated now but It brings back memories. We didn’t have many books so I must have read it about 30 Times! Just totally blanked the title.

Definitely Jaws Wink

OP posts:
SatsukiKusakabe · 26/10/2017 22:35

Would it be upsetting to know I've never even read it, and that I'm just a bit handy with Google?

If so then forget what I just said Grin

Oh oh is it Jaws? Wink

Original poster
NotTheDuchessOfCambridge · 26/10/2017 22:35

Ok so there’s a boat, and three men.....I think I may know this one......! Grin

OP posts: