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

[NotTheDuchessOfCambridge]

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.

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

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.

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

@Ahardmanisgoodtofind sounds like the year of the cat trilogy?

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?

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

Lunar girl I love you

RemusLupin - the school one sounds like one of The Chalet School stories

Don't think it's Chalet School. I think it was maybe set in WW2. It might not even have been fiction, although I honestly can't remember.

ooh it must have been linked to this

Satsuki - is yours Wet Magic by E. Nesbit? I loved her books.

This, maybe

I have one. It is a story about a boy with a brother (older I think) who is great at solving problems. I'm pretty sure it's set in small town America. Each chapter concerned a problem that one of the people in the town had I think. One chapter made a particular impression. Another boy had trodden on a rusty nail playing somewhere where he shouldn't have been. He was scared of getting into trouble so didn't tell his parents, got gangrene and his leg was amputated at the knee. I was quite shocked by this but the book treats it matter of factly. The boy's parents come to the brother of the narrator for help as their son is becoming reclusive. The brother straps an artificial leg on himself to work out the best way of getting upstairs etc and teaches the child on how to ways to cope with his disability.

Satsuki, could it perchance have been Seaward by Susan Cooper (author of the more famous The Dark is Rising)? I don't think it is set underwater but the main character, Cally, is descended from a selkie/sea creature and has visions of life underwater. There's also a companion boy character, Westerly. Maybe it's not this book but Cooper does love the word "gossamer"!

Thank you fozzley for the extra info. It could be it. I remember the feel of it as being quite surreal and uncanny, with a lot of emphasis on the fantasy element, rather than straightforward. The boy and girl is familiar.

polly I came across that before when I was trying to find it - can't find a synopsis and it seems to be a short story? whereas I'm sure it was a novel. Thank you.

onlyliving (I like your name, I always hear Simon and Garfunkel when I see it) that's an interesting one, as I have 3 of her books on the shelf next to me, so it could be a possibility, though I thought it was more modern. I've just seen it is 49p on Kindle so might get it and see if it rings any bells.

EmilyDickinson Is it The Great Brain by John Fitzgerald?

Remus is the school one Hilary of Highlands by Winifred Norling?

Elisheva, just looked at The Great Brain on Wikipedia. Yes! It is! Thank you so much! Off to see if it's still in print.

Oh, been trying to find a book for years.Hope someone can help.
Set in WW2, a boy is bombed out of his home, but somehow gets separated from his family, and sets off on a long journey, maybe to find them? Gains a dog. Walks across a causeway, (to Lindisfarne?) gets caught out by tide and has to shelter in one of those refuges on stilts.
Eventually is reunited with some of his family, but not a happy ending, as they're pretty crap.
Must have been written by about 1997, but don't know if it was old then
Thanks
Feel quite excited to refind it.

Satsuki- yes, it is a short story. A girl lives in a village by the sea. A great storm pulls the sea back and a long lost undersea village is revealed with people asleep in all the houses. Girl goes out to village but has to run back as sea comes back in. So has some elements of your story, but if it’s a novel then can’t be it.

Have a look at Seaward as suggested by Wayfaresonbaby above. That is certainly strange and uncanny.

Can’t help anyone else but mine is about two sisters who were heavily into folk dancing. There was someone called ‘The Pixie’ or something. It was a series of books and in one they had left school and were living in London and there was some pottery involved - brown with gold lining and blue with a different lining.

I had no idea what was going on but I was mesmerised by the pottery.

Bestiswest - that's the Abbey Girls series by Elsie Oxenham, probably The Abbey Girls in Town as that has the pottery descriptions.

A boat and three men. Is it Cocoon?

Oh my god, minimoll so it is! Thank you. And I’ve just googled it and discovered the pottery is Farnham Pottery.

polly that is not mine but sounds like it might be the one gymbunnie was looking for?

wayfaresonbaby you little beauty!!! It is indeed Seaward, I'm sure of it! Cally for Calliope being descended from sea creatures brought it all rushing back! Amazing, thank you It has been years, incredible to get a title after all this time. Thanks for the thread nottheduchess and everyone who had suggestions, I've made some interesting discoveries as well. Going to have a glance and see if I can help anyone else.