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.

I have one too. Mine is for young children, maybe 5 or 6 year olds. It was hardback and a4 sized from memory. Each page had illustrations on it.

It was about Suzy’s first day at school. There was a naughty boy called Roddy in the story. It was an 80’s book. On the first page Suzy was hunting under her bed for a missing sock.

Dancingledge The Kingdom by the Sea?

I immediately thought of The Sea Baby too for Gymbunnie's post. I LOVE Seaward by Susan Cooper. Nearly named my baby after Callie!
I have a nagging one that I haven't posted about on these threads in the past as I remember so little about it but maybe I'll give it a try. A girl - possibly orphaned - who has a crown made of fabric, I think silver-coloured. The only thing I clearly remember is the description of the crown folding up- and possibly her sleeping with it under her pillow. Google has given me nothing so far!

Well this is impressive so far! I can't help anyone else, unfortunately, but does this ring a bell with anyone? A journey deep underground to the centre of the earth with a character that was rather like a human size frog/man. That's all I can remember. This would have been 1970s or earlier.

Satsuki glad to be of help! Such a strange otherworldly book. I love Susan Cooper - something about your description just struck a chord: the gossamer thing maybe, and the fact you compared it to Diana Wynne Jones and Vivien Alcock. I feel like buying and rereading it again now, too!

Bless something is ringing bells about your post, but initially I'm only thinking about The Silver Chair by CS Lewis (one of the Narnia books, but one less well read than the early ones). Puddleglum the marsh-wiggle is described as a frog-man.

Yes I obviously should have been looking at Gymbunny’s post for the sea thing.

Seaward is a strange and haunting book. Not as well known as Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising sequence. It was written ( I think) after the death of her parents and is a kind of exploration of grief through myth. Well worth a reread.

Can anyone help with this one. Written in the last decade or so, I think.
Fantasy/Possibly steam punk type story.
All I remember is an older couple whose house (or it might have been a shop) would move in the night. Do they'd open the curtains in the morning and be somewhere else the next day.
I'm fairly sure the same book also featured a knight that lived in another dimension waiting to have his final fight. The portal to this dimension was their downstairs toilet.

wayfarers I really thought that wouldn't be enough to go on to find it, I'd resigned myself to it. I think the language in it must have been quite sophisticated and descriptive because the feel of the book stayed with me more so than the plot. DWJ & VA were my 2 favourites, and though I think I must have read The Dark Is Rising series, I don't think I actively looked for Susan Cooper in the same way, and so many books went back to the library and were forgotten.

tellmedinosaur The Silver Crown by Robert C O Brien? He also wrote the Rats of Nimh which was creepy.

polly I'm going to order and reread it, delighted to find it. It made such a strong impression on me, of strangeness and sadness. Yes hope gymbunnie comes back and sees it.

No :(

It's more a young children's books. Double pages of illustrations with paragraphs of writing rather than a novel

Thanks though

Remus The end of The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailier has the family reunited in Switzerland living in a village for orphans created after WWII.

The girls with sashes doing exercises could be an Abbey Girls one - they are obsessed with morris dancing and 'drill'.

Remus the girls with sashes definitely rings a bell for me too - I remember it as white dresses with coloured sashes. I'm wondering if it was either Malory Towers/St. Clares or perhaps the Antonia Forrest Marlows school books?

I don't think I've read the Abbey Girls series suggested by Citrus.

Wearing different coloured sashes was a thing in the Worst Witch, at Miss Cackles Academy, but I guess it's not that.

Remus I think the book you're looking for is The silver sword. I seem to remember there's an end note in that giving the history of the Pestalozzi Children's Villages in Switzerland. Mind you it's about 40 years since I read it so I might be wrong!

Satsuki you're right! you're right!
Thank you so much.
Ordering it now.

Sashes rings a bell for me too. I have no clue though so hoping someone will.

Satsuki I had found The Silver Crown on google in the past but couldn't see any mention of the crown being fabric. But looking again there are other resonances so I might just have to get hold of a copy and check. Thank you!

Oh that's a shame gym

No I didn't see fabric mentioned either tellme. I know I was unsure of all the suggestions for mine because they seemed likely, but when the correct one was mentioned I knew it immediately, so maybe not but sounds like it might be worth a look.

dancing that's brilliant, glad you found it.

@Wayfarersonbaby Thanks for the suggestion but unfortunately that's not it.

My mystery book is about a little girl who wants to put on a show with the other kids in her neighbourhood one day, but one by one they all drop out so she’s left performing it by herself. I have an image of external cellar doors (like pubs used to have - and maybe American houses), and the girl performed the song “On the Sunny Side of the Street”.

(I was born late 60s if that helps place it.)

Ooh I think it might well be The Silver Sword. I know I definitely read that one as a child. Thank you, Citrus and Emma.

Sashes definitely not the Worst Witch. I don't know if I've read any Abbey girls ones - off to have a Google! I read all the St Claires and Mallory Towers books, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't one of those.

Are there white dresses with sashes in Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield?

Just realised that wouldn't remotely fit with the rest of the description. Sorry!

There are white dresses with ribbons and coloured necklaces in Ballet Shoes. Love that book so much!

my book is one i read in the 80s at my parents. may have been a readers digest book as they had loads. a man in invited to a country house weekend away and picked up by a girl in a pink e type jag wearing all pink.