Review: You win, Clara!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 25, 2014
The third book in this series is set in Cornwall, where reluctant amateur detective Angela Marchmont has gone to recover from ill health.  The mystery centers around a old house once owned by smugglers, as was every old house in Cornwall if you believe the hype. The frail elderly owner will lose her ancestral home unless she can find the diamond necklace stolen from a French queen and reported to be hidden in the house.  There's also a mysterious jewel thief who may be in the area and a shady young couple who keep very late hours and a "nephew" who may not be what he seems and an oddly-dressed "geologist" whose story wouldn't fool a toddler.  Lots of layers to this onion!Most of the detecting is done by Angela's goddaughter Barbara, a twelve-year-old terror.  Incorrigible is the only word that describes her and even that's not strong enough. Determined to find the necklace and save old Miss Trout from destitution, she takes risks and survives catastrophes that left me in a state of shock just reading about them.  She's an orphan (having unquestionably  driven her parents to early graves) and the relatives who are supposed to look after her during school holidays develop scarlet fever in order to pawn her off on Angela.  Poor Angela, who's bullied by her own maid, never had a chance!In other Benson books, I figured out who-done-it before hitting the 50% mark.  There are plenty of broad clues in this one and I was onto several of the evil-doers early on, but two of them had me fooled completely. PLUS two characters whom I found highly suspicious turned out to be on the side of the angels.  Either Clara was in rare form here or I'm losing my marbles.I was also never convinced of the written-in-the-1920's-and-hidden-in-the-attic-all-this-time story given out by the publisher.  I am now.  There's simply no way a modern writer would invent a godmother (or ANY woman) who would allow a twelve-year-old girl to wander around by herself in the middle of the night with dangerous criminals behind every bush without calling the cops.  No sir, this book was written when "helicopter parenting" was far in the future. And it's not a NANCY DREW knock-off, either, since the first book in that series appeared in 1930.I only have one more Clara Benson to go and I'm already sad to see this entertaining series come to an end.