Mystery of the Angry Idol

by Phyllis A. Whitney

Summer of Secrets

Jan Pendleton thought visiting her grandmother for the summer would be quiet and dull. But that was before she met Neil, the good-looking boy who lived next door, and standoffish Patrick who owned a motor boat, and before she realized a dark-bearded stranger was hiding in the shrubbery, watching the house. Something very strange was going on--something to do with the fearsome looking Chinese idol in great-grandmother Althea's room. Jan was determined to discover its secret--but apparently someone else was trying to discover it too. The idol was stolen...!

Genres: Mystery, Young Adult, Gothic, Childrens

176 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1974

About the author

Phyllis Ayame Whitney (1903 – 2008) was an American mystery writer. Rare for her genre, she wrote mysteries for both the juvenile and the adult markets, many of which feature exotic locations. A review in The New York Times once dubbed her "The Queen of the American Gothics".

She was born in Japan to American parents and spent her early years in Asia. Whitney wrote more than seventy novels. In 1961, her book The Mystery of the Haunted Pool won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Juvenile novel, and she duplicated the honor in 1964, for The Mystery of the Hidden Hand. In 1988, the MWA gave her a Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement. Whitney died of pneumonia on February 8, 2008, aged 104.

Reviews

[yellowbird]

So, I read this book when I was eleven or twelve years old. Then it got put away in one of the brown paper shopping bags full of books that were endlessly appearing and disappearing in my family's house, and went wherever all those books went when we were done reading them. And that darn book has haunted me ever since.
I couldn't remember the title, or the author for sure, although I was pretty sure it was Phyllis A. Whitney. All I could remember was that I wanted it back. That was when I started collecting books, a habit that made me an oddity among my friends and family, who would always say something like, "But you've read it already, you know how it turns out!"
Well, now I've finally rediscovered the title, after all these years, and I'm going to buy it online in about five minutes, and then the darn thing can stop nagging me. And when it arrives in the mail, I'll read it and put it with all the others that are gradually filling this room from floor to ceiling, and every so often I'll look at it and think, "HA!"
How sad, right? Some of you are reading this and laughing. My husband is sitting right next to me, sorting the enormous list of music files he has stored on his laptop computer, and he's laughing at me too.
But that's ok. I can live with that.

[Laura Bang]

A light mystery set in Mystic Seaport! I liked the developing relationship between Jan and her grandmother and great-grandmother, but the two boys Jan tries to befriend are super-annoying (which she realizes but she is desperate for friends since her family moved her across the country to live with strangers). The mystery centers on a Chinese statuette that Jan's (white) great-grandmother brought with her when she had to flee China during the Boxer Rebellion. There's definitely some Orientalism but not as bad as I was expecting.

(Also Jan is homesick a lot and it's maybe not a great idea to read a book about someone who is homesick when one is homesick oneself....)

I really didn't understand why Jan's family ditched her, though? Her dad was going to do some kind of non-combat work in Vietnam, so her mom and younger brothers moved to Japan to be near him, but they left Jan behind because of school? But they moved her from California to Connecticut to live with her grandmother and great-grandmother? Children's novels often deal with children separated from their parents for some reason so they have less immediate supervision, but this just seemed more hand-wavy than usual.

[Allison Tebo]

This book was the quintessential mash-up of summer house escape and mysterious closed-door situation. I really liked the unique spin of having a relationship between a granddaughter and her great grandmother be the focus of the story. Just about anything Asian has always interested me, so the little tidbits of Althea’s backstory of growing up in China and fleeing due to the Boxer rebellion were intriguing. Like the other Whitney book mentioned above, The Mystery of the Angry Idol completely transported me to Mystic Seaport and made me yearn to go there again. There was just enough mystery to keep me interested but not utterly surprised (or utterly lost) in its natural procession to a satisfying ending.

[Patrick]

A great childhood favorite! Completely engaging, with memorable characters in the delightful setting of Mystic, Connecticut. Everything about this book remains vivid in my memory.

Like all good popular authors of earlier eras, Phyllis Whitney is an author with excellent literary chops. I should have read more of her work than just this book, so I just started another of her juvenile mysteries, the Edgar-winning The Mystery of the Haunted Pool.

[Eric Wood]

First book i read of Phyllis A Whitney, and it was good . The story was slow at times however, and the mystery wasn't the best. But i still enjoyed this book and it deserves 3 stars.

[Chuck]

I had been looking for years for a book I had read in grade school, but all I could remember was the phrase, "For Rose of Sharon, find a happy heart." Google was unable to help me with this phrase alone. And then recently, the author's name came to me. I added it to the search, and voila: Mystery of the Angry Idol.

Apparently it's now out of print, which is unfortunate. I did, however, find it in the local library. It was fun to take a trip down memory lane. Although it's written for youth, it's engaging enough for adults to enjoy.

Twelve-year-old Jan Pendleton is left with her grandmother and great-grandmother when the rest of her family goes abroad for her father's job. Her great-grandmother is somewhat reclusive, and cautious about who she allows to get close, including Jan. Jan feels lonely for her family and unsure of her place in the new household she finds herself in.

Her great-grandmother, "Miss Althea," has a collection of jade and ceramics from China, which her own father had given her. One of the ceramic pieces seems to harbor a mystery. Jan enlists the help of the boy next door and a grandfatherly local as she sets about solving the mystery with hopes of cementing her place in her grandmother and great-grandmother's home.

This was a quick, fun read and a pleasant journey down memory lane.

[Irina]

Jan needs to drop these toxic men and find herself a girl friend