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The Mystery of the Penny Orange: A Cullodena Douglas Mystery
Set in the mid 1960s, fiesty, opinionated and resourceful sixteen-year old CULLODENA DOUGLAS (CULLIE) finds out that she and her quirky family are leaving behind the poverty of Edinburgh and migrating by ship to the land of golden opportunity - Australia. There is LIZZIE her fashion-obsessed sister, JIM her womanising brother, BEATRICE her hypochondriac mother and BILL her obsessive, philatelist father. Cullie’s one ray of sunshine in all this upheaval is that her brother’s interfering fiancée, AGNES, will be left behind in Scotland. Unfortunately, this is not to be.
The intrigue begins on the train to London. Cullie finds a mysterious man rummaging through her overnight tapestry bag when it’s left in her overnight sleeper. The man feigns a heart attack and Cullie races off for help, but when she gets back he has disappeared.
On board ship Cullie meets good-looking, rich kid SIMON BRINK and his extremely introverted, but brilliant brother Owl. Cullie is astonished to find the boys have smuggled their pet hamster WHISKY on board. Although she has misgivings about their wealthy English background she befriends them and loans them her tapestry bag to keep Whisky in.
This sets in train a series of incidents revolving around the bag – some sinister, some terrifying, and some just plain ridiculous. Cullie keeps running into the mysterious man from the train. He becomes more and more desperate to get his hands on the bag. So does Simon and Owl’s strange guardian ELWIN LURKER who is sure it harbours a dark, festering secret.
Relying on her wits and resilience, Cullie, with the help of Lizzie, Simon and Owl, begins to unravel a complex plot based on the robbery of a priceless stamp – the Penny Orange. She is determined to solve the case.
Surrounded by an odd assortment of eccentrics, snobs, self-absorbed parents, control freaks, and terrifying criminals, Cullie learns that she must trust her own instincts. She also learns, for a short while at least, not to be quite so opinionated.
The intrigue begins on the train to London. Cullie finds a mysterious man rummaging through her overnight tapestry bag when it’s left in her overnight sleeper. The man feigns a heart attack and Cullie races off for help, but when she gets back he has disappeared.
On board ship Cullie meets good-looking, rich kid SIMON BRINK and his extremely introverted, but brilliant brother Owl. Cullie is astonished to find the boys have smuggled their pet hamster WHISKY on board. Although she has misgivings about their wealthy English background she befriends them and loans them her tapestry bag to keep Whisky in.
This sets in train a series of incidents revolving around the bag – some sinister, some terrifying, and some just plain ridiculous. Cullie keeps running into the mysterious man from the train. He becomes more and more desperate to get his hands on the bag. So does Simon and Owl’s strange guardian ELWIN LURKER who is sure it harbours a dark, festering secret.
Relying on her wits and resilience, Cullie, with the help of Lizzie, Simon and Owl, begins to unravel a complex plot based on the robbery of a priceless stamp – the Penny Orange. She is determined to solve the case.
Surrounded by an odd assortment of eccentrics, snobs, self-absorbed parents, control freaks, and terrifying criminals, Cullie learns that she must trust her own instincts. She also learns, for a short while at least, not to be quite so opinionated.
243 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 4, 2021
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