Unraveling Mysteries: Meg and the Witch's Secret

Meg and the Secret of the Witch’s Stairway by Holly Beth Walker

This is number 2 in the series of six Meg mysteries. Holly Beth Walker was a pseudonym. No one knows who really wrote Meg and the Secret of the Witch’s Stairway. The book was published in 1967.

Margaret Ashley Duncan, Meg for short, is a girl about 12 years old who loves solving mysteries. She has brown eyes and long dark-brown hair braids, but wishes she had short hair. Meg lives in the country, near the village of Hidden Springs, Virginia. She's an only child, and her mother has died.

Meg’s best friend Kerry Carmody shares Meg’s sense of curiosity. Kerry lives on a farm near the Duncan home with her parents and six siblings. She has short blonde hair and blue eyes.

Meg's Uncle Hal Ashley is Meg’s mother's

Unfortunately, they don't find anything. However, Curly, the dog, has found something. Meg discovers that is an old-fashioned silver fork. As she tries to find where the fork came from she sees the old woman who looks like a witch staring at her. The woman gets in a car drives away. Meg investigates the chimney on the burned out old plantation house where the woman was standing and discovers some disturbed bricks.

Meg goes back to Melinda’s diary. When Meg looks at the riddles, she notices one line that says: “Monticello points the way” and she realizes that it might refer to an old desk the sisters own that once belonged to Thomas Jefferson. The hidden spring must be a spring in the desk, Meg thinks.

Clara tells Meg that the sisters already knew about a small hidden compartment in the desk, but it was empty. Meg appears to be at another dead end but more strange events are to follow. Can Meg solve the riddles written more than 100 years ago by Melinda? Can Meg and Kerry recover the missing silver? And can the girls unravel the secret of the Witch’s