The Absent Author

Dink Duncan’s best friend is Josh Pinto. He’s loyal, brave, and a bit mischievous. He wants to be an artist one day. Josh is the only member of the mystery team who has not read any of Wallis Wallace’s books. This lack of familiarity with the mystery genre shows in his unfocused approach to the case: Josh is the most suspicious of the three friends and makes accusations against nearly everyone the team comes into contact with. Nevertheless, his willingness to take risks proves essential to the team’s fact-finding mission and therefore underscores The Importance of Teamwork in Overcoming Challenges.

A children’s mystery author, Wallis Wallace lives in a castle in Maine called Moose Manor, has a favorite color of green, and donates to animal conservation programs. Wallace has corresponded with Dink Duncan, though Dink has never seen a picture of the author. At the beginning of the book, Wallace is scheduled to visit Green Lawn for a book signing but mysteriously doesn’t show up. Throughout the story, Dink and his friends use information from Wallace’s books to learn more about him and to establish the timeline of events that led up to his disappearance.

Wallis is revealed at the end of the story to be a woman: Mavis Green, who introduces herself as a writer and another fan of Wallis Wallace when Dink and his friends meet her after the canceled book signing. The letter from Wallis Wallace that she presents is a crucial piece of evidence that Dink and his friends collect early on in the story. She wears all brown except for a red scarf with the letter M (later revealed to be W) on it. She has half-glasses and a book bag with a moose on the front. These details reveal her dual identity. As Mavis, she acts reserved and adopts a correspondingly bookish look; however, the moose and the initialed scarf hint at her true identity as Wallace.

Ruth Rose is Dink Duncan’s next-door neighbor and a Wallis Wallace fan. She is intelligent and inquisitive and is not afraid to speak her mind. It is Ruth Rose’s idea to check the back of Wallis Wallace’s books to learn more about the author, which is how the children uncover the clues about Moose Manor and Wallace liking the color green. Her adventurousness and ability to pay attention and make connections proves instrumental in helping the crew; as the one who ends up solving the mystery at the end, she exemplifies The Value of Observation in Problem-Solving.

Mr. Paskey is the owner of the Book Nook, the bookstore where Wallis Wallace is set to have a book signing. When Dink and his friends arrive at the bookshop, Mr. Paskey looks very nervous. This nervousness increases throughout the first chapter until he is pouring sweat. Wallis Wallace later informs Dink and his friends that Mr. Paskey participated in the staged kidnapping, which explains his nervous behavior.

Maureen Higgins is a cab driver who works for Lawrence Taxi Service. She has cheerful blue eyes, can be sarcastic, and is shown to be a messy eater; she is also completing a crossword puzzle when the children meet her, which underscores the depiction of Green Lawn as a “reading town.” She tells the children that she drove Wallis Wallace to the Shangri-la from the airport the previous night and that he smiled but didn’t say anything. This foreshadows Wallace’s identity, as Mavis explains that she was smiling to herself because she found being in disguise as a man amusing.

Olivia Nugent is the one-time babysitter of Ruth Rose who now works as a maid at the Shangri-la Hotel. She is the mother of two children and lives in the Acorn Apartments. Her younger sister is an avid reader of Wallis Wallace, which contributes to the novel’s positive depiction of reading. Dink and his friends consult Olivia to find out what she knows about the contents of Wallace’s room at the Shangri-la; her testimony is part of what leads the children to the discovery of the supposed Wallis Wallace (really Wallace’s brother) in Room 302.