44 pages • 1 hour read
Sheila TurnageThree Times Lucky
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary: “Lavender Blues”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of addiction.
Mo and Dale go to Lavender’s house and find that his house is messy and that he’s still in bed. Mo worries that Lavender is depressed, which is explained when he reveals that he is $1,000 short for car parts and might not be able to participate in the Sycamore 200. Mo has worries of her own, as the Colonel still hasn’t called, but she offers to help Lavender raise money for his car. Lavender graciously accepts the help but tells Mo that she’s under no obligation. He hopes that he can win the race and earn some money to support his mother, who has been having a hard time since their father started drinking heavily.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Mr. Jesse’s Final Contribution”
Mo and Dale go to the church to look for more clues and find Thes, who gives them a photocopy of Mr. Jesse’s last monetary donation. In the church, Mo overhears a woman yelling at her daughter about being more confident and singing better, and Mo decides to intervene. When she realizes that it’s Anna-Celeste, it doesn’t stop her from telling Anna-Celeste’s mother that Anna-Celeste is a great singer and that she shouldn’t talk to kids that way.
Back at the café, Miss Retzyl and Deputy Marla come in for lunch. As they’re leaving, Mo decides to share her photocopy with Marla, who reacts strangely, as though she’s nervous. She takes the paper and drives away. That night, the Colonel finally calls, but he isn’t planning to come home anytime soon. He calls Miss Lana “baby,” which is out of character for him. He also refers to Mo by her full name. Miss Lana and Mo find it unusual but can’t do anything except be glad that he’s safe.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Miss Lana!”
Mo and Dale set up a booth at the local Mimosa Festival to sell ad space on Lavender’s car and raise the money for him. They end up raising more than enough, and Lavender kisses Mo to thank her. Mo is sailing on a high as she and Dale run home, but when they enter, they find that the place is ransacked and that Miss Lana is gone. They find a note on the table that says, “Starr—we both need something. You help me and I’ll help you” (200).
Suddenly, Detective Starr appears, and Deputy Marla is close behind him. Mo starts to fall into shock at the thought of Miss Lana being kidnapped, and Marla wraps the Colonel’s blanket around her. It reminds Mo of a time when she went camping with the Colonel and he told her to listen to the stars whenever she feels lost. Miss Rose arrives, which calms Mo a little. They notice that Starr has a photo of the man they thought was Dale’s undercover officer, but Starr says that he’s a wanted bank robber named Robert Slate. Mo and Dale tell Starr that that same man has been lurking around them for days, and he sends out an alert to block the highways. Miss Rose takes Mo home with her.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Listening to the Stars”
Mo lies awake in Dale’s bed with his dog to keep her company. Dale sneaks in with some sandwiches and wants to discuss Miss Lana. Mo feels lost and unmotivated to help; she feels like a failure as a detective. Mo remembers a rumor about the Colonel arriving in town with a suitcase full of cash and wonders if that might be why Robert Slate took Miss Lana. Dale can sense Mo’s despair and tells her that they should see how they feel in the morning. Mo remembers the Colonel’s advice about the stars again and hopes that she can feel new tomorrow.
Chapter 20 Summary: “A Suitcase Full of Cash”
Mo mentions the suitcase of money to Miss Rose, who remembers seeing the Colonel and Miss Lana with a suitcase and a stack of cash when Mo was young. Detective Starr arrives to share the latest information, which is that Miss Lana has yet to be found. Mo tells Starr about the rumor about the suitcase and the possibility that Slate is after that money, whether it exists or not. She shares a letter from the Colonel about the day Mo was born during a hurricane and how the Colonel crashed into a tree. He was sitting by the creek when Mo, tied to a billboard, crashed into the back of his head. Starr is more interested in the money and whether any of it would be left, but Miss Rose believes that their money was spent a long time ago.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Ransom”
Locals start showing up at Dale’s house, wanting Mo to serve them lunch. Mo happily takes up the task, and soon half the town is sitting around Dale’s house. Later, Robert Slate calls Dale’s house again, and Detective Starr asks Mo to talk to him and keep him on the line. When Mo picks up, she starts yelling at Slate and insulting him, demanding that he give Miss Lana back. She hears a strange, metallic sound on the other end of the line. Starr takes the phone away from Mo, and Slate tells him that he wants $500,000 in exchange for releasing the Colonel and Miss Lana. When Starr asks to speak to one of them, Slate declines. To make matters worse, they don’t keep Slate on the phone long enough for the call to be traced.
Chapters 16-21 Analysis
Mo continues to demonstrate strength of character in the way she helps those around her and rises to challenges. The first of these is finding a way to raise the money for Lavender’s car, as Mo can’t bear to see Lavender in a downtrodden state. When Mo is motivated, she finds a way, and she and Dale manage to raise more than enough by selling ad space. Though Lavender kissing Mo is arguably inappropriate, it represents his gratitude.
The upheaval surrounding Mr. Jesse’s murder highlights the town’s strength and unity. During the police investigation, the town sticks together, even having lunch at Dale’s house when nobody is around to run the café. The town runs on a routine and a sense of familiarity, and nothing about the murder of Mr. Jesse is routine or familiar. Their response, however, is not to fall into chaos but to band together, support one another, and carry on as much of their routine as they can. Anna-Celeste even decides to help Mo by bringing her some nicer bottles to use as message bottles. While they do not become friends, it is a sign that both girls recognize that there are more important things than the differences between them.
Several plot twists make the story less predictable. When Mo goes into shock after Miss Lana disappears, Detective Starr tries to comfort her, hinting that he may not be the villain after all. It is clear that Starr is just there to do his job, but he also recognizes the closeness of the people in Tupelo Landing and empathizes with Mo’s fear. The man who has been following Mo and Dale around turns out to be Robert Slate, which means that he’s been lingering around in town the whole time. It is also revealed that the Colonel may have had a suitcase full of money, though Mo believes it is just a rumor. When Mo gives Deputy Marla the photocopied bill, the deputy reacts strangely, hinting that she is not actually on Mo’s side. This represents a shift from the beginning, where Starr was presented as a suspicious character and Marla as sympathetic. When Slate demands a ransom of $500,000, Mo and Dale are forced to get extra creative in taking him down; this showcases their prowess.
When Miss Lana goes missing and both she and the Colonel are gone, Mo feels alone. This leads her to an epiphany: She realizes that family is extremely important to her, but not in the way she initially thought. Reading the Colonel’s letter about the day he rescued her from the creek, Mo realizes that the Colonel and Miss Lana have always done the things that parents would do for their child. While she has always loved them, she never feels quite as connected to them as she does when they are gone. Mo takes great comfort in the Colonel’s camping blanket, which still smells like campfire and reminds Mo of a time when she went camping with him. The Colonel gave Mo some important advice about letting the stars put her to sleep so that she could wake up feeling new again. Mo takes his advice and allows herself the night to see if she feels better the next day. She is a resilient and courageous person and recovers from her shock quickly, hopping right back on the case, determined to find her family.
