Mouse Hole

Nine year-old Richard is learning-disabled, hampered by a pronounced stutter -- and scared of the spooky old mansion on Sycamore Street, a place he must walk past every day to school. His lively imagination leads him to believe all sorts of weird things about it, including being chased by evil guard dogs that protect the grounds. But Richard has real problems that beset him. Three years have passed since his military father went off to war and in the last year he and his mother have had to move to a new town.
Richard sees his mother's slow breakdown as she tries to cope with the loss of her husband and he does his best to "be a man" and help. In addition, since moving to this new town Richard hasn't had the time to make any new friends but one. Now that school is out for the summer and that one friend has gone away, he is left alone -- and bored. Thus the perfect medium in which a young boy's fantasies can soar.
And soar they do. Richard overhears his mother and a neighbor talk of a burglary at that old mansion and his imagination leads him to believe he has been accused of the crime. Richard's drive to "clear his good name" causes him to overcome his fear of the massive estate and enter it. While there he's confronted by the police investigator on the case yet allowed to participate. Quite by accident Richard discovers what he believes is a clue in possibly solving the baffling mystery as to who burgled the mansion, and why.
Now Richard's problem is, can he get the lead police investigator -- or anyone -- to believe him?Along the way to achieving that end, Richard is befriended by an unlikely character, a colorful, cartoon-like old sea captain who wants to teach him a craft: model shipbuilding. Despite his mother's misgivings, Richard is allowed to be tutored by the old fellow and when he is, learns something that seems unrelated to the burglary.
Yet Richard believes the information to be vital...he just can't figure out how. Then one night at home in his bed he puts it all together and "cracks the case, " as he terms it. Now he has a new problem: Can he get the police investigator to believe him and release the old sea captain who has been charged with the crime?But believed he is, and in the climactic ending another mystery -- what has become of Richard's father -- is solved.