45 pages • 1 hour read
Jenny NimmoMidnight for Charlie Bone: The Children of the Red King #1
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2002A 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 12-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary: “Mind Games”
In the King’s room, Charlie plans to sneak away to meet Fidelio, who’s supposed to give him a signal about the silver case. With Olivia and Billy covering for him, Charlie heads through the school’s labyrinthine passages to the music tower. From a window, he sees Fidelio and Benjamin gesturing strangely. Unable to understand them, he realizes he’ll need to wait until he’s home to know if the case is safe. Before he can leave the tower, Charlie is drawn by the sound of piano music from the top. He finds one of the teachers, Mr. Pilgrim, there, playing. When Mr. Pilgrim notices him, Charlie lies that he got lost. Charlie then returns to the King’s room, where Olivia and Billy say Manfred was searching for him.
Later, in the prefects’ room, Manfred tries to intimidate Charlie into revealing the location of the case, but Charlie uses his gift to resist his hypnotic gaze. Enraged, Manfred throws things at Charlie until Dr. Bloor intervenes and dismisses Charlie, saying his mother is waiting for him. Upstairs, the cook’s dog, Blessed, keeps Billy company as he stays alone over the weekends. While Billy reassures Charlie he’s used to being alone, Charlie is still sad about leaving the boy behind.
Chapter 13 Summary: “The Inventor’s Tale”
Charlie is reunited with his mother, who is anxious about the strictness at Bloor’s but eager to hear about his week. As they walk home, they notice Asa Pike awkwardly following them, and Charlie’s mother leads them on a roundabout route home to lose him. They pass the cathedral, where Amy recalls Charlie’s father playing the organ. Once home, Grandma Bone is overbearing. Despite her protests, Charlie escapes to visit his friends.
Charlie meets Benjamin and Fidelio at the former’s house and learns they uncovered more information from a recorded message inside the mechanical dog. In it, Dr. Tolly recounts how he was coerced into trading his daughter, Emma, in front of the cathedral. Charlie’s father, the young organist, tried to intervene, but Manfred hypnotized him and Dr. Tolley, leading to Emma and Lyell’s disappearance. Dr. Tolly also reveals that the case can be opened by pressing the letters on the side in order.
Uncle Paton goes to dinner with Miss Ingledew but returns in humiliation after he accidentally causes several lightbulbs to explode at the restaurant. Though embarrassed by what happened, Paton listens to what Charlie has discovered and acknowledges the involvement of the Yewbeams and the Bloors in Lyell’s disappearance. He admits he’s been too passive. Charlie decides to take Dr. Tolly’s message to Miss Ingledew the next day. Paton says he spiked Grandma Bone’s milk to ensure she’ll stay asleep for longer the next morning and leave them alone.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Billy’s Dark Bargain”
Despite his claims to Charlie that he doesn’t mind, Billy experiences his usual dread of Saturday nights alone in the dormitory. His only company is the cook’s old dog, Blessed, who just complains. Billy wonders why no one has ever adopted him and assumes it is because of his appearance: Billy has albinism. Late that night, Blessed tells Billy that Ezekiel Bloor, Dr. Bloor’s father and the decrepit patriarch of the family, wants him. The boy follows the dog to a hidden part of the academy, where Ezekiel offers Billy a cup of cocoa. As they talk, he tantalizes Billy with the prospect of being adopted if the boy agrees to spy on Charlie for him. Desperate for a family, Billy agrees to the old man’s request and tells him everything he knows about Charlie.
Chapter 15 Summary: “A Ringing, Chanting, Shining Knight”
Charlie wakes up on Sunday morning free from Grandma Bone’s critical eye. After breakfast with his mother and Maisie, he goes to see Benjamin, whose parents have left him a note. It says that they have left for a while for Scotland as part of their detective work, and Benjamin will be under the care of a social worker. Charlie and Benjamin take Dr. Tolly’s tape to Miss Ingledew. Charlie reassures her that he and his friends will work to free Emma from her hypnosis.
The boys then visit Fidelio’s home and his large, musically talented family. The boys finally open Dr. Tolly’s case in an upstairs storage room. Inside is a figure of a medieval knight that rises and tolls twelve bells, chanting in Latin. Charlie believes the sounds are intended to free Emma. They hide the case at Fidelio’s until the following weekend when they plan to take Emma to the Gunn House. Once home again, Charlie tells his mother about Emma’s situation and their upcoming plan, though he assures her he will be careful.
Chapter 16 Summary: “War”
Benjamin returns home to find the “social worker” is Aunt Eustacia, another of the Yewbeam Sisters. Benjamin is uneasy at her presence and her apparent disdain for Runner Bean. That night, the dog is viciously attacked by an unknown creature, leaving Benjamin distraught and fearing for Runner Bean’s life. He resists Aunt Eustacia’s attempts to send him to school the next morning, instead rushing to Charlie’s house to seek help from Uncle Paton. Paton returns with the boy to examine Runner Bean. He suspects foul play, possibly from an animal summoned by the Yewbeams or the Bloors. Paton suggests calling Mr. Onimous to help the dog and says the Yewbeams have finally gone too far.
Chapters 12-16 Analysis
As the book shows Charlie and his allies developing their plan to save Emma, the tone of cautious optimism grows, building a trajectory to the resolution. Despite still being stuck in the school for detention, the camaraderie between Charlie, Billy, and Olivia brings a hopeful energy to an otherwise grim situation, and this section increasingly signals The Power of Friendship. Olivia helps Charlie find his way to the music tower by creating a map, and she and Billy cover for him while he sneaks away to meet Fidelio. Their quiet rebellion against the Bloors and Aunt Lucretia shows how they are learning to use their wits to resist. Charlie uses his powers to resist as well when Manfred attempts to hypnotize him once more. This time, Charlie uses his own powers on the older boy. The events all share a subversive appeal for the young reader, as they show those younger or less powerful outwitting their seniors. In this way, Nimmo provides humor and encourages increased engagement with her characters.
Part 3 sees Charlie return home for the first time, creating a comparison between his home life and attitudes before and after attending Bloor’s. For Charlie, home now represents a safe space and supportive figures like his mother and Uncle Paton, whose guidance helps Charlie cope with his new life. This cyclical structure allows for some release of tension in the narrative and also demonstrates how much Charlie has matured in his first week.
Billy’s lonely situation, however, provides a melancholy contrast to Charlie’s return. Billy’s unhappiness will prove to be the biggest danger to the children’s plans. Although Charlie is sometime burdened by The Weight of Family Legacy, this episode expands this theme to show the vulnerability of those who lack these ties. Despite his attempts to appear brave, Billy dreads lonely weekends stuck at Bloor’s Academy. He clings to the only companionship available through Blessed, though the dog is preoccupied with animal concerns rather than the human interactions Billy longs for. The loneliness and longing make him a prime target for manipulation, which Ezekiel Bloor does. His friendliness toward Billy, including offering him cocoa and complimenting him, is a predatory tactic to establish trust. In Ezekiel’s eyes, Billy is just another pawn in the Bloors’ ongoing pursuit of control. Billy does not initially see the harm in Ezekiel’s requests:
With the prospect of living forever with kind and wonderful parents, Billy eagerly told the old man everything he wanted to know. He didn’t think that it would hurt Charlie, and even admitted his own part in spying on Dr. Bloor in the Da Vinci tower (269).
This description is calibrated to draw on the sympathies of a young reader. While Billy’s actions might be a betrayal, they are rooted in his desperation and abandonment, making him a tragic character influenced by his exceptionally vulnerable position.
Again in this section, Nimmo combines humor with pathos. Paton’s story to Charlie of his disaster-filled dinner date with Miss Ingledew adds levity but it also shows the challenges endowed characters face in trying to live normal lives. This is a turning point in Paton’s character development, as he reveals that blames himself for Lyell going missing, as he’d promised to meet him at the cathedral on the day Dr. Tolly gave Emma to the Bloors. Charlie and Paton discuss the situation openly and with mutual respect, like equals. Paton is becoming less isolated as he learns to process and express his more difficult feelings, and this gives him a chance to make up for his prior inaction when he steps in to save Benjamin’s dog and—as it’s later revealed—find his parents. The change in Paton mirrors the novel’s increasing sense that The Struggle Between Good and Evil can be won by good. He has found his courage and tells Benjamin: “Until now, they’ve had it all their own way, but they’ve gone too far, and some of us are just not going to stand for it” (311). This exhortation stands as a motto for the last part of the book.
