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Foreign Titles
American: The Secret Seven Get Their Man
German: Weiter So Schwarze Sieben
French: Un Exploit du Clan des Sept
Dutch: De Grote Zeven het hondenmysterie
Spanish: Adelante Siete Secretos
Portuguese: Os Sete e os Cães Roubados
Swedish: Hemliga Sjuan I Farten
Finnish: SOS pulassa
Norwegian: Det hemmlige Gar Pa
Icelandic: Leynifélagið Sjö saman gefst aldrei upp
Czech: Tajna Sedma Pripad zmizelych psu
Catalan: Endavant Set Secrets

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Brief Summary by Julie Heginbotham: With no mystery to solve the Secret Seven set themselves a few tasks. So Peter says Colin and George can do a spot of shadowing, the girls can do observations and Jack and Peter a little spying. Sadly Colin's mother won't let him go out so George has to do the shadowing alone. A young man watching George confronts him and takes him home, telling his parents what he was doing. Little did George know that not only would his parents stop him from being a part of the Secret Seven, but the young man in question was just the start of a mystery for the Secret Seven to solve, that included a number of missing dogs.

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Full Reviews (These may contain spoilers):

Dennis Worley's Review
The fifth book, Go ahead Secret Seven opens with a bang when Susie cheekily bumps into Peter and almost knocks him over. Once again she has found their password out and wants to join their society. She asks a question that has been asked in the Enid Blyton Society forums: "Why don't you let me belong?" And the answer is that they don't want her! They have to limit themselves to seven members of course anyway.

When Peter gets home he tells Janet that they've got to call a meeting, the only reason being that Susie jeered at him for not having a meeting for ages. It seems that they let the society meetings slip sometimes when there is not much happening. It takes Susie to spur them into action.

Jack at least knows the correct password this time and no one yells it out, though Colin apologetically admits that he can't remember it as it is so long since they had a meeting. Janet looks at Peter to see if he is going to be cross, but he isn't for once. He is magnanimous and takes the blame himself.

They have to choose a new password and 'Snooper' is suggested. This is a clear reference to Susie, and Jack vetoes it. Blood is thicker than water; he doesn't want his sister to be thought of in this way. He does stick up for her, despite her behaviour, and this makes him the 'nicest' member, together with the good-tempered Janet who doesn't make silly or aggravating remarks.

They throw around some ideas and Peter suggests disguising themselves, but Pam sees the flaws in this idea (they are only young children after all) and it is dismissed. It is interesting to see that Pam is not afraid to criticise Peter's suggestion, as at other times it seems that he is a bit of a dictator, especially where she is concerned. Probably his bark is worse than his bite.

In fact they are not really motivated, and keep coming up with objections, so Peter's patience starts to wear thin. George grumbles that he would rather tackle a real mystery, but Peter pulls rank on him and tells him to obey orders. George gets the shadowing job and gets mistaken for a hooligan. His father is not impressed and cancels his membership of the Secret Seven. This is a shock indeed. They have a solemn meeting to decide what to do. Peter has a good idea for a temporary member to take George's place.

Of course, when Susie hears about this she begs Peter again to let her join. This is her big chance to get in, but she is too late — they have a new member already!

Their observing and shadowing uncovers some mysterious activities concerning the disappearance of a dog. The boys go to investigate and the trail leads to a coal-hole. The lid is very heavy and Peter gets very cross again, this time with the lid. When they do finally get it off they all try to look at the same time and crack their heads together! It's all very realistic, just what some young boys would do in their excitement. Peter takes command and decides to have first look and concludes, "It is black as a — coal-hole!" Another anticlimax — these books do seem to have their fair share of this.

A typical Secret Seven scene follows — shadowing a suspect in the darkness. The illustration in chapter 13 captures the atmosphere. Now they have a definite mystery to solve they are far more productive and as Jack says, going at full speed again. Peter has a master plan, which involves all the remaining members. This is epitomised in the title of Chapter 15, 'Jobs For Everyone' (which sounds like an election slogan!).

They all do good work, including Pam and Barbara, who don't want to get ticked off again by Peter. There is excitement and drama and the sinister character of the old man who locks them up adds to the tension. The practice at watching and observing they had at the beginning stands them in good stead in the end.

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Review by David Cook
Bruno Kay takes over the artwork for this and the next two entries in the series, but his style is so similar to George Brook's that you barely notice the change. The story takes place during the Easter term and is concerned with dog stealing, a theme that was to re-occur.

The Seven have not had a mystery to tackle so Peter despatches them on various errands to keep them practised and alert and they make discoveries that have a later bearing on the adventure they become embroiled in. Susie twice attempts to join the Seven, once at the start of the story reminding Peter a meeting is overdue, and later when George is forced to resign ("of all the cheek!" says Jack) but, apart from that, every incident in this excellent story has relevance to the plot.

Once again the background is of a town setting with a hotel and a dead-end alleyway alongside a warehouse leading to a manhole cover featuring prominently. When the three boys remove the manhole cover and crack their heads together as they simultaneously try to look down, Peter asserts his authority over Colin and Jack. "I get to look first," he says. "I'm the chief." So the others acquiesce.

There are some well-drawn villains here, though the minute Colin observes that Mr Taylor, the young man at Starlings Hotel, has thin lips, you know that is Enid speak for identifying a villain! Overall, though, like the previous story, this is a realistic and enthralling tale. These illustrations are hidden by default to ensure faster browsing. Loading the illustrations is recommended for high-speed internet users only.