Favourite Five Find-Outers book

[Irene Malory Towers]

I mean 8 not the smiley face for strange messages. Not sure why that appeared.

[Moonraker]

If you type and 8 followed by a ) you will get a smiley face! It is a keyboard shortcut.



(click on quote, and you will see!)

[Irene Malory Towers]

Thanks Moonraker. I didn't know that. Just looking at the past posts I see that firstly I have commented before on the wonderful ending of Vanished Prince (so don't worry not going to quote it again). But also a post from Pete where he mentions that each Five Findouter has their own whistle and that is mentioned in Tally Ho Corner. I cannot believe that I have not noticed that before. Which chapter is it in ?

[Bertie]

Interesting list, Irene.

Can't argue with much at all in terms of the top half and bottom half split. Probably just, same with Anita's list, surprised to see Spiteful Letters so low down. I really think that's one of the very best books - especially coming after the first three slow burners, and then Spiteful Letters suddenly comes along and really sets the standard for the rest of the series - Fatty's disguises and developing genius, humour with Goon, more 'grown up' detecting in terms of disguising and checking up of alibis, etc. Think it's the first of that run of books 4-8 that are all top quality.

Other than that, I agree with the rest of the bottom seven. And, therefore, the top 8 - though I'd probably move Vanished Prince more into the middle section as it's a very solid book but I think most of the rest of your top 8 are stronger.

[Courtenay]

The 'twins' thing doesn't really bother me - it's not as though Enid Blyton states that the characters are identical. I suppose they might just as well be brother and sister rather than twins, but the fact that they're twins establishes that they're the same age, making it more likely that one could pass for the other. Besides, there's a long tradition in literature of look-alike boy-girl twins being mistaken for one another, e.g. Viola and Sebastian in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as you said, Courtenay.

Enid unfortunately has several short stories in which she writes of boy and girl twins looking the same, which means she clearly had it in her head that "twins" = "identical". Whereas of course there are actually two kinds of twins — identical and fraternal — and it's only identical twins that look so alike as to be able to pass for one another, because they're genetically the same, which means of course they're the same sex. Male and female twins can only be fraternal, i.e. non-identical. But as I said, there's enough evidence in Enid's other stories to show she was unaware of this and she thought boy and girl twins are naturally also identical. I know I keep banging on about it, but that level of ignorance (dare I say outright stupidity) just bugs me!!

[Boatbuilder]

Courtenay, not wanting to start a 'great debate' on the subject, but with all the 'gender identities' banded about these days, you never know. There may be identical 'gender neutral' twins that were born of different sexes. That's all I'm going to say on the subject.

[Courtenay]

Ah, right, yes, fair enough... I'm quite happy to stay off that subject too.

[Debbie]

I think it's a fairly common idea that children's authors have used, boy/girl twins looking similar/identical. I don't think EB is especially guilty of that.

In The Secret Island, aren't Mike and Nora meant to be twins? I don't think they're ever described as being alike, and certainly as personalities I always think of Mike as being older because Nora is very much portrayed as the "baby" and Mike is quite responsible.

[Irene Malory Towers]

Reading Berties' comments I wish to revise my ranking ! and put Spiteful letters into to the top group which would now consist of 8. I must reread it but yes it is one of the very strong stories and I had forgotten its very good points - with the real business of detecting taking off and the strong use of disguises. The beginning of the story is also extremely and funny and unusual. But the rest I would leave the same. I find it difficult to rank within each group as it depends on my mood. In general find that with most of her longer series such as FF where there are around 5 extremely good ones like Get into Trouble, on a Hike, Smuggler's Top, Fall into Adventure, Wonderful Time and Mystery Moor and I can't rank between them. It is easier for the shorter series like the Adventurous Four (first one) and the Barney books (Rubadab) and (for me) these top ones are far away the best of these shorter series.

[Anita Bensoussane]

In The Secret Island, aren't Mike and Nora meant to be twins? I don't think they're ever described as being alike, and certainly as personalities I always think of Mike as being older because Nora is very much portrayed as the "baby" and Mike is quite responsible.

Yes, I also forget they're twins and tend to think of Mike as being older.

We have the Batten twins in Upper Fourth at Malory Towers too, who are both girls but don't appear to be identical (I'm not sure whether the possibility of their being identical is ruled out completely, as the differences that are described could be down to diet and confidence, but the overall impression is that they're fraternal twins):

The girls stood up to look at the twins. Their first thought was - how unlike for twins!

Connie was bigger, fatter, sturdier and bolder-looking than Ruth, who was a good deal smaller, and rather shy-looking.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Strange Messages her penultimate book was already showing signs or poor writing and the ending is terrible but I have ranked it quite highly as I think the plot is more complex than most of them - 4 subplots actually, finding the Ivy House, What had Mr Smith done to be evicted, who wrote the messages and the final and main plot of the retrieving the jewellery.

It's interesting to see your list and read your comments on Strange Messages, Irene. As a child I noticed the mistake about Mrs. Trotteville apparently having lived in Peterswood for nineteen years, but is the writing so poor overall? I thoroughly enjoy the complex plot and can't recall anything terrible about the ending, though I haven't read the book for a few years so the details are hazy. Looking at the story as a whole, the 'ominous' notes (as Mrs. Hicks calls them) are deliciously puzzling, the hunt for 'The Ivies' is thrilling, Fatty's poetry is wonderful, there are some truly delightful humorous touches, and the story of the 'Smiths' has a moral ambiguity that is rare in a Blyton book. Terrific stuff!

[Barnard]

I read all the Find-Outers books every year. It’s very hard to choose a favourite but my top five are Invisible Thief, Pantomime Cat, Holly Lane, Strange Messages and Missing Man. Adult readers would have no problem spotting the ‘villains’ early in the books but an eight year old probably would.
The funniest books, however are Vanished Prince and Strange Bundle.
I have mentioned before that I love it when Fatty and Bets chat together. It always seems so realistic and I wish there was more of it.

[Splodj]

How would you spot the villain early in Pantomime Cat? Of those you mention I think the only one an adult would spot the villain early in is Invisible Thief. There is a scene in Holly Lane where they draw up a suspects list of tradespeople (and others) who have visited the house which contrasts with Invisible Thief where there was only one. Also the cross-cross imprint is a great clue which I can remember as a child being foxed by.

I have difficulty choosing a favourite too, but not the worst. It is a pity Blyton did not do a 'Christie' and write the last book while in her prime to be released later!

[Barnard]

As the thief had to have been in Boysie’s cat suit, it had to be a smallish person, Zoe and Alice could be ruled out because they were described as ‘tall’ and John James was described as ‘burly’ which ruled him out for a similar reason.
When discussing Alec and his stage performance, Larry says, “that certainly rules HIM out.” And Fatty says “that certainly clears HIM.” It seemed obvious that the person who couldn’t have done it, did it.

[Courtenay]

I did spot the villain early in Invisible Thief (which I first read as an adult), and found that a big let-down — I think what made it most annoying for me was that Enid goes on and on and ON about what a nasty person that particular character is, practically every time he appears, so it just seems bore obvious that she's setting him up as the villain all along. I suppose the red herring here is meant to be that that person seems far too small to be the "Bigfeet" thief, but it doesn't take a huge amount of imagination to realise that small feet can easily fit into big boots... I can't tell, of course, if I would have figured that out as an 8-year-old, but I'm guessing I probably would have. It would have been much more clever of Enid to set the thief up as someone who seemed like a nice person, just to throw readers further off the trail, but I guess she didn't think of that...

On the other hand, Disappearing Cat has a similar twist — the villain is easily the most horrible character right from the start, and yet seemingly has a watertight alibi at the apparent time of the theft, but there's no-one else who would have been at all likely to do it. In that case, too, I was first reading it as an adult and guessed quite early on how the crime was committed and the timing of it disguised, and I was right — and yet I loved the story anyway and didn't find it at all disappointing! Maybe it's just that I love cats in general, and Siamese cats in particular!!