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Foreign Titles
American: The Secret Seven and the Case of the Missing Medals
German: Die Schwarze Sieben ubertrifft sich selbst
French: La medaille du Clan des Sept
Dutch: Medailles voor de Grote Zeven
Spanish: Icuidado Siete Secretos
Portuguese: Os sete e as Medalhas do General
Swedish: Hemliga Sjuan och fagelholk-mysteriet
Finnish: SOS aina valmiina
Greek: To Myetiko Toy Aaeoye
Catalan: Vigileu be Set Secrets

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Brief Summary by Julie Heginbotham: General Branksome, who lives next door to Colin, has his medals stolen, and so the Seven decide they'd like to try and get them back for him. Taking a picnic to Bramley Woods they meet someone who tells them a strange tale about seeing someone hiding something inside one of the trees. The Seven investigate and decide to keep a watch on Bramley Woods.

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Full Reviews (These may contain spoilers):

Dennis Worley's Review
Look out Secret Seven follows on from the previous book, and it is now the Easter holidays. Susie and Binkie (now disguised as nursery rhyme characters) are worse than ever. Susie gains access to a meeting in disguise, and Binkie actually causes the meeting to be literally washed out. Pam sees the funny side of it the next day, but Peter doesn't.

Jack, now back in the fold, but late for the meeting due to Susie's misinformation, evidently hasn't forgotten the events of the last book. He is so ashamed when Susie tells him what happened that he decides to play safe and stay away. He can hardly be blamed for Susie's antics this time though, but one wonders what would have happened had he been present.

This story has a few unexpected twists and turns. They have two aims: to try and find the medals stolen from a general, and also to keep a look out for a gang who are taking birds' eggs in Bramley wood. Jack, George and Barbara confront some nest raiders. Two of the thugs attack Jack and George, and poor old Jack ends up with egg on his face. Barbara bravely tells the third baddie to 'clear off' but she has to run away to safety when he tries to grab her badge.

A man comes to their rescue and says that the medals might be hidden in a tree. They plan to keep watch one night in the wood. The old rule about the girls not going out at night is waived surprisingly, so they all participate in the climax of the adventure. All seven of them (and Scamper) are then held prisoner in unusual circumstances. Susie and Binkie do them a good turn by going for help. This is Susie's finest hour and she proves to be 'all right' after all. It has a happy ending with all of them getting medals, yes, even Binkie! Actually, it would have been a nice way to end the last book in the series. It is the end of the series as far as Susie goes, so she bows out in style.

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Review by David Cook
After three adventures in and around term time, finally a story set in the holidays. The trouble is that Enid never tells us which holiday it is but, as the following book takes place during the summer holidays and one of the Seven's tasks in this story is guarding the birds' nests in Bramley Woods from egg thieves, I think we can take an educated guess at Easter!

This story starts with Peter acting entirely out of character by forgetting first the current password and then where he and Janet have put their badges, two misdeeds that he has chastised all the other members for throughout the series. Then, unusually, he phones all the other members to summon them to a meeting rather than delivering the usual notes.

Of all the Secret Seven stories, this is the most contrived and unrealistic. They set themselves two tasks. One, as mentioned, is to watch out for egg thieves, and the other is to retrieve the medals stolen from Colin's neighbour, the elderly retired soldier, General Blanksome. The scene where Colin, moved by the General's plight, promises to get the medals back is well written and touching, but the events that follow do not ring true, hanging as they do on a totally unbelievable character.

This is Tom Smith, who comes to the aid of Jack, Barbara and George when they are set upon by a gang of boys stealing eggs. Tom puts the gang to flight and then pools his food with the three he has rescued in a joint picnic. They are then joined by Colin, hot foot from his interview with the General. On hearing Colin's story and that the only clue to the break-in is that the burglar must have small hands, Tom announces that he may have a clue and relates a story of how he saw a man creep into the woods and thrust a box into a small hole in a tree. When the SS members ask where the tree is, Tom adopts a 'rough' voice and demands why should he tell them and suggests they share the £50 reward, £40 for him and £10 for them if they help him retrieve it. Colin refuses and accuses Tom of being in league with the thief and this later transpires to be true making the whole sequence totally unrealistic.

Later the Seven are held captive overnight in the woods by an Alsatian guard dog and Enid redeems herself somewhat by a well-written scene where a police dog handler rounds up the Alsatian with his own dogs.

Matt and Shadow are briefly mentioned and Susie and Binkie play a clever, if unkind, trick on the Seven, only to make amends by arranging their rescue from the Alsatian. Not one of Enid's best. These illustrations are hidden by default to ensure faster browsing. Loading the illustrations is recommended for high-speed internet users only.