The Enid Blyton Society

Oh, I had forgotten that one. Is it called A Caribbean Mystery not Murder?
It would fit with the clue "Shadow in the Sunlight."

I think A Caribbean Mystery but I am not too sure.

OK, we should suggest it then.

26- A Caribbean Mystery?

Well done!
The two 'super sleuths' have finally cracked it!

Now that mystery has been solved,has anyone noticed any similarities between the characters depicted in this book and the ones in Enid Blyton's Five Find Outer's yet?



I will provide some examples,but first I must say I always like a detective/mystery story that contains a decent map/diagram!

SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT

The story is set in 1929 and features an extremely famous children's author..

Lady Athelinda Playford sounded as ebullient as ever. She was seventy years old, with a voice as strong and clear as a polished bell.

Enid's husband Kenneth who had hearing difficulties,could hear and understand Enid's voice extremely well..

She writes stories about children who solve mysteries:

Gathercole had admired her stories of happy children solving mysteries that confounded the local police since he had first discovered them as a lonely ten-year-old in a London orphanage.

This passage reminded me of the special statue of a young girl reading that Enid's husband/daughter bought her as a present:

Anita Bensoussane wrote: It's a bit of a mystery but perhaps Gillian had forgotten that it was actually Kenneth, and not her mother, who took her shopping for the statue? Or maybe Gillian was getting mixed up with another statue?

Anita

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Her study offered the most magnificent views: the rose garden and, behind it, a perfectly square lawn, at the centre of which was the angel statue that her husband Guy, the late Viscount Playford, had commissioned as a wedding anniversary gift, to celebrate thirty years of marriage.

Like Enid Blyton,Lady Playford's library is devoted to her own work:

In her study, the room she and Gathercole were in now, there were two books upside down in the large bookcase that stood against one wall: Shrimp Seddon and the Pearl Necklace and Shrimp Seddon and the Christmas Stocking....

No other author’s books were permitted to reside upon those shelves, only Athelinda Playford’s. Their spines brought some much-needed brightness into the wood-panelled room—strips of red, blue, green, purple, orange; colours designed to appeal to children...

Details about the child detectives who appear in Lady Playford's books:

Shrimp Seddon was Lady Playford’s ten-year-old fictional heroine, the leader of a gang of child detectives...
....‘So the reader sees the surprise but not, at first, the discovery. Yes! And perhaps Shrimp could say to Podge, “You’ll never guess what it’s called,” and then be interrupted, and I can put in a chapter there about something else—maybe the police stupidly arresting the wrong person but even wronger than usual, maybe even Shrimp’s father or mother...

So,so far we have Shrimp and Podge..

Edward Catchpool,a detective at Scotland Yard receives a letter to visit Lady Playford at her sumptuous abode.He observes:

I put the letter down on the dining room table at my lodging house and considered what to do. I thought about Athelinda Playford—writer of detective stories, probably the most famous author of children’s books that I could think of—and then I thought about me: a bachelor, a policeman, no wife and therefore no children to whom I might read books … No, Lady Playford’s world and mine need never overlap, I decided—and yet she had sent me this...

He decides to accept the invitation and reveals:

Some days later, I wrote to Lady Playford and enthusiastically accepted her invitation. I suspected she wished to pick my brains and use whatever she extracted in a future book or books.

Maybe she had finally decided to find out a little more about how the police operated. As a child, I had read one or two of her stories and been flabbergasted to discover that senior policemen were such nincompoops, incapable of solving even the simplest mystery without the help of a group of conceited, loud-mouthed ten-year-olds.

My curiosity on this point was, in fact, the beginning of my fascination with the police force—an interest that led directly to my choice of career...

On his way to stay at Lady Playford's house he decides to re-read one of her old books:

During the course of my journey to Lillieoak, I had read another of her novels, to refresh my memory, and found that my youthful judgement had been accurate: the finale was very much a case of Sergeant Halfwit and Inspector Imbecile getting a thorough ticking-off from precocious Shrimp Seddon for being stumped by a perfectly obvious trail of clues that even Shrimp’s fat, long-haired dog, Anita, had managed to interpret correctly.

So far we have met Shrimp,Podge,halfwitted policemen and now a dog belonging to the young investigators called Anita..

I'll leave it there for now,but in the time period depicted in the book (1929) I can't think of many other world famous authors who wrote the sort of stories described here.

Admittedly the Five Find Outers first appeared in 1943,but many of the points mentioned above made me wonder whether the author of this book is an Enid Blyton fan and possibly even a visitor to these forums...anyone else heard of a dog called Anita.....

I'll leave it there for now,but will post other points of interest as I proceed with the book...

Aha! (as Alan Partridge would say).The mystery may have just been solved:

Sophie Hannah: ‘There are people who think a crime novel can’t be proper literature… that’s a shame for them’

What drew you to crime and psychological thrillers?
As a child I discovered Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven novels and absolutely fell in love with them. From that moment on, and increasingly so as I went on to discover Ruth Rendell and Agatha Christie and other writers of that ilk, I just never changed my mind about the fact that mystery stories were my favourite kind.

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Fascinating parallels, Pete!

pete9012S wrote:Admittedly the Five Find Outers first appeared in 1943,but many of the points mentioned above made me wonder whether the author of this book is an Enid Blyton fan and possibly even a visitor to these forums...anyone else heard of a dog called Anita.....

I assume it's a female dog, i.e. a bitch. There might be some who feel that they know a "female dog" called Anita!

pete9012S wrote:I'll leave it there for now,but will post other points of interest as I proceed with the book...

Please do!

Most interesting, Pete. I haven't yet read either of Sophie Hannah's Hercule Poirot novels, but I have read several of her psychological thrillers. Your posts have whetted my appetite for the Poirot titles and I shall be looking out for copies of The Monogram Murders and Closed Casket in the coming days.

Love your comment Shrimp's dog, Anita!

Do you have a software program to write such long posts/quotes, Pete?

Thank you for dropping by Nigel.I don't know if this book appeals to you,but it's really starting to intrigue me.

I enjoyed this interview with the author of Closed Casket,Sophie Hannah.
One of her comments in particular has helped me as an Agatha Christie nut in how I mentally approach reading her continuation stories about Hercule Poirot,which I have quoted in bold italics below:


An interview with Sophie Hannah
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How do you get into the Poirot and Agatha Christie mindset when writing a continuation novel?

I reread all the books before I started writing The Monogram Murders. That reminded me of just how brilliant they are. Writing about Poirot is a joy because I know him so well, and love him so much - I feel as if I'm helping him to show off how great he is! The real challenge is making sure every part of the book is good enough for him and his fans. I’ve never tried to copy Agatha’s writing style because I’m a different kind of writer and there can never be another Agatha Christie. No writer should ever try to mimic the style of another.

How did you come up with the character of Catchpool and why did you develop him as you did?

It seemed sensible to introduce a new narrator, to go with the inevitable change of writing style. Edward Catchpool sees Poirot through his own eyes and lets me write in my own way while staying true to Agatha’s wonderful character and period. Catchpool is a Scotland Yard inspector who becomes Poirot’s sidekick. He’s clever but nowhere near as talented a detective as Poirot, and he comes to like Poirot and respect him. Poirot sees that Catchpool is bright and has potential, and tries to help him improve his deductive skills. It's rather like a mentor/mentee relationship.

Can you tell us a bit about Closed Casket?

I’m really happy with Closed Casket. It’s set in Clonakilty, Ireland, in 1929. A famous children's writer gathers her family together and announces that she’s changing her will: cutting off her two children and leaving her entire fortune to a terminally ill young man who’s certain to die long before she does. What on earth could have possessed her? Before she can explain, there’s a murder …and luckily Poirot is on hand to solve it!

Very enjoyable analysis, Pete. I haven't read Poirot's novels written by Sophie Hannah yet. She must have read Enid Blyton's biography!

No writer should ever try to mimic the style of another.

I totally disagree with this comment if you are writing a continuation-novel. It is the original writer's style that makes the character come alive and is responsible for the 'feel' of the story/stories. Maybe this is why I didn't enjoy the first of Hannah's books - although the second was more 'lifelike' to me. If you write a follow-on around a character such as Poirot, in my opinion it has to be done in Christie's style, or it just doesn't ring true. If you want to write a book in your own style, then create your own characters.

Returning to the topic Agatha Christie, the lovely coffee table book on Agatha Christie's home by Hillary Macaskill arrived a few days ago and I'm delighted (thanks to sixret for making me aware that Owlbooks offered it at amazon.com!!!).
I leafed (sp?) through it last night. It contains many beautiful pictures of Greenway and the river Dart. Who knows if we'll ever make it back to Devon in the future, so enjoying this book as an arm chair traveller is the second best thing.

Well done, Chrissie! I agree. It's a lovely book that you can just dip into.