Favourite Five Find-Outers book

[hope189]

Of course they're worth a read! Mystery, detection, humour.... everything is there. It's amazing that they're not known as well as Famous Five, but I guess "Five Find-Outers and Dog" doesn't go that well - especially if compared with that instantly children-hooking "Famous Five." However, whatever popularity, they're wonderful - start reading The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage!

I disagree, Philip. The word "find-outers" sounds so........so..........interesting to me.

[Rob Houghton]

I must admit when i first read a Find-Outer book (I was about 10) I thought they were 'modern' Blyton stories, sort of 'rip offs' of the Famous Five, and I was suspicious of them, not knowing just how many different series Blyton had actually written. I have since learned that the Find Outers are some of the BEST of Enid Blyton

[Philip Mannering]

Most people shorten 'Find-Outers' to just plain 'Mystery' - I was hooked by the latter, because I've always been a fan of mystery and detective stories (that's why I love Agatha Christie's work too. )

The full name is quite a mouthful actually - Five Find-Outers and Dog Mystery! The 'Dog' part could be easily omitted, but then, Buster was a hanger-on.

[Rob Houghton]

The most 'gripping' Find Outer title I think, is the short story, entitled 'The five Find-outers and Dog Tackle the Mystery sneak-thief' - what a mouthful!

[Kitty]

I had to look back to see which I picked - so difficult to choose! I pity anyone whose childhood didn't include these wonderful books, preferably with the original text.

[Philip Mannering]

The most 'gripping' Find Outer title I think, is the short story, entitled 'The five Find-outers and Dog Tackle the Mystery sneak-thief' - what a mouthful!

Yes, rather! I wasn't aware of Find-Outer short stories. Are they in print? (I think no, but I can't be sure.)

Edit: Thanks to the trusty old Cave, I have managed to see their titles, and have come to the conclusion that they are not in print. Of course, I may be wrong, so anyone, if you have correct information, please correct me.

[Rob Houghton]

Both 'Sneak Thief' and 'Just a Spot of Bother' were available once, in 'Enid Blyton's Adventure Treasury', a hard-backed annual sized book printed in 1999. I doubt if this is very easy to come by now however
They were also printed in 'My favourite Enid Blyton Story book which might still be available secondhand

[Avinash Machado]

I voted for Strange Messages. However this is such an excellent series, it is hard to pick just one book. Also how come Missing Man and Holly Lane are ranked so low?

[Lenoir]

I think I voted long ago, probably for Strange Bundle, although I rate Holly Lane and Pantomime Cat highly as well. My traditional favourites are books 4 to 13 as these are the ones I read many times in childhood.

I'm reading Disappearing Cat now and it strikes me how different it is to the later ones. It seems that Larry just goes along with what everyone else says, he isn't a leader like Fatty. Daisy and Pip are more involved in these early books. Surprisingly (for someone who rates Fatty as his favourite character), I find the early Fatty quite irritating.

Interesting how the characters and the series evolved - this development is more marked in this series than any other series I think.

[Philip Mannering]

I too find the early Fatty irritating, he's not the kind and lovable boy of the later books that we have come to expect. The first four books of the Find-Outers series are not that good, I think, even though I do like Burnt Cottage and Disappearing Cat. My favourites have to be from book 5 - Missing Necklace - onwards.

Burnt Cottage is the only book in which Larry, Daisy and Pip get a role as important as Fatty, although as usual, it is Fatty who solves the mystery. In the later ones, Fatty is at the head and the others get trivial roles. Bets has only two roles - one of the "baby who does not know anything and acts as a foil for the not-understanding reader," and the second "the one who spots the main clue but fails to realize its significance." Larry and Pip are pretty much interchangeable, except the fact that Pip has an other role - "the 'elder brother' who snaps at Bets."

[Boodi]

I must admit when i first read a Find-Outer book (I was about 10) I thought they were 'modern' Blyton stories, sort of 'rip offs' of the Famous Five, and I was suspicious of them, not knowing just how many different series Blyton had actually written. I have since learned that the Find Outers are some of the BEST of Enid Blyton

Funny you should say that Robert, because I had a similar impression when I first read the Blyton books in the late 1960s-early 1970s. I felt that both the Five Find-Outers (and to some extent The Secret Seven) were more "modern" than the other series, especially the Famous Five, and perhaps one of the reasons why the Five Find-Outers remains my favourite series today is due to the fact that I could identify with them and their environment in a way that I could not do with the characters in the other series.

[70s-child]

I just put in a vote for strange bundle. It was a very tough choice, since I also like vanished prince, invisible thief, and tally-ho cottage, but the overall humour of strange bundle won it for me. I have to say though that one of the funniest scenes in the FFO books is Fatty leading Goon a dance in Tally-Ho cottage. Just the thought of him peeping into those sheds and then having a swing in the playground sets me off laughing.

[Rob Houghton]

Looking at the list, I'm really amazed that two of my top Find Outer books have so far received no votes: 'Pantomime cat' and 'Holly Lane'.

Then again, every Find Outer book (except perhaps Banshee Towers!) has been my favourite at one time or another!

[RainbowJude]

Spiteful Letters has consistently impressed me with its menace, the range of well-written auxiliary characters, and it's very adult for a children's book - the concentrated, lacklustre spite, that was under the Hilton's palatial roof all the time, is somehow more potent than some of the flashier criminals.

I'm not sure that I'd agree that the book, despite its subject matter, has a menacing tone. In fact, if I were to pick one word to describe the dominant tone of the book it would be comical; for me, the focus is far more clearly placed on the way that the Find Outers - Fatty in particular - run circles around Goon as he solves the mystery. A sense of menace is precisely what I find lacking in the book. For a real sense of menace and spite in relation to the same kind of anonymous letter, I'd choose In the Fifth at Malory Towers over The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters. In the Malory Towers book, you really get a sense of how damaging those letters can be to someone's self-esteem whereas in The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters, the reactions we see are rooted a little too much in the hysterical and melodramatic.

The other thing that is missing in The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters is a motive on the part of the culprit. If Blyton was trying to point out that mere spite is nasty enough, then I would have liked to see more spite from the villain, particularly when she was revealed as the writer of the letters. But a motive, no matter however seemingly innocuous, would have only helped to point out how cowardly these kinds of letters are and would also have raised the stakes for the solving of the mystery. Those aspects certainly give the appearance of anonymous letters more weight in In the Fifth at Malory Towers.

Later days
David

[Ming]

You're right about that - Mrs Moon's letter writing was hinted at as being written out of spite, but it wasn't really pulled off well. Sometimes I get the feeling that she wrote them just for the sake of writing something. The idea of poison-pen letters is indeed very sinister, and if there was a definite drawn motive to Mrs Moon's actions, the book would be very frightening indeed.

Or perhaps that was exactly what Enid wanted to avoid?