Moonraker wrote:I always felt a little let down on finishing this title. If the room had been held to keep a kidnapped person or maybe an escaped convict. It all seemed a bit ridiculous to have all that secrecy just to use the room for a few meetings. However, it was still a great read where the Find-Outers were involved and I did enjoy 90% of the book.
I agree totally. The rooms reason for being furnished etc is given such importance, and the outcome is rather a let down. So much so, I didnt even remember what it was used for until I read what Nigel had posted! It's one of my least favourite books, I must admit, along with Disappearing Cat - which I know many people like.
'Oh voice of Spring of Youth
hearts mad delight,
Sing on, sing on, and when the sun is gone
I'll warm me with your echoes
through the night.'
I know what you mean. It was a while since I read the book until I rediscovered it lately, and I was considering whether the room was used to hold a kidnapped person or an escaped convict (especially due to the barred windows). Owls Dene obviously held an escaped convict and Faynights Castle held the kidnapped Scientist, so the plotline could have definitely worked - and what a thrill that would have been for the seemingly quiet town of Peterswood!
"Beware of young men with long hair - that's what dad says, isn't it?"
Pat, Holiday House
Well, I think that finding out that there's a kidnapped prince from an unknown country inside a little room
is a bit far-fetched!
Anyway, I enjoy all Enid Blyton adventures. Don't see anything wrong with the Pantomime Cat. I liked reading
about all the pleasant bike rides in order to reach the neighboring town were the company was performing.
And sounds slightly reminiscent of The Circus of Adventure too...
Society Member
It was a nuisance. An adventure was one thing - but an adventure without anything to eat was quite another thing. That wouldn't do at all. (The Valley of Adventure)
When Fatty was imprisoned, why didn't Pip think that the way Fatty's note was delivered to him -dropped down from a window - was a sign of danger? If Fatty had really wanted Pip to go and bring the others he would have simply opened a window and shouted it to him. Moreover dropping a note down from a window was the specific pre-arranged method Fatty had told the others he would use to warn them if he had been captured and locked up, and he even said the note would contain a secret 'invisible' message.
The mystery of the secret room is one of my favourite books in the findouter series.The winter setting, the trick of how to get out of a locked room taught to the other findouters by Fatty, the way Fatty disguises and tricks the others, the invisible letter Fatty teaches and how a rude one is sent to Goon , but cleverly replaced by a politer one-- the.meeting with Miss Crump-- when tbe find outers bicycle.to Hillways-- Little Minton-- and last but not least how Fatty gets caught in.his French boy disguise in the secret room.One thing that puzzles me is why did Fatty tell the men who caught him about his Find Outer friendd. He could have pretended to be a tramp seeking shelter on a cold winter's night and found one
I dont think it's a slip made by Enid Blyton.
It's one of my favourites too, but I think a later and more experienced Fatty would have kept up the pretence of being a tramp, and perhaps they wouldn't have questioned that as his acting and disguises got better as he got more practice.
It doesn't really make sense that he gives it all away in a lot of ways, but it does show one of the few times that Fatty is actually caught out and vulnerable.
One seeing of it was that he hoped they would make him write a letter to catch the others, which would allow him to write the invisible one too. However it's clear that doesn't occur to him until later. I also think that when they were worrying, the later Find-Outers would say "hey, he said he'd send an invisible letter if he got caught".
Perhaps it is to show that Fatty does bluster and boast but isn't quite as brave and invincible as he claims.
I don't think Bets would have given the others away either!
I've always thought the initial premise of the mystery was a little thin - seeing a room left furnished in an empty house, but a room that's completely full of dust so looks to have been abandoned and forgotten for a long time, isn't all that suspicious. Had it been free of dust, or evidence of a recent meal - and so clearly being used for something in a supposedly empty house - that would have been far more cause for early suspicions.
But I do like the book once it gets going, and it bridges the gap well from the first two books that have a different 'feel', to the rest of the series with Fatty as leader and all the disguises and humour with Goon.
I don't think it's as strong a story, or as funny, as most of the following books, but it's solid enough and I always enjoy it when I read it.
