The children arrive to watch the cottage burning, but Mr Goon tells them to clear orf! The Find-Outers look for clues in the garden behind Mr Hick's burnt cottage. Mr Hick is angry when he finds the children snooping about his house again! As the Find-Outers mull things over by the river, Inspector Jenks overhears them. The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage Review by Keith Robinson (January 1, 2005) This book kicks off the series and introduces the main characters along with a bunch of others.

My mental image of Mr Goon, the local policeman, is pretty well fleshed out from having read the entire series when I was young, but he only has a bit part in the first book and hasn't been fully realized. The story starts with Larry and Daisy Daykin spotting a flare up out the window at about half past nine one evening. They get dressed and sneak out of the house with Larry explaining (a little vaguely) that 'Mummy and Daddy are busy, so they won't know anything about the fire.' Vagueness about unnecessary details is Enid Blyton's style throughout this series. Parents never get in the way of the plot. So they head outside and meet Pip and Bets Hilton, who have also snuck out. Together they race down the lane to find Mr Hick's cottage burning.

The Five Find-Outers Slipcase by Enid Blyton The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage by Enid Blyton, 1. The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat by Enid Blyton, 2. The Mystery of the Secret Room by Enid Blyton, 3. The Mysteries Collection: Volume 01 by Enid Blyton, Omnibus 1 - 3. The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters by Enid Blyton, 4.

There, in the garden along with other onlookers, they meet Frederick Algernon Trotteville, a plump boy with a small black Scottish Terrier named Buster. Later the others pick up the initials of Frederick's name, F.A.T., and henceforth call him Fatty. Introduced in the first chapter is Mr Goon, the local policeman, who is not described much but whose first words are, 'Clear orf, you!'

We're introduced to a number of characters throughout the story as the children set about solving the mystery of the burnt cottage; who started the fire, and why? Mr Hick's staff includes Mrs Minns the cook, Lily the young maid, Horace Peeks the man-servant, and Thomas the chauffeur. (How the other half live, eh?) Then there's Mr Hick's colleague Mr Smellie, a doddery old man interested only in old parchments. His housekeeper is Miss Miggle. There's also a tramp and, towards the end, we meet Inspector Jenks, a much nicer man than that horrid stick-in-the-mud Mr Goon! All the characters are pretty colorful and their dialogue nicely conveys their personalities.

From memory I knew who the culprit was before starting into this book, but it was still fun to read. Several aspects of the story are questionable, such as the piece of torn fabric Fatty found in a bush. Realistically the Find-Outers should have figured that bit out straight away. And you have to wonder how dumb Mr Goon and all the other adults really are for not figuring things out before the children. There's an important scene where some planes fly over, and for twenty-five years I've remembered those planes as Tempests (first flown right about when the book was written in 1943). Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 64 Bit Iso Download.

But this book just says 'jets'.so am I remembering wrong, or did the publisher change it for some reason? Internet Download Manager Keygen 2012 Serial Key Crack Free Full Download 2012. Jets in 1943, when this book was written? I think my memory is correct. Does anyone have an older copy of this book to confirm this? 'Your memory certainly is correct,' says Heather from Australia. 'In my 1953 edition (published by the original publishers Methuen) the planes are definitely Tempests.

I (being a girl and not interested in aeroplanes in the slightest) never had any idea what Tempests were, I just assumed they were something special in the old days.' The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage Review by Heather from Australia (January 6, 2005) Being the first adventure where the children meet Fatty, this book is one of my favourites. This is despite the character of Fatty not yet being very well developed, and the rest of the Find-Outers don't hold him with much esteem at this point (except of course Bets who hero-worshipped him from the beginning). This is the only adventure where Larry and Pip hold more of a leadership role before they are eclipsed by Fatty's obvious abilities and his self-proclaimed 'brains' in the later books. As in all the books, it is of course Fatty who notices the clue at the end and wraps up the mystery nicely. Larry does assert his authority occasionally and 'squash' Fatty a little, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Bets is one of my favourites, always speaking her mind and providing some entertaining remarks about her 'glues'. She tries so hard to be like the 'big ones', and always puts in her full effort. In most of the books she manages to spot an important detail, and in this one she finds the tramp ('the most important glue of all') and also puts them on the trail of the mysterious footprints. Pip makes most of his comments and appearances as a rather dominant older brother in this book—he plays very few integral parts in the mystery, except for spotting a rather useless 'clue'. Daisy also takes a back seat, mostly there as scenery. She is an integral part of some interviews, and befriends Mrs Minns' kittens which leads to helping cut down their list of suspects. I also like the way Inspector (later Chief-Inspector and Superintendent) Jenks is discovered doing a leisure activity rather than in a role as a lawman.

Mr Goon makes his appearance right at the beginning, but manages to hold on to his stead as a serious policeman early on before being branded a buffoon. This is one of the mysteries where he shines a little more, tracking down the same suspects as the children and following them only a little later. However, he isn't able to spot the final clue and so is unable to solve the mystery. This is one of those mysteries that is impossible to completely solve before the final clue is revealed, although I had an inkling of whodunnit in my first reading because a person's basic character in all of Enid Blyton's mysteries always has a bearing on what part they play. A character with bad morals or behaviour is almost always the culprit, or one of the bad guys. The best thing of all about this book is it begins a wonderful mystery series with lovable characters that I will probably never get tired of reading about.

The Five Find-Outers Mystery Series The Five Find-Outers and Dog are Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip, Bets and Fatty's Scottie dog, Buster. Fatty's real name is Frederick Algernon Trotteville and, unfortunately for him, his initials fit him to a tee. However, his vibrant personality, inventiveness and sparkling sense of humour make Fatty a fun, larger-than-life character whose nickname quickly becomes a term of endearment. The children investigate crimes in and around the riverside village of Peterswood, much to the annoyance of the village policeman, blustering buffoon Mr. He does his best to outsmart the Find-Outers but Fatty ('that Toad of a Boy!' ) and his friends are always one step ahead, sometimes aided and abetted by Goon's own nephew, Ern.

When working on 'a nice, juicy mystery,' Fatty and the others hunt for clues (or 'glues' as Bets calls them), don disguises, interview suspects, check out alibis and gradually put together the jigsaw until the last piece falls into place. Often, bright young Bets makes an observation which sets Fatty's cogs turning, enabling him to solve the most baffling of cases ahead of Goon and earn words of praise from Inspector Jenks (who is later promoted to Chief Inspector and then Superintendent). It is in part the character of Fatty that makes these books so special. He may be boastful and arrogant but he is also generous, ingenious, a master of disguise and deduction, ventriloquist, escapologist, poet and macaroon-gobbler extraordinaire! Things just aren't the same when he's not around. As Daisy remarks, 'Without Fatty we're like rabbit-pie without any rabbit in it.'

Full of humour and intrigue, the Find-Outers books paint a fascinating picture of life in a mid twentieth-century English village — a world of cosiness, quirkiness and class-consciousness peopled by colourful characters such as tramps, fair-folk, errand boys on bicycles, shop-keepers, cooks and the well-to-do. The first title in the series, The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage, was published in 1943 and the earliest editions of the books were illustrated by Joseph Abbey, Treyer Evans and Lilian Buchanan. The Five Find-Outers (and Dog) Mystery Books • • • • • • Five Find-Outers There are 15 original books in the Five Find-Outers and Dog Mystery Series by Enid Blyton, written between 1943 and 1961.