The Five Find-Outers

The Five Find-Outers and Dog, also known as the Enid Blyton Mystery Series, is a series of children's mystery books written by Enid Blyton and first published between 1943 and 1961. Set in the fictitious village of Peterswood, close to Marlow,_Buckinghamshire, the children encounter a mystery every school holiday, always solving the puzzle before PC Goon, the village policeman, much to his annoyance.

Contents

1 Characters 2 Timeline 3 Books 4 External links

Characters

• Fatty Frederick Algernon Trotteville is the leader of the five. He was given the nickname Fatty by the other children because of his initials F.A.T. and his stout build. An only child, he receives generous amounts of pocket money from his parents and wealthy relatives. His wealth causes some friction with the other children, especially Pip, but Fatty is always willing to share his money with the group, often buying rounds of cakes, drinks or ice-creams. Fatty also uses his pocket money to finance his interest in disguises and stores a large collection of clothes, wigs, grease-paint, cheek-pads, false teeth and other items in his shed at the bottom of the garden. Fatty is a skilled orator and poet, and able to create poetry ad-lib. He always comes top of his form at school and his ambition when he grows up is to become a detective.
• Larry Lawrence Daykin is the eldest of the five and was the original leader of the Five Find-Outers, passing the role to Fatty after the second mystery.
• Daisy Margaret Daykin is Larry's younger sister. Creating the Five Find-Outers was Daisy's idea.
• Pip Philip Hilton is the same age as Daisy.
• Bets Elizabeth Hilton, Pip's young sister. Bets is the youngest of the Five Find-Outers. She adores Fatty and he is very fond of her. In contrast to Fatty's rather relaxed parents, Mr and Mrs Hilton are quite strict and often take a dim view of Pip and Bets' sleuthing activities, wishing that Pip especially would direct the same amount of energy into his schoolwork. Bets is often the first to spot vital clues and also tends to see through Fatty's disguises before anyone else.
• Buster, Fatty's jet-black Scottish Terrier. He thinks the world of Fatty and his favourite pastime is to nip at Mr Goon's ankles.

Other recurring characters are:

• Theophilus Goon, or Mr Goon as he is known, the village policeman, who is outwitted by the five children in every story. Mr Goon would dearly love promotion, but considers the children to be hindering him rather than helping. To chase them away he often tells them to "Clear Orf" (instead of clear off). Consequently, the children have given him the nick name "Clear-Orf".
• Ern Goon (short for Ernest), Mr. Goon's nephew. Ern is introduced in the book Mystery of the Hidden House. Ern is a great lover of poetry, or 'portry' as he calls it, and is a great admirer of Fatty. Ern has two twin brothers, Sid and Perce. Sid has a fondness for toffee, so much so that he has trouble speaking or being understood.
• Inspector (then Chief Inspector, then Superintendent) Jenks. Because the Five are resented by Mr Goon, the children always telephone the Inspector when they have solved a mystery. Over the course of the books he becomes a great friend of the children. Jenks is based on a real character from Blyton's home town.

Timeline

At the beginning of the series, Larry is 13, Fatty, Pip and Daisy are 12, and Bets is 8. Bets goes to day-school, whereas all the others go to boarding school.

Books

The 15 books in the series are:

1. Mystery of the Burnt Cottage (1943)
2. Mystery of the Disappearing Cat (1944)
3. Mystery of the Secret Room (1945)
4. Mystery of the Spiteful Letters (1946)
5. Mystery of the Missing Necklace (1947)
6. Mystery of the Hidden House (1948)
7. Mystery of the Pantomime Cat (1949)
8. Mystery of the Invisible Thief (1950)
9. Mystery of the Vanished Prince (1951)
10. Mystery of the Strange Bundle (1952)
11. Mystery of Holly Lane (1953)
12. Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage (1954)
13. Mystery of the Missing Man (1956)
14. Mystery of the Strange Messages (1957)
15. Mystery of Banshee Towers (1961)

External links

• The Five Find-Outers and Dog, enidblyton.net (http://www.enidblyton.net/enid-blyton-five-find-outers-mystery-series.html)