The Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage (পেপারব্যাক)

Well, it seems that you write off Enid Blyton at your peril…!

In my defence, after opening the Five Find-Outers series with four strong titles and then dallying a bit before seeming to peak with eighth book The Mystery of the Invisible Thief (1950), the series had been suffering from diminishing returns. So I wasn’t entirely unjustified in my review of eleventh title The Mystery of Holly Lane (1953) when I suggested that the decline seemed likely to continue over the four remaining books in the series before its termination with the widely-understood nadir The Mystery of Banshee Towers (1961). So the overwhelming quality of The Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage (1954) is a wonderful surprise, bringing us back to the glory days of …Invisible Thief and opener The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage (1943), and making me eat my words publicly in a development that I could not be more delighted to report.

The Christmas hols are nearly over, and, with ostensible head of the Five Find-Outers Fatty away in Switzerland on a family holiday, things have been a little dull. But, never fear, for not only is Fatty back from his trip with a great many stories to tell…