The Mystery of the Invisible Thief by Enid Blyton

Saturday, September 15, 2012 by 2 Comments

The Mystery of the Invisible Thief by Enid Blyton
Series: The Five Find-Outers #8
Publisher: Dragon Books Ltd | 1968 (first published 1950) | 158 pages
Buy on Amazon

I have been a great fan of Enid Blyton while growing up (still a fan now!) but I did not have the luxury of reading many of her books. Though I wished to own the entire Enid Blyton collection, I was only limited to the books I already had. It was partly because some of her books were not easy to find in bookstores.

My favourite mystery-solving group of children was the Five Find-Outers and Dog. Come to think of it now, they really gave themselves such a cute name! This group of friends consists of Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip, Bets and Fatty’s dog Buster.

I did not get to read The Mystery of the Invisible Thief back then. So that’s why I went on to BookMooch four years ago to mooch for a used copy. Only this year that I’m reading it for the first time!

It starts with the children lazing around on a hot summer’s day complaining about not having a good, juicy mystery to solve. But what’s a mystery book without a mystery, eh? Before the children know it, they find a mystery where a thief who breaks in to houses somehow remains invisible whereby nobody ever spots him escaping the scene of the crime.

The thief does leave some clues behind though – large footprints, large glove prints and a curious print of criss-cross lines on the ground. With those clues and several more obtained later on from a policeman, the friends, led by Fatty, set out on various ‘undercover assignments’ to try to get more clues on the mystery. Oh yeah, Fatty does dress up in disguises a few times. This time, someone else joins him, though not as skillful, in putting up disguises.

Reading an Enid Blyton book at the age of 24 is so different from the time when I was 10 or 11. It would have been much more enjoyable to read it back then but to discover these unread books now is another unforgettable experience altogether. It certainly brings upon a wave of nostalgia of the good, younger and carefree days.

I feel like I’m reading the book through new eyes. Okay, same pair of eyes, different glasses but different take on what I read. I see how the group always listens to Fatty who seems to have the most brilliant ideas and suggestions. He spends more time pondering over the clues, the suspects and possible solutions to the case. The others are merely followers who gladly do what he tells them to do. Especially Bets who, I will say this, has a huge crush on Fatty. I wonder if this has been mentioned outright in any of the books. I do hope Fatty does not take her for granted when they grow up!

Now that I’m older and supposedly wiser, I’m still learning new words while reading Enid Blyton books. One word I learnt from this mystery was gymkhana. Have you heard of it before?

This is what I found on Wikipedia:

In English-speaking countries, a gymkhana refers to a multi-game equestrian event performed to display the training and talents of horses and their riders. The plot of the children’s story “The Mystery of the Invisible Thief” by Enid Blyton begins at a gymkhana held at an English village, testifying to its being a common institution in English society at the time of writing (the 1940s).

Whew. This is some review for a book of only 158 pages. But hey, it’s an Enid Blyton book. :)

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Famous Five: Five On A Treasure Island by Enid Blyton

Tuesday, December 2, 2008 by 7 Comments

This is the first book in the Famous Five series. This is where the 3 siblings, Julian, Dick and Anne meet their cousin, Georgina or George as she prefers to be called, for the first time. The siblings have been sent to stay at George’s house for the holidays.

George likes to be referred to as a boy and she does act like one. She can swim and run really fast. At first, she decided not to like her cousins and not entertain them at all. She’ll only act civil to them in order not to get a beating from her scientist father.

However, she grew to like her cousins a lot. The siblings are very caring and loyal to her and have defended her at times. They also kept George’s dog, Timmy, a secret from her parents. This is what you’ll find in Enid Blyton books. The children will somehow like one another, which is good and can cultivate positive feelings in younger readers.

Well, George’s family lives at Kirrin Bay, which is near to Kirrin Island. George claims that the island belongs to her since her mother doesn’t want it and gave it to George. While visiting the island, a wreck of a ship which has been underwater for a long time has been brought up by the waves of the sea. There’s supposed to be gold in it, so the children set out to explore it. They did not find any gold, unfortunately.

The most exciting part was where somebody who wanted to buy the island for a good sum of money that can help George’s family. They have been having financial problems as George’s scientist father isn’t making much. Therefore, they jumped at the opportunity of selling the island. This of course angers George who obviously loves her little island and the ruined castle on it.

I thought this book plain boring. Perhaps it’s because I’ve not read it as a child and that I’m only reading it now. The book is meant for children, after all. But if you did read it as a child, you can always read it again and relive your younger days!

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The Rat-A-Tat Mystery by Enid Blyton

Friday, September 5, 2008 by 10 Comments

Do I even need to review this book??? I mean, it’s an Enid Blyton book, for goodness’ sake! :D Well, I’ll write about it anyway.

This is the fifth book in the Barney mystery series. Barney, Diana, Roger, Snubby, and Snubby’s dog, Loony, appear in all the Barney books. Diana and Roger are sister and brother while Snubby’s their cousin. He has no parents so he’s always sent to live with relatives during his school holidays but he enjoys spending his holidays with Diana and Roger. Barney is their friend. He has a pet monkey called Miranda. Pretty name, huh?

By the way, it’s the winter holidays for the kids. Barney has finally found his father after an endless search for him and he’s spent Christmas time with his newfound family. After Christmas, Barney invites Roger, Diana, and Snubby to stay at a house owned by his grandmother by a lake and surrounded by hills. Of course, Roger and Diana’s parents agreed to let them have fun by themselves. A Mrs. Tickle will be cooking their meals, washing their stuff, and just basically looking after them.

So at the house, the children spent their time skating and tobogganing down the snowy hills and having the time of their lives. Meanwhile, at night, they hear mysterious knocking sounds like ‘rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat’. Haha! Can you imagine such sounds? To me, it sounds odd but there you go.

As usual, the children being their inquisitive selves and with a huge sense of adventure, they decide to investigate the sounds. They even found a large glove on the ground outside and Snubby thought he saw somebody standing outside looking at the house. Therefore, they found reason to suspect that something was wrong.

I’ve now read 4 of the books in the Barney mystery series. The other three are The Rockingdown Mystery, The Rilloby Fair Mystery, and The Ring O’ Bells Mystery. Being an Enid Blyton fan and one who has grown up reading her books, I find them enjoyable and a great way to ‘relive’ my childhood.

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