The Mystery of the Secret Room

Enid Blyton's The Mystery of the Secret Room is a detective story for 9 year olds about five friends, one Scottie dog and a boy who has just discovered disguises.

What happens

It's the Christmas holidays and the Find-Outers are home from boarding school. Bets (who's nine now and very keen to point it out) has been lonely all term without them.

Fatty turns up plumper than ever and full of plans. He's been reading spy books. He can do invisible writing, he can get out of a locked room when the key's on the other side, and he'd quite like to be in charge.

The lovely thing is that he actually shows them how. Orange juice for ink, a hot iron to bring the words back, and a newspaper slid under a door for the locked room. Who wouldn't want to try that at home? (You might want to be around for the iron part.)

Then he spends his birthday money on wigs, eyebrows and a set of jutting false teeth. The next morning a very shy French boy with a limp arrives at Pip's house with a note, and bursts into tears when Bets asks about his leg. Your reader will probably work out who he is long before Pip and Bets do!

The trouble starts when that same boy hands Mr Goon, the village policeman they call Clear-Orf, a cheeky letter written in invisible ink. Goon is better with an iron than anyone expected. Now he's planning to show it to all their parents.

It's the Find-Outers' third case, and the children mention the earlier ones as if you'd been there too. Reading it feels like being one of the gang. Fatty boasts, the others shout him down, and Bets gets to be right when nobody believes her.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Fatty is called Fatty because he's fat, and the book says so cheerfully and often. Mr Goon gets laughed at for his red face and his frog eyes. The French boy is a joke about a funny accent and a silly high voice.

None of it is meant unkindly on the page, but a child who's touchy about their size may feel it. If your reader loves a gang of friends and a grumpy grown-up to outwit, they'll probably have a brilliant time.

What to read next

If you'd like to go back to where the five first got together, The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage is in the library too. It opens on a thatched workroom going up in flames one April night, and a plump boy with a Scottie who invites himself along.