The Mystery of Banshee Towers

Enid Blyton's The Mystery of Banshee Towers is a very old-fashioned detective story for 7 year olds, and it opens with the Find-Outers trailing completely the wrong man down the street.

What happens

Fatty is coming home by bus. Pip, Bets, Larry and Daisy go to meet him, spot a stout chap in a big coat limping off the bus with a dog basket, and decide at once that it is Fatty in disguise.

It is not. There is a furious ginger cat in the basket, a real policeman across the road, and four children turning scarlet on the pavement.

That is the tone for the whole thing. Fatty wants a nice juicy mystery. Mr Goon the village policeman very much wants Fatty to go away again. Buster the Scottie dances round Goon's ankles the moment he sees him.

Then Ern arrives. He has been shipped off to stay with Goon (who is his uncle) because there is measles at home, and he has a new dog called Bingo with short legs and an enormous wag. Ern thinks Fatty is the finest person alive. Watching Fatty quietly sort out Ern's problems is the warmest thing in the book.

The mystery itself builds slowly. The children have been handed a list of improving places to visit, which they find deeply dull, and they vote to start with Banshee Towers on Banshee Hill because there are famous sea-pictures there. Fatty explains what a banshee is, which is a woman of the fairies who wails when misfortune is coming. Bets immediately decides she would rather not go.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

It is 1960s Blyton and it shows. Goon is "a bit too free with his hands" by Ern's own account, and Ern counts up the slaps he has had. Nobody treats this as serious, which may bother you more than it bothers Ern.

There is also a steady stream of jokes about weight. Fatty's nickname is the least of it. Ern calls him "balloony", the dog is put on a diet, and everyone finds it funny. If your child is at an age where remarks about bodies stick, read a few pages first.

If none of that puts you off, it is a proper crew of friends, a proper grumpy policeman and a proper puzzle.

What to read next

If the disguises are the bit that lands, The Mystery of the Missing Necklace is an earlier case for the same five, with a stolen pearl necklace and a thief they actually watched escape.