The Mystery of the Hidden House

Enid Blyton's The Mystery of the Hidden House is a Find-Outers story for 9 year olds that starts with a very embarrassing mistake at the station.

What happens

Fatty's been away all Christmas. Bets has said she's glad he's coming back six times in one hour, so the four of them go down to meet his train.

Fatty isn't on it. But a fat, red-faced boy is, and he blows his nose exactly the way Mr Goon does. That has to be Fatty in disguise, doesn't it?

They follow him, giggling, and call him Fatty. He offers to fight the lot of them and marches straight into the village policeman's house. And Bets has just handed him the notebook she made for Fatty's Christmas present!

He's Ern, Goon's nephew, staying for the holidays. Goon goes round to the parents and the Find-Outers are forbidden to go near a mystery. (All except Fatty, who talks his own mother round in front of Goon.)

So with no mystery about, Fatty decides to invent one for Ern. Strange lights on Christmas Hill. Two rival gangs. Ern swallows every word.

Ern is brilliant company. He writes "portry", with titles like The Pore Dead Pig, says "Lovaduck!" when he's impressed and runs his words together ("SwatIsaid"). He's cheeky about his uncle. But when Fatty tells him off for pinching Goon's notebook, he goes quite meek and promises to put it back.

Your reader gets to be in on the joke the whole time. You know there are no gangs. Ern doesn't. And the plan is that Goon won't know how much to believe either!

It's the sixth Find-Outers case (Pip reels off the earlier ones by name), so it assumes you already know the gang and their running war with Goon.

There are a couple of things a parent might want to know first. A lot of the laughs come from the way Ern talks and spells, and the Find-Outers call him an oaf and a clod. Pip mentions being caned by his father. Fatty's weight is a running joke as usual.

Some children won't notice any of that. Others might like a chat about why the gang find Ern quite so funny. If your reader likes a good wind-up, they'll love Ern in Fatty's shed, licking his pencil and writing Suspects at the top of a page.

What to read next

If the mix-up at the station is the bit that made them laugh, The Mystery of Banshee Towers opens with the gang doing almost exactly the same thing at a bus stop. That time there's a very cross ginger cat in the basket.