Enid Blyton’s The Mystery of the Missing Necklace is a detective story for 9 year olds about five children, one Scottie dog and a really good disguise.<\/p>\n
August is blazing hot and Pip and Bets are lying in the coolest corner of the garden being thoroughly fed up.<\/p>\n
A whole month of the summer holidays has gone. They went to the seaside and that was it. Larry, Daisy, Fatty and Buster have all been away for ages, and without them there is no gang, and without a gang there is no mystery.<\/p>\n
Bets misses the best bit most of all. Hunting for clues. Writing out a list of Suspects and crossing people off one by one until you are left with the right name.<\/p>\n
They are the Five Find-Outers and Dog, and by this book they have solved four holidays’ worth of cases. They have also thoroughly annoyed the village policeman, Mr Goon, who tells every child and dog he meets to clear orf.<\/p>\n
Then the others come home, very brown, and Fatty has grown. He has been working on something new. Up to now his disguises have been boy disguises and Goon has got wise to them. This time he intends to go out as a grown-up.<\/p>\n
Which is where the children come in. Can they get hold of any old hats their fathers don’t want? Old boots? An old coat?<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the newspapers are full of jewel robberies. Lady Rexham’s jewels went last week, somebody’s famous diamonds the week before. A clever gang, working miles away. Nowhere near Peterswood.<\/p>\n
Not yet, anyway.<\/p>\n
What your reader gets is the fun of being in on the trick. You know a disguise is coming. So do Pip and Bets, who have promised each other they will not be taken in this time by any peculiar-looking stranger. The whole thing is a game between children and a grumpy adult, and the jewel thieves almost feel like a bonus.<\/p>\n
A couple of things have aged badly. Frederick is called Fatty by everyone including himself, and there is teasing about weight in these pages, aimed at him and at the dog. Pip bosses his younger sister about constantly and at one point threatens her with a jolly good smacking if she doesn’t fetch his water. None of it is presented as a problem, which is the bit that may need a word from you.<\/p>\n
There’s another Find-Outers case waiting in The Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage. That one starts with the same five children and the same Scottie at Peterswood station, and a house whose tenants have vanished along with a very valuable painting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Enid Blyton’s The Mystery of the Missing Necklace is a detective story for 9 year olds about five children, one Scottie dog and a really good disguise. August is blazing hot and Pip and Bets are lying in the coolest corner of the garden being thoroughly fed up. A whole month of the summer holidays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":11147,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":9267,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage","lr_seo_hook":"Five children, a Scottie and a disguise good enough to fool the police."},"book_tag":[22],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[309],"class_list":["post-9271","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-mystery-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-enid-blyton"],"yoast_title":"The Mystery of the Missing Necklace by Enid Blyton | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Five children, a Scottie and a disguise good enough to fool the police. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n