ENID BLYTON'S

3) The Ring O'Bells Mystery

4) The Rubadub Mystery

5) The Rat-A-Tat Mystery

6) The Ragamuffin Mystery

 BOOK REVIEWS 

The Rockingdown Mystery

Roger, Diana and their cousin Snubby go to stay at Rockingdown Cottage with Miss Pepper for the holidays. They meet Barney, a boy who has lived all his life in a fair until his mother died. Barney has a pet monkey, Miranda, who is the perfect companion for Snubby's lunatic dog, aptly named Loony. Barney, who has no place to call home,  decides to stay at the deserted Rockingdown Manor. When he hears strange noises in the night and gets trapped in the subterranean passages beneath the old mansion, it is up to the  other children and their pets to rescue him. The children's tutor, Mr King, is somehow linked to the sinister goings-on below the manor. However, their suspicions of him are quite wrong when it is revealed that Mr King is in fact working with the police to catch a band of smugglers who are using the old manor as their base. Barney is safely rescued and the children manage to foil the smugglers' plot.

The Rilloby Fair Mystery

Snubby tells a tall tale of being hunted by the fictitious Green Hands Gang to an old man, who, to his horror, turns out to be his cousins' great-uncle. Their Great-uncle Robert is himself fleeing from a mansion where a thief has somehow managed to steal valuable documents from within a locked room. The children meet up with Barney who is working at Rilloby Fair. The children realise there is a connection between the fair and the string of robberies. The latest target appears to be Marloes Castle, and the children, dragging their unfortunate great-uncle with them, try to solve this mystery. The mystery comes to a surprising end when it is discovered the thief is not a man, but a highly-trained chimpanzee. The fair's owner and his cohorts are arrested, thanks to Snubby's identification of the ring-leader.

The Ring O'Bells Mystery

Roger, Diana and Snubby go to stay with Miss Pepper's cousin in the quaint English village of Ring O'Bells. Barney hitchikes over to join  them  and stays in the deserted Ring O'Bells Hall, which has a legend that says its bells will ring by themselves when enemies come to the village. There is certainly something mysterious going on in the old mansion, and the children are determined to find out what. Soon, the children discover that a police detective has been abducted by the same gang of kidnappers he has been investigating and is being kept captive in the mansion's secret passage. The children alert the police and manage to capture the gang.

The Rubadub Mystery

The children go to the seaside town of Rubadub, where a nearby harbour is being used for secret submarine testing by the government. They are soon joined by Barney, who get a job with a conjurer, Matthew Marvel. Marvel promises to help Barney locate his long-lost father. However, Marvel is actually betraying his country and working for enemies who are after the secret submarine plans. The children foil his plot and in the end, Barney discovers his real father, and a whole family he never knew.

The Rat-A-Tat Mystery

Roger, Diana and Snubby Lynton go to stay with Barney at his family's holiday house for winter. They have a wonderful time playing winter sports, but there is something more sinister going on at Rat-A-Tat House where they are staying. A gang of gun-runners have been using the old mansion to store their cache of guns, but are forced to move them when Snubby stumbles onto their plot. The children manage to discover the ingenius hiding-place: under the frozen lake!

The Ragamuffin Mystery

A peaceful caravanning holiday in scenic Penrhyndendraith leads to something more sinister when Snubby is mistaken for a ragamuffin messenger. Roger, Diana, Snubby and Barney are caught up in an adventure again when they realise that two bank robbers are impersonating distinguished gentlemen at the village inn.

*More detailed summaries coming soon!