ENID BLYTON'S

The Five Find-Outers are Fatty, Larry, Pip, Daisy and Bets, while the Dog is Buster. The six of them live in the English village of Peterswood where they have to contend with the bumbling local policeman Mr Goon to solve the mysteries that crop up every holidays.

There are fifteen full-length novels and two short stories featuring the Five Find-Outers and Dog.

 THE BOOKS 

1. The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage

• The Five Find-outers and Dog meet for the first time when the cottage workroom of a Peterswood resident, Mr Hicks, burns down. Several valuable old documents belonging to Mr Hicks are destroyed in the fire. The Find-outers suspect arson is the cause of the fire, and start tracking down their suspects, only to discover a most unlikely culprit ...

2. The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat

• The Find-outers befriend Luke, the gardener's boy working in Lady Candling's mansion next door to Pip and Bets' home. When Lady Candling's prize Siamese cat, Dark Queen, goes missing, suspicion falls on Luke. The Find-outers embark on a hunt to clear Luke's name and find the real thief. The reappearance and subsequent second disappearance of Dark Queen only further complicates the mystery.

3. The Mystery of the Secret Room

• When Pip peers into the top-floor room of an abandoned mansion, he doesn't expect to see a fully-furnished and functional room. The Find-outers immediately set out to discover the sinister purpose of the secret room and expose a ring of dangerous criminals.

4. The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters

• Someone is sending anonymous letters to the residents of Peterswood. The Find-Outers decide to take on the mystery after Gladys, the maid working in Pip and Bets' home, becomes the unfortunate recipient of one such letter.

5. The Mystery of the Missing Necklace

• A gang of five thieves have stolen a valuable pearl necklace. The Find-outers' quest to unmask the gang fails thanks to Mr Goon's meddling, and Fatty ends up a prisoner of the gang. However, after the five thieves are caught, the necklace is still missing, and Bets is the one to discover its unlikely hiding-place.

6. The Mystery of the Hidden House

• The Five Find-outers are delighted to invent a mystery to confuse Mr Goon's unfortunate nephew, Ern, who visits Peterswood. However, their fake mystery becomes unexpectedly real, as the six children stumble across an abandoned house in the woods, which is being used as the base for a ring of car-thieves.

7. The Mystery of the Pantomime Cat

• Mr Goon is away and the Five Find-outers decide to concoct a bit of excitement for his replacement, PC Pippin. Their plans go awry when the policeman instead discovers a burglary has been committed at the local theatre. Mr Goon decides that the Pantomime Cat, Boysie, is the culprit, but he bases his accusation on the fake clues the children have earlier left at the crime scene. The Five Find-outers have another case to solve and clear Boysie's name.

8. The Mystery of the Invisible Thief

• A thief who appears to be invisible has committed a rash of burglaries in the village of Peterswood. The Five Find-outers are confident they will outwit Mr Goon once again, but even Fatty is stumped when he becomes another victim of the Invisible Thief. Only when Pip plays a prank on his fellow Find-outers does light dawn on Fatty, and he makes sense of the cryptic clues to identify the thief.

9. The Mystery of the Vanished Prince

• When the Prince of Tetarua is kidnapped from the holiday camp where Ern Goon is staying with his twin brothers, they seek the assistance of the Five Find-outers and Dog to solve this strange mystery. Once again the children have to contend with Mr Goon, who has his sights set on a promotion by solving this mystery.

10. The Mystery of the Strange Bundle

• The Five Find-outers have another mystery to solve when the home of a Peterswood resident is ransacked in the middle of the night and the owner vanishes without a trace. However, the owner turns up safe and well the next day and denies that his home had even been broken into. The Five Find-outers are puzzled by his strange behaviour, and are even more intrigued when they retrieve a mysterious bundle that had been thrown into the river.

11. The Mystery of Holly Lane

• The Five Find-outers decide to help an old man whose house was broken into and all his possessions, including his furniture, was stolen. The old man's niece is missing, and Mr Goon suspects that she has taken off with all the money. But the Five Find-outers believe otherwise, and set out to find the real culprit ...

12. The Mystery of Tally-Ho Cottage

• When a married couple who lived in Tally-Ho House in Peterswood flee the village, it turns out that they were both thieves who had recently stolen a priceless painting. Ern Goon is delighted to discover that his aunt's house is right next to the Tally-Ho House, which allows him to keep an eye on the place in case the criminals return to retrieve their beloved poodle, Poppet. However, not everything is what it seems, as the Five Find-outers soon realise ...

13. The Mystery of the Missing Man

• A dangerous convict has escaped and is suspected to be in the Peterswood area. Superintendent Jenks asks Fatty and the Find-outers to keep an eye out for him. Unfortunately, Fatty has his hands full dealing with his house guest, Eunice Tolling, an  annoying girl, who, nonetheless, proves to be a valuable help in solving this case.

14. The Mystery of the Strange Messages

• Mr Goon is once again receiving anonymous notes, telling him to evict Smith from a house called the Ivies. The only problem is, there is no house by that name in Peterswood. In fact, Mr Goon suspects that Fatty and his fellow Find-outers are playing a trick on him. The children, with the help of Goon's nephew, Ern, realise that something far more sinister is going on, involving a decades-old diamond heist.

15. The Mystery of Banshee Towers

• Ern Goon is visiting Peterswood once again, and the Five Find-outers decide to visit Banshee Towers, an old mansion that has been turned into an art gallery displaying priceless artwork. When Ern starts noticing disrepancies in some of the paintings, the Five Find-outers are confident that he's just mistaken. However, they soon discover that there is something suspicious going on in the Towers, and are drawn into another mystery, which involves wailing banshees and secret passages.

 THE SHORT STORIES 

• Just a Spot of Bother!
• The Five Find-Outers and Dog Tackle the Mystery Sneak Thief

Both of these stories were republished in Enid Blyton's Adventure Treasury 1999.

 The Five Find-Outers and Dog 

1. Fatty (Frederick Algernon Trotteville)

• The leader of the Find-outers since the third mystery. Fatty is incredibly brilliant with an extraordinary flair for detective work, especially involving disguises and ventriloquism. He is an only child and he first comes to Peterswood with his parents in the first book. Although the other children initially find him arrogant and vain, they soon come to accept him as their natural leader. Bets and Ern Goon in particular idolise Fatty. Fatty has solved most of the Five Find-outers' mysteries, much to the dismay of his archrival, PC Goon. Fatty is often accompanied by his faithful pet dog, Buster, who shared his dislike of Mr Goon.

2. Larry (Laurence) Daykin

• The eldest of the Five Find-outers. He is elected as the leader in the first two mysteries, but later willingly gives up his position to Fatty. Larry has a younger sister, Daisy. He and Pip are not impressed by Fatty's boastfulness, and often try to bring him down to earth.

3. Pip (Philip) Hilton

• The elder of the two Hilton children, he loves to mercilessly tease his younger sister, Bets. He is a little afraid of his parents, who diapprove of his exploits as a Find-outer. Nevertheless, he has helped the Find-outers in many of their investigations, and even solved a mystery!

4. Bets (Elizabeth) Hilton

• The youngest of the Five Find-outers and Pip's younger sister. She greatly admires Fatty, and he in turn has a soft spot for her. Bets is kind-hearted and loves to be a part of the Five Find-outers. Despite her brother's constant teasing, Bets has been a great help in solving mysteries, especially in the Mystery of the Missing Necklace.

5. Daisy (Margaret) Daykin

• The younger sister of Larry, she is the same age as Pip Hilton. Daisy is often not very outgoing, but has proven herself in times of need as an adept investigator.

6. Buster the Dog

• Fatty's faithful pet Scottie and an intergral part of the Five Find-outers. He shares his master's dislike of Mr Goon and loves to snap at the unfortunate policeman's ankles.

 The Policemen

1. PC Theophilus Goon

• The village policeman in Peterswood. He is constantly competing with the Five Find-outers to solve the mystery before them, but unfortunately has failed so far. He is pompous and often the victim of Fatty's merciless pranks. He has three nephews, Ern and the twins Sid and Perce.

2. Inspector (later Chief Inspector, then Superintendent) Jenks

• A firm friend of the Five Find-outers, he first meets them at the end of the first mystery.

3. PC Pippin

• Mr Goon's substitute as the Peterswood policeman in the Mystery of the Pantomime Cat. He befriends the children although they initially lead him on a wild goose chase.

 Special Characters

1. Ern Goon

Mr Goon's nephew. He has a pair of twin brothers, Sid and Perce. He has appeared in several of the Five Find-outers' mysteries, beginning with the Mystery of the Hidden House. Although he initially believes his uncle that the Five Find-outers are up to mischief, he soon befriends all the five children and Buster. He especially admires Fatty, much to the despair of his uncle. Ern has a pet dog, Binky.

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Last edited on July 1st, 2006