The Mystery of the Vanished Prince

The ninth installment of Enid Blyton's fifteen-book Five Find-Outers and Dog series, in which a group of British schoolchildren spend their holidays playing detective, The Mystery of the Vanished Prince sees Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip and Bets once again in the midst of a mystery because of a practical joke. When Fatty manages to convince pompous police bobby Mr. Goon that Bets, dressed up in colorful, "exotic" clothing, is actually the sister of an Indian prince known to be at camp nearby, he has no idea that Prince Bongawah will soon disappear, and that Goon will come searching for little "Princess Bongawee." Out of favor with their hero, Inspector Jenks, Fatty and the others are determined to make amends, and solve the mystery...

Of the show more nine books read thus far in this series, I think I enjoyed The Mystery of the Vanished Prince the least. Featuring a return of Ern, Mr. Goon's hapless nephew, who first appeared in The Mystery of the Hidden House, it has all the obnoxious classism that so irritated me in that earlier title. The children continue to be amused by Ern's pronunciation, his "portry," and his gormless admiration for Fatty.

Unfortunately, the characterization of Ern was by no means the worst aspect of this entry in the series, which also contained some regrettable scenes in which the Find-Outers "dress up" as Indians, acting out a little colonial fantasy in miniature. The passages devoted to Fatty's investigations among the "gypsies," who are portrayed as dirty and dishonest, were also quite upsetting. All in all, this is not a title I would recommend to impressionable young children, and can only regret its inclusion in such a popular series. show less

A nice read overall.

In the beginning, the part with the kids pretending to be foreign royalty, babbling nonsense and fooling Ern and Mr. Goon was just a bit too much to swallow, even for my inner child. Because of that, an otherwise funny incident didn't quite work from me.

From there, it was a pleasant read. The mystery was not the best in terms of clues/deduction. It was driven by some fortunate coincidences for the young find-outers, but it was a fun adventure. Ern, who started as a side character, has almost grown into one of the main cast.

I also liked that the children were less vindictive against Mr. Goon than usual. Sure, Mr. Goon is unpleasant, but sometimes the find-outers go too far. Here, however, they even tried to help him, show more although of course Mr. Goon did not take advantage of that. show less

I only found the last part of the book anywhere near interesting although i cant complain since the book was intended to be a children's book and it would be unjust to judge it as a bad work.But even then nothin really interested me to keep reading the book except the desire to finish it and be done with the series.The plot if seperated frm the book could be a good one.There were some instances where i laughed.But generally there was no momentum untill the last chapters and the repetition of sentences and incidents from the other series is irritating and stale.

For those who want to know the story line:
The so called 'mystery' in this book is the dissapearance of a Prince Bongawee of the Tetura state from a campsite where he camped.The show more find outers as usual gets 'mixed up',in this strange and seemingly puzzling case, when they decide to dress up as the prince's imaginary sister to fool Ern.From the moment the news of the missing is known, the find outers along with Goon enter into investigation and finally they hand over the kidnappee(hope such a word exists) to police. show less

I love when they use costumes as a disguise and they set of for a adventure to find the missing prince.

Red

Novels/novelettes

The Five Find-Outers Series