Five Have a Mystery to Solve

Five Have a Mystery to Solve

Brief Summary by Poppy Hutchinson (from http://enidblytonsociety.co.uk): Adventure awaits, Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Timothy when they are asked to stay at Hill Cottage, in the company of Wilfred: an unusual boy, with a gift for communicating with animals. Not far from the shore, lies Whispering Island – a place which seems to be riddled with eerie secrets and legends, involving some strange gleaming statues, and armed men on the island! Can the Five piece together the mystery and uncover the secrets that surround Whispering Island?

Random thoughts:

It seems that Julian, Dick and Anne now live near Kirrin Cottage, which changes a bit the situation of the series, where a visit from the cousins was a show more big deal or at least involved some logistical difficulties. Not that it matters too much, since there’s only one more novel after this one, but still it’s a noticeable change.

Once together, the children can’t go out because they have to stay for tea (we are not in Kirrin Cottage, but at the cousins’ house). An old lady (Mrs. Layman) is very interested in talking to them. I can’t really blame the children for groaning, even if it’s not polite. Julian is there to remind everyone that Mrs. Layman used to be kind to them when they were little.

Mrs. Layman has to visit a sick relative (the usual way of getting rid of adults in Enid Blyton tales), and she wants to know if the children would like to live for a few days in her house overlooking the harbor, and keep company to his young grandson. Rather imposing, I would say. The Five need to abandon any plans they may have had and go play babysitters for a little boy. Wouldn’t it make more sense for Wilfred to come to Kirrin Cottage instead, where there is adult supervision? But of course the adventure requires the children to go, so they did not have any other plans and quickly accept the offer.

Wilfred turns out to have an uncanny ability to tame animals. Any little wild creature comes docile as a lamb when he calls. However, he is initially hostile to the children, saying he doesn’t need any company. He acts so snottily that at a certain point Anne turns into a tigress and throws a bucket of water on him! Good for Anne.

Surprisingly, Wilfred forgets everything about his hostility and soon becomes a good friend of the older children.

All this happens quite near Kirrin Cottage, and I have to wonder why the children had never heard of these places before. They went there by bike, and it was a very short trip. It looks as if Blyton can’t be bothered to write about travels any more.

There’s a moment with unintentional innuendo when Wilfred can’t find the flute he uses to call animals and Dick says “It must be in your pockets… here, let me feel around.” Oh, innocent times…

Meanwhile, they hear from several sources (including the typical old man with plenty of stories to tell) about the mysterious Whispering Island, where no one is allowed to set foot and there’s supposed to be fierce guardians willing to shoot anyone who tries.

Speaking of Wilfred. This follows a trend I have noticed lately of not having books where the only protagonists are the Five. We have had important guest stars all through the series, but in the last few books it’s starting to seem that the Five can not carry the book on their own, and Blyton needs to bring in interesting allies. And they are made interesting by giving them an interesting animal, or making them twins or, in this case, by making them a magnet for animals.

Of course, the children end up on Whispering Island, this time by mistake, since they were having a little boat trip and did not about the strength of the tides… As much fun as it is for children to have so much freedom, this sounds rather dangerous…

OK, let’s talk about setting. This is the standard Kirrin Island configuration: an uninhabited island with a castle and secret passages. To get more atmosphere, the island is made a whispering island (because of the noise of the wind in the forest), the cliffs are made the wailing cliffs… To a certain extent it works, but it seems to me that Blyton is taking shortcuts here. Instead of making the setting evocative and interesting through descriptions she takes the fast way out of making everything “whispering” or “wailing” or whatever. Nice image, the statues in the forest, though.

After being dragged by the tide to the island, the children don’t secure the boat properly and the tide drags it away. A bit careless, Ju!

Another thing that bothered me is that the children were in danger on the island and they had a perfect opportunity to escape and alert the authorities when Wilfred arrived with a boat, but they didn’t take it. Then, after being kept prisoners and escaping, they decide to spend the night on the island in spite of the presence of bad guys with weapons. Just get away, guys!

One thing I have noticed in this book is that it’s more dialogue-heavy than others in the series. A lot of it is narrated through dialogues, as if the characters were walking us through the story. Too much dialogue is not a good thing, in my opinion.

The adventure is pretty standard but not bad. A bit short, but in line with some other books in the series. The main problem is that we get the same kind of thing we have seen multiple times before. I would have welcomed some more original elements.

Once more, the plan of the bad guys is a bit silly when you stop to think about it. And I don’t understand why they did not run away when the children escaped.

One thing I liked is that Anne (yes, Anne!) is at her fiercest here. She had warned her brothers and cousins that she could turn into a tigress, and in this book she does, twice!

Then we get an anticlimactic ending, with the author informing us that the bad guys were arrested, but we don’t get to see it in first person.

All in all… well, this is clearly not Blyton at her best. But it is not too bad either. It doesn't sully the series. show less

I loved the Famous Five novels as a child. They may be somewhat dated to today's readers but I think still worth reading. I've read all the original novels except for two I think which went out of print at the time I was collecting the novels.

The Famous Five - Juliun, Dick, George, Anne and Timothy are back! Here they are finding treasure

Novels/novelettes

Red

Book 12

Una preciosa tarde de vacaciones de pascua, nuestros protagonistas toman el té con una amiga de la familia, Mrs Layman, que les pide a los Cinco que cuiden de su sobrino, Wilfrid, y entonces los Cinco marchan a la Casa de la Colina para quedarse acompañando a Wilfrid. Desde la casa se vislumbra un gran puerto natural con una isla cubierta de árboles en su centro. Cerca hay un campo de golf que van a visitar, y allí hablan con el viejo Lucas, el encargado, que les cuenta la historia de la Isla de los Susurros, y los tesoros legendarios que hay allí. En la actualidad, los vigilantes patrullan por la isla para impedir que nadie vaya allí. Lucas fue uno de los vigilantes hace años.

Alquilan un bote para andar por el puerto, pero una show more fuerte marea los lleva a la isla, así que deciden explorar un poco. Pero las cosas se vuelven demasiado excitantes cuando el bote se aleja de la costa y los vigilantes disparan sobre Tim. Los chicos exploran los bosques y descubren estatuas en ellos y otras dentro de cajas. Piensan que es para sacarlas de contrabando. Después encuentran un pozo con una pequeña puerta secreta, donde hay más estatuas escondidas. Tim empieza a ladrar y encuentran a Wilfrid, que al descubrir el bote a la deriva en el puerto, intentó salir a buscarlos. Posteriormente encuentran un pasaje a una cámara donde se almacenan estatuas y otras obras de arte, pero ante la llegada de dos hombres tienen que esconderse, pero desafortunadamente son descubiertos y encerrados en la propia cámara de las estatuas. Ana recuerda la puerta pequeña en el pozo y pronto la encuentran, todos escapan, excepto Jorge y Tim que lo hacen derribando a uno de los hombres. Regresan a tierra firme con Wilfrid y le dicen a la policía lo que han encontrado, y sus acontecimientos. show less