Who could have set fire to Mr Hick's cottage? The suspects include a tramp and even the housekeeper, Mrs Minns. The Five Find-Outers and Dog aim to solve the mystery before Mr Goon, the grumpy policeman.

This book kicks off the series and introduces the main characters along with a bunch of others. My mental image of Mr Goon, the local policeman, is pretty well fleshed out from having read the entire series when I was young, but he only has a bit part in the first book and hasn't been fully realized. The story starts with Larry and Daisy Daykin spotting a flare up out the window at about half past nine one evening. They get dressed and sneak out of the house with Larry explaining (a little vaguely) that "Mummy and Daddy are busy, so they won't know anything about the fire." Vagueness about unnecessary details is Enid Blyton's style throughout this series. Parents never get in the way of the plot.

So they head outside and meet Pip and Bets Hilton, who have also snuck out. Together they race down the lane to find Mr Hick's cottage burning. There, in the garden along with other onlookers, they meet Frederick Algernon Trotteville, a plump boy with a small black Yorkshire Terrier named Buster. Later the others pick up the initials of Frederick's name, F.A.T., and henceforth call him Fatty. Introduced in the first chapter is Mr Goon, the local policeman, who is not described much but whose first words are, "Clear orf, you!"

We're introduced to a number of characters throughout the story as the children set about solving the mystery of the burnt cottage; who started the fire, and why? Mr Hick's staff includes Mrs Minns the cook, Lily the young maid, Horace Peeks the man-servant, and Thomas the chauffeur. (How the other half live, eh?) Then there's Mr Hick's colleague Mr Smellie, a doddery old man interested only in old parchments. His housekeeper is Miss Miggle. There's also a tramp and, towards the end, we meet Inspector Jenks, a much nicer man than that horrid stick-in-the-mud Mr Goon! All the characters are pretty colorful and their dialogue nicely conveys their personalities.

From memory I knew who the culprit was before starting into this book, but it was still fun to read. Several aspects of the story are questionable, such as the piece of torn fabric Fatty found in a bush. Realistically the Find-Outers should have figured that bit out straight away. And you have to wonder how dumb Mr Goon and all the other adults really are for not figuring things out before the children.

There's an important scene where some planes fly over, and for twenty-five years I've remembered those planes as Tempests (first flown right about when the book was written in 1943). But this book just says "jets"...so am I remembering wrong, or did the publisher change it for some reason? Jets in 1943, when this book was written? I think not. I think my memory is correct. Does anyone have an older copy of this book to confirm this?

"Your memory certainly is correct," says Heather from Australia. "In my 1953 edition (published by the original publishers Methuen) the planes are definitely Tempests. I (being a girl and not interested in aeroplanes in the slightest) never had any idea what Tempests were, I just assumed they were something special in the old days."

Review by Heather from Australia (January 6, 2005)

Being the first adventure where the children meet Fatty, this book is one of my favourites. This is despite the character of Fatty not yet being very well developed, and the rest of the Find-Outers don't hold him with much esteem at this point (except of course Bets who hero-worshipped him from the beginning). This is the only adventure where Larry and Pip hold more of a leadership role before they are eclipsed by Fatty's obvious abilities and his self-proclaimed "brains" in the later books. As in all the books, it is of course Fatty who notices the clue at the end and wraps up the mystery nicely. Larry does assert his authority occasionally and "squash" Fatty a little, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Bets is one of my favourites, always speaking her mind and providing some entertaining remarks about her "glues". She tries so hard to be like the "big ones", and always puts in her full effort. In most of the books she manages to spot an important detail, and in this one she finds the tramp ("the most important glue of all") and also puts them on the trail of the mysterious footprints. Pip makes most of his comments and appearances as a rather dominant older brother in this book—he plays very few integral parts in the mystery, except for spotting a rather useless "clue". Daisy also takes a back seat, mostly there as scenery. She is an integral part of some interviews, and befriends Mrs Minns' kittens which leads to helping cut down their list of suspects.

I also like the way Inspector (later Chief-Inspector and Superintendent) Jenks is discovered doing a leisure activity rather than in a role as a lawman. Mr Goon makes his appearance right at the beginning, but manages to hold on to his stead as a serious policeman early on before being branded a buffoon. This is one of the mysteries where he shines a little more, tracking down the same suspects as the children and following them only a little later. However, he isn't able to spot the final clue and so is unable to solve the mystery.

This is one of those mysteries that is impossible to completely solve before the final clue is revealed, although I had an inkling of whodunnit in my first reading because a person's basic character in all of Enid Blyton's mysteries always has a bearing on what part they play. A character with bad morals or behaviour is almost always the culprit, or one of the bad guys. The best thing of all about this book is it begins a wonderful mystery series with lovable characters that I will probably never get tired of reading about.

Luke was working in the garden when Lady Candling's valuable cat was stolen. But could it have been the cat's carer, Miss Harmer, or even Lady Candling's companion Miss Trimble? The Five Find-Outers and Dog are on the case!

The second mystery in the series is better than the first in some ways. Blyton seems more confident with her main characters here, who take on the sort of personalities and traits we're familiar with. It's almost like Burnt Cottage was a pilot episode, with the series really getting started with book two, Disappearing Cat. In this, Mr Goon throws his weight about more and Fatty lets loose all sorts of cheeky retorts. Bets and Buster also have a lot of work to do. And Inspector Jenks, true to form, shows up twice in his reassuring, twinkly-eyed way, cutting through the petty feuds between the children, Mr Tupping, Luke, and Mr Goon and talking a lot of sense. Inspector Jenks is a slice of reality dropping in on the pantomime village of Peterswood.

But it all works so well! Inspector Jenks is smart, as an inspector of police should be. He shows us that policemen are actually smarter than children, and that Mr Goon is really just a bumbling goon.

As for the mystery itself...Well, since it all takes place next door to Pip and Bets Hilton, there's not much running about except over the garden wall. Lady Candling's prize cat, Dark Queen (a valuable siamese), disappears right under the nose of Luke, the gardener's help. Mr Tupping, the gardener, is a nasty piece of work and the children immediately decide it would be great if he were the thief! But how could he be, if he wasn't even there when Dark Queen was stolen? All the evidence points to poor young Luke, Mr Tupping's helper, but the Find-Outers simply can't believe Luke is the thief. It's a mystery!

There are a couple of other possible suspects in Lady Candling's staff, such as Miss Harmer the cat handler, and Miss Trimble, who takes care of the roses. Miss Harmer has a tiny, bit part, but Miss Trimble—or Miss Tremble, as the children call her—is a very funny character, a nervous old woman whose glasses keep dropping off her nose. In this mystery there's really no question as to who did the dirty deed; it's like an episode of Columbo rather than Miss Marple. We're all pretty sure it was Mr Tupping...but how on earth did he do it? I remembered the clues pretty well: the small stone with a splash of tan paint on it, and the smell of turps in the cat house. The answer to the mystery is very simple and pretty clever—but it seems so obvious now that I'm just amazed I didn't guess it when I first read this book.

Blyton has a way of repeating herself at least three times in succession to really hammer home the facts and clues. First they'll discover something together; then one will say out loud what they've just seen; and finally one will recap the facts to make it really clear. But even though I kept rolling my eyes and thinking, "Yes, yes, we know!" this method does work well. Nothing is allowed to be forgotten. And having read this before, it was interesting to see how Blyton drops the clues in and cleverly brushes over them as "irrelevant"—whilst forcing her readers to remember them anyway.

Apart from lots of maddening punctuation typos (mainly missing speech marks), this was a good read, better I think than Burnt Cottage.

Review by Heather from Australia (January 12, 2005)

This book was my first Find-Outers experience as a child, so it really remains very dear to me. I love the way Blyton brings all of the various characters back together even though Fatty was originally just on holiday in Peterswood. Luke next door always reminded me of my older brother—tall, hard working, very loyal—so my mental picture of Luke was always close to my brother's look: brown hair, green eyes, sudden grin but with a slightly tired look at times.

Blyton has written the character of Tupping very effectively. The reader has no choice but to hate him at first mention, and his treatment of poor Bets' strawberry plants almost had me in tears as a child. Lady Candling on the other hand hardly rates a mention through most of the book, which surprised me. Maybe Blyton thought that if she mentioned her kindness too much she may not have been a credible suspect when the time came. Also Miss Harmer, I think, deserved a little more time—she is barely even described and only pops up in the story when necessary to the plot.

Miss 'Tremble' is a wonderful character who also appears later in the series. I do think it is strange that Bets is so rude to her about her glasses and name—generally Bets is written as a very polite girl. It could be put down to her youthful exuberance, but to me it seems a little out of character for her.

Poor Bets has such a bad time in this mystery—getting stuck up the tree, the aforementioned strawberry runner incident, worrying about Luke going to prison, etc. She shows herself as a brave little girl and redeems herself for the many slips she has in both this and the previous mystery.

Larry steps down as the leader slightly (in attitude, not position) in this book—he begins to defer to Fatty's decisions and opinions a little more and hardly asserts his authority at all in comparison to the last book. Daisy plays a few more parts in this mystery—she helps to distract Miss Harmer and contributes her opinion a little more often.

Pip again laughs at his silly little sister and often feels the need to keep her in her place. He does show his kindness towards her though over the issue of the strawberry runners, and shows a great understanding of parents when he asks Bets to 'howl, will you' in order to get their way—I used the same technique myself as a child at times when I wanted something, and my children have tried similar things on me. They seem to think it's a new idea...