Saturday, June 18, 2011

The New Enid Blyton?

Over the last five days, I've read and reviewed the first book in five new crime series for younger readers. So how do they compare with the popular Enid Blyton crime series? Let's compare them with the first in the Famous Five series, Five on a Treasure Island:

Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton
Number of children in the gang?: 4
Any Pets?: 1 dog
Setting?: Kirrin Bay/Island, Cornwall
Dead Bodies?: None*
Mobile Phones Used?: N/A
(*I haven't reread this but I don't think there are.)

Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John
Number of children in the gang?: 1
Any Pets?: 1 dog
Setting?: St Ives, Cornwall
Dead Bodies?: No
Mobile Phones Used?: Briefly but not integral to the plot.

The Case of the Deadly Desperados by Caroline Lawrence
Number of children in the gang?: 1
Any Pets?: No
Setting?: Virginia City, USA, 1860s
Dead Bodies?: Yes
Mobile Phones Used?: N/A.

The Case of the Ruby Necklace by Alex Carter
Number of children in the gang?: 4
Any Pets?: 1 gerbil
Setting?: London
Dead Bodies?: No
Mobile Phones Used?: Yes, a lot.

Mondays are Murder by Tanya Landman
Number of children in the gang?: 2
Any Pets?: No
Setting?: Island off Scotland
Dead Bodies?: Yes
Mobile Phones Used?: No as no signal on the island.

The Mystery of the Whistling Caves by Helen Moss
Number of children in the gang?: 3
Any Pets?: 1 dog
Setting?: Castle Key (an island), Cornwall
Dead Bodies?: No
Mobile Phones Used?: Yes, but not integral to the plot.


In conclusion, The Case of the Deadly Desperados was great fun but doesn't fit into the Enid Blyton mould, and for me, The Case of the Ruby Necklace is quite like the Nancy Drew mysteries I used to read; Mondays are Murder is very Agatha Christie in its plot and has a people-watching sleuth; Dead Man's Cove is quite like Blyton in its setting and lack of parents but features a solitary detective (rather than four, or more(!)) so the winner of the new Enid Blyton tag, in this small sample, with its Cornwall-island-setting, its gang of three and a dog, has to be The Mystery of the Whistling Caves. I expect to see stickers on her books with "Helen Moss is the next Stieg Larsson Enid Blyton".

4 comments:

  1. Ha ha! Great round-up. Mobile phone signals are often (crucially) lost on island, mountain, etc settings, aren't they?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice summary! It seems so much harder to write good kid mysteries these days, what with parents not daring to let kids out of their sight, mobile phones etc. I'll be looking out for some of these, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I thought Dead Man's Cove felt very like an Enid Blyton adventure when I read it. I'll have to find The Mystery of the Whistling Caves now to compare.

    ReplyDelete