OVERVIEW: The Mystery of Midway Mill
Oct. 17th, 2019 08:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThe Mystery of Midway Mill: Irene Byers. Hutchinson. Inscribed 1961
I got the sense that this book was very much influenced by Enid Blyton, specifically The Five Find-Outers and Dog and the ‘of Adventure’ series (although I haven’t read either series for years).
Aspiring young writer Pat French is a glass-half-empty person, which doesn’t make her that appealing a main character. In fairness, her holiday plans are ruined by her father falling just ill enough, but her brother Peter complains less about it, and is more bearable because of it. But the French children are invited to stay with Pat’s best friend Babs, who has a brother named Ricky. The Monningtons live in a working, if struggling, mill that has been in the family for years, where mysterious events have been occurring of late. Pat is intrigued.
Bragging time: I solved the mystery much quicker than the kids (must have been all those Blyton books I read as a child).
Apart from a tendency to boss, the other striking thing about Ricky is how he collects animals: lizards, newts and a hedgehog, despite his mother’s remonstrations, and that he goes away to boarding school. Then there’s his pet monkey Keko. Although Keko mainly acted out for plot reasons, in my twenty-first century adult way, I couldn’t get over how this monkey should be living free and wild. Babs was also a bit wet, so I can’t say I got on very well with this book.
I got the sense that this book was very much influenced by Enid Blyton, specifically The Five Find-Outers and Dog and the ‘of Adventure’ series (although I haven’t read either series for years).
Aspiring young writer Pat French is a glass-half-empty person, which doesn’t make her that appealing a main character. In fairness, her holiday plans are ruined by her father falling just ill enough, but her brother Peter complains less about it, and is more bearable because of it. But the French children are invited to stay with Pat’s best friend Babs, who has a brother named Ricky. The Monningtons live in a working, if struggling, mill that has been in the family for years, where mysterious events have been occurring of late. Pat is intrigued.
Bragging time: I solved the mystery much quicker than the kids (must have been all those Blyton books I read as a child).
Apart from a tendency to boss, the other striking thing about Ricky is how he collects animals: lizards, newts and a hedgehog, despite his mother’s remonstrations, and that he goes away to boarding school. Then there’s his pet monkey Keko. Although Keko mainly acted out for plot reasons, in my twenty-first century adult way, I couldn’t get over how this monkey should be living free and wild. Babs was also a bit wet, so I can’t say I got on very well with this book.
