The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage

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The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage
TheMysteryOfTheBurntCottage.jpg
First edition cover
Author Enid Blyton
IllustratorJoseph Abbey
Series The Five Find-Outers
Published1943
Publisher Methuen
Media typePrint
Followed by The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat  

The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage is the first in the Five Find-Outers series of children's mystery novels by Enid Blyton. It was initially published in 1943 and continues to be frequently reissued. [1]

Contents

Plot summary

The novel centres on the mystery of who could have set fire to Mr Hick’s cottage. The five children, Larry and Daisy Daykin, Pip and Bets Hilton, and newcomer Frederick Algernon Trotteville (later nicknamed Fatty from his initials), meet at the scene of the fire and end up solving the mystery together.

Their suspects include an old tramp, a dismissed servant, a hostile colleague and the cook. They find certain clues including broken-down nettles in a ditch, a footprint in a grassy field and the presence of Hawker Tempest planes (which Mr Hick mentions "flew over" the other day).

The children realise that as Mr Hick claims to have been on the London train when the cottage was burnt, but by his own report saw the planes which flew over the village at the same time, he is contradicting himself. Fatty finds out that the cottage and the burnt papers Mr Hick describes as 'most important' were insured. The children deduce that he burnt his own cottage for the insurance money. The book also introduces Inspector Jenks, who helps the children and becomes a good friend of theirs.

Supporting Characters

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References