I can see now that her books were clichéd, sometimes racist, definitely classist, and undoubtedly not Good Literature. But I loved them as a child, and re-read them many times. I still dip into one of them occasionally when I have an hour or two available and need something ultra-light.
'The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters' is one of a series of around 15 books about the Five Find-Outers and Buster the dog. I was never all that keen on the better-known Famous Five series, but used to love the Find-Outers' mystery series. We have recently brought a lot of our children's books out from the UK, and some of them were lying around just waiting to be read...
The story revolves around some nasty anonymous letters that have been sent to various people in the village. Mr Goon the policeman is trying to investigate without the children interfering. But they find out what the problem is, and - of course - solve the mystery satisfactorily.
It's quite a good story, although I remembered easily 'whodunnit', despite not having read this book for probably twenty years or more. It's not particularly well-written, but it appealed to me and my friends in the 1960s. It probably still appeals to many children today despite being rather old-fashioned now.
Reading as an adult, I don't like the way poor Mr Goon is treated. He's not exactly a kind person, but the children are very unpleasant to him. They often get away with teasing him, and otherwise being pretty nasty. But I don't really think that gives children a poor idea of the police force; there are other policemen in the books who are fair and generally nice people.
For those who care about such things, there's even a moral lesson about the nastiness of anonymous letters in general.
Probably best read as part of the Find-Outer series, but the books all stand alone. Recommended for children of about eight and upwards who are reading fluently.
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