Treasure at Amorys (by Malcolm Saville)

(Amazon UK link)

I am so pleased that I decided to re-read my ‘Lone Pine’ books by Malcolm Saville, after managing to acquire ‘Girls Gone By’ editions to replace the ones I only had in Armada. My Armada paperbacks, bought inexpensively in my teens, were starting to fall apart. I’m still grateful that I had the opportunity to buy them in the 1970s, but in recent years realised that they were quite significantly abridged. So my GGBP editions, in addition to being in great condition (some pristine) and having interesting introductions, are the full original text. The storylines aren’t changed, but there’s so much more character development and description.

I had not read ‘Treasure in Amorys’ for at least twenty-five years; I’m not sure why, as I did re-read some of the series in 2010. It was never one of my favourites, partly because it doesn’t include Peter (Petronella) who’s probably my favourite character. In the previous book, ‘Not Scarlet but Gold’, which I re-read a couple of months ago, David and Peter finally declare their love for each other, so as a teenager I found it a bit frustrating that while David writes letters to her, and his twin siblings Mary and Dickie tease him a little, she doesn’t come into this book at all.

Another reason I wasn’t so keen on this book is that I did recall something about a pagan temple, and an unpleasant image of a sacrifice. I couldn’t remember anything much about it, and in fact the scene involved is a dream, fairly early in the book, but not the main focus of the story. So I read it as if it were a new book, and liked it very much this time around - albeit still a bit puzzled as to why Peter wasn’t included.

Jon and Penny are the main focus of this book, along with David and the twins. Penny, at 16, has just left school. Jon, a geeky type who is preparing for university (in an age when it wasn’t an option for most) has just started to realise how much Penny means to him - and how much he’s going to miss her when she travels abroad to stay with her parents for awhile, possibly some years. They were expecting to spend their summer in Rye with their friends, but Jon’s mother suggests staying in a different location, and they decide to do so.

Naturally there’s a tense and quite exciting adventure. The Lone Piners agree to stay in the house known as Amorys with the elderly, recently widowed and very likeable Major Bolshaw. There’s some interest locally in Roman coins and other artefacts which have recently been discovered, and it’s clear that some unpleasant people are keen to find something, most of which they probably won’t declare to the government. They turn quite nasty when they are told they can’t stay at Amorys, and try to frighten the Major and the Lone Piners away.

There’s a huge (and unlikely) coincidence in that two of the criminals involved have come up against the Lone Pine club in two or three earlier adventures; but one has to accept this kind of thing sometimes, and to be fair the criminals themselves can’t quite believe that, yet again, they’re likely to be foiled by some teenagers. Naturally everything turns out all right in the end, as this is a book for younger teenagers; but there are some quite unpleasant moments as the adventure progresses.

‘Treasure at Amorys’, 15th in the Lone Pine series, was first published in 1964, so the blossoming romance between Penny and Jon is naturally very low-key. At the request of readers Saville had set the story in the early 1960s, while keeping his characters much the same ages as they were in the earlier adventures set some decades before.

I still wouldn’t rate it as my favourite of the series, but I liked reading it very much. I will certainly re-read it again when, in perhaps eight or nine years’ time, I embark once again on a Lone Pine read-through (over a couple of years).

Recommended to anyone over the age of about ten who likes good adventure stories. It's best to have read at least some of the earlier books, in my opinion, but not necessary; each Lone Pine story stands alone. Unfortunately the GGBP editions are limited and go out of print fairly quickly, but they can often be found used, or advertised on relevant Facebook groups.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's Book Reviews