I think I must be in some sort of ‘anti-Fatty’ mood right now because I struggled to finish this book. It didn’t appeal to me I guess and the mystery is a bit dry. Lets take a look shall we?

When is a mystery not exciting?

Enid Blyton has written before about the children in her books being ill before they miraculously get better and get embroiled in a mystery. Five Get Into a Fix is one of my favourite books because of the change of catalyst for the story, but The Mystery of the Strange Bundle has been so disappointing.

The most exciting thing that seems to come out of it, is that there seems to be some spies around, or something that is not the usual in Peterswood which is great! Give me something nice and juicy like that, something to really get my mind working and fizzing and just tumbling through possibilities!

However… it’s so poorly executed that I just can’t believe it even made it to publishing.  If it didn’t have Blyton’s name on it, she wouldn’t have gotten it published, especially not today. There is nothing new to this book, its the usual ‘Oh I can’t believe how brilliant Fatty is’ rhetoric, and spotting things that adults can’t. I mean ok, Goon is… as stupid as ever, but surely these ‘different’ kind of policemen should have been at least three steps ahead of Fatty, I mean he’s only a school boy!

It’s just so frustrating that this whole books seems to exist just to prove Fatty the hero once again.  The other Find-Outers barely have anything to do with this mystery, apart from collecting a few clues and bits of information. It seems such a waste. I suppose my biggest pet peeve on this one is how Goon acts towards Fatty, when he basically has a fight with him, when he lifts the sack from the bottom of the river. It’s childish, uncalled for, and just wrong. Fatty is a teenager (maybe about 15?) and he’s being set on by an adult, who is supposed to be in a position of responsibility, it’s not good.  There is very little mention of discipline, just that Inspector Jenks makes Goon uncomfortable but there’s nothing to do reprimand the man, who should really lose his job for that behaviour!

To top it all off really, the inspector and his friend find what they’re looking for without too much trouble,  Goon’s invited to tea with the FFO and Buster saves the day! We don’t even get a wonderful dramatic nasty guy catch! I mean what sort of novel doesn’t have the bad guy actually getting caught? So disappointing.

My thoughts

I cannot recommend this novel at all. I just can’t! My instinct is to tell you to keep away from it, because its just boring and painful to read. The ending is anti-climatic, the story is slow, sluggish and fairly forgettable over all, and of course Fatty’s new found talent is the real reason anyone finds anything out at all, who could have guessed?

It’s old, its stale and it just shows to me, that however much I do love Blyton, the stories she wrote sometimes were no good. They were old, tired, and just not as brilliant as some of her other works. I enjoyed the Mystery of the Pantomime Cat, it was different and exciting, but the Mystery of the Strange Bundle did just not do it for me. I’m sorry.

Let me know what you guys think of the book in the comments. I’d like to know!

Next review: The Mystery of Holly Lane