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This book is one of a series of 15, about the Five Find-Outers and Buster the dog. 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 naturally they find out what the problem is.

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, and probably still appeals to children today despite being rather old-fashioned now.

I don't much like the way poor Mr Goon is treated - he's not exactly a kind person, but the children are very unpleasant to him and often get away with teasing him, and otherwise being pretty nasy. 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. There's even a moral lesson about the nastiness of anonymous letters in general. ( )

This is my third favourite of the series. See also my reviews about "Geheimnis um eine Efeuvilla" and "Geheimnis um einen unsichtbaren Dieb". ( )

The fourth title in Enid Blyton's fifteen-book Five Find-Outers and Dog series, sometimes also styled the Mystery series, The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters sees the Find-Outers back in their home village of Peterswood for the Easter holidays. Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip, and Bets (together with Buster the dog), are on the look-out for another mystery, and they soon find themselves involved in a puzzling case involving a series of nasty anonymous letters. But will the children find the culprit before their nemesis - pompous police bobby Mr. Goon?

Read as part of an ongoing project to familiarize myself with the work of Enid Blyton, who, despite being the sixth most popular author in the world, is virtually unknown in the United States, this series has thus far left me with the impression of formulaic plots and fairly generic prose. Oddly enough, despite these readily apparent flaws, it is also starting to grow on me. Perhaps I've simply become fond of the characters after reading four of their adventures, or perhaps I'm regressing (wouldn't Harold Bloom feel vindicated?), but I found myself giggling with childish glee in a number of places while reading The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters.

I enjoyed seeing the further development of Fatty's character in particular, with his clever disguises (how many non-existent red-haired boys can one village hold?), and "innocent" baiting of slow Mr. Goon. Many of the scenes in which the children outwit the irritable policeman are simply hilarious! Bets also continues to entertain, although I am beginning to sense that Blyton's development of these two seems to have utterly eclipsed Larry, Daisy and Pip. However that may be, I am finding these books entertaining enough to continue with my project. ( )

Children's