In the third book in the series the children go back to Kirrin Cottage for the summer holidays. Unfortunately, their regular cook is ill (another convenient illness) and George's parents have hired another cook to help them out while the children are there. In yet another triumph of the Kirrin Human Resources department, they hired the evil Mrs. Stick, with her horrid son Edgar in tow, and also her unpleasant dog Tinker (aka Stinker) and later her equally up to no good husband.

Then Aunt Fanny, who is ill (of course), gets worse and has to be rushed off to hospital, with Quentin accompanying her (for once he puts the family crisis above his work). The man may be too absorbed in his work, and also eccentric, irascible and clueless, but he does love his family. George, for some strange reason, is not allowed to visit her. Home alone with the Sticks, the children are subjected to very hostile treatment from them. They almost have to get into fights to get adequate food, and they try to poison Timmy.

Finally, they decide to run away to Kirrin island and live there on their own until George's parents come back. Of course, they'll find a great adventure there.

In these books, as much as the adventure I enjoy the slice of life part at the beginning. The five have so much fun together and visit such interesting locations that my imagination was captured when I read these as a boy, and even now as an adult those descriptions are excellent mind candy. Here, however, this first part is unpleasant, with the children being treated as enemies in their own house by the nasty Sticks. Come to think of it, the build-up of the previous book (Five Go Adventuring Again) had also an unpleasant component, with George's feud with Mr. Roland. Here, the situation is much more openly unpleasant, though, and there are no adult relatives to keep things from going too far. Also, the conflict her is not no emotionally-charged like in the previous book. Julian raises up to the challenge, with Tim's help, and he constantly stands up to the Sticks. At one point he is reluctant to do so, and he reflects that he is not afraid of the Sticks, but he is just tired of the unpleasant confrontations.

In this series, it will certainly not be the last time Julian has to stand up to hostile adults, and he usually adopts a very calm and adult tone to talk to them. In this book he does so for the first time in the series. Good thing that he did, because otherwise his siblings and cousin would have gone without adequate food. However, perhaps he has not perfected the technique yet. Instead of just reminding Mrs. Stick of her duties and what the consequences would be if she neglected them, I had the impression that he sometimes riled up the Sticks more than strictly necessary. Perhaps not the smartest strategy, but I can't really blame him. They were on their own home, so why should they let these people walk all over them? Thankfully he had Tim to provide physical protection, or things could have become very nasty.

All in all the Sticks made life miserable for the children, and thus I was missing the joy that these books have. Fortunately things improved a lot once they ran off to the island. They had a great time there, and I enjoyed it with them.

Finally, in the last part of the novel, they have to fight a gang of people they believed to be smugglers using the island as base, but who are later discovered to be kidnappers. And they turned out to be the Sticks! Great as it was to see the Sticks get their comeuppance, I have to admit that the plot was a bit contrived at this point. How likely is it that the Sticks of all people were the ones doing their criminal activities on Kirrin Island? And what kind of criminal operation was that anyway? Why did they need a ship delivering a pack with dolls on the wreck near the island in the middle of the night? Wouldn't it be easier for the Sticks to bring what they needed with them in their boat? And why did Mrs. Stick take a job as a cook while she was taking part in a kidnapping scheme that had nothing to do with Kirrin Cottage?

In spite of these questions, the adventure part was very good and thrilling, even if the villains were a bit too bumbling. I really loved the hidden cave they found and used as their headquarters. With that secure shelter, they always had the upper hand against the Sticks, who never quite knew what was going on.

Some random thoughts:

George planned to run away to the island alone, so that the others could go home instead of spending such an unpleasant holiday with the Sticks. It's clear that in spite of liking her cousins she had not yet assumed that they were a team, and that they could face any difficulties better when they were together.

The five gave as much as they received. More, actually. We never feel sorry for the Sticks, not even for their stupid and cowardly son Edgar, because they are the ones who started it by being incredibly nasty towards the children. However, listening to the audiobook as an adult I felt sorry for their dog, (S)Tinker, who doesn't seem to do much to deserve being persecuted by Tim, other than being generally unpleasant and belonging to the Sticks. This is a children's book, and it's a common technique to amuse young readers by having bad things happen to the bad guys, without taking much effort to discriminate how much each character deserves to be labelled "bad". It's similar to how in the Harry Potter books Hagrid gives Dudley a pig tail, when the one who deserved it was his father Vernon (well, Dudley probably deserved it to some extent for his behavior towards Harry in the past, but Hagrid did not know that).

On the other hand, it was quite nice of the children to invite the little girl they rescued to spend a few days with them in the island.

George showed great restraint with Edgar. At one point she mentions that she doesn't respond to his insults because she doesn't want Mrs. Stick to leave and therefore leave George's mother without help. ( )

Los Cinco regresan a Villa Kirrin durante parte de las vacaciones de verano. Pero, a causa de la enfermedad de tía Fanny, y que Juana, la cocinera, ha marchado a cuidar de su madre, quedaran al cuidado de la nueva cocinera, la señora Stick, una desagradable mujer que está acompañada por su hijo Edgar, un desagradable niño que se divierte atormentando a Jorge con canciones tontas. Para empeorar las cosas, también aparecerá el señor Stick, un marinero sin barco, que se quedará aprovechando la ausencia de tía Fanny y tío Quintín. Dado que la relación con los Stick es mala, los chicos fingen marcharse a casa de Julián, Dick y Ana, pero en realidad lo que hacen es abastecerse de suculentas provisiones y marchar disimuladamente a la isla de Kirrin.

Ya en la isla, descubren que a la única habitación del castillo se le ha derrumbado el techo, y que el barco naufragado, está demasiado húmedo y maloliente. Accidentalmente encuentran una cueva con suelo de arena, entrada escondida y un adecuado orificio en el techo, que se convierte en un sitio ideal para acampar.

Esa noche, escuchan ruidos y descubren que la familia Stick ha llegado a la isla, vigilando, ven que se alojan en las mazmorras, y logran capturar un baúl, un cargamento de comida y de ajuar doméstico que han saqueado los Stick de Villa Kirrin. En el baúl sorprendentemente encontrarán ropa de niña y muñecos de peluche. Posteriormente, Edgar cae accidentalmente en el agujero del techo de la cueva y es capturado por Los Cinco. Descubren que los Stick han secuestrado a una niña llamada Jennifer Armstrong, y la tienen encerrada en las mazmorras del castillo. Liberan a la chica, dejando a Edgar en su lugar, y marchan a Villa Kirrin, donde cuentan todo a tío Quintín y a la policía. Así capturan a los Stick, y se marchan de camping a la isla con Jennifer.

England, ca 1953
Indeholder "1. Sommerferie", "2. Familien Møg-Suhr", "3. En grim overraskelse", "4. Røg i køkkenet", "5. I nattens mulm og mørke", "6. Familien Suhr bliver sat på plads", "7. Bedre nyheder", "8. Georgs plan", "9. En spændende nat", "10. Gensyn med Kirrinøen", "11. Det gamle vrag", "12. Klippehulen", "13. En dag på øen", "14. Natteroen forstyrres", "15. Hvem er på øen", "16. Familien Suhr får jaget en skræk i livet", "17. Edgar får sit livs chok", "18. En uventet fange", "19. Et skrig i natten", "20. En fange befries - og en ny sættes ind", "21. Besøg på politistationen", "22. Tilbage til Kirrinøen".

En familie med tre børn, Julian på 13, Anne på 11 og Dick på 12 har alle børnene på kostskole. Nu er det ferie og de tre børn kommer på besøg ved farbroderen Quentin og hans kone Fanny. Quentin og Fanny har datteren Georgina på ca 12 år og de bor ved Kirrin-bugten i et omkring trehundrede år gammelt hus kaldet Kirrinhuset. Georgina er ret egenrådig, er kortklippet, går i drengetøj og vil kaldes Georg. Hun har hunden Tim og året før fandt de fire børn og hunden en gammel guldskat, så der er stillet op til endnu et eventyr.

Der er gået tre uger af sommerferien og Julian, Dick og Anne har været sammen med deres forældre, men nu kommer de på besøg ved Georg og hendes forældre. Men Fanny er syg og der er kommet en ny kokkepige fru Clara Suhr i stedet for Joanna, som er taget hjem for at passe sin mor, der har brækket benet. Fru Suhr har taget sin møgirriterende søn, Edgar, med og sin ikke mindre irriterende hund, Tinker. Den lugter grimt og Georg kalder den Stinker. Normalt ville børnene være roet over til øen i bugten, for øen tilhører Georg og hun har delt den med de andre. Men båden er ved at blive sat i stand og malingen er ikke tør endnu. Det er så meget desto mere træls fordi de måske har set røg fra øen, så måske er der ubudne gæster på den?
Det bliver dog hurtigt endnu værre, for Georgs mor får det værre og børnene kommer hjem til et næsten tomt hus, for faderen er taget med moderen på hospitalet og de er derfor overladt til fru Suhr de næste dage. Hendes mand er også dukket op. Julian træder i karakter og får fru Suhr dæmpet ned ved at true med at gå til politiet. Han undrer sig over at det ser ud til at skræmme hende, men er tilfreds med virkningen. Fanny bliver opereret og får det bedre. Georg fatter en plan om at slippe væk fra familien Suhr og tage over på Kirrin-øen. Julian og de andre tager med. De tager en del med fra køleskab og spisekammer, så de kommer ikke til at sulte. Til gengæld er stenstuen i borgruinen styrtet sammen, så den kan ikke bruges som sovested. De udforsker skibsvraget lidt og opdager at der har været nogen for nylig og at de har efterladt en låst kuffert! De beslutter at holde udkig efter de ubudne gæster, for dels er det jo en privat ø og dels lugter det lidt af smuglere? De finder en hule med sandgulv, der ser perfekt ud og indretter sig med spisevarer og sovesteder. Ved nattetide observerer de en lommelygte og nogle lyde ude ved vraget og næste dag kan de også se at der har været besøg. Næste dag dukker hele familien Suhr op og Tim får sat nogle gode bid ind på Tinker, inden Georg pifter den til sig og børnene og Tim forsvinder ned i hulen. Familien Suhr forstår ikke hvad det var for en hund og hvor den blev af, så de tænker bare at det må være en omstrejfende hund for de tror at børn og hund har taget toget hjem til Julian, Dick og Annes forældre.
Ved at holde sig skjult i en hule kan de fire børn og hunde drive gæk med familien Suhr. De snupper sågar kufferten fra dem, men undres over at finde dukker og den slags i stedet for kostbarheder. Det viser sig at familien Suhr foruden at have hugget mange ting fra Georgs families hus også er ved at hjælpe en kidnapper ved at holde offeret skjult. Det er en lille pige, Jennifer Mary Armstrong kaldet Jenny, som børnene får befriet. De har fanget Edgar og putter ham ind i cellen, hvor Jenny var anbragt. Hun bliver vildt glad for dem og endnu mere, da hun ser at Anne har taget sig af hendes dukker.
Onkel Quentin bliver glad for at se dem og politiet bliver glade for at Jenny er dukket op og for at kunne putte ægteparret Suhr bag tremmer. Jennys forældre er meget rige, men en af tjenestepigerne hed Sara Suhr og har sikkert hjulpet med bortførelsen.
I stedet for en dusør vil børnene gerne have Jenny med på at holde ferie på øen.
Ikke et øje er tørt for de gode, gode børn har vundet over de onde, onde og dumme, dumme forbrydere.

Fuldt point for at have taget fat i stereotype kønsroller. Der er nogenlunde plausible forklaringer på at børn og voksne ikke kommunikerer ret godt. Og at forældrene pludseligt er taget på hospitalet og er væk, er et helt reelt mareridt, så jeg kan godt lide optakten til den her historie. Til gengæld er den moralsk løftede pegefinger voldsomt overspillet. ( )

Un libro de misterio de los cinco ( )

The third adventure of The Famous Five. This group of kids is becoming a group of justice agents as Blyton bring us new stories. It's been a year since the time of their first adventure. The group is shown as really solid.

Julian is more mature and soon the others will be too. Anne is representing this view of girls as housewives but mixed with a girl who wants to experience from adventures, so not bad at all. Wonder how George's feelings about being a girl will change.

It's kind of incredible how we are presented to a group of kids that manage to live in an island by themselves. Or how they manage to carry such a lot of things to survive in a boat.

A final message when they hope Edgar could find another way in life far from the bad things he learned and suffered from his parents it's very nice wish for people to change. ( )