The Mystery of the Strange Messages

The Mystery of the Strange Messages is a children's mystery novel written by Enid Blyton and published in 1957. It is the fourteenth book in the Five Find-Outers series featuring Fatty, Pip, Larry, Daisy, Bets and Buster the Scottie dog, as well as Mr Goon and his nephew Ern.

Plot
The story begins when Mr Goon receives some strange messages which ask him to turn out the Smiths from The Ivies and to ask Smith his real name. Upon investigating the messages Mr Goon finds that there is no such house as The Ivies and there are around 15 Smiths in Peterswood. He is then convinced that the Find-Outers are playing a trick on him and visits them but he finds out that they are not playing any tricks. Meanwhile, the Find-Outers are also on the case and they think of an idea in which they will search a house covered with Ivy. They find 4 houses like that but rule out all of them (One of the houses, Fairlin Hall, was empty).

The next day, Daisy (One of the members of the Find-Outers) finds that smoke was coming from the chimney of Fairlin Hall. Upon investigation the Find-Outers find that two caretakers lived in it named Mr and Mrs Smith and that the building was previously called The Ivies. They found out that the name was changed because Wilfrid Hasterley (the son of the owners of the house) stole some diamonds with two of his friends. Later Wilfrid and one of his friends were arrested - a third friend escaped to Burma. Wilfrid died in jail and his second friend was released from prison. This robbery and the later arrests disgraced the Hasterleys; due to that they changed the name of the building to Fairlin Hall.

Around the same time Mr Goon got a new letter in which The Ivies was now named as Fairlin Hall. He went to Fairlin Hall and turned out the caretakers (the Smiths). He had discovered that Mr Smith was really Mr Canley who had sold national intelligence information to foreign countries for money; he was arrested for that but when he was released he changed his name and never met the police as he had been told to do.

Fatty was unhappy with Mr Goon's work because Mr Smith/Canley was unwell. Fatty helped the Smiths by phoning the doctor who sent an ambulance to bring Mr Smith to the hospital; he also brought Mrs Smith to his own home. The next day the caretaker packed up everything and moved from Fairlin Hall to Fatty's House.

It was later reported that two men had now bought Fairlin Hall and had keys to it. Fatty continued investigating the real reason of why the message sender's had sent letters to Mr Goon to turn out the Smiths. He found out that the two remaining robbers had met each other and were trying to find the stolen diamonds which were hidden in Fairlin Hall, but their search had been hampered by the Smiths. The only person that had authority to turn them out was Mr Goon, so they found out the truth about Mr Smith and had Mr Goon turn the caretakers out of the house. After more investigations Fatty found the diamonds’ hiding place, but just as he was about to call the police, the two men arrived, found him and locked him in a cupboard. Mr Goon's nephew Ern was outside waiting for Fatty but when he heard Fatty was locked up, he asked for help from a passer-by who phoned Mr Goon. Buster arrived and attacked the two men while Ern rescued Fatty. At that time Mr Goon arrived but and the two men hid. Buster attacked Mr Goon and they both fell into the cupboard that Fatty had been locked in. The two men promptly closed and locked the door. Ern drove away the men and they fell into a coal hole.

The next day, Fatty phoned Superintendent Jenks who arrived at Fairlin Hall. A furious Mr Goon and Buster were rescued from the locked cupboard and the two robbers were rescued from the coal hole and arrested. The diamonds were found hidden in a pipe in the bathroom.