Wednesday 10 November 2010

The Mystery Of The Dead Man’s Riddle

Dingo Towne, a local character, has died and instead of a regular will, he’s set a series of riddles, with the winner taking his fortune. Hired by Dingo’s daughter-in-law to try and solve the riddles, the boys have to compete with nasty English relatives, Skinny Norris and treasure hunters. A very sturdy mystery, well constructed with clever clues, this is a cracking adventure, with good action, nifty set pieces (the river boat and climax especially) and a lot of different locations in and around Rocky Beach. It also has a very winning character in Billy Towne, Dingo’s 8 year old nephew, who is well written and good fun. One of the series highlights, very much recommended.

12 comments:

  1. Along with Moaning Cave, this was William Arden's finest hour in T3I series. Rhyming Slang, brilliant characters (the Percivals, Mr. Savo & Turk), a solid plot and a great finish... this tale had it all. Ten out of ten.
    Robert

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  2. Loved this since the age of 13, in English. I just found it in Swedish (really good translated riddles) in an "used book"-shop. This would make a great movie, a "Da Vinci Code" for kids.

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  3. Absolutely - have you seen the TTI films that have already been released?

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    1. There's two, from Germany a few years back, neither of which seem to be based particularly faithfully on the books.

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  4. love it, one of the best

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  5. One of the best, reminds me of "stuttering parrot"

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  6. Loved it! As an Australian I had to read an American novel to discover 'Rhyming Slang'!

    This was the one book that I was able to visualise more then any other.

    And was this the most prolific Skinny Norris story?

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    1. I think it was, yes.

      And how cool, to discover that Australian kids enjoyed the series as much as Brit kids (and US ones too!).

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  7. Plenty of Indian kids too. Dead Man's Riddle was the first 3TI book that I bought, in 1981. It was the Armada paperback with the houseboat on the cover. The first book in the series that I read (and got me hooked) was Stuttering Parrot.

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  8. Of the twelve non Robert Arthur novels,this is the one seems to be closest him in style and plot structure. Though Arden/Lynds used the treasure hunt riddles in three other stories the clues seem more Arthur like for some reason.

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