This story begins in Paris where Jon and Penny are staying with the beautiful Arlette Duchelle and her parents while improving their French.

Their return to The Gay Dolphin, with Arlette coincides with them seeing friends of Miss Ballinger (from the previous adventure here.

Quickly the story develops around smuggling by Miss Ballinger and her associates and Jon and Penny enlist the support of the Mortons, plus Mackie as well as James Wilson, a reporter investigating the smugglers.

At the denouement the twins are imprisoned by Ballinger again, and later James and Arlette are also locked up (James is also knocked unconscious three times. However, with the aid of the police, and the persistence of Jon and David, the smugglers are brought to justice.

There is also a change in the way the older children are depicted. Penny and Arlette are seen as more grown up and flirtatious, especially with James whereas David and Jon are seen as reliable and steadfast but fairly clueless.

From here onwards, the burgeoning relationships between the older couples begin to be more emphasized.

PS David and the twins (plus Mackie) are allowed to negotiate the various train and bus journeys from Shropshire to Sussex in ways that a modern 16year old, with younger siblings) would never be expected to. They generally rely on a public phone box to keep people appraised of where they are, with the assumption that the person they are phoning will actually be at home. ( )

Sixth in the 'Lone Pine' series about a group of teenagers who have some exciting adventures. This one is set in Rye, and involves some new friends as well as old 'enemies' from a previous book. As always, danger abounds... but all ends well.

The characterisation and the character interactions are what lift Malcolm Saville's books out of the run-of-the-mill teenage adventure fiction of the 1950s. The people feel real, and there were one or two quite moving sections of this book. Having the full 'Girls Gone By' edition makes it all the more enjoyable than the Armada abridged one, but it's a good story even in the shorter version.

Not, perhaps, the greatest of fiction, but enjoyable for a few hours' relaxation.

Latest longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2021/01/elusive-grasshopper-by-malcolm-savi... ( )