The Mystery Term by E. E. Cowper

The Mystery Term by E.E. Cowper

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It’s always interesting to me how many more school story authors there are yet to discover. I read a lot of this genre and yet there are always new names to me and people who I know entirely nothing about. E. E Cowper is one of those people (did Blackie hide all these authors in a cupboard something?) and this is an intriguing piece. The premise is simple enough and rather familiar; an outbreak of illness means that a school must relocate to healthier climes, surrounded by fens and water and adventure at every turn.

Some of the elements in the text are also familiar: there are a group of fourth-formers known as the “Demon Five” who, naturally, are at the centre of any drama; twinklingly wise Mistresses who know When To Not Ask Questions and are, naturally, beloved; and yet, there’s something also very different about this. There’s a slight Hardy Boys tinge to the final few paragraphs, a slightly strange ending (I am being delicate, I was all ‘wait, what, isn’t that actually pretty horrific if you think about it?’), and some very richly written, almost lurid paragraphs in the process of getting you there.

The most interesting bit in the entire book is probably the dedication to Ida Carstairs, Theo and Crystal Ross “under which names are disguised three girl friends who gave me their whole-hearted support in the composition of this story”. All of these names reappear in the book itself and there is some fun in thinking about their real world referents (particularly when they get descriptions of lovely admiration).

I’d pick this up if you come across it but I wouldn’t sweat buckets to find it? There’s a slightly chaotic edge to much of it that makes some of it not particularly coherent but I was very taken with the Deeply Capable Barbara who pops up every now and to Solve Things That You Flighty Other Girls Haven’t Thunk Of Just Yet. I mean, this genre, it’s everything right? Even in the middle of all the noise, sometimes it just works.

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