Fivepenny Mystery Cover

Fivepenny Mystery Illustration

An illustration from Chapter 2 of Fivepenny Mystery: What Happened in Athens. Deborah goes out for a walk through the city.

Fivepenny Mystery Colour Frontispiece

The colour frontispiece of Fivepenny Mystery. There were three editions of the Penny books:

1. The original Nelson books, lavishly illustrated with colour frontispieces and high quality paper;

2. The Britannic Series, also with colour frontispieces and many illustrations on high quality paper;

3. The Triumph Series, with a black and white frontis and illustrations but printed on cheaper paper that tends to tan more quickly.

I have no first editions. My Penny Foolish, Fourpenny Fair and Crooked Sixpence are Britannic books, and the others are Triumph editions.
I would like to thank Elizabeth Lindsay for providing the scanned frontispiece.

Fivepenny Mystery illustration

An illustration from Chapter 5, of Fivepenny Mystery. Penny is kidnapped by Brown Hand.

Fivepenny Mystery

An illustration by Gilbert Dunlop from Chapter 8 of Fivepenny Mystery, Defeat of a Greek. Penny's character has developed well and she is no longer the shy girl she used to be. Here she stands up to Agamemnon and questions him about Ainros. Agamemnon is not prepared for her questions and begins to splutter and go pale. Penny remarks to herself that it was "interesting to see him go green and red like that, like a traffic light".

Quote of the Day

There were two things that worried Penny when she went up to bed in her turret room at last, worn out with excitement and that most exhausting evening. She could not find the roll of exposed film that she had seen when she had come upstairs to fetch the torch; and she wondered why there had been a Loden cape hanging over the back of a chair in a dark corner of the kitchen.

From FIVEPENNY MYSTERY, Chapter 4, The Stranger Comes. 

Quote of the Day

Here was a fix. They couldn't take an infectious Deborah across Europe, giving her germs to every child they met; Frau Walther at the Gasthof Alpenrose hadn't a corner to offer them. But when the Gräfin heard, she laughed. "Everybody will pack up and come to us," she said. "It is very appropriate that you should be our firsts guests at the Schloss Adlerhorst, new style!"

From FIVEPENNY MYSTERY, Chapter 13, Rescue.

Quote of the Day

Eventually she stood on a chair, and with a lot of puffing and blowing and straining she managed to heave her suitcase and hook it on to the front of the wardrobe. She had just got down and pushed the chair away when suddenly to her horror the whole contraption, wardrobe, suitcase, dresses, the lot, swayed slowly forward and crashed to the floor.

From FIVEPENNY MYSTERY, Chapter 2, What Happened in Athens.

Quote of the Day

No-one spoke; and suddenly there was a jagged flash of lightning from the storm clouds, the garden was bright for a second, and between the trees not far from the window they saw a figure. It was the figure of a man, round him hung the Loden cape, the Tyrolean cape, and in his cupped hands he carried a candle. As the flash of lightning died the figure turned, and the watchers saw the candle flame, straight and still in the breathless air, illumine his face.

"The Stranger comes, with face afire!" breathed John.

From FIVEPENNY MYSTERY, Chapter 3, More Mystery.

Fivepenny Mystery Chapter 1

The mysterious man in Johannesburg at the beginning of Fivepenny Mystery who turns out to be the evil Ainros.

Fivepenny Mystery illustration

While I was reading Fivepenny Mystery last year, I published this illustration with comments, which you can read here. But the scan I posted was pretty shabby and the paper was clearly yellowing. Now we have a cleaned up version. This is definitely my favourite scene from all of the Penny books. It is very cleverly written and, as I've said before, it's my opinion that Jane Shaw achieved the highest level of her writing with this book. Fivepenny Mystery was published by Nelson in 1958, when the author was at the pinnacle of her career. It was at this time that she published Susan at School, Susan's School Play and Susan and the Home-made Bomb. 1958 was definitely a very good year.

Quote of the Day

Penny went off into a dream, thinking about Greta's cooking.

"Well, of course, if you want to stay here all day drooling about food..." said Jill. "But we thought that you'd like to come with us to Innsbruck."

"How can I?" said Penny. "I'm still in quarantine till all the scabs come off, and that won't be for at least another week."

"I shall go in front of you," said John, "ringing a leper bell and calling, 'Unclean" Unclean!'"

Penny giggled and Stephen said, "Good idea, but perhaps a little flamboyant. I thought we'd just drive down in the old jalopy, and you can sit in it while we go into the shops. We want to collect some photographs that we left to be developed."

"Oh, good," said Penny.         
                                       
From FIVEPENNY MYSTERY, Chapter 3, More Mystery.

Quote of the Day

The old peasant, hanging on for dear life to the rope, was jerked off his feet and fell to his knees in the roadway. Agamemnon swerved past him and braked, and Penny, taken off her balance, was hurled against one of the bunks while a frying-pan fell off its hook and hit her smartly on the side of the head. Hurray, she thought, a frying-pan lying in the road would be a nice clue, and she struggled to her feet and heaved the frying-pan out of the window.

But Penny's aim was never very good. The frying-pan went sailing through the window of the nearest cottage; although how it made its way past the serried ranks of petunias, begonias and geraniums which were on the window sill Penny often afterwards wondered. There was a yell of fury from within, and an old woman, tall and grim in her long black Tracht, the clothes of the district, came out, shouting indignantly at the caravan.

From FIVEPENNY MYSTERY, Chapter 11, When Greek Meets Greek.

Fivepenny Mystery (4)

I'm now on the final chapters of Fivepenny Mystery. This morning I woke up early and read a few pages about the exciting kidnapping of Penny. Although abduction is a serious crime, Jane Shaw manages to work a lot of humour into it. Penny, who in the earlier books began to tremble if anyone so much as asked her for directions, is now standing up for herself. Earlier in the book, she tells Jill to shut up when her sister makes one of her sarcastic comments, and now she is not intimidated by Brown Hand, whose real name turns out to be Pifillitapoulos, whom Penny nicknames Piffle. The following dialogue is an example of the new Penny and the humour in Chapter 11, When Greek Meets Greek.

"You are staying with me till Saturday. Or I am keeling Agamemnon. You are doing what I am telling you. Or I am keeling Agamemnon. You are not shouting for help. Or I am keeling Agamemnon. You are not running to the police. Or I am-"

"All right, all right," said Penny testily. All this talk about killing Agamemnon was getting on her nerves. "I get the idea. I'm not stupid like the Nisosians..."

Piffle locks Penny in Agamemnon's caravan and forces Agamemnon to drive. Penny, knowing that Stephen and Deborah will guess what has happened (as they inevitably do) decides to blaze a trail, chucking Agamemnon's personal belonings onto the road. This above illustration shows her throwing a frying pan out of the window. Instead of landing on the road, it sails into a peasant's house, causing a furious uproar. This scene is hilarious. Fivepenny Mystery is definitely one of the most tightly plotted of Jane Shaw's books and a masterpiece in every detail.

Fivepenny Mystery (3)

I'm now over halfway through the carefully plotted Fivepenny Mystery. This is the scene where Brown Hand attempts to kidnap Penny. She is recovering from chicken pox and cannot go into the village with the others when the car runs out of petrol and ends up dropping off in the front seat. When she wakes up, the villain is forcing the car door open. I'm really enjoying this story. Like the Susan stories, the Penny series just gets better and better.

Fivepenny Mystery (2)

This week I’m reading Fivepenny Mystery. It’s unusual in that for the first two chapters and most of the third, Penny doesn’t appear at all. The book is split into two parts: Deborah’s Journey (3 chapters) and Persecution of Penny (13 chapters). Deborah is travelling to Austria to meet up with her cousins Penny and Jill. She begins her journey in Johannesburg, flying to Athens, Rome and Switzerland before finally joining her cousins in Innsbruck. She spends a couple of days in both Athens and Rome. But strange things are going on. A fake customs officer tries to steal something from her luggage and someone snatches the film out of her new camera. And she has no idea why! What’s happening? I’ll have to read on and find out. Deborah’s favourite city en route is Athens. This illustration shows her making her way around the city.