Title: The Elusive Grasshopper
Author: Malcolm Saville
Publisher: Girls Gone By
Date: 2008
Pages: 266
Format: Paperback
Series: Lone Pine series, number 6
Description
This sixth Lone Pine book takes us back to Rye, the scene of “The Gay Dolphin Adventure”, though the adventure really starts in Paris, when Jon Warrender, on holiday with his cousin Penny, catches a momentary glimpse of an old enemy, “Slinky” Grandon, and first hears mention of the Grasshopper.
Next day Jon and Penny travel back to Rye with a new friend, Arlette Duchelle, on her first visit to England. During the journey they see Grandon again; and he is met at Folkestone by someone else they have reason to remember – Miss Ballinger.
Jon and Penny feel sure there is something in this for them. They invite David Morton and the twins, Dickie and Mary, from Witchend to join them for the remainder of the holidays, and before long are in the thick of a terrific adventure.
Arlette is initiated into detective work; she “likes ver’ much the excitement” and proves an enthusiastic and amusing ally, although it is Dickie and Mary who actually find the Grasshopper and in doing so land themselves in another dangerous clash with the sinister Miss Ballinger.
But all the Lone Piners play their respective parts with courage and initiative, and this time “Slinky” Grandon and Miss Ballinger do not evade capture.
This, like all the author’s adventure stories, is set against a real background and readers will surely be tempted to explore Romney Marsh, with its reed-fringed dykes and solitary churches and farms, as the Lone Piners did in their search for the elusive Grasshopper.
