The Swallows and Amazons series returns to the Norfolk Broads for the sequel to Coot Club. There is an outbreak of setting boats adrift at night and this seems to happen wherever the Death & Glory boys (Joe, Bill and Pete, easily the most working-class of all Ransome's heroes) are. Tom, the local doctor's son and the Ds (science minded Dick and story-writing Dorothea, to whom we were introduced in Winter Holiday) help the pirates to clear their name. Alibis and assistance are provided by when the lads fish for eels and for pike. As a detective story it is childishly easy to identify the real culprit but as always the real excitement comes from the sailing, the fishing and, of course, the thrill of living in your own boat. And the characterisations are superb.

Another old-fashioned story with a slow build-up but the characters and the pitch-perfect observations and the gentle humour make it a page-turned from the start.