It's never quite as much fun with the Bagthorpes when you miss a volume out. The stories are so deeply intertwined with one another that it's necessary to recap almost the entire plot of the previous volume. This is done in an unobtrusive manner, but I'm fairly sure I know pretty much everything that's going to happen in The Bagthorpe Triangle when I finally track it down.
This volume begins with (or rather, just after) Uncle Parker's dramatic rescue of Mr Bagthorpe from the cells of the local police station. Apparently he has been arrested because he doesn't know his car's registration number, although there are suggestions that Mrs Bagthorpe having suddenly gone missing might somehow be connected with his detainment. Jack, the only Bagthorpe who appears to be human, is genuinely concerned for the safety of his missing mother - who is herself, in fact, only just down the road, holed up with Mrs Fosdyke who is unwillingly harbouring her long-haired, runaway son Max who is on the run after acquiring £50 with a stolen credit card. Mrs Bagthorpe, ever a Positive Thinker and solver of Problems, determines to take Max under her wing; however the reader is forewarned: "When Mrs Fosdyke described her son as a long-haired layabout, she had been right on both counts. Once Mrs Bagthorpe had tidied him up he would become a short-haired layabout." The occasional appearance of lines such as these (in combination with the fast-paced action of the books) is what allows the Bagthorpe Saga to retain its charm despite the large number of really quite similar volumes.
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