The McGurk Organization series is a series of children's detective books by E.W. Hildick encompassing 26 books written from 1973 to 1996.
It surrounds the adventures of Jack P. McGurk and his three (later four and five) friends as they form an agency of Kid Detectives operating out of his basement. All books are narrated by Organization member Joey.
Now has a character sheet under construction.
Works in the McGurk Organization series:
- The Nose Knows (1973)
- Dolls in Danger / Deadline for McGurk (1974)
- The Menaced Midget (1975)
- The Case of the Condemned Cat (1975)
- The Case of the Nervous Newsboy (1976)
- The Great Rabbit Robbery / The Great Rabbit Rip-Off (1976)
- The Case of the Invisible Dog (1977)
- The Case of the Secret Scribbler (1978)
- The Case of the Phantom Frog (1979)
- The Case of the Treetop Treasure (1980)
- The Case of the Snowbound Spy (1980)
- The Case of the Bashful Bank Robber (1981)
- The Case of the Four Flying Fingers (1981)
- The Case of the Felon’s Fiddle (1982)
- McGurk Gets Good and Mad (1982)
- The Case of the Slingshot Sniper (1983)
- The Case of the Vanishing Ventriloquist (1985)
- The Case of the Muttering Mummy (1986)
- The Case of the Wandering Weathervanes (1988)
- The Case of the Purloined Parrot (1990)
- The Case of the Desperate Drummer (1993)
- The Case of the Fantastic Footprints (1994)
- The Case of the Absent Author (1995)
- The Case of the Wiggling Wig (1996)
Also included are the two "McGurk Fantasy" books:
- The Case of the Dragon in Distress (1991)
- The Case of the Weeping Witch (1992)
A Spin-Off of the series is the 1994 book, Hester Bidgood: Investigatrix of Evill Deedes, centering around the eponymous character introduced in The Case of the Weeping Witch.
The McGurk Organisation series contains examples of:
- The Ace:
- Simon Emmett, the titular character from The Case of the Nervous Newsboy, is regarded as one of the nicest, most capable kids in town, being like a kindly older brother figure to most of the local kids. McGurk, Joey, and Wanda all have tales of being helped out by him at one time or another. So it stuns them when he snaps and angrily accuses the Organization of being payed to snoop on him.
- Wanda's older brother, Ed Grieg, is regarded as the area's local sports ace to the point where some call him "Grieg the Greatest."
- Adaptational Location Change: The North American releases of the books change the setting from a town somewhere in Britain to a town called West Milford somewhere in northeastern America,note with Willie originally hailing from Cleveland rather than Kendal
in the Lake District. - Adaptational Name Change: Tying into the aforementioned Adaptational Location Change, a handful of characters' names are changed. For instance, Joey Rockwell becomes Joey Rockaway and Willie Sanders becomes Willie Sandowsky.
- Amoral Attorney: In The Case of the Absent Author, eminent attorney Craig Logan is the mastermind behind a statewide property fraud. When someone tries to rat on him to crime fiction writer Bill Smith, he arranges for an unfortunate fatal accident to befall the informant, and subsequently kidnaps Smith to try and figure out where he hid the evidence he'd gathered.
- And You Were There: At the end of The Case of the Dragon in Distress, McGurk and co. wonder if their adventure was All Just a Dream and notice that there were a number of similarities between the medieval personalities they met and people in their lives in the present.note
- Another Story for Another Time: In The Case of the Desperate Drummer, Brains briefly brings up a moment he tried to hypnotize McGurk which turned out to be a disaster. Joey remarks that maybe one day he'll tell the gory details, but not now.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Wanda and her older brother Ed tend to be vitriolic at times, but at the end of the day, they really do care for one another.
- Big Eater: Robinson Hackett, to the point where in McGurk Gets Good and Mad, McGurk "sweats" him into confessing to his crimes with the promise of food.
- Bratty Half-Pint:
- McGurk has his moments.
- A bigger example is Joey's cousin Benny, as seen in The Case of the Desperate Drummer.
- Call-Back: The Case of the Absent Author is full of them, since they're trying to find Bill Smith, an author who had been researching their past exploits. For instance, characters in a Bill Smith manuscript that resembled McGurk, Willie, and Brains were called "Red," "Beaky," and "the Professor" – the same names Lady Thumb gave McGurk, Willie, and Joey in The Case of the Four Flying Fingers. Why is this? Turns out Lady Thumb is Bill Smith's daughter.
- Canon Discontinuity:
- Books in the series frequently allude to events from previous books. However, two exceptions seem to be The Nose Knows and The Menaced Midget. It's telling that The Menaced Midget only gets a passing reference in The Case of the Condemned Cat, while The Nose Knows, despite being the Organization's origin story, isn't mentioned at all. You'd be forgiven for thinking the series starts at Deadline for McGurk, then skips to The Case of the Condemned Cat. It's possible this was because of the amount of Early-Installment Weirdness in those books (see below).
- The two "McGurk Fantasy" books are also not referred to in any of the regular series books that came out after them. Presumably because of the intense Out-of-Genre Experience, and the fact that they would seem incompatible with the more down-to-earth tone of the regular series.
- The Case of...: All the books from The Case of the Condemned Cat onward have this kind of title, with the exceptions of The Great Rabbit Robbery and McGurk Gets Good and Mad.
- Chekhov's Skill: In many books, McGurk tries to create exercises for Organization to build up a certain skill, only for that skill to come in handy later in the book. For instance, The Case of the Bashful Bank Robber begins with McGurk starting exercises to help build up the Organization's observational skills. At the end of the book, they have to rely on them to identify a disguised bank robber for the police.
- City with No Name: Some nearby towns are mentioned in the books, but the town the Organization live in went unnamed… until the last couple of books, when it was shown to be called West Milford.
- Clear My Name: Someone attempts to frame Wanda for theft in The Case of the Treetop Treasure, prompting the Organization to try and clear her name.
- Clear Their Name: Pops up a number of times.
- In The Case of the Condemned Cat, Ray Williams hires the McGurk Organization to help prove that his cat didn't kill some neighbors' birds.
- Similarly, The Case of the Slingshot Sniper starts when the titular characters from The Four Flying Fingers call upon McGurk and co. to help prove it wasn't them that have been smashing a house's windows.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Willie tends to be the one to come up with the most outlandish theories of the bunch.
- Continuity Nod:
- McGurk Gets Good and Mad has a number of them, as the Organization is trying to put together an open house showing past triumphs.
- Similarly, The Case of the Absent Author involves a reclusive mystery author examining their history, with some of the nods being significant enough to the plot to become outright Call-Backs.
- Doomed New Clothes: In one novel, McGurk, who thinks he's close to solving his case, puts on his best clothes to mark the occasion... only to faceplant in a compost heap.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Nose Knows and The Menaced Midget both feel rather different from later books (and also from Deadline for McGurk, which came between the two). They both feature a lot of fooling around from the Organization, in contrast with the somewhat more straight-laced approach they have in later books. In addition, The Menaced Midget has the Organization protecting a man with questionable character, has a resolution that isn't the result of McGurk and co.'s deductions, features no resolution to any mystery, and introduces the character of Wanda's cousin, Bobby Grieg, who, like most of the characters introduced in that book, never appears again. It gets to the point where neither of these books are referred to in later books.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: McGurk's middle name is outed as being Perseverance.
- Extra Digits: At the beginning of The Case of the Fantastic Footprints, what exonerates Ray Williams' cat is the fact that the footprints left in the concrete were made by six-toed paws… much like those of Sandra Ennis's cat Tweelak.
- First-Person Smartass: Joey never passes up an opportunity to criticize McGurk's more misguided or selfish decisions.
- Forgot Flanders Could Do That: In The Case of the Vanishing Ventriloquist, Mari martial arts kicks a man unconscious. This was handled fairly realistically note . Her martial arts ability wasn't even mentioned again until 4 books later in the series, when she was able to use an armlock to subdue a boy her own size, and never again after that.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: The original four members of the Organization. McGurk (choleric), Joey (melancholic), Willie (phlegmatic), and Wanda (sanguine).
- Frame-Up:
- Sandra Ennis tries to frame members of the Organization twice – first McGurk in Dolls in Danger, then Wanda in The Case of the Treetop Treasure.
- Amusingly enough, it looks like Sandra is trying to make it a hat trick in The Case of the Fantastic Footprints, but it turns out to be someone else trying to frame her for framing McGurk and co..
- Friend on the Force: Patrolman Cassidy.
- Geek Physique: Local savant Robinson Hackett is on the fat side.
- Historical Domain Character: The McGurk Fantasy books feature a couple.
- The Case of the Dragon in Distress has King Henry II and one of his knights, Sir William Marshal.
- A character in The Case of the Weeping Witch turns out to be notorious witchfinder Matthew Hopkins.
- The Case of the Dragon in Distress has King Henry II and one of his knights, Sir William Marshal
- Inheritance Murder: Doesn't actually happen, but at the end of The Case of the Fantastic Footprints, McGurk speculates that had Bob Daly's plot to get Sandra's Aunt Jane to disinherit Sandra and put him back in her will succeeded, Bob would eventually have killed Aunt Jane.
- Insufferable Genius:
- Brains doesn't hesitate to let people know he's smarter than them.
- To a lesser extent, neither does Robinson Hackett.
- Kid Detective: The McGurk Organization's members aren't more than about 10 to 12 years old.
- Last-Name Basis: Only McGurk's family actually calls him Jack.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: For all of McGurk's braggadocio, his hunches are usually what clinches the case in the end.
- Living Lie Detector: Mari, with her knowledge of human voices, is able to tell different kinds of lie.
- Love Makes You Evil: In McGurk Gets Good and Mad, what causes the whole affair is when a lovestruck Robinson Hackett tries to impress the Organization's old enemy, Sandra Ennis, by making fools of them in front of the neighbourhood and Patrolman Cassidy. When Robinson tells Sandra about this however, she chews him out and insults him, wanting no part in it. At the end of the book, McGurk discusses this trope briefly.
- Mister Big: The doll kidnapper in Dolls in Danger identifies as "Mr. Big." They turn out to be a Downplayed example in that Sandra Ennis isn't very big, but she's not exactly small either.
- The Mole: In The Case of the Slingshot Sniper, an unscrupulous land developer trying to get his hands on a valuable piece of land calls upon the current landowner's niece to help cover up the tracks of his plan to scare the current owner into selling.
- Nerd Glasses:
- Brains, the smartest character in the Organization, wears glasses.
- Joey, the Organization's second-nerdiest character, wears them too..
- The Nose Knows: Willie's greatest asset is his keen sense of smell. In The Case of the Bashful Bank Robber, Brains even devises a system to quantify the different properties of smells to help classify what Willie smells.
- Not Me This Time:
- Sandra Ennis, the culprit of Dolls in Danger and The Case of the Treetop Treasure hops back onto the suspect list in The Case of the Fantastic Footprints, but it turns out she's being framed.
- Lady Thumb of The Case of the Four Flying Fingers also becomes a suspect after her bus comes back in The Case of the Absent Author, but turns out to be innocent.
- Noodle Incident: In The Case of the Desperate Drummer, McGurk and Brains mention a time Brains attempted to hypnotize McGurk. Joey's narration remarks that it had been a total failure, and had nearly ended in Brains turning in his ID card.
- Nothing Nice About Sugar and Spice: Sandra Ennis projects the image of a sweet little girl, but she's the only character to be the culprit of two different books.
- Once per Episode: From The Case of the Four Flying Fingers onward, the Organization adds to the list of accolades on the McGurk cellar door advertising the agency at the end of each book. Usually it's alliterative and related to the case they've just solved. For instance, The Case of the Muttering Mummy prompts them to add the notice "Mummies Immobilized."
- Only Known by Their Nickname:
- Brains mostly goes by his nickname.
- Lady Thumb goes unnamed until The Case of the Absent Author.
- Oh, Crap!: In The Case of the Vanishing Ventriloquist, McGurk has this reaction when he realizes that the target of the crooks the crew was tracking wasn't one of the older ladies at a certain picnic like they originally believed and was instead Mari… and they got away with her right under the detectives' noses.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: What kicks off The Case of the Nervous Newsboy is when Simon Emmett, a kid known for being a kindly older brother figure to all of the neighborhood kids, becomes paranoid and angrily accuses the McGurk Organization of being paid to spy on him.
- Pen Name: Famous crime writer Bill Legrand's real name is Bill Smith, having taken the name Legrand from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold-Bug."
- Plaster Cast Doodling: When McGurk is laid up with a broken ankle in The Case of the Wiggling Wig, the other Organization members get a chance to write on his cast. Later, he winds up using his cast to doodle notes for the case.
- Pragmatic Villainy: While there's no love lost between Sandra Ennis and the McGurk Organization, in McGurk Gets Good and Mad, when Robinson Hackett tries to impress her by humiliating the Organization at their open house – where Patrolman Cassidy was a guest of honour – Sandra chews him out and insults him for his troubles. McGurk and co. figure that because Sandra had previously gotten in trouble with the police for her antics in The Case of the Treetop Treasure, she likely wanted to avoid getting in hot water with the police a second time.
- The Psycho Rangers: In The Case of the Four Flying Fingers, Joey notes a number of uncanny similarities between the titular "Fingers" and the male members of the Organization, wondering if they have a Shadow Wanda somewhere. They sort of do… in the form of Lady Thumb.
- "Rear Window" Homage: The Case of the Wiggling Wig features McGurk housebound with a broken leg and spying on some neighbours.
- Red Is Heroic: Redheaded McGurk would certainly think so!
- Saving the Orphanage: Turns out to be the crux of The Case of the Slingshot Sniper.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: A downplayed example, but The Case of the Slingshot Sniper involves an unscrupulous land developer shooting into the windows of a property he's trying to buy (while enlisting the current landowner's niece to make it look like someone's been throwing rocks through her windows) to eventually scare the current owner into selling to him. Where this trope comes into play is that the current owner is a superstitious type who's convinced that the happenings are the result of an "evil influence," to the point of hiring a psychic.
- Serial Escalation:
- It's subtle, but consider that The Nose Knows centres around Willie's catcher's mitt going missing with the culprit being a mischievous dog whereas The Case of the Desperate Drummer published 20 years later turns out to be connected with a gangland killing.
- Invoked with the titular acts of vandalism in The Case of the Fantastic Footprints, where the perpetrator goes from leaving footprints in wet cement in bizarre ways, to leaving footprints in paint on drying blacktop, to leaving wolf paw prints in paint on people's cars.
- Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: McGurk.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Sandra Ennis forms this to the McGurk Organization – to McGurk and Wanda in particular, to the point of trying to humiliate the Organization – or just Wanda – twice.
- The Summation: Happens at the end of most books.
- Summation Gathering: McGurk invokes this trope at the end of The Case of the Slingshot Sniper. Played With in that the culprit isn't one of the gathered people, but their inside woman is.
- Tap on the Head: The Vanishing Ventriloquist has both the traditional Choke Hold (which is not being done properly, which means McGurk, the victim, is only stunned and remains conscious throughout, and is used as a means to threaten to snap McGurk's neck if the cops and other detectives don't back down) and a second variant where Mari kicks someone in the head with both feet, which knocks him silly and ultimately causes him to pass out (this is mentioned to be something that she wasn't sure she could do properly).
- Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: Tomboyish, outdoorsy Organization member Wanda is contrasted with the more feminine Sandra Ennis, who regularly harasses the Organization and tries on two occasions to humiliate them by perpetrating crimes, even trying to frame Wanda for theft at one point.
- This Bear Was Framed: The Case of the Condemned Cat is a variation, being the matter of a client's cat being blamed for killing two pet doves. The culprit was a human who killed the doves by accident and set things up to look like a non-specific cat was the killer.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Once Mari joins, she becomes the girly girl to Wanda's tomboy.
- Voice Changeling: Mari has a profound ability to change her voice.
- Wax On, Wax Off: McGurk frequently came up with "training exercises" that also got the other kids to do his work for him. For example, raking the yard to match leaves. The point, as McGurk explained, was to look for leaves that didn't match the trees in the yard. Really, he was just getting the others to rake the yard so he didn't have to.
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What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?:- The Case of the Wandering Weathervanes, The Case of the Desperate Drummer, and The Case of the Absent Author all involve criminals who outright committed murder in the past.
- In a more extreme example, The Case of the Dragon in Distress has a scene with the Organization seeing numerous rebels – including children – strung up from trees.
- Witch Hunt: The Case of the Weeping Witch takes place amidst one.
- Youthful Freckles: One of McGurk's more significant features.
