As we continue our search for great summer reads for young adult readers, I’d like to introduce you to “The Three Investigators,” geared toward readers ages 10-14. I read nearly every one of these as I was growing up, and loved them.
First introduced bearing the name of Alfred Hitchcock as an endorsement, this series soon grew beyond the need for the celebrity promotional. Several authors contributed to the series, namely Robert Arthur, William Arden, Nick West, M.V. Carey, and Marc Brandel.
The Three Investigators are Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews. Their headquarters is an old trailer in the middle of a junkyard owned by the Jones family. You can’t get to the trailer in just any old way – the boys have created several secret entrances and exits. Half the fun of having a headquarters is having a “secret” headquarters, right? The trailer is complete with a telephone, a dark room, and a workshop, and it’s here that the boys meet to discuss their cases and invent gizmos they will need to help in their investigations. They didn’t have access to high tech equipment at first, as the series was started in the 60’s, but they sure did the best they could with what they had.
Although they’re too young to drive, that doesn’t stop this intrepid trio from getting around. Jupiter won the use of a rental car, and the driver, a man named Worthington, soon became a friend and ally.
I enjoyed this series for many reasons. I loved the creativity the boys used in setting up their headquarters, getting in and out of it through secret entrances, the clever ways they solved their crimes, and how they all worked together. The mysteries were complex enough that it did take a little bit of thinking to solve them, but they were simple enough that it could be done, if you paid attention.
You can click here for a complete list of the books and their publication dates. It’s not necessary to read them in order, but I like having the list so I’m sure I read them all. My favorites are “The Stuttering Parrot,” “The Whispering Mummy,” “The Green Ghost,” “Skeleton Island,” and “The Moaning Cave,” although I did enjoy them all.
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