Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators Series

[Spectre007]

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators is, in my opinion, one of the best youth mystery series of all. I am a big fan of mysteries and thrillers, and some of my favorite fictional characters of all time include Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes, the Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew.
I have always had an interest in these characters, but had never even heard of the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series until I was antique shopping one day and ran across six of the books for $1 each. I was quick to get them for their cover art alone and for the fact that they had Alfred's name on them. I knew I had gotten a good deal on them that day, but after reading them in the span of about two weeks during the snow storms in February, I now know I got a great deal!
I actually like the Three Investigators a little better than the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. The Three Investigators series includes 43 books by various authors, and the series revolves around three teenage boys who create their own investigation firm. They have business cards, a secret symbol, and a secret crime lab/office. Also, for the first few books anyway, they have access to a Rolls Royce complete with chauffeur to take them wherever their cases lead.
The stories are quite believable and the characters are very likeable. In the stories that I have read so far, the three boys, Jupiter (the Lead Investigator, who is much like a boyish Sherlock Holms in his powers of observation), Pete, and Bob, have investigated a haunted castle that was previously the home of a missing movie star, a case where a mummy that supposedly whispers was stolen, a mansion haunted by a green ghost that is guarding his "ghost" pearls, a museum theft of a valuable treasure by gnomes, a stolen treasure hidden on a ghost-infested island, and a mysterious cave where the moans that come from it are thought to be produced by a mysterious creature called 'The Old One'.

Each book is filled with high detail, unexpected twists, fun adventure, and an introduction by and conference between the Three Investigators and Alfred Hitchcock.


The six books I bought were books 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 in the series. Here are the titles of those six, and I will write a separate, short summary of each.

1. The Secret of Terror Castle
3. The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy
4. The Mystery of the Green Ghost
5. The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure
6. The Secret of Skeleton Island
10. The Mystery of the Moaning Cave