M. V. Carey (1925–1994)

There's not a lot of reason to read this as an adult unless you have nostalgia for it, and you read it when you were younger.

It's basically a very simply mystery book that consists of withholding information from you and then revealing it bit by bit. It reminded me of Scooby-Doo episodes, as you follow the three young detectives that have to investigate some dubious meetings where a frightening sound was heard during it. You won't find a lot of character development, even with a magnifying show more glass. The detectives are even so kind as to sum up the proceedings of the story halfway, in case you were dosing off, and by the end, they also explain everything to a bewildered Mr. Hitchcock who's been inserted for good measure. He's not part of the story, though.

All in all, a fine book to hand to your pre-teen kids. However, for an adult it's not very engaging, and it doesn't serve you any thrills, so don't expect high quality just because it's associated with Alfred Hitchcock. show less

I don't think I ever read this one before! Maybe the cover was too scary for me when I was a child. I know some people don't like the M.V. Carey books, but I think she's simply delightful. They're funny, character-driven, and less reliant on the boys being kidnapped and trapped in caves. In this story, a cultivated elderly gentleman who is a patron of the arts calls on the Three Investigators to help him with a sinister spectral presence who is spying on him and going through his things. show more Jupiter seems to solve this mystery rather quickly with a minimum of fuss, but soon enough there's the theft of a priceless crystal dog statuette, a fire, car bombing, a poisoning, and the ghost of a priest. What I found really unusual about this book was that some of the supernatural phenomena turn out to be genuinely supernatural! I loved Ruxton University and the professors in the Parapsychology Department. This twist made it harder to solve the mystery, but it made the story a lot more fun. show less

Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews visit the Sierras for a camping trip, but these three investigators don't get a vacation when their companions suspect their long-lost cousin's new husband is up to something. What's more, the local town gossip tells the boys all about the mysterious monster that lives up in the mountain and they start to wonder if the legends could be true...

Somehow I had never heard about The Three Investigators series as child, which is a pity because I show more probably would have loved it, giving how I devoured all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books available at my local library growing up. This book reminded me of a cross between those famous sleuths and a Scooby Doo mystery with just a soupcon of The X-Files thrown in for good measure. Although a big part of the mystery was obvious to me early on, there were plenty of twists that kept me wondering and guessing. I suspect that young children will be more amazed at the prowess the teen-aged investigators.

Although the characters are a little one-note, the plot keeps you enthralled and this book could easily be read in a sitting or two. My only real issue is that there is only one female character in the entire book (and a brief mention or two of Jupiter's aunt back home). However, she is one strong and independent character, so that's a positive.

This is the only title of this out-of-print series that is available through my library, so it's unlikely I'll read any others in the series. However, if they were more readily available, I'd probably pick up some more for light and entertaining reads that aren't too dark. show less

This one had some promising elements, such as a mysterious old potter who goes missing and the convenient arrival of his grown daughter and her teenage son, who is just the right age to throw his lot in with Jupe and the boys to solve the mystery. That's all fine, but the answer to the mystery lies in yet another fictional Eastern European country (this is at least the third, I think, in the first 15 books of the series, no doubt reflecting the Cold War era in which they were written). The show more biggest irritation, however, was that the boys never actually solve the mystery of the flaming footprints! I mean, they find out who was doing it but the extreme handwaving around the explanation of how they were created was supremely unsatisfying. "It's chemicals!" just isn't the bingo the author seems to think it should be. show less