The Three Investigators:
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Series
Created by Robert Arthur

Purists may snicker, and suggest there's no real reason to include this series, written for kids. But it was a damn fine series, and I read as many of 'em as I could find as a kid. And I wasn't the only one A latter-day Hardy Boys that first saw the ligh tof day in the 1960s and 1970s. The basic premise is that three boys, JUPITER JONES (the smart one), and his buddies, BOB ANDREWS and PETE CRENSHAW, set up a detective agency, their secret headquarters is in a housetrailer buried in a junkyard belonging to Jupiter's uncle.

In fact, contributor John Heaton is prepared to forcefully argue that they, unlike those "rank amatuers Frank and Joe Hardy," are full-fledged private invesitgators who truly deserve to be included. The Three Investigators are private investigators, as defined by the PWA: they are professional detectives, and they are neither police officers nor government agents. They're even licensed, after a fashion. I don't think any other juvenile series can claim likewise, with the possible exception of Encyclopedia Brown.

Well-written with real mysteries, they were a real treat, especially compared to the sanitized rewrites that were being inflicted on The Hardy Boys at the same time. In fact, several of the books were written by Dennis Lynds (Dan Fortune's creator) under the pseudonym of William Arden.

Some of the books were reissued in the late '80's and early '90's, without Alfred Hitchcock's name on them. Constant reader Victoria Esposito-Shea recently purchased the revised edition of #4, the Green Ghost for her young daughter, and they both found it pretty readable. (They subsequently tore through all Victoria's old ones, and her daughter was heartbroken to find out that they're almost impossible to find anymore. However, she has converted the downstairs bathroom into a clubhouse, complete with tunnel entrance.) According to Vicky, "As nearly as I can tell from looking through the others in the bookstore, the main changes consist of removing Hitchcock and toning down some of the ickier ethnic stereotypes."

UNDER OATH

NOVELS

Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in...

The Three Investigators in ...

Find Your Fate Mysteries
(1985-1987)
Note: Not all of the Random House Find Your Fate Mysteries featured the Three Investigators, hence the odd numbering.

Crimebusters
(1989-1990)

Die Drei ???
(1993-98)
German language originals, never published in the US.)

RELATED LINKS

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. A special thanks to Victoria Esposito-Shea, John Heaton and Dale Stoyer for their invaluable help with this one...

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