The Three Investigators made it seem really cool to be smart and inquisitive, as well as to be the sort of loyal friend who could always be counted upon to pull a peer out of a jam. As a scrawny little kid growing up in a Big Ten college town where athletic ability was prized over everything else, it was incredibly affirming for me to find a series of books whose young heroes achieved their success using brains instead of brawn. I loved getting lost in their adventures, but my affinity for The Three Investigators ran deeper than simple escapism. For the next couple of years, there would be no happier feeling in the world for me than walking home from school on a Friday afternoon with the weekend stretched out before me, and a Three Investigators book newly checked out of my school’s library tucked under my arm. (Begun in 1964, the series was already up to over 20 books by the time I stumbled upon it.)īy the time I finished the book, I was hooked. Hitchcock, who had already lent his name to a series of horror anthologies edited by Arthur, gamely allowed Arthur to include him as a character in the author’s new book series for young adults, of which “The Secret of Terror Castle” was the first installment. Thus began my obsession with The Three Investigators - or Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators, as they were indeed billed on the book’s cover. I hadn’t even seen an Alfred Hitchcock film at that point, but I already knew he was considered a master of horror and suspense and as I had already acquired a burgeoning taste for such things, I forked over a dime for the used paperback and took it home. I’m not sure what first caught my eye about that copy of Robert Arthur Jr.’s “The Secret of Terror Castle” - maybe it was the shiny silverback binding, or the cover illustration of three boys running screaming from what appeared to be a haunted house, or the fact that Alfred Hitchcock received top billing on the cover. I first discovered Jupe and his friends at an elementary school book fair, around the time I graduated from second grade. Pete was a talented athlete who provided the muscle of the partnership, and Bob was a bookish kid with a flair for intensive research but more often than not, it was Jupe’s stellar intellect, irrepressible curiosity and innate ability to zero-in on the most logical solution that brought their investigations to a successful close. Well-read and exceptionally erudite for a junior high school student, Jupe was the kind of kid who could effortlessly toss “erudite” into a sentence, much to the shock of adults and the endless amusement of Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews, his partners in the junior detective group, The Three Investigators. Sign up for our free newsletter about books, authors, reading and more.
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