![]() ![]() ![]() They are confronted outside by a man with a revolver (he is described here, and throughout the book, as a fat man–even by Jupiter, who hates being called fat), who claims to be Mr. The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot combines all three: the boys were referred by Hitchcock to a friend whose recently purchased parrot has either been stolen or gotten free they are on their way to visit Professor Fentriss to talk to him about the missing parrot–which stuttered–when they hear the cries for help coming from within the house. Many of their other cases begin with them being hired to find a lost pet, which turns into something more complicated and complex: The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon and The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy fall into this category….while the majority of their cases come by way of referrals from Alfred Hitchcock himself (and why has no one ever done a book about the licensing of the Hitchcoc name, and all the products the great director attached his name to? It’s far overdue.). ![]() The Three Investigators cases often began this way with two of them (sometimes all of them) landing smack dab in the middle of something mysterious whether it was the sight of a weird ghost as they walk past an abandoned house being demolished ( The Mystery of the Green Ghost) or biking past an enclosed estate ( The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow) or simply riding in the gold=played Rolls Royce limousine and almost getting into an accident ( The Mystery of the Silver Spider). But now the old, Spanish-style house, set back in the neglected garden that had grown up like a small tropical jungle, was silent. He and his partner, Jupiter Jones, had been approaching it when the first cry had sent them diving into the shrubbery for cover.Īcross the path, Jupiter, stocky and sturdily built, crouched behind a bush, also peering toward the house. The tall, brown-haired boy knelt behind the thick trunk of a barrel palm and peered up the winding gravel path at the house. ![]() Then the cries for help ended in a strange, dying gurgle and that was even worse. “Help! Help!”Įach time a cry from within the mouldering old house pierced the silence, a new chill crawled down Pete Crenshaw’s spine. “Help!” The voice that called out was strangely shrill and muffled. But recently I sat down and reread the second book in the series, The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot, and remembered again why I love this series so much. I’ve already blogged about The Secret of Terror Castle, which was the first Three Investigators book in the series, so I won’t cover that one again. Both series wound up being favorites of mine once I eventually got back to them and remembered them I remember buying five Trixie Belden books at a store at the Ford City mall in Chicago, and I got my first five Three Investigators books from a Toys R Us, I think in the Chicago suburb of Berwin? The two series weren’t as ubiquitous or available as Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys which made finding more of them a kind of triumph for me. The first two series books I ever read were not from either the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys series they were from the Trixie Belden series ( The Red Trailer Mystery) and The Three Investigators ( The Mystery of the Moaning Cave). My childhood memories aren’t as clear as I would perhaps like then again, that period of my life was around fifty years ago, so it would be more of a miracle if I did have stronger memories. I am not going to limit myself to merely the series books I loved (although they will play a big role in the project), but will also include other mysteries I have, either in one of my reading apps or an actual hard copy, that do not belong to the series. I’ve decided to launch a new reading project for this year: one in which I tackle rereading middle-grade mysteries. ![]()
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