The Three Investigators
The Three Investigators is an American juvenile detective book series first published as Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. It was created by Robert Arthur Jr., who believed involving a famous person such as movie director Alfred Hitchcock would attract attention. Random House is the U.S. publisher and still has some of the rights to the books. Other rights are possessed by the heirs of Robert Arthur, Jr. and the German publisher Kosmos. The characters known as the "Three Investigators" are three boys named Jupiter Jones, Peter Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews. As the series has become very popular in Germany, several stories have been produced directly for the German market.
Most of the novels cover some sort of mysterious events that seem to be supernatural at first but are ultimately explained scientifically.
Original editions
The original series was published from 1964 to 1987 and comprised 43 finished books, one unfinished story and four Find Your Fate books. Between 1989 and 1990 Random House published the Three Investigators Crimebusters series.Books number 1 to 9 and 11 were written by the creator, Robert Arthur, who also specified ideas for a few of the other stories. Arthur had been an editor for several book collections attributed to Alfred Hitchcock. The other authors were William Arden, Nick West, Mary Virginia Carey and Marc Brandel. All of the authors wrote their own introductions and epilogues, which were dictated purportedly by Hitchcock and later in the series a fictional writer, Hector Sebastian, who supposedly recorded the adventures of the Three Investigators from their words. The illustrators in the series began with Harry Kane and Ed Vebell and include Jack Hearne, Herb Mott, Stephen Marchesi, Robert Adragna and William A. Dodge.
For the original series, the specific ages of the investigators were never revealed, but contextual information indicates that they were likely 13 or 14 years old. They were not old enough to drive a car legally, but were said to be just a few years younger than their nemesis Skinny Norris, who had a driver's license from a state where the required age for a license was younger. On one occasion, it was mentioned that Pete was part of the high-school wrestling team. In the later Crimebusters series, it was stated once that the Three Investigators team was initiated when the boys were 13.
The investigators were typically introduced to a mystery by a client or by finding something unusual accidentally in the junkyard of Jupiter's Uncle Titus Jones and Aunt Mathilda, who had a salvage business. The boys encountered baffling, sometimes misleading, clues and danger before finally solving the mystery. The series had one major theme: however strange, mystical, or even supernatural a particular phenomenon may seem at first, it is capable of being traced to human agency with the determined application of reason and logic. This theme was compromised on four occasions by Carey: in The Mystery of Monster Mountain, the boys encounter Bigfoot; in The Invisible Dog, she canonizes astral projection and dangles the possibility of a "phantom priest"; in The Mystery of the Scar-Faced Beggar, a woman has genuine prophetic dreams; and in the final book of the original run, The Mystery of the Cranky Collector, a young woman's ghost returns to haunt her former employer's mansion.
Most mysteries were solved by Jupiter Jones, a supreme logician who implicitly used the Occam's Razor principle: that the simplest and most rational explanation should be preferred to an explanation which requires additional assumptions. The boys were able to solve their mysteries with relatively few resources: they generally had little more than a telephone, bicycles, access to a library and—with reference to the Hollywood setting of the series—a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce.
In the first book, The Secret of Terror Castle, Jupiter bluffs his way into the office of director Alfred Hitchcock and makes a deal with him that if the Investigators can find him a haunted house to use as a location for his next movie, Hitchcock will introduce the story of their adventures. Hitchcock agrees, not expecting them to succeed; but at the end of the book is impressed with the boys' investigation and not only introduces the book but also refers several other future clients to them in subsequent novels. The last chapter of each book was usually an epilogue in which the investigators sat with Alfred Hitchcock, reviewing the mystery and revealing the deductions through the clues discussed earlier in the book.
In 1989, Random House revamped the series, naming it The 3 Investigators—Crimebusters Series. The investigators were now 17 years old, could drive cars and were much more independent. The stories continued to include an abundance of detective work, but with the addition of more action. The series was well received but was halted during 1990, when legal disagreements between Random House and the heirs of the Arthur estate could not be resolved. By 2005, the disagreements were still not settled.
Eleven novels were published in the CrimeBusters series, which was initiated by one of the series' authors, William Arden, pseudonym of Dennis Lynds, who wrote the Dan Fortune mystery series for adults by the pseudonym Michael Collins. The other authors were: H. William Stine and wife Megan Stine, G.H. Stone, William MacCay, Marc Brandel and Peter Lerangis. Random House has reprinted several of the original books as two paperback reprint series, partly to assure their legal rights.
Between 1964 and 1990, Random House published a total of 56 books. After the discontinuation of the series in 1990, a German author team began writing new books under the commission of the Franckh Kosmos publishing house in 1993. In 2011, three previously unpublished novels by the US authors Peter Lerangis, Megan and H. William Stine and G. H. Stone were published in Germany.
Premise
The Three Investigators are a junior detective team that initially came together because of a mental exercise club. They live in Rocky Beach, a fictional coastal town between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. In some of their cases, the boys are supported by Alfred Hitchcock, the chauffeur Worthington, and the police inspectors Reynolds and Cotta.“We Investigate Anything” is The Three Investigators' trademark slogan on their business card. Most often, Jupiter is the one to hand over the card in a fitting moment to see the clients’ reactions to the three question marks. Often, that reaction is a joke, with the clients asking whether the question marks mean the investigators doubt their own abilities. Jupiter usually retorts something like: “That's our symbol. The question marks stand for mysteries unsolved, riddles unanswered, puzzles of any kind. So we use it as our trademark. We investigate any kind of mystery.”
To prove themselves, The Three Investigators usually have a lot of persuading to do in the beginning, as the clients often mistrust their abilities because the investigators are so young.
In their first cases, The Three Investigators also provide, apart from their business card, a letter of recommendation from the Police Department of Rocky Beach signed by Chief Inspector Samuel Reynolds. It says: "The holder of this badge is a junior volunteer assistant to the Police Department of Rocky Beach. The authority advocates any support from third parties."
Jupiter
Jupiter "Jupe" Jones, First Investigator—A former child actor named "Baby Fatso", although he hates it when people mention this. Jupiter is intelligent and stocky, and has a remarkable memory and deductive skills. Jupiter's parents died in an accident when he was four years old. Although “An Ear for Danger” mentions a car accident as their cause of death, in the episode “... das leere Grab”, they are said to have disappeared following a plane crash. Jupiter lives with his uncle and aunt, Titus and Mathilda Jones, who manage a scrapyard.Jupiter's past acting ability benefits him frequently in mysteries because he can act older than he is, perform imitations of people when necessary and act less intelligent to extract information from potential suspects.
Jupiter is a prolific reader and inventor and frequently invents a device that simplifies solving a mystery. Jupiter has a knack for interpreting clues to solve otherwise unsolvable mysteries. He also likes to play pranks on the other two investigators. Because of his intellectual side, Jupe is adept at using big words and frequently uses them to his advantage, particularly to seem older, annoy Pete, and startle adults. Jupe hates to dismiss an unsolved mystery, which frequently means that he drags Bob and Pete along for the ride.
Peter
Peter "Pete" Crenshaw, Second Investigator—Pete is an athletic youth who dislikes dangerous situations, but is nonetheless reliable as the "action member" of the team. Pete loves and cares for animals, and is fond of uttering the exclamation "Gleeps!". His father works as a film technician for special effects in Hollywood.Pete is a frequent companion of Jupiter on stake-outs and other field trips, particularly in the earlier mysteries, when Bob is unavailable. While he may not have the intellectual ability of Jupiter, Pete is nonetheless considered as an equal in the stories and is able to point out Jupiter's own shortcomings. He is also capable of making deductions and sometimes serves as the clue-bearer instead of Bob. He has an excellent sense of direction, as in The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot.
Bob
Robert "Bob" Andrews, Records and Research—Bob is studious and meticulous, and wears glasses. Depending on the case, Bob's father is a sports writer, business journalist, or political journalist, and occasionally helps The Three Investigators in some of their cases.Early in the series, Bob is hampered physically by a leg brace he wore, due to multiple fractures suffered when he rolled down a hill. This handicap relegated him to a more studious and less physical involvement. Bob works part-time in the local library, suiting his role as data collector. Bob also serves as the clue-bearer for many of the adventures, because of his research at the library. Bob's leg brace is removed between the end of Whispering Mummy and the beginning of Green Ghost.