Customer Reviews

Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in The Secret of Phantom Lake

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The Secret of Phantom Lake is a very interesting book. You'll never guess "Who Done it" until the end of the story. This is a must read book!

This isn't one of the more exciting Three Investigators mysteries, but The Secret of Phantom Lake is still a great read for both young readers and adult 3I fans such as myself. There is not quite as much danger to the boys during the course of this investigation; they are accosted a few times and trapped in tight places once or twice, but the actions taken against them are clearly done just to slow them down rather than actually harm them. We hardly get a look inside the secret headquarters, my favorite childhood location, this time around because much of the action takes place around Phantom Lake just outside of Rocky Beach. This novel is your basic treasure hunt adventure; it all starts with an old sea chest, a false compartment in the chest, and mysterious journal entries from a dead man. If there is indeed a treasure, Jupiter knows he must work quickly because two suspicious and threatening men are also on the hunt for it. The supporting characters are not flushed out as well as I would have liked, and for this reason the surprise at the end failed to surprise me much at all. Still, I just love watching Jupiter's mind at work on solving a seemingly unsolvable mystery. This nineteenth book in the original series, written by prominent 3I author William Arden, does not contain the frenetic pace and throb of excitement that are to be found in the earlier novels of series creator Robert Arthur, but it's still a fun read sure to stimulate the mind in an attempt to figure everything out before Jupiter Jones does.

The Three Investigators are actually three teenage kids, one Jupiter Jones and two others with ordinary names : Pete Crenshaw and Robert Andrews. They live in a made-up place, as that is of course more fun.

In this story the three junior detectives investigate a mystery involving a chinese treasure chest, a no longer floating sunken sea vessel, and person who may not be who they seem.