Customer Reviews

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators in the Mystery of the Green Ghost

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Quite a few children's mystery book series have become classics. Most people are familiar with Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Tom Swift. Even the Boxcar Children are relatively well-known. However, Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators were well-written books that offered an intelligent, interesting and more contemporary alternative to many of the earlier classic series. Many people recall the earlier series well, but the Three Investigators series, which Robert Arthur wrote and debuted in 1964, has, for now, largely been overshadowed by the other series and generally forgotten. Fortunately, all of these books are available either from Amazon or from other internet sources.

This book is the fourth book in the series, following "The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy" and preceding "The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure." This mystery begins almost immediately as the Three Investigators learn that a green-colored ghost has suddenly appeared in a variety of locations, beginning with the abandoned Mathias Green mansion and ending at a vineyard in northern California.

Soon the Three Investigators find themselves tangling with a mysterious Chinese man claiming to be more than 100-years-old, along with an array of thugs. What is everyone after? They are after an incredibly valuable piece of jewelry that could mean life to the person who possesses it. Someone understands the value, because the Three Investigators are threatened with death!

I enjoyed this Three Investigators novel. There are portions of the book that are relatively easy to figure out, but there are other portions that had to await the end of the book to figure out. The addition of the mysterious Chinese man is the most bizarre event yet in this series of stories. What the Chinese man intends on doing with the jewelry is even more bizarre. This story also had a lot of complexity and subtlety that I thought the author, Robert Arthur, constructed well.

If you are looking for mystery books for children and you are looking for an alternative to the stories I listed earlier, I highly recommend the Three Investigator series. I do recommend starting with the first book in the series, which is an excellent introduction to this series.

Enjoy!

While I did not find this story quite as satisfying as the previous three books in the Three Investigators series, it featured some of the most compelling scenes thus far. The chapters describing the boys' dangerous flight through a maze of old mines and caves had me squirming in my seat. Being a claustrophobic-type person, I found Arthur's descriptions of the tight squeezes through spaces barely large enough for a youngster to be quite harrowing and intense. That part of the story really "made" this book for me. While the mystery of the green ghost is fascinating and interesting, I just did not find the conclusion to be 100% believable, although it is certainly adequate and in step with the details of the case. The plot itself basically has two story lines converging into one; while there was some danger of the two story lines not intersecting properly at times, Arthur managed to overcome these potential pitfalls and keep the plot on an even keel. It may be that a youngster reading this book (or having it read to him/her) might get a little confused as the story begins wrapping up, but I don't think such confusion would detract from his/her enjoyment of the book. As I said, the description of the mines was just intense and should produce some pretty wide-opened eyes in youngsters (and adults) following the action. Any parent reading this book to a child should certainly anticipate some "just one more chapter" and "can you leave the light on?" remarks around bedtime.

The Three Investigators was one of my favorites as I kid and I still read them now at 40. The Green Ghost was my personal favorite in excellent series--scary, exciting, and well-plotted--few adult mysteries can make the same claim these days. Lots of great details like the gray pearls make this one stand out, while Jupiter and the gang are great as ever.

To update my previous comments, though I still haven't gotten this book in the series, I did obtain #1 (Terror Castle) and #6 (Skeleton Island), and I was pleasantly surprised that my boys, aged 10 and 8, both love these books as well as Animorphs! This was a consistently exciting and entertaining series. Mr. Spock-like genius Jupiter Jones, research specialist Bob, and athletic but nervous Pete were the original ghostbusters, in sneakers, hired by the famous English scary-movie director Hector Sebastian (read as "Alfred Hitchcock," who played this role in the series' original run) to investigate various haunted locales and mysterious phantasms to appear in his films. The stories are well-written and age-appropriate for juveniles. The characterizations are strong (as opposed to the Hardy's, who I couldn't tell apart), the dialogue is witty, and almost every chapter ends with a breath-taking cliffhanger. Quite simply, if you know a young man aged 8--12 who reads a little bit, I can almost guarantee you'll make him an avid reader with one of these wonderful books. One warning--be prepared to be bugged by the young man to buy more books in the series!

The Mystery Of The Green Gohst is a good book about 3 boys that are after a mystery and it only seems to get worse! When the boys go out for the day on horseback it could never get worse.
And a wonderful thought that a ghost is creeping around the house. A wonderful book and a good storyline. I am guessing It should be read by older elementry students 3-6. I enjoyed It!

I was in fourth grade when I first read this book. It spurred my interest in reading. Three high-school age boys use an abandoned trailor, in a salvage yard owned by one of the boy's Uncle, as the headquarters for their private investigating firm. Think Hardy Boys meets Scooby Doo, without the slapstick of a talking dog. The boys always find a creepy mystery to solve. It appealed to the part of me that liked Saturday afternoon horror movies and adventure stories. There is nothing too gruesom here for a young reader. And the mysterious adventures would appeal to any young boy with a taste for ghost stories and monster mysteries. This is the seventies worthy pre-cursor to the Goosebumps series. This book is the first in a series of over 20 books. And the titles by Robert Arthur, the original author, are the best. It is a shame these books are out of print. They are perfect for any boy age 9 to 14.

I read several of the Three Investigators books over and over many years ago in elementary school and have since lost the copies. As I try to build a good library for my own kids now, I've searched for replacements in bookstores but never found any on the shelves. Finally here they are! I recommend them highly to anyone with boys in the fourth, fifth or sixth grade. The action moves quickly, the characters are well-defined, the books are well-written, and the stories are memorable -- they've stuck with me for decades! Green Ghost and Terror Castle were my favorites.

"The Mystery of the Green Ghost" has always been among my very favorite Three Investigators stories. Notably, it combined a very well-written, tense "haunted house" scenerio with one of the series' very best road-trips. I particularly liked the inclusion of historical detail in this investigation.

I can only hope that as these titles are reissued for today's youth, that the danger and suspense won't be at all "watered down" to today's standards. It's already unfortunate that Harry Kane's wonderful illustrations have long-since gotten the axe. Were his renditions really that dated? I beg to differ.

This book is one of the best in the whole series. I hope more books will be publish

I'm trying to get these books for my son, because they were definitely the best juvenile mysteries I read as a kid. These books beat the Hardy Boys hands down! My son has read all of the Animorphs series and is looking for something different now. If I can get a copy, I'll let you know what he thinks.