Here's the point in the series where I start to get a little hazy because it's been so long since I last read them. I remember 'The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot' really well because it's the one that I've read the most. I also retained most of the main points of 'The Secret of Terror Castle' and 'The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy', but this one surprised me with how little I remembered from it. My memory was that it was a less substantial version of the first book, but that's not the case. It stands up on its own and actually shines in its second half.

The setup is very much in the vein of 'Terror Castle', but there's no case immediately at hand. Bob and Pete are at the Green Estate in Rocky Beach for no better reason than it's about to be knocked down after sitting empty for half a century. However, they witness, as do a bunch of other folk, the green ghost of the title, floating through the air like magic in its Mandarin robes and screaming at them, before disappearing through a wall. It's quite the experience and Bob has the foresight to do some basic research as it's happening, ascertaining that it doesn't leave footprints in the dust and actually recording the scream on tape.

The suggestion is that it's the ghost of Mathias Green who fell to his death there fifty years earlier, with the rest of the household, his Chinese wife, their Chinese servants and the infamous string of ghost pearls that he stole from a Chinese noble, promptly vanishing. Some thought they went back to China, while others thought San Francisco, where Green's only remaining relative, a sister-in-law, founded a vineyard and winery in the aptly named Verdant Valley with the money she inherited. It's still there and her daughter Lydia still runs it to this day.

Well, that's what everyone thought, but Chief Reynolds and his men in the Rocky Beach police find a hidden room in the Green Estate that contains both the skeleton of his wife and the ghost pearls. Howard Carlson, Lydia's lawyer, promptly takes ownership of those for the family and we can't help but see that as the beginning of the real story, a feeling that's soon validated because these ghost pearls quickly claim the role of MacGuffin for the entire book.

So much I remembered, albeit vaguely, but these early scenes are well told, highly evocative and in oodles of style. This isn't a cheap 'Terror Castle' knockoff, it's Robert Arthur still firmly in form. The set-up works very well indeed and the book only gets better from there, because the green ghost is not content to scream at the Green Estate, it hops over to the Verdant Valley Vineyard to scream in Lydia Green's bedroom and that prompts her to call in the Three Investigators, knowing that they'd witnessed everything thus far and eager to learn what they know.

So onto a plane jump Bob and Pete, with Jupiter left behind in Rocky Beach, a notable detail as the stocky leader of the Three Investigators won't be able to do much leading from that distance. It's a great opportunity for the others to take a turn in the spotlight and indeed they do, along with one temporary compatriot in Lydia's great-nephew, Charles Chang Green, who has spent most of his life in China and so offers not just companionship but cultural variety. He's a good kid and he's as much a benefit to this novel as he is to his great-aunt at the vineyard.

I'm sure you've already guessed that the ghost pearls are going to get stolen and Bob and Pete are tasked with solving that mystery. I'm sure you've also guessed that the green ghost has some sort of purpose that they'll need to figure out too. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that you're right on both counts and they do a pretty good job. What I'll add is that their investigation gets dangerous and, amidst some admirable tension, the boys end up running for their lives within a cave network adjoining the vineyard.

I didn't remember that section at all but it's written very well indeed and, quite frankly, it ranks up there with anything else in the series thus far, as do a few shorter but admirably sinister sections in which an ancient gentleman named Mr. Won pulls strings from as far away as the Chinatown in San Francisco. There's surely an argument that he's nothing but a yellow peril villain, which is far from a good thing, especially nowadays, but I really don't subscribe to that. He has a very specific reason for seeking the ghost pearls, which isn't likely to be what any of us would guess, and it has nothing to do with the usual hyperbolic plan to rule the world. I liked him and I liked his need.

While the mystery itself isn't particularly deep, one reason why they can solve it without the help of the brains of the operation, there's much to love here. The locations are glorious: a supposedly haunted house that's been abandoned for half a century; a vineyard with canyons and caverns; and a mysterious building hidden somewhere within Chinatown. The action is tense and effective. Pete and Bob relish their prominence here and Charles Chang Green is an able compatriot, yet another supporting character I would like to have seen return in a future book, just like Hamid of the House of Hamid in 'The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy'. Who said it was just the Jupiter Jones show?

Next up, 'The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure', about which I remember very little and feel rather sure that what I do remember is probably not the case. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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