This is the twelfth book in the 'Three Investigators' series but also the first to be written after the series creator and primary writer, Robert Arthur, died. That meant that William Arden, author of 'The Mystery of the Moaning Cave' is back to pen a second title and to actually be credited for his work this time out. However, as I noted in my review of that book, Arden was a pseudonym, so the credit isn't really being given to the actual writer, whose name was Dennis Lynds.

Like his first book, this adheres to series tropes while focusing very much on southwestern culture. 'Moaning Cave' primarily explored Hispanic culture in the area but later American culture as well through a use of rodeo riders and the conventions of the western genre. Here, Lynds goes back to Native American history, especially their interactions with Spanish colonists, and that backdrop is arguably the best aspect of the book, even if the core mystery that revolves around gold given by the Spanish to the Chumash and lost almost two hundred years earlier is a little flimsy.

Ironically, the detective work is the worst aspect of this one, which is more of an adventure than a mystery, albeit not so much so as 'The Secret of Skeleton Island'. In fact, it starts out on the wrong foot by having our young detectives simply be in the right place at the right time, something that frustrated me in 'The Mystery of the Silver Spider'. This time, Bob and Pete literally cycle right into the story, which is thrown over a wall at them. They've spent a day in the mountains but are close to home when they hear a cry of help from inside the high walls of the Sandow Estate, prompting them to stop. When they do so, someone hurls a small gold statue over those walls, hitting Bob on the arm. Given how magnificently 'The Mystery of the Talking Skull' began one book earlier, this is pretty cheap in comparison.

Anyway, they have to hightail it out of there when the laughing shadow of the title emerges from the iron gates to unnerve them and they start to figure out the mystery in the morning at HQ. The statue is clearly Native American, based on its design, and made of gold, and the message hidden inside a secret compartment is Native American too, written in blood, but the two don't remotely fit together. After seeing the thing, which quickly shifts from statue to statuette to amulet, Alfred Hitchcock refers them to a friend, Prof. Wilton Meeker, who explains that the statue is of Chumash manufacture but the message is in Yaquali and that doesn't make sense.

Oddly, the Chumash are a real Native American tribe, found in California, but the Yaquali aren't, the name likely a nod to the Yaqui, who are right here in Arizona. Meeker explains that they're a Mexican tribe, colloquially known as the Devils of the Cliff for their abilities in rock climbing, who are notoriously reclusive, having "a long record of shunning civilization". Meeker further adds an important background in Native American languages, which were many and often only spoken. To find a Yaquali message in a Chumash statue is the real mystery of this novel and the one that has a satisfactory explanation.

Anyway, the boys try to figure out a way to get inside the Sandow Estate to look around when they find themselves actively invited, through Sarah Sandow wanting Jupe's uncle Titus to clear out an entire barn of old stuff and so things spark into action in typical fashion. I should add that, after a wildly coincidental opening scene, this invitation isn't remotely as coincidental as it might seem. It's also a good way to bring in the traditional young character from another country because Miss Sandow is also a recluse and it's her great-nephew, Ted Sandow, visiting from England, who arrives at the junkyard with this tempting offer.

With that nod to convention, I should mention that Lynds work in all the hits: Skinny Norris has a part to play in proceedings and so does Worthington and the gold Rolls Royce, while the boys have to resort to a Ghost to Ghost Hookup at one point. If there was a 'Three Investigators' bingo card, this novel would check off all the boxes, right down to Aunt Matilda wanting to put the boys right to work if only she could find them. From a nostalgia standpoint, it feels good to run through the standards again, but I have to say that they weren't all required.

Fortunately, the new material that Lynds brings to the table is even more fun. I may not have kept the details of this story in my head for the past four decades, not least because the treasure map in cryptic phrasing isn't particularly believable, but I did recall what the laughing shadow was. It's a rather peripheral detail that has little bearing on the core mystery, so it's not exactly the most appropriate title for the book, but it's a good mystery in itself. There are four headless midgets in the story too, who have a similarly successful explanation and, best of all, there's the Vegetarian League.

Yes, the Vegetarian League plays a particularly crucial part in this mystery and we get to it due to Miss Sandow's friend, Mr. Albert Harris, being a member in good standing. He's another victim of the core mystery, it seems, because the dark men in white seeking the statue with the aid of their wicked looking knives apparently attacked him during a lecture. My favourite moment featuring this organisation showcases Lynds' sense of humour, because Harris rules out his assistants from being involved in things on the basis that "they're old friends and staunch vegetarians". So there you have it! Vegetarians are morally upstanding and can't possibly do anything bad.

I remember the early horror adjacent books by Robert Arthur as being my favourites as a kid but I was very keen this time around to find how well the series would transition into other hands. With a pair of William Arden books freshly behind me now, I can say that it's doing OK. Obviously, Lynds isn't Arthur and he wasn't trying to be. He had his own interests and they flavour these two books well, the less exotic backdrops and characters being perhaps their best aspect. However, I have to say that I liked 'Moaning Cave' a lot more than 'Laughing Shadow', so I'm eager to see how Lynds fared with his third book, which I'll tackle next month. Let's see if 'The Secret of the Crooked Cat' is more like the former than the latter. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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