For once my memory didn't let me down. This is a 'Three Investigators' novel, the sixth in the series, but it has only some of the 'Three Investigators' mindset and feels a lot more like author Robert Arthur was wondering if it could be moved more into a 'Hardy Boys' direction. The answer is that it could, because this is admittedly a fun read, but just because it could doesn't mean that it should. It feels shorter, less substantial and a sort of holiday for everyone involved.

The Three Investigators live in Rocky Beach, just outside of Los Angeles, and their adventures thus far mostly took place in that vicinity. Even when they didn't, like 'The Mystery of the Green Ghost', which starts there but shifts up the coast to northern California, the approach seems highly familiar. There's action, sure, but also a lot of deduction and a darker sense of danger that's usually horror adjacent. There's also acknowledgement that these are kids, whether it's through them being barred from officially being part of investigations to a frequent need for help from adults. For a start, they're not old enough to drive, so rely on Jones Salvage Yard workers Hans and Konrad at the wheel of one of the yard's trucks or the use of Worthington and a gold plated Rolls Royce which Jupiter can use for thirty days as a competition prize.

Those details are mildly preserved here but in loose ways.

For a start, while they start out in Hollywood, in the office of Alfred Hitchcock, they fly out at his request only a chapter later to Atlantic Bay on the opposite coast, to snoop around for him under the cover of them being underwater actors in a short film. It seems a little fair because Pete's dad works in the movie business and is already there, working to render a rollercoaster safe as a set for a thriller called 'Chase Me Faster'. The catch is that equipment is going consistently missing and they can't figure out why, even with security stationed on site. So all the usual accoutrements of these cases, from their headquarters to the recurring supporting cast, are quickly left behind.

There's plenty of action, more than usual in fact, because they're rumbled before they even get there and so find themselves stranded on a remote part of Skeleton Island in the middle of a storm. They're rescued by an immigrant kid called Chris, who pretty much steals the book for me; but that just begins a cycle of being stuck or stranded somewhere and rescued again, usually by Chris, until the final mystery is solved. Maybe we could consider the underwater scenes action too, but really they're just background flavour to the location, which is the most prominent character in the book. There isn't a lot of deduction, because Pete and Bob are distracted and Jupe picks up a cold on the way, and the only solution to both mysteries is clearly telegraphed.

I mention two mysteries, which is becoming a standard requirement for this series. One of them is the reason they're there and that's not a tough one. The other is the older secret of Skeleton Island, which is the location of the notorious pirate Captain One-Ear's treasure, which he dumped somewhere unknown before the British hanged him, leaving only a cryptic clue for future generations to puzzle over. Needless to say, that's precisely what distracts Pete and Bob, who spend much of the book sailing around with Chris, who is finding occasional doubloons at the bottom of the bay.

This sounds pretty exotic and that's backed up by just how pivotal the location is. Skeleton Island looks rather like a skull from the air, with another section that looks like the outstretched fingers of a hand. That's pretty cool, but the place is also haunted, a local girl called Sally Farrington having been foolishly riding a merry-go-round years ago when it was struck by lightning, and, ever since, she's continued to be a frequent vision there attempting to finish her ride from the other side of the grave. That's why the park was abandoned and Pete's dad and his team need to repair the rollercoaster enough to be used as a film set. It's also exactly the sort of horror adjacent detail that this series is known for but it's sadly explained away and dismissed.

Chris himself fits the mindset of the series too, not only because he's a sort of guest who serves as a welcome supporting cast member for this one book alone, but because he's also a young foreigner in America who can bring a different ethnic background to play. He's Christos Markos, born in Greece to a sponge fisherman who was afflicted by the bends during a particularly ambitious dive, the locals not using SCUBA equipment to aid them, just impressive breath control and a stone to help them drop swiftly. A cousin in the U.S. brought them over to fish oysters in Atlantic Bay but that industry is suffering because the oysters have been afflicted by a red bug and so Chris and his father want to go home. He's hunting doubloons to make that possible. However, the production thinks he's the thief and they may have evidence.

As an adventure novel, this is a lot of fun. It may be short but it's fast-paced and packed with danger, set in an exotic location and with pirate treasure as a constant backdrop. I read this in a relatively quick sitting and it's invigorating. Suddenly I want to go SCUBA diving and see what I can find. As a mystery, however, which is, after all, the point of the series, it's pretty lacking. It's been a long time since I last read this, so I didn't remember the solutions to either mystery, but I figured out the core mystery as soon as the hint was dropped, because it seemed completely obvious, and the location of the treasure from Captain One-Ear's clue. Sure, this is only a children's mystery and I ought to be able to see through them easier than an Agatha Christie, but surely not that quickly, especially after something as intricately constructed as 'The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot'.

And so it really depends what you want from this book. If you're a 'Hardy Boys' fan and like the action and the exotic locations, then you might get a kick out of this, even though it's aimed at a slightly younger audience. I would say that it does all the same things and perhaps in an even faster-paced manner. If you're more of a fan of the 'Three Investigators', then this feels like a diversion, a kind of a welcome holiday from the usual Rocky Beach locations, but a holiday you also want to be over so you can get back to that usual, because that's what you want out of the series.

Next up, a book I don't remember well at all, except that 'The Mystery of the Fiery Eye' refers to a jewel. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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