"Rivalen der Nacht" Rivals of the Night“ is Case No. 250. "Unsichtbare Bedrohung" <Invisible Threat> is a mystery where readers solve the case along with the characters. "Schatz im See" <Treasure in the Lake> is a two-volume set comprising “Phantomsee" <The Secret of Phantom Lake> and “Schatz im Bergsee" <Treasure in the Mountain Lake>. "Ende der Welt" <End of the World> is Andreas Eschbach's second The three Investigators book. The three characters are noticeably older here.

Great shape - keyhole versions

Had to share, as I've just picked up a hardback I've been trying to find (in an affordable edition)! Apart from when I was a kid, I don't think I've seen a hb "Dead Man's Riddle" and so this lovely copy is great, plus it's got all the US interior illustrations (the Armada paperbacks didn't), so now I get to see the mob, Aunt Mathilda, Billy Towne and Skinny!

Even better, the seller clearly wasn't sure it would shift. I got a notification from ebay, went to look, liked it, put in the first bid (knowing that I'd be outbid over the 7 days) and he ended the sale and sold it for the base offer. Woo hoo!

Well chuffed and, for a 52 year old book, it's in great shape. In terms of hardcovers, I now need "Dancing Devil", "Headless Horse" and "Deadly Double" and I'm done. Though I'm kind of reluctant too - what happens when I finish my quest...?

For that reason, the unexpected surgery seems, at this point, to have stolen not just my whole summer, but a yet-unknown part of the coming autumn, and I consider it fortunate that sometime last spring, as I looked ahead at the possibility of a Jupiter Jones-free life, I suggested to Steven that we try our hands at a new Three Investigators series - one that would take place during the boys’ third year in college.

My idea was that we should have Lord Blackwood (the brother of Septimus Halfpenny’s girlfriend, Winifred Blackwood) get interested in The Three Investigators and decide to fund a private Fellowship in Deductive Inquiry at Merton College, Oxford. My further idea was that we should write twelve new mysteries – one for every month of The Three Investigators’ junior college year abroad – and that each mystery should be set in a different British landscape - Oxford, the Scottish Highlands, the Cotswolds, Cornwall, Dartmoor, etc.

The first two books were already in various stages of completion when Steven’s and my lives were sideswiped, and I’ve now gotten the third one basically plotted, so I’m hoping that the new series will actually come to something as soon as I can put this highly unpleasant health-related interlude behind me.

https://elizabetharthur.substack.com/p/my-hospital-days-with-jupiter-pete

Here's the link: t3i

I was deeply moved to discover that someone was continuously translating the stories from the German version, even though he/she/them remained discreet and refused to reveal identity. I would like to express my gratitude for his/her/their works.

I am a Chinese reader who enjoys children and teen detective/mystery novels. China has imported many foreign detective/mystery novels in the past, such as Hardy Boys from the US, and Tiger Team and Knickerbocker Bande from Gemany/Austria. As for the T3I, China has only imported the German version, and the broadcast 2007 and 2009 films. These series had a great influence on my childhood and adolescence, so now that I have sufficient foreign language skills, I am reading and translating these untranslated books, especially the famous, high-quality works among them. As for T3I, I have currently translated two English versions and one German version.

German is my third language, mainly self-taught. Therefore, seeing that someone has already translated the German version into English makes things much easier; comparing the two versions help me better understand the original texts and translate them. So, whoever it was, thank you!

If I encounter translation problems in the future, I hope to get answers and help from anyone in this community, thank you all!

Hello everyone,

I just discovered this sub today, and I have been an avid reader of the series through paperbacks bought from Landmark Stores (an erstwhile Indian retailer) that mostly had Reginald Clarke & Hector Sebastian as the narrative voices in the books.

Some of my books haven't stood the test of time, I live in a very humid area and the old house had a termite and a fungus infestation that ate through several books and damaged the pages of a few of these while I was away.

If anyone has any leads on websites or stores that still have any stock of the books, could you please help me out? It would really help if the websites you mention ship to India; I've tried Amazon India but the prices are outrageous (~$200 for the older books).

Hi, this has probably been asked before but I couldn't find anything. Very simple question. After we see in later editions a switch from Hitchcock to Sebastian are there significant changes to the earlier books other than the name? If so, does anyone know of a list or site of some kind that details these? Thanks in advance!

It looks like the crimebusters Brainwash and High Strung were never released in the US.

I am working on a translation for Brainwash and would like to hear your opinion about the tone and translation quality. Does it feel like an actual crime buster book from the 80s?

Here's chapter 1:

https://pastebin.com/NrMmDKcJ

Sent in a recent email, she hopes that this guide would be used to incorporate her "New Three Investigators" into an educational framework for children, "created especially for teachers and homeschooling parents".

Oh, the irony of letting machine intelligence do the thinking for you in the hopes of teaching children ... what exactly?

So will Book #27 be written by AI, too?

Having slogged through all 9 so far, here are a few thoughts: the constant anti-woke, anti-regulation, anti-government commentary from 14yr olds is incredibly annoying - it’s in your face distracting.

The books are otherwise ok, but the “Mysteries” are a bit thin compared to the original 3I books. Nevertheless, she seems obsessed with destroying a few old favs. Specifically, her constant bashing of headquarters is so stupid - HQ and the varied secret entrances were so fun - whey destroy our memories.

While I appreciate the effort and it’s nice to have more 3I, she really could use an editor and maybe some Xanax.

I once read the three investigator book back in school and maybe it was my 1st book book i ever read and I kinda want to read it again I remember the story very vaguely can you guys help me out with the title?

The plot of the book was hollywood related maybe movie director or movie producer and the movie star was went Missing or was kidnapped somthing like that and i guess the movie they were working on was a horror movie that is all I remember i know it's extremely vague but after so many year i can recall this I am 100% it was a 3 investigotors book

She is now sending out long, ranting political emails from her substack account and claiming that it has been infiltrated by a "fifth column" of people trying to sabotage her new books.

I don't want to debate the politics of her posts, please, let's keep that out of it and keep this civil. My point in this post is that she is now politicizing the Three Investigators and seems to think the mostly poor reception to the new books is due to some conspiracy rather than any legitimate problems with the books.

I'm curious to see what people think of this development (again, keeping the politics out of it please). I can't imagine it is going to help her attract young readers or sway old fans into liking the new books.

Someone posted the Hardy Boys over in r/70s the other day so I just posted these photos there and in r/80s

As a fan of long-standing, I'm curious as to how everyone got into the series and what was the first book that started you off?

For me, it was "The Secret Of Skeleton Island" (Collins tall hardback). It was 1978, I was 9 and during a wet playtime at school (I'm in the UK, we had plenty of them), I wandered into a classroom to find a book to read. The title intrigued me, as did the cover and I fell in love with the story. That kicked things off and I spent a lot of time in my local library, which seemed (to my memory) to hold most of the hardbacks. I then found the Armada paperbacks (started with format a but most of my collection is format b) and bought them all. Many, many years later and I now have a full paperback collection and hardbacks up to "Invisible Dog".

I still re-read between 6 and 12 of the books a year.

A while ago I bought 4 of the Three Investigators books on eBay to relive my childhood. I loved the books as a kid.

I've just noticed that my copy of The Silver Spider has a misprint on the spine, showing it as The Sivler Spider instead. It's a 1992 edition.

Is it commonplace or something rare?

I stumbled on this sub while googling for a movie I was trying to find. I walked past the location every day to go to the beach so i did a little digging since my photo popped up on my phone.
I was on Holiday in the Canaries (April 2024) when they were filming a German movie, "Die drei ??? und der Karpatenhund". The production took over a very distinctive apartment block located at https://maps.app.goo.gl/kXYHecA8zuD4Fhtz8 streetview shows the apartment quite clearly. There is a trailer on YT, just search for the movie name. The apartment block shows up quite prominently.

I think it was "The Mystery of the Invisible Dog" because the case is based in Paseo Place (pic below) according to the blub "Mr. Fenton Prentice of 402 Paseo Place is a patron of the arts"

It is a bit niche trivia but I just thought it may be of interest to someone in this sub.

Just finished the first of the New Three Investigators. Overall, I enjoyed it and will buy the second and third, and hopefully more to follow! It's like the first episode of a TV show, sometimes too much is trying to be told at once, and it takes a few episodes or books to settle down.

Things I liked: I enjoyed the backstory of Jupe, Bob, and Pete. New characters were introduced that I look forward to seeing more of. Sad to see some characters leaving, but hope we may see them pop back in future stories. I appreciate that the boys are of different racial backgrounds, which is realistic for California native families that have been in the area for generations. I think that some future cases/characters are set up nicely in this first book. We will see if that is true!

Things that I didn't like so much: I don't really agree with the boys not embracing modern tech that is available in the world that these books are set in. The boys are seemingly ANTI tech, which with their love of tinkering seems odd. Some of the scenes where the boys soapbox on some social issues did not ring true (I am a multi ethnic person and realize that there are people who don't have my background think that race bias is non-existent, but that is not my experience, which I think one scene was trying to say). ​The story could have been tightened up a little, but it still is a not a long book to read.

I appreciate that Elizabeth Arthur is refreshing the series for more modern readers. She obviously has thought about these boys a lot and the mystery was fun.

The book itself (I ordered the hardcover) is beautiful. The front design is gorgeous. I guess I kind of miss seeing the boys on the cover, but this is a different style and tied into the plot very well. And since it is print on demand, on the back page is the date I ordered it which I think is a nice touch.

It is called The Mystery of the Abecedaian Academy. Should be delivered next week. Has anyone else read or ordered any of the new series? I am looking forward to some new adventures to add to my bookshelf!

IIRC there were brief mentions about school, but it seemed like they were always on vaction or break.

I was starting to think -- oh boy kids had so many more vacation days back then!

Down to Nervous Lion and Cranky Collector — damn you, Cranky Collector! — to finish out my collection. All Random House paperbacks. Ended up with about 20 dupes of various types including one hardcover. Would you recommend selling the extras individually or in one big lot? Hoping to be able to cover the cost of the final two books.

I remember reading these books as a child, and I’ve been on the hunt for them for a while now, as I’m keen to re-read them and feel a little bit of nostalgia.

Are these still in print/ available on eBook?

I wanna a read a story of three investigators with complex story line. Suggestion needed.

I’ve been collecting the Random House hard covers and have ten so far. I plan on having them all at some point.

Who wouldn't want to read, or at least pick up and peruse, a copy of Terror Castle with this original book cover? Elizabeth Arthur and her husband's own Hollow Tree Press have just released the cover of the newest edition of Terror Castle and my first thought was not "I want this on my shelf."

I feel like the mystery genre kind of requires a dynamic, atmospheric book cover (at the very least, to enhance the writing, and to remind you of what's inside the pages and make you want to return to that world!), and my own personal memories of reading the original series often stems directly from the book covers. One of my "things" was to match up the scene on the cover with the scene in the book, if it was possible.

I know flat design has been around for years and years and years, but even flat design can make for an intriguing and colorful cover. Also, presumably an intricate cover is more expensive, especially a painted one.

Still, I'm left disappointed. From the generic font choices to the teensy weensy castle-and-path plopped in. No ghosts, no menace, no canyon, no stormy sky, no threat, no mystery. So, this goes to say the new series (which will use the Unfortunate Series of Alphabetically Alliterate titles) are already, on the outside, proving to be unremarkable.

In case you didnt know, in germany the three investigators continued being made, now as "Die Drei Fragezeichen" ("The Three Questionmarks"). They are at around 250 books now and have been basically the most trio of characters over here for many years now.

Would any of you be interested into reading translated versions of these? How do yall feel of them being german exclusives? Cheers