While I wasn’t entirely sure what the focus of this blog would be when I started it — I knew there would be impossible crimes, but had no idea otherwise — I’d have been surprised if you told me I’d end up doing so much reading of and writing about mysteries for 9 to 12 year-olds.
Continue readingM.V. Carey
#1312: Curious Incidents in the Night-Time in The Mystery of the Invisible Dog (1975) by M.V. Carey
Mary Virginia Carey was not, it seems, scared of a little velitation in her stewardship of The Three Investigators.
Continue reading#1246: There’s Somethin’ Strange in the Neighborhood in The Secret of the Haunted Mirror (1974) by M.V. Carey
A twenty-first outing for Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews, and the fourth to be written by Mary Virginia Carey, The Secret of the Haunted Mirror (1974) is another fast-paced and engaging turn for The Three Investigators, even if it doesn’t quite hit the highs that this series or this author have achieved before now.
Continue reading#1190: You Get to Meet All Sorts in This Line of Work – Ranking the First Ten Non-Robert Arthur Three Investigators Titles (1968-73)
Having recently read the twentieth novel in the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators series, and the tenth to be written by someone other than series creator Robert Arthur, my mind turns to how Jupe, Pete, and Bob have fared with multiple hands now directing their fates.
Continue reading#1187: They Asked Us to Stay for Tea and Have Some Fun in The Mystery of Monster Mountain (1973) by M.V. Carey
Comments were made in the, er, comments of my previous Three Investigators review, The Secret of Phantom Lake (1973) regarding an apparently love-it-or-hate-it element to the next title in the series, The Mystery of Monster Mountain (1973) by M.V. Carey. So, well, let’s get into it.
Continue reading#1053: Pouring Snake Oil on Troubled Waters in The Mystery of the Singing Serpent (1972) by M.V. Carey
Mary Virginia Carey would, in time, write more books in the Three Investigators series than any of the four other writers so employed, but got off to a slightly wobbly start with The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints (1971). So will her second title, The Mystery of the Singing Serpent (1972), find her on better form?
Continue reading#964: Keeping it in the Family in The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints (1971) by M.V. Carey
Pity the New Guy, who has to come in to an established IP and keep everything recognisably the same while also making changes that justify their hiring, like whoever has to reinvent James Bond now that Daniel Craig is done with the role (I have some ideas, by the way, if anyone at EON is reading). With The Three Investigators 14 books old, what could fourth author into the fray Mary Virginia Carey do to establish herself?
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