- Title: The Mystery of the Nervous Lion
- wiki: link
Throwback Tuesday takes us back to a mystery involving the Three Investigators whose mantra of “We Investigate Everything” leads them to investigate the odd occurrences at the Jungle Land theme park which are making one of the star attractions, a lion named George, nervous. Also tied to the mystery are seemingly unrelated events at the the Jones Salvage Yard, and all over Rock Beach, involving a sudden run on old iron bars.
Before all is said and done, Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews will have run-ins with the lion, a panther, a gorilla, and smugglers using the cages of animals transported to the United States to smuggle in uncut diamonds. We do see Jupiter making correct deductions, but, not for the first nor last time, laying blame at the wrong party. We also get a couple of red herrings eventually revealed to be government agents also working the case.
The book is more notable for the locale of the investigation than the investigation itself, although there is a code to decode heard over the walkie-talkies of the smugglers. The lives of the three intrepid detectives are put in real danger several times in the story by various parties looking to hide their own activities or simply get them out of the way for a period of time. The reveal of the real culprit doesn’t work as well as it should, as the owner of Jungle Land (who hired them to snoop around) never makes a strong suspect, despite where the initial clues lead. In the end, however, the Three Investigators successfully close another case.