- Title: The Secret of Terror Castle
- wiki: link
Throwback Thursday takes us back to a mystery involving the Three Investigators whose mantra of “We Investigate Everything” leads them in search of a haunted house. The first book in the Three Investigators series introduces us to Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews along with the Jones Salvage Yard, the trademark question marks, and the use of the vintage Rolls-Royce which are all part of the series from the outset.
Using a bit of chicanery to earn their first job of searching for a haunted house for a movie director (originally Alfred Hitchcock and in later additions changed to be Reginald Clarke), the young detectives hope the publicity of the case will help launch their new detective agency. Clarke isn’t exactly thrilled with the arrangement, or introducing the trio’s case for them on its conclusion, but The Secret of Terror Castle does what Jupiter Jones hoped it would do in launching the Three Investigators into business.
The location the trio choose is former actor Stephen Terril‘s abandoned castle which the bank has been unable to sell for years due to rumors of it being haunted. The Three Investigators get their own taste of the creepy castle which lead to them running out of the castle as fast as their legs can take them. The case will involve creepy organ music, an appearance by a phantom, a smuggling ring, secret passageways and a castle dungeon, and inevitably, a rationale for all the events the Investigators encounter over the course of the case.
Despite their scare, and not ones to abandon a good mystery, the trio continue to dive into the life and history of the house and of Stephen Terril allowing Jupiter to make some deductions which will be proved by the end of the tale which will also allow the young detectives to solve the case of what really happened to the actor all those years ago. In the reprints of the tale, rather than Hitchcock giving them a new mystery to solve, Clarke provides an introduction to his good friend Hector Sebastian who will take over the role for the remainder of the series.