Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Screaming Clock

I read this series as a child and am now turning my kids onto it. It is a great vocabulary builder that will keep them on the edge of their seats and have them trying constantly to figure out who done it. Jupiter Jones and his crew are just plain fun to follow through this incredible literary series.

I was a devoted fan of the Hardy Boys series of adolescent adventure books when I was a young teen, but this is the first "Three Investigators" book that I have ever read. The action is entertaining in the tradition of the Hardy Boys and is generally a bit more cerebral in nature than what takes place in the Hardy Boys. Jupiter Jones, Bob Andrews and Pete Crenshaw are three teenage investigators and they are based in Rocky Beach, California, as short distance from Hollywood. In this episode, they are investigating the theft of a set of valuable paintings and their prime suspect is A. Clock, the alias of actor Ben Clock. Clock's expertise was in making chilling screams for radio mystery theaters and one of his screams has been captured as the alarm sound of a clock. The investigative team is based in a junkyard where access to their abode is via "secret" tunnels, an aspect that will warm the heart of all adolescent boys. There is a series of coded messages of limited difficulty so that the reader has a good chance of decoding at least part of them. After reading the book, I found myself regretting the fact that the "Three Investigators" series was not a part of my youth. In some ways they are better than the Hardy Boys, a fact that I would have enjoyed.

This book is great for all ages. I am not young but found it fascinating and intrigging.

"Mystery of the Screaming Clock" was one of my very favorite Three Investigators books. The tale begins when Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews find a clock that "screams" mysteriously. As they try to discover why anyone would construct such a device, the mystery unfolds and their clues lead them to wild new places! Of course, I would never disclose the ending, but let me tell you, it's a shocker!

I enjoyed reading this book. It was interesting and it made mewant to keep on reading. I recomend it to any Three Investigator fan.