{"id":24685,"date":"2015-01-18T20:06:35","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T00:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=24685"},"modified":"2015-01-18T20:06:35","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T00:06:35","slug":"review-of-the-mystery-of-the-vanishing-treasure-by-robert-arthur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=24685","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure, by Robert Arthur"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"vanishing_treasure_large\"<\/a>Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in<\/p>\n

The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure<\/em><\/p>\n

by Robert Arthur
\nillustrated by Harry Kane<\/p>\n

Random House, New York, 1966. 159 pages.<\/p>\n

This is Book Five in The Three Investigators series. I\u2019ve decided to post my reviews of the books in order, even though I\u2019m reading them out of order. As I read, I remembered quite a few details from this one, probably because there are some quite bizarre things.<\/p>\n

The book begins with Jupiter discussing how he would steal the Rainbow Jewels from a local museum. The three decide to go to the museum on Children\u2019s Day to practice their investigator skills \u2013 and while they are there, a valuable Golden Belt is stolen. Their help on that mystery is refused, but then they are asked to help one of Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s friends, who has been seeing gnomes. It\u2019s a bizarre case \u2013 little people with fiery red eyes peering in the windows and digging noises at night. We aren\u2019t surprised when the two cases dovetail.<\/p>\n

As usual, I am once again amazed at what the boys\u2019 parents let them go off and do on their own! And once again, they get into danger, but the strategic placement of a chalk question mark (and a very clever and memorable placement in this case) gets them out of it. Once again, we have a stereotypical ethnic character \u2013 this time a boy from Japan. At least the author is trying to be cross-cultural, though not perhaps in the politically correct way it would be approached today.<\/p>\n

Still no girls at all have appeared in these books, but they are still a quick-reading adventure yarn, where kids figure out a case that has adults stumped. I\u2019m having great fun going back in time with these mysteries.<\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/vanishing_treasure.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on an interlibrary loan borrowed via Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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