T31 The Three Investigators in the Secret of Skeleton Island Movie

The Three Investigators book series ran from 1964 to 1987 and comprised of 43 books.

The sleuths in the series are Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews. 

The original book series started with the boys aged 13 to 14 years. Although the movie version picked boys of similar age they come across in the movie as somewhat younger especially the actor playing Bob who is noticeably smaller and who brings along his teddy bear on the adventure. It wouldn't be realistic to believe that a 13yr old boy would sleep with a Teddy bear whilst sharing a room with 2 friends his age. So it seemed a bit silly to add this to the movie.

As the second movie was released 2 years later it will be interesting to see if the boys fit into the roles better at that age.

In the book series Bob also has a  leg brace he wore, due to multiple fractures inflicted when he rolled down a hill which wasn't done in the movie.

In the books the Three Investigators headquarters is a house trailer, hidden in a salvage yard owned by Uncle Titus Jones and Aunt Mathilda who Jupiter has lived with his the death of his parents in a car crash at the age of 4. It has many secret entrances, a telephone, small lab, a dark room and an office. The movie did the idea of secret entrances well in the movie and the headquarters was interesting to see.

Overall the movie enjoyable, was well acted for the age of the actors, filmed well and  easy to watch.

Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance free ebook

For those of us that love old classic mysteries having a kindle that you can download with endless free old ebooks online is great. One such series is the Billie Bradley Series available on the manybooks website.

Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance or The Queer Homestead at Cherry Corners was written by Janet D. Wheeler and published in 1920. This is the first book in the series and a great introduction to the characters.

In the plot Billie Bradley whilst messing around in a school classroom after school breaks an expensive statue and worries how she is going to pay to replace it. In the meantime her friends tell her that they are going away to a private boarding school the following year and Billie and her brother Chatwood are not able to follow suit as their family can't afford for them to go as their money is tied up in property investment at that time.

Billie then falls heir to an old homestead, through a deceased Auntie with the unoccupied mansion located far away in a lonely section of the country and considered haunted. The story revolves around Billie, accompanied by some of her friends visiting her inherited property, and the queer things that happen there.

A charming story, good characters, 4 of the 6 look like they would be romantically linked in the future. Made me want to start book 2 in the series right away is always a good sign. And in fact I did and found the second book starts exactly where the first ended so I would definately recommend reading them in order.

There are 9 books in this series which are:

1. Billie Bradley and Her Inheritance, 1920
2. Billie Bradley at Three Towers Hall, 1920
3. Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island, 1920
4. Billie Bradley and Her Classmates, 1921
5. Billie Bradley at Twin Lakes, 1922
6. Billie Bradley at Treasure Cove, 1928
7. Billie Bradley at Sun Dial Lodge, 1929
8. Billie Bradley and the School Mystery, 1930
9. Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy, 1932

Nancy Drew The Greek Symbol Mystery

Before going to Athens, Greece I decided to read this Nancy Drew book to compare the book description to the place much like when I went to Merritt Island and read the Mystery of The Moss Covered Mansion beforehand.


The plot of this story has Nancy's friend Helen Nicholas approaching Nancy to help her when I large inheritance she is entitled to is stolen. As soon as Nancy arrives in Greece she finds herself and best friends Beth and George in danger.
A series of clues lead Nancy and her friends to a ring of art smugglers and to the secret of the Greek symbol.


From a readers perspective The Greek Symbol Mystery isn't one of the strongest mysteries from the Nancy Drew Series. I felt that the author was playing "the tourist" a bit too much and throwing in popular places in Athens rather than keeping the story flow consistent. Yes I suppose if Nancy was visiting Athens on business for a mystery chances are she would still be a tourist getting around the popular sites but I wasn't wrapped up in the story line the way that I wanted to be. Nancy goes shopping and buys Greek Linen and friends buy some jewellery. 


Not saying it was a bad story I just did not just the excitement and anticipation I got from reading The Moss Covered Mansion, after that I couldn't wait to get around Merritt Island and visit the places that Nancy visited there. Although I loved Greece the story didn't enhance the experience in the same way.

Trixie Belden 27 The Mystery of the Ghostly Galleon

The Mystery of the Ghostly Galleon by Katheryn Kenny (pseudonym name) is number 27 in the Trixie Belden Series. Miss Trask a long time established character in the series refreshingly gets her time in the spotlight as we learn more about her interesting family background that involves a Pirate's Inn and the long time unsolved mystery of the disappearing Captain Trask.  Still I was shocked to read about Miss Trask's grey hair, for some reason I always imagined her somewhat younger in appearance. The story includes all of The Bob Whites including  Dan. The story also does a good job of showcasing Trixie and Marts sibling rivalry whilst still maintaining a caring attitude towards his sister when she needs it most. The food in this book sounded delicious too. I love a book that remembers that writing good menus in restaurants is important. Here are some ... Flaming Trask -ka-babs  which are chunky beef wedges marinated in Pirate's Inn own special and delicate sauce skewered and cooked to perfection over an open fire. The Weak - Hearted Willies Chicken Pies whose interiors will please your palette and whose exteriors will melt your mouth and Captain Chowder creamy thick soup. 

Meet Felicity Audiobook

Meet Felicity written by Valerie Tripp is the first book in the Felicity series by American girl.
Meet Felicity came with the Felicity doll, who was wearing her "meet" dress as shown on the cover of the book. The book was also available to buy on it's own or as part of a boxed set of books.

I had already watched the American Girl movie on Felicity and the movie was not my favorite amongst the American Girl stories. This is probably due to the era. I love reasoning about the 1930's and 1940's and find this early area about patriots generally not as interesting.

Surprisingly I found this book a lot more interesting that I imagined it would be. I believe this is in part tp the fact that the first book in the series really only focuses on Felicity's relationship she develops with a horse she calls Penny. How she tames the horse and how she seta it free to escape a violent owner.

I was definitely encouraged to read further books in this series woth greater interest than I originally anticipated. The American Girl Felicity audiobooks I got as a cd pack for $20 off ebay including postage. That covers all books that are in the Felicity boxed set. The audiobook is well read with nothing in it distracting from getting the story across to the listener. A great read / listen to.

Beverly Gray at the World's Fair

This is it. Book number 6 and the only book in the series I have not read yet.
I have been enjoying starting the series at book 1 in preparation for this books arrival and will be happy to read on in order after this is finished in order to piece things together as they happened. The first time around I read the series in whatever order I could get them off eBay with a good condition dust jacket, this time I am reading to link the entire story together.

I decided to read one chapter as is was real late when I finished reading Beverly Grays Career and ended up reading 5 chapters. This is pretty much how this book read. Never a chapter alone as perhaps intended but like with any great compelling book in large digestible chunks, each time looking and thinking " I only have so many chapters left." it brought back memories as how I felt each time a Beverly Gray book arrived the first time I read the series. Even for me a inn tube person I considered getting a camera out to capture the arrival of this rare prize. It is great to find a series you can get really excited about. For me that excitement has come from Beverly Gray and Trixie Belden mainly now and The Secret Seven and Famous Five growing up.
Reading the series in order has also put the characters in better order for me. I can understand now why you would have 12 Alpha Deltas, as it allows Beverly to travel but still be with friends in adventures and mysteries. I do wish that Clair Blank as an author spent more time describing her characters. Most I would not have the faintest idea as to their facial features, hair color etc. Some Alpha Deltas I barely know anything about, where I grew up on Enid Blyton books where the characters seemed to be defined in a lot greater detail.

The story starts with Lois leaving on a ship for Paris to study art for a year. Ralf Mathews, Larry Owens and Paul Benson, all suitors in Beverly Gray's Career are all present.
Connie has arrived and we learn her name is really Constance Elwood and Connie is for short. Connie Elwood and Kathleen Ryan move in with Lenora and Beverly just after Lois leaves.

Lenora, Connie and Beverly leave for Chicago and Beverly runs into Shirley ( not a long time till they saw Shirley again as was stated would be the case in Career ) Kathleen Ryan stays in New York and Jim Stanton turns up. Kathleen raves about how good looking Jim is and I can't remember anyone carrying on about Larry being as good looking. Would of been good to have seen a movie and have them side by side to see who they picked for the actors to play Larry and Jim.

Beverly and Virginia become involved in a murder at the world's fair. When Lenora becomes a part of the investigating team, Lenora shows a spunk and prowess that Beverly seems to drift in and out of. Lenora states she loves detecting and again I think here is a girl who doesn't know what she wants to do for a career but she knows exactly what she loves doing. I then start to thinking is detective work that different to reporting? Why doesn't Beverly show more passion for pursuing the bad guys like Lenora does? Would a good reporter really hold off on a scoop story to get a fuller story later? Lenora spends a long time convincing Beverly that they should break into someones room to investigate. Lenora has a sense of urgency and gunho whilst Beverly is more contemplative.

The ending to the story was superb and again a great lead into the next adventure. The main mystery finished some time earlier and poor Beverly was attacked by a tiger and suffered yet another marriage proposal from poor Jim. You think he would get fed up of being shot down. We also learn of Shirley's fate. If the world fair hadn't of dated this book then the new invention showcased at the world fair of television definitely did. Funny to see Lenora scared of a cable car too considering they are so tame by today's standards.

Reading the books in order has done a lot to fill in gaps of who's who and learn more about the Alpha Deltas.

The Hudson River Mystery Trixie Belden

After reading The Sasquatch Mystery I was craving to read a Trixie Belden book that had a true Trixie vibe as I felt that for at least half of The Sasquatch Mystery I wasn't really in Trixieland.
Even though The Hudson River Mystery wasn't the next mystery in the series and I have been reading I grabbed it from the shelf because I wanted a mystery at home on Crabapple farm and I knew if the mystery was on The Hudson then the mystery was going to be at home.
I wasn't disappointed.
The story starts with Trixie doing chores at zcabapple farm with Honey giving a helping hand. Even Dan managed to turn up early in the story and even though it was a minor role it was great to see him back instead of hearing the usual he is working excuse.
Trixieisms to the max in this book didn't disappoint me. Gleeps, jeepers, Di and Dan both being present, Mart playing with words, being called Ms. schoolgirl Shamus, Mart telling Di she is attractive, Di calling Mart cute, Jim having a sparkle in his eyes talking to Trixie, what more could you want?
You get a bit of a history lesson of The Hudson with this one, reminiscent of what you got in The Mystery in Arizona.
Gosh I even learnt what to do if my car fell in a river and started sinking..... Hopefully I will never have to use that knowledge.
Add to this a good mystery based on Trixie thinking she saw a shark in The Hudson River and I was truly in Trixieland again. FINALLY.
What a great read and just what I needed.