Mal Bernhardt
25 May 2026
56m 9s
Robert Arthur Jnr's Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators: The Mystery of The Fiery Eye (1967)
00:00
56:09
Out of Order Book Club
In this week's epsiode, we take a look at 'Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators - The Mystery of the Fiery Eye' by Robert Arthur Jnr..
This was an interesting one for Mal if only because she'd never heard of this series before and the book cover didn't have an author on it, so Mal only discovered the author was Robert Arthur Jnr. after she had finished it and started planning this episode. What she discovered were a lot of fansites and by extension a lot of fans - she's looking at you Germany!
In this week's episode, we'll take a look at deception and work ethic as two stand out themes as an 'out of order' reader. We'll look at what you could learn from series novels like the 'Three Investigators' and ask whether 'The Fiery Eye' can standalone or if the practicalities of the three investigators' business and contacts issues throws up more questions than answers. We'll also suggest that Jupiter Jones has a real smugness issue.
Email: outoforderbookclub@outlook.com
Note: I am sorry to the creators of the fan sites below, as I gave the url names rather the website names in some cases during the episode. These sites were tremendously useful in showing me how well-loved and committed fans of the Three Investigators are, so for anybody interested in the Three Investigators I would recommend exploring these sites. I mention four websites in the episode, but I have included those and a couple more that I discovered after I completed recording.
Useful links and sources:
Here are five sites that seem to have been created by US fans and appear to be solo efforts, but the amount of detail and enthusiasm in the sites speak to their devotion to Robert Arthur Jnr's creation:
The Original Three Investigators Series
The Three Investigators Readers' website
Rocky-Beach.com: This is the German site that I speak about in the episode. The black background and multicoloured lettering may not be the easiest format to deal with but it is definitely worth exploring.
A Brief History of the Juvenile Mysteries you check out of the library eight at a time by Keith Roysdon: I really enjoyed this 2020 article, and not just because I struggled to find people writing about this series outside of fansites! I think it puts into context how important young adult series are in building future adult mystery fans, plus it doesn't just focus on novels from the mid-20th century but brings the topic up to the present day.