The Three Investigators #29 Sinister Scarecrow and #30 Shark Reef

In the Three Investigators #29, The Mystery of the Sinister Scarecrow, the boys stumble upon a mystery when the salvage yard truck breaks down on a lonely country road.  Jupiter walks off to find a telephone, and a man attacks him, mistaking him for a scarecrow!  The boys learn that the surrounding area is haunted by a scarecrow that attacks people.

I thought of #25 The Mystery of the Dancing Devil when I read this book.  I thought the dancing devil was stupid in that book.  This book features someone dressed as a scarecrow who threatens people with a scythe.  This time I did not think someone in a costume was stupid.  The scarecrow is scary!  Just look at the front cover of the book. 

I enjoyed trying to figure out the identity of the villain.

I correctly guessed part of the solution before I was too far into the story.  A nearby museum has priceless artwork, and... let's just say that one crime was obvious to me.  I did not guess the other part, however, so the complete solution to the mystery still surprised me.

I greatly enjoyed this book.

In the Three Investigators #30, The Secret of Shark Reef, environmentalists try to prevent a petroleum company from beginning operations from Shark Reef #1, an oil-drilling platform off the coast of California.  Bob's father is interviewing people from both sides for his newspaper, and the Three Investigators have come with him.

All of the books in this series have grabbed my interest quickly.  This book is the first one that didn't grab me.  I was a bit bored for most of the book.  The most interesting part of the story was the explanation about what the diver had been searching for.  This would have been a more engaging book if that person had hired the boys at the beginning and for the boys to have worked out the solution along with him.  The book was uninteresting the way it was written.  It's like this book was a rough draft that ended up getting published.

This is not a horrible book; it could have been much worse.  It is certainly the worst out of the first 30 books in the series.  The first 29 books are all very good or outstanding.  The Secret of Shark Reef is mediocre.