The Three Investigators Crimebusters #6 Thriller Diller, #7 Reel Trouble, and #8 Shoot the Works

In the Three Investigators Crimebusters #6, Thriller Diller, actor Diller Rourke disappears while filming his latest movie.  Pete decides to solve the case by himself, and when he fails, he finally tells Jupe and Bob about the actor's disappearance. 

I suppose that the book is interesting enough, but I don't care for it a great deal.  I find it odd that Pete wants to solve a case on his own to prove himself.  The series is trying to bring in some conflict that doesn't need to be there.  The Three Investigators have always been a team, and messing with that formula is just wrong.  It is annoying.

In the Three Investigators #7, Reel Trouble, the boys work on a case involving the piracy of compact discs.  Meanwhile, Bob is busy helping a new band, the Hula Whoops, make it big.

I had trouble getting into this book due to the subject.  I quickly associated this book with Nancy Drew Digest books that contain too many characters, in particular, The Riddle of the Ruby Gazelle, which had a band with members I couldn't keep straight.  In this book, I couldn't remember all of the members of the Hula Whoops, nor did I care. Significant text was devoted to the Hula Whoops and the soap opera-esque romance between two of the members.  It was so boring!

This book has too many villains.  I skimmed the last few chapters so that I could move on.

In the Three Investigators Crimebusters #8, Shoot the Works, the boys become interested in paintball.  While playing paintball, a brief conversation is overheard, and the boys draw the conclusion that a robbery is being planned.

This book has way too many characters that are introduced way too quickly.  I gave up trying to keep them straight and plowed through the book, little caring about all of these people I couldn't keep straight. 

The boys' suspects are people who take paintball very seriously, and how they feel about paintball seems to be the major reason they end up suspects.  Um, I have a newsflash.  People who are interested in a particular recreational activity do tend to take it seriously.  That does not necessarily make them criminals.

The books now contain too much boy stuff.  What was so great about the original Three Investigators series is that it was not loaded with overtly boyish activities and language.  This series has a completely different premise, and that is the problem.

On page 32, Jupe recites the names all the paintball players they met and gives the names of their teams, which, by the way, is not that relevant.  Pete protests, "Give me a break!  I can't remember all that!"  Exactly.  That's what is wrong with this entire book.

On page 80, Bob whips out his pocket photocopier so that he can make a copy of a map.  Oh, that splendid 1990s' technology!  This struck me funny.

The book was good once I got more than halfway through.  However, I don't consider the book to be overall good since I had so much trouble with the first half of the book.