The Three Investigators Crimebusters #9 Foul Play, #10 Long Shot, and #11 Fatal Error

In the Three Investigators Crimebusters #9, Foul Play, accidents plague the set of a local musical.  George Brandon asks the boys to discover who is sending him threats and trying to harm him.

This book grabbed me immediately.  I notice that I seem to like the Crimebusters books better when Bob is not present.  He's useless.  All he does in this series is hang out with girls and work for the talent agency.  He is also a bit obnoxious.  Bob's characterization bothers me a great deal.  I was able to accept Nancy Drew as clumsy in the Girl Detective series, perhaps because I found the situations to be amusing.  Bob's antics don't amuse me.  They just seem so wrong.

This book is outstanding.

In the Three Investigators Crimebusters #10, Long Shot, Pete is approached by the coach of a local college, who tries to recruit him to play basketball.  Later, Pete is offered a large sum of money to come play for the school.  The Three Investigators work to discover exactly who is behind the scheme.

I greatly enjoyed this book.

In the Three Investigators #11, Fatal Error, a computer virus has stricken most of the computers in Rocky Beach.  The boys track the virus to a computer programmer and then to a special-effects studio.  They learn that the company was the target of the virus and that they have been ordered to pay a large sum of money in order to get the effects of the virus reversed.

Jupiter appears to have found a girlfriend in this book, but why does she have to have a name like Qute den Zorn?

I enjoyed this book.

I overall enjoyed the Three Investigators Crimebusters series and would have greatly enjoyed the series if some major changes had not been made.  The books were made to be too boyish with names of karate moves and automobiles sprinkled generously throughout the texts.  Boring!  Bob's character was destroyed.  I have no problem with the boys having girlfriends, but Bob was given lots of girlfriends and an endless charm that, quite frankly, was highly obnoxious.

I also did not appreciate that Jupiter was made to be afraid of girls.  It would have been more logical for Bob to have retained his original characterization and for him to have been afraid of girls.  Jupiter has always been self-confident and portrayed as an excellent actor, so I find his inability to behave normally around girls to be difficult to stomach.

When I wrote my summary of the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series, I mentioned that a publisher should not change a premise.  I was able to accept the changed premise of the Girl Detective series because I found it amusing.  I did not find the changed premise of the Three Investigators Crimebusters series to be amusing.  While I was able to enjoy the books, I also found them sorely lacking.