Die drei ??? und der sprechende Totenkopf

An enjoyable and easy-to-read book.

There is a certain sameness to these stories of the Three Investigators, a trio of kids, perhaps 14 or 15, who specialize in solving mysteries and report their cases to Alfred Hitchcock for publication. This one involves a mysterious old trunk, a talking skull, of course, and a missing cache of

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money. I'm convinced that the creators of the Scooby-Do cartoon series used this series for inspiration, only tweaking it with a (sort of) talking dog and a couple of girls on the team. This is not to say that I don't enjoy the series; I loved it as a kid and am glad to have discovered a cache of the near-complete run at a recent estate sale. It's just that with a few exceptions, the stories in the series are pretty forgettable.

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The Three Investigators — Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, Bob Andrews — don't have a case to investigate, so Jupiter decides they will visit an auction of luggage abandoned at a hotel, just for practice. They end up buying an old trunk, which turns out to contain the belongings of a magician, who

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has since disappeared. If you've put two and two together and deduced that the trunk contained an allegedly talking skull, congratulations! You are now eligible to join Jupe, Pete and Bob on their adventures.

The boys soon learn that a number of strange people are also interested in the trunk, and shenanigans ensue involving a long-ago bank robbery, a house full of gypsies and some mild home demolition, but all's well that ends well.

I know what you're wondering: Julia, how does the skull actually talk? I wouldn't want to ruin the mystery for you, so you'll have to read the book!

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