Crimebusters #1: Hot Wheels

In December 2010, I read Hot Wheels. Published in 1989, this was the first in the Crimebusters series, a continuation of the classic Three Investigators stories. The boys are now a little older and are dating and driving. Bob is working for a music agent or talent scout and has shed his glasses and become a hit with the girls. Pete is a car fanatic with a girlfriend called Kelly. Jupiter has no girlfriend and is shy and ungainly with the ladies. The running gag is that he constantly starts and abandons diets, hiding bars of chocolate in his desk and guzzling them when no one is looking. Jupiter also appears to have lost some of his savvy. His vocabulary has faded, and so has the sparkle of the original series. The story is pretty standard and doesn’t engage the reader at all. Jupe’s cousin Ty has just arrived from the east coast and is suspected of being a car thief after he idiotically accepts a hundred bucks to “deliver” a car to the real thief’s brother. The boys swear that they will clear his name. Although written by William Arden, the author of such classics as Moaning Cave and Dead Man’s Riddle, this book is clearly a take-the-money-and-run project. A pretty straightforward plot, a lot of padding and a lot of mad car wrecking at the end in an attempt to add some colour to the finish. The story comes to a sudden halt as soon as the ringleader is caught, with no visit to the trio's sponsor to look back and tie up loose ends. It was as if the author just couldn’t wait to put an end to the story and move on to his next project. Some of the characters from the original series are there, but have been changed somewhat. Aunt Mathilda has suddenly become Aunt M. Uncle Titus makes a brief appearance but, like Jupiter, no longer expresses himself in Shakespearean sentences. Hans, Konrad and Worthington aren’t mentioned at all. The crooks are not interesting or memorable like Hugany and Rawley. They are just brutal and cruel. A predictable fracas takes place at the end, with the ringleader calling his Latino helpers “pachucos” and “wetbacks” and the Latinos turning on him as a result and agreeing to testify against him. The words "kid" and "grin" are used excessively. This is a book that should seriously be avoided by even the most avid Three Investigators enthusiast. The boys are dragged into the nineties, with computers and other fancy gadgetry and the fashions of the day, such as Pete’s Bop till you Drop T-shirt and Bob’s button down oxford shirts. Jupiter, poor boy, is described as wearing a “loose fitting Foreign Legion fatigue shirt”. The series was meant to be a competitor of the Hardy Boys Case Files, and a total of thirteen stories were commissioned and written, eleven of which were rushed into print between 1989 and 1991. However, after the eleventh it was abruptly cancelled due to legal wrangles. I doubt anyone really missed it. All told, this is a pretty dreadful book.