Summary – The Three Investigators

The book  ‘‘The Three Investigators – Mysterious Testament,, from André Marx is about three investigators. In this book, the boys get a letter from Victor Hugenay and have to solve a riddle.

Chapter 1 – Brittany
In chapter one, Justus is sitting at a table outside the junkyard, when a girl named Brittany appears. She‘s new to the area. She is looking for advertising signs since her father collects those. Justus slightly falls in love with Brittany. She then asks Justus to go to the cinema with her and he agrees. After that Justus shows her the Headquarters. At the end of the chapter a police man shows up and gives Justus a letter informing him that Victor Hugenay is dead.

Chapter 2- Greetings from the Hereafter
In chapter two, Justus is sitting on the porch eating cake, then informs his friends that Hugenay is dead. They are pretty shocked. They have a talk about him, saying that they are kind of sad that he is dead. Later on, Justus opens the letter from Hugenay and reads it with his friends. They then find out that Victor has set up a riddle for them to solve. He claims that he has stolen several paintings, and there is a reward of millions of dollars. Later on a reporter named Wilbur Graham meets the friends and asks them what they think about his death. He also wants to read the letter, but Justus asks him for money in order for Graham to go away. Justus & Bob then decide to go to the library to find out more about the paintings.

Chapter 3 – Secret Mission
Justus visits Aunt Mathilda and meet Brittany that asked for him. They talk a little bit and that‘s it. Later Justus returns to the Headquarter‘s and forgets to close the door and his friends are mad at him.

Chapter 4 – The Riddle of the Pictures
Justus and Bob are in the library trying to find out about the paintings when Peter joins them. They search for every painting but only find very similar paintings, this couldn‘t be a coincidence they thought. They then marked the parts of the painting title‘s and formed a sentence. „Boy with Dove‘s Egg“. They find out that the painting is hanging in a museum not too far from them and go there, they look at it and notice nothing special. What they do notice though, is a bald person listening to them and flinching when they mention Hugenay. Wilbur Graham was also there. They go around the museum and feel watched. When they return to the room with the painting the weird bald man is gone. At the end, an alarm in the museum starts wailing.

Chapter 5 – Alarm
In chapter 6, The Three Investigators are in the museum trying to find out more about the riddle when suddelny an alarm goes off. They follow the security guards and see the bald man going into the room with the picture of the boy with a dove‘s egg. When they enter the room the bals man throws a chair at the investigators, hurting Bob. When they try to chase him Graham stands in their way and says that they are the thieves. They get handcuffed. Eventually, Inspector Berger believes the boys and lets them free. The bald man dropped the painting when he tried to get away and the frame broke. Something fell out, it was the card of the three boys. The chapter ends with Graham warning them and leaving.

Chapter 6 – Darkness
Chapter 6 starts with Justus arriving at Mario‘s Ice Cream Palace meeting Brittany. Brittany is acting weird and Justus is concerned. She then tells him that she suffers from an eye-disease that will make her go blind soon if she doesn‘t have an operation. The problem about that, is that her parents are poor and the operation is extremely expensive. Justus tells her about the mission, the paintings and that he could pay for the operation with the money from the paintings. She first disagrees with that but then thinks it is alright. Later on Justus returns to his friends and tells him that he forgot to tell them that he found a clue on the card that fell out of the painting. The business card from The Three Investigators is actually a photograph of a church tower with an orange tree full off ruit, and what looks like a garden shed. Bob says that he knows the place, and Justus does some research about it. He finds out where exactly it is and that is is the ‚Santo Domingo Mission‘. They drive through a forest, it gets dark. They reach an iron gate and see a church tower in the dark. They decide to climb over the wall and look around. Suddenly, a man jumps out of the darkness and holds the barrel of a gun to Justus‘ forehead.

Chapter 7 – Spiritual Assistance