- Title: The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot
- wiki: link
Throwback Tuesday takes us back to another mystery involving the Three Investigators whose mantra of “We Investigate Everything” leads Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews on the trail of clues to finding a hidden treasure hidden in riddles taught to a set of parrots. The Three Investigators begin the case when looking for a single missing parrot, one who stutters (thus giving the novel its title) and is owned by a friend of Hector Sebastian (Alfred Hitchcock in the original printing).
Learning of the other birds, each taught a different phrase, only widens the mystery. The trio aren’t the only ones after the birds in the race to unlocking their clues and discovering where their deceased owner hid his most valuable possession. The second novel in the series is notable for the introduction of the Ghost to Ghost Hookup allowing them to cover a wider area by using a phone tree and also the meddling of Skinny Norris who helps a famous art thief nearly beat the Investigators to the lost treasure.
Highlights to the story involve the birds themselves along with the cryptic clues each builds upon. Due to the death of one of the parrots while John Silver was training them, his pet mynah bird Blackbird took its place (and its knowledge of the riddles of the missing parrots helps the Three Investigators race to the finish line in time to snag the treasure). In the end the trio are victorious in part to a bit of luck as the manage to escape the villains in the graveyard, after apparently coming up empty at the final riddle’s end, only to realize later where the priceless treasure is truly hidden.