The boys are need summer money. Pete has yard work scheduled for his next door neighbours but his dad shows him a flyer that prompts him to rush to HQ to show his fellow investigators. He finds Jupe and Bob already brandishing the same flyer, because it's a doozy, perfect for this series. The Society for Justice to Buccaneers, Brigands, Bandits, and Bushwhackers—which my Society for the Abolition of the Oxford Comma will happily oppose, whenever I actually found it—will pay twenty-five bucks an hour for detailed information on local historical miscreants. That's good money now and astounding money back in 1982 when this book was first published.

Of course, they head down to De La Vina Street to offer their stories. After all, they've personally encountered local historical miscreants in previous cases, like El Diablo from 'The Mystery of the Moaning Cave' and the soldiers who murdered Don Sebastián Alvaro for the Cortés Sword in 'The Mystery of the Headless Horse'. Those are not uncoincidentally other William Arden episodes in the series, as Dennis Lynds, the man behind that pseudonym, does like his rogues and his history. Another, not yet encountered, would be one William Evans, the Purple Pirate, telegraphed in the title as our focus here.

They quickly find that half the town has turned out before them for a deal that good and the man in charge, Major Karnes, clearly can't handle the crowd. It's only through them getting him out of there safely through a clever ruse that gets them to be first in line. The pitch is good. The major's grandfather founded the organisation as an ancestor, Captain Hannibal Karnes, better known as "Barracuda" Karnes, was a privateer who worked the Caribbean in colonial times. However, they seem to be operating a scam, running quickly through applicants and wiping every interview from their tape recorder.

That is, at least, until Captain Joy shows up. He's an expert on the Purple Pirate, even running the Lair of the Purple Pirate, a themed attraction, in Pirate's Cove. The Black Vulture sails on the hour every hour! After he arrives, the major sends everyone else in line home so they can concentrate on Captain Joy's stories. However, the boys notice that, even after they pay him as promised, they still wipe the tape. That makes no sense at all in the moment, but it clearly means a mystery that they should leap at immediately.

Now, there's really only one good explanation for it, so it isn't too surprising when the boys figure it out, but that realisation certainly isn't the end of the mystery. In fact, it's a neat transition into what will unfold over the rest of the book. Arguably, it's one of the best setups that Lynds has put into play thus far and this was his eleventh contribution to the series with only three more still to come, plus a fourth to open up the sequel 'Crimebusters' series. To be fair, that's partly because a new author was about to join the line-up and his two novels would appear before the next Arden.

Anyway, Lynds merely has to have Bob follow the major using ultraviolet drips, something not far from an old 'Doc Savage' pulp device, initially to a hardware store but eventually, of course, to the Lair of the Purple Pirate, and the boys to discover some things going on there. It certainly helps a good deal that Captain Joy's son, Jeremy, goes to their school and knows them. The Black Vulture may be a cheap ride but he does get to work it and it can't not be fun for any schoolkid to dress up as a pirate on a regular basis!

I can't really dip much further into the story without bumping into spoilers, but I can at least talk about the cast of characters. The major isn't alone in whatever operation he's working: there's a huge chauffeur called Hubert and a technician called Carl, along with a small fat bald accomplice who hasn't acquired a name yet. At the Lair, Jeremy and his father have another employee, Salty Sam, who's suspicious from the moment the boys first encounter him. There's also Joshua Evans, apparently a direct descendant of William Evans, the Purple Pirate, who now lives in a tower that ties into the pirate's exploits and which is conveniently located right there in Pirate's Cove.

This is far from the most surprising book in the series, at least if we realise the reasons behind the major's scam before Lynds explains them to us. However, he does keeps surprises coming almost until the very end, which unfortunately renders it a story we watch unfold rather than one where we strive to figure out every detail before the boys do. I did stay a little ahead of the many twists in the story but never by much because the plot just didn't make that easy. My favourite of these twists is the one that comes after we might fairly assume the mystery is over, which sets up a very nice action scene to wrap things up.

Otherwise, the highlight for me, reading as a fifty-something grandfather in 2026, was something I seriously doubt was a highlight when I first read this as a young teenager on original UK release in 1985. That's the difference between the two versions of the Purple Pirate story that the boys hear at different points in the story. Initially, they hear the tourist version on board the Black Vulture as paying customers. Later, they hear more accurate historical versions behind the scenes as they plumb Captain Joy and Joshua Evans for background information. That these versions had a little crossover but were also notably different played very well to me.

Like its two predecessors, I enjoyed this book. Put together, they serve to puncture something I'd remembered unfairly, that the Hector Sebastian era instalments weren't as substantial as those introduced by Alfred Hitchcock. It does seem fair to label the original Robert Arthur novels as the heyday for the series, but only if we add the caveat that both M. V. Carey and William Arden were able to bring worthy elements to the series after his death, most obviously female characters of substance (Carey) and historical California (Arden). Even Kin Platt, who, as Nick West, penned the worst two novels of the series thus far, also provided some of its best dialogue.

Next up is another M. V. Carey, 'The Mystery of the Wandering Cave Man', which is a frustratingly rare book that I haven't found on sale for a price I'm willing to pay, especially a British paperback edition. After that, Marc Brandel will enter the fray and I'm eager to see what he will bring to the series (or not) with 'The Mystery of the Kidnapped Whale'. It'll be an interesting two months. See you there! ~~ Hal C F Astell

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