For the first time, I'm reading this as a downloaded digital file. I bought this series religiously as a kid but didn't quite manage to get hold of all of them. I was missing half a dozen of the forty-three released books but managed to pick up a few second-hand online. This is one of two exceptions, as it's frustratingly expensive, especially in the British paperback edition, which is scarcely available for sale. I understand why 'The Mystery of the Cranky Collector' is rare and thus expensive; it was the final book in the series. I don't get why this one often matches it in the three-figure range. I'm assuming it must be a print run thing.

It turns out to be a really good story, clearly an M. V. Carey contribution because there's a woman speaking in the opening line. For once, her character isn't at the Jones Salvage Yard to buy. She's merely helping an old man outside on his quest to find Harbourview Lane. He's tired and late. And then he's dead. Aunt Mathilda gets them both to the hospital but it was already too late for him when she called for an ambulance. It's there that we discover that he was Dr. Karl Birkensteen, a geneticist at the Spicer Foundation, and she's Eleanor Hess, who also works there.

She isn't a scientist, like him or a handful of others; she takes care of the various animals that are used in their experiments. Her horse can count and her chimps use sign language. She enjoys her work immensely. The Spicer Foundation is a distance from Rocky Beach in a sleepy little California town called Citrus Grove. However, when Les Wolf, a neighbour to the salvage yard, tells them he will be visiting to work a contract there, they're eager to tag along with him because Citrus Grove has exploded all over the news.

Dr. Brandon, it seems, has discovered the cave man of the title, a hominid skeleton in a local cave that was exposed by a landslide. He's eager to study the bones, but that's going to be impossible given that the landowner, Newt McAfee, plans to turn it into a roadside attraction. The talk show that features both of them descends into a brawl. No wonder Jupe and the team want to visit the formerly sleepy town of Citrus Grove, even if there isn't even a mystery at this point. Of course, it becomes one soon enough and they're right at the scene, because a packed town means they end up staying with Ellie and she turns out to be McAfee's niece.

The mystery sparks into life when John the Gypsy, the guard stationed by McAfee to stop anyone, i.e. Dr. Brandon, from visiting the cave man, swears blind that he saw the very same cave man run down to the highway. However, the door's still locked and a quick check proves that the bones are still there. And then, just as the official ceremonies to open the cavern as an attraction are about to begin, everyone in the park, from the boys to the mayor, passes out. They all lose forty minutes and, during those forty minutes, the cave man disappears, held for a ten thousand dollar ransom.

For once, I didn't figure everything out before it's revealed. Carey throws suspicions everywhere, so that it isn't merely the obvious candidate, Dr. Brandon, who seems suspicious. There are three scientists working at the Spicer Foundation; the other two are Dr. Philip Terreano and Dr. Elwood Hoffer. Both do at least something to prompt our suspicions to fall on them; Terreano also has an ironic relationship with Brandon that's utterly priceless. He believes that mankind is inherently violent, but remains relentlessly calm throughout the novel. Brandon disagrees but has a violent temper.

Of course, McAfee is inherently greedy; when Ellie invites the boys to stay with them as her guest, he charges them per night, though Jupe does talk him into a rate reduction later. Even Ellie has a secret; she clearly isn't telling the truth about why she and Dr. Birkensteen were in Rocky Beach. Her boyfriend Frank wears running shoes with prints similar to those left by the cave man seen by John the Gypsy. He wasn't in the park with everyone else when the sprinklers hit either. Even the monkeys Ellie looks after seem to be livelier than usual. Talking of the late doctor, the boys soon discover that his desk calendar is missing a crucial month. And another hominid goes missing, this one originally from Africa but kept inside a locked cabinet in Dr. Brandon's office.

Carey does a fantastic job here of keeping us on the hop. Everything unfolds naturally enough but with enough cunning to ensure we're still juggling suspicions by the time she reveals who and why. Beyond that opening line, which leads to the inclusion of another worthy female character, it was easy to recognise this as one of hers, because it reminds of a couple of earlier books, both hers. I don't recall that we've met any neighbour of the salvage yard since 'The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints' nineteen books earlier and there are also multiple plots and plotters in play, just like in 'The Mystery of the Sinister Scarecrow', only five books ago.

I should add that, while I still think of this as a series from the sixties, when it began, this episode came out in 1982, but that's still a long time ago, as demonstrated by the fact that the hospital's waiting room is "stale with cigarette smoke". That seems like a lifetime ago now, thank the stars. Another detail that dates the book is that Hector Sebastian, who only appears at the very end of the story when it's all over, now has a word processor. Or a computer. The text uses both. But hey, it was 1982. Maybe it's one on the other. The IBM PC had only been out for a year at that point. It seems that Sebastian is on the cutting edge!

Next month, it's back to a physical copy for me as I bought 'The Mystery of the Kidnapped Whale' when it came out in 1983. It was written by the first new author to the series since Carey herself a dozen years earlier in 'The Mystery of the Flaming Footprints'. This time, it's Marc Brandel's turn in the spotlight with his first of two contributions to the original series. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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