A sterling, well-written story that sets the series off to a flying start. The characters are well-drawn, the locations ably described and the genuine sense of fear and spookiness, around Terror Castle, is well evoked. The story does feel a bit slight, but that’s only to be expected as the book needs space to set everything up. Well worth a read and the only thing that dates this (it’s 46 years old!) is the fact that a silent film-star plays a major part in it. A cracking book.
For whatever reason, I never could get into the Hardy Boy Books or Nancy Drew. I remember seeing a copy of Terror Castle and as a kid I couldn't put it down and kept up with the series from then on. This is one of my favorite favorites.
ReplyDeleteA very good book! I wish the review was a bit more detailed, but I understand how hard these things are to write. I started a review of the New Bobbsey Twins paperback series, and other juvenile mystery series, and kind of lost interest in doing it
ReplyDeleteThanks Sean. Last year, for the 50th anniversary, I re-reviewed my top 10 (plus a few more) and did them in more detail but Terror Castle wasn't one of them. You can find the more detailed reviews at this link - http://markwestwriter.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/my-three-investigators-all-time-top-10.html
DeleteThanks for this site Mark. Great to compare other people's favourites and their reasons.
ReplyDeleteMy favourites are below, with a few reasons (for instance I usually enjoy the background stories of the characters from other countries, which other people said they were less keen on).
I adored these books in the early 80s but only rediscovered them a couple of years ago. Just re-read a second time. This time I tracked down the post-Hitchcock titles I'd previously avoided and was surprised how good they were (except Creep Show Crooks).
Top 5
Screaming Clock.
Green ghost
Laughing Shadow
Invisible dog
Deadly double
Rest of top 10
Scar-faced beggar
Stuttering parrot
Flaming footprints
Two toed pigeon
Blazing cliffs
Rest of top 20
Magic circle
Haunted mirror
Vanishing treasure
Monster mountain
Smashing glass
Purple pirate
Talking skull
Headless horse
Fiery eye
Shark reef
Screaming Clock - brilliant mystery (clues, scenario) and characters (Mr clock, rex king, film makers, Hugenay). Utterly readable cover to cover.
Laughing shadow - faultless, quirky, a great adventure & setting, (international back story).
Invisible Dog - great mystery and setting (haunted church), cast of believable characters. Just ends rather too suddenly!
Deadly Double - utterly readable with interesting background (colonial apartheid) and great characters.
Scar-faced beggar. A recent discovery! A brilliant, well written page turner. Original and intriguing. Another good back story, with a small Cuba-style country of revolution and exiles.
Flaming footprints. Good background story (East Europe monarchy).
Two-toed pigeon. A great read. Clever & intriguing mystery, nice ideas, characters & setting.
Headless Horse. A flawed classic. Great scenario but some over detailed clues and a slow build up.
Interesting to see so many people rate Whispering mummy, which didn't make a great impression. A bit laboured perhaps, like Terror Castle, better the successful formula has got into gear
Thank you for this!
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