The Mystery of the Blazing Cliffs

Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators #32

by M.V. Carey

The crime-fighting trio of Jupe, Pete, and Bob sets out to prove that wealthy eccentric Charles Barron, who is convinced that aliens are planning to come for him, is the target of fraud. Original.

Genres: Mystery, Childrens, Fiction, Young Adult, Audiobook, Adventure, Detective

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

Also known as Mary V. Carey
Personal: Born May 19, 1925, in New Brighton, Cheshire (now Merseyside), England; brought to the United States in 1925, naturalized citizen in 1955; daughter of John Cornelius (an engineer) and Mary Alice (Hughes) Carey. Home address in 1993 was 3748 Birch St., Ventura, CA.

Ms Carey passed away in 1994.

Education: College of Mount St. Vincent, B.S., 1946.

Religion: Roman Catholic

Career: Coronet, New York City, editorial associate, 1948 - 55; Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, CA, assistant editor of publications, 1955 - 69; free-lance writer 1969 - 1994.

Member: PEN; Mystery Writers of America; Society of Children's Book Writers; Women in Communications.

Awards, Honors: Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People Award, 1986, for "A Place for Allie".

Hobbies and Interests: Walking on the beach.

Writings:
Novelizations of Walt Disney Motion Pictures:
(With George Sherman) WD's "Babes in Toyland" Golden Press, 1961.
WD's "The Sword in the Stone" Whitman, 1963.
The Story of Walt Disney's Motion Picture "Mary Poppins" Whitman, 1964.
WD's "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" Whitman, 1964.
WD's "Donald Duck and the Lost Mesa Ranch" Whitman, 1966.
The Story of WD's Motion Picture "Jungle Book" Whitman, 1967.
The Story of WD's Motion Picture "Blackbeard's Ghost" Whitman, 1968.
"Mrs. Brisby's Important Package" (adapted from film "The Secret of NIMH), Golden Press, 1982.

Juveniles:
"Raggedy Ann and the Glad and Sad Day", Golden Press, 1972.
"Little Lulu and the Birthday Surprise, Whitman, 1973.
"The Tawny, Scrawny Lio and the Clever Monkey" Golden Press, 1974.
"Alonzo Purr, the Seagoing Cat", Western Pub., 1974.
"The Owl Who Loved Sunshine", Golden Press, 1977.
"The Gremlin's Storybook", Golden Press, 1984.

The Three Investigators Mystery Series (Random House):
"The Mystery of the:
#15 Flaming Footprints, 1971.
#17 Singing Serpent, 1972.
#20 Monster Mountain, 1973.
#21 The Secret of the Haunted Mirror, 1974.
#23 Invisible Dog, 1975.
#24 Death Trap Mine, 1976.
#27 Magic Circle, 1978.
#29 Sinister Scarecrow, 1979.
#31 Scar-Faced Beggar, 1981.
#32 Blazing Cliffs, 1981.
#34 Wandering Cave Man, 1982.
#36 Missing Mermaid, 1984.
#39 Trail of Terror, 1984.
#41 Creep-Show Crooks, 1985.
#43 Cranky Collector, 1987
FYF#8 The Case of the Savage Statue, 1987.

Other:
(Editor) Jane Black, "The Indispensables", Hewitt House, 1971.
"Step-by-step Candlemaking", Golden Press, 1972.
"Step-by-step Winemaking", Golden Press, 1973.
"Love Is Forever" (collection of prose and poetry), C.R. Gibson, 1975.
(With George Sherman) "A Compendium of Bunk", C.C. Thomas, 1976.
(Editor) "Grandmothers Are Very Special People", C.R. Gibson, 1977.
"A Place for Allie" (young adult novel), Dodd, 1985.

Sidelights: Carey told Contemporary Authors: "I began writing late; my first articles and stories were published after I was thirty, and I was motivated by money. Money is not a bad motivation. The need to eat keeps us from laziness, and the fact that someone is willing to pay to read what we write assures us that we have indeed written."

"I think that writing should be honest and simple, and it should say something about what it means to be a person. When God is good to us, we write in such a way that the act of reading becomes a pleasure to those who buy our books. This experience doesn't happen all the time, but when it does it is at least as heady as winning the Irish sweepstakes. It makes mere competence seem dull. It is probably also what makes writing a compulsive occupation; some of us are uncomfortable when we are away from our typewriters for any length of time."

"My lifelong ambition, aside from writing, is to finish exploring the American West. This should keep me busy for at least another thirty years, since there is a

Reviews

[Sheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite preposterous, but just the sort of story that intrigues young minds. The beginning was overdone just enough to capture the interest and imagination, but the fantastical events quickly settled into a nice well-balanced mystery. Another win for The Three Investigators and an engaging mystery for the rest of us.

[Niki · Rating 3 out of 5]

EDIT March 2023: I'm bumping the rating up a star. Everything I said below still applies, but the plot is so ridiculous and farfetched that I can't help but respect it for at least not being mundane and boring.
___________________
Original review, August 2020:

Still unable to read due to work, but I just bought this book (and The Mystery of the Fiery Eye) for real cheap because duh, nostalgia; the books are super short and simply written, so I was able to read it in a few hours (favoured it over The Fiery Eye because some of M.V. Carey's other books in the series are my absolute favourites)

And, well, I was pretty disappointed. The entire plot is ridiculous and overly convoluted, stuff happens just because it's convenient for it to happen (for example: the boys are at the ranch with Konrad, one of the helpers in Jupiter's uncle's junkyard; he's an adult, the boys are essentially his responsibility; and yet he fucks off for the entirety of the book doing God knows what, because otherwise he'd have herded the boys in and we'd have no ~investigating~), the only remotely clever plot point is that Mary's field telephone is hidden in the "horse that only she can go near"'s stall, and, very importantly, how the book isn't creepy, at all.

One of the main reasons why I love(d) this series so much is because some of the books are genuinely creepy, especially for middle grade, even if everything is just revealed to be smoke and mirrors by the end (or is it? Some of the books do leave some possibilities open by the end) This one just isn't. You know everything is a hoax from pretty early on, and a ridiculous one at that.

Simply put, I didn't care if that asshole millionaire got conned and robbed or not. The stakes were VERY low.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wealthy prepper buys a bunch of stuff from Uncle Titus's junkyard. The Three Investigators want to see the man's ranch which is almost completely self sufficient, so they go along to help delivery of the stuff.

They stay for dinner. On their way out, they see weird lights, and encounter what is apparently a military unit blocking the road, claiming there is an emergency. The television and the radios are all jammed.

The boys have to try to find out what is going on.

Pretty exciting.

[Lea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die bedrohte Ranch mochte ich schon als Hörspiel sehr gerne, und auch das Buch ist eines meiner liebsten der amerikanischen ???-Bücher. Die Themen "Angst vor dem Untergang der Ordnung" -mit einer Prise Angst vor Kommunisten, das autarken Leben auf einer Ranch und der Vorstellung, dass bald Aliens vom Planeten Omega kommen, um uns zu retten, wird schön zu einem spannenden Fall vermischt.

Der Wermutstropfen ist etwas, das Ende selbst angesprochen wird: warum sich jemand so etwas Kompliziertes ausdenken, wenn es auch einfacher und weniger dramatisch ginge? Das wird leider wenig zufriedenstellend beantwortet.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one had its high points and its low points.

The bottom line in this one was a plot to steal gold. However, it was one of the most ambitious and far fetched plots ever seen in this series. Basically an entire alien invasion is faked which means fake spaceship, blocking traffic, hiring actors to impersonate the military, cutting phone lines, blocking tv and radio, faking radio stories, etc. Just a really elaborate plot that was too over the top for me.

The high points involved subject matter that seemed a little mature, or at least different, than what you'd normally find in this series. You had a wealthy man who distrusts the government and banks and basically sets himself up on a compound in preparation for the end of civilization. His wife believes in a strange religion that says aliens from the stars will land on Earth to save "believers" from the end times. Neither plot point is original, or even entirely fictional, but it's pretty heavy stuff for this series.

Overall not a bad read but a little heavy for a three investigators novel. Not sure how this would have been received in the early 80s by a bunch of tweens. Perhaps at that time Doomsday Cults and Militias weren't as widespread as they became later.

In any case this was another great read with the Three Investigators.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Three Investigators think the owners of the remote Valverde Ranch - millionaire Charles Barron and his wift - are crazy with their daft ideas of an extra-terrestrial invasion (Mrs Barron believes Omegans are coming to save the Earth) and an upcoming financial apocalypse (Mr Barron, who doesn’t trust anyone or anything, it would seem). But they soon discover the aliens are for real.
Continuing my quest to read beyond the first 30 of the series (ie, the ones I adore that feature Alfred Hitchcock), this is my first time reading this title in 20 years (according to my spreadsheet) and, as such, I couldn’t really remember anything about it. My copy is from 1984 (first UK publication) so I’d have been 15 and more than likely moving away from the series as a reader, which might explain my reluctance to go back to the book more often. It starts well and the character of Barron is vividly drawn and, incredibly, feels probably even more relevant to today than he would have done in the early 80s. Carey’s writing is as strong as ever and the mystery is well set up, stranding the boys at the ranch and giving us a limited pool of suspects and the set-pieces (such as the UFO) are well-handed. Where it does fall down, however, is when you discover why the crooks are going to such trouble and - I’ll be honest - it doesn’t really seem to be worth the effort. For all that, there’s a lot of fun to be had with the boys interplay - plus a clever nod to “Sinister Scarecrow”, which I liked a lot - and Carey uses her location and characters well, so I’d recommend it.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The boys work on a mystery involving a reclusive millionaire. I always loved series mystery books as a kid, and The Three Investigators were near the top of the list. I had a recent nostalgic streak and found this one at the library. I've not read one from late in the series before, and it lacked
some of the fun and imagination from the earlier books. The boys were away from home for most of the story, and I enjoyed it more when they were home and used their clubhouse in the junkyard, their lab and their "chauffeur". But this story still had charm and a clever scheme and I especially liked the epilogue which tied up things very well instead of an abrupt ending which we see so often now in books. Overall a nice read.

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to believe this is a true Three Investigator book, as it doesn't fit the mold and is really fairly awful | The books in this series always set up the entire history of the boys, who they are, where they live, what they look like, what each boy's individual strength is, how the agency works, the child actor background, why they have a personal driver, all of it, so that readers know what's going on even if it's their first experience with the series. This book does none of that, but expects the reader to know (it references Jupiter's weight at the end without explaining elsewhere, it drops a line about Mr Hitchcock out of nowhere since this is the Sebastian era, etc). And the book itself acknowledges that the plot is ridiculous, saying that there were easier ways for the antagonists to achieve their goal but they wanted to be overly theatrical about it because they're frustrated actors. Basically none of it makes any sense, the boys don't have any particular character traits, and they're away from home so there's no indulging in the traditions of the series. Why aren't any of the good ones on Kindle?!

[Bubu · Rating 3 out of 5]

muss sagen eher einer der schwächeren folgen

[LobsterQuadrille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of M.V. Carey's creative and sometimes humorous contributions to this series, The Mystery of the Blazing Cliffs was lots of fun to revisit. It's especially fun to read about Mr. Barron again as an adult, and better appreciate the subtle humor about a paranoid doomsday prepper with too much time and money on his hands. Mr. Barron was actually quite a well-written character, since despite his frequent rudeness and suspicious nature, a more likable side of him gradually emerged.

M.V. Carey has become one of my favorite Three Investigators authors, and this book definitely has the unusual plot and memorable characters that make her stories great light reading!

[Rodney Haydon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading one of my favorite book series from my childhood, The Three Investigators. I picked this specific title pretty much at random, since I enjoy all the books in the series.
This one involves UFOs, aliens, and a rich man who's preparing for the end of the world. You'll need to read this one yourself to find out how Jupe, Pete and Bob figure out this mystery.

[Joe Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Completely silly and fairly fun outing from the three investigators if like me you like conspiracies and a bit of xfiles lunacy. You will need some serious suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately the last few chapters are completely unbelievable and full of author conveniences that were needed to make the convoluted plot work.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy reading older books like this one! It's refreshing to see where we have come from; waiting for the mail, having to go find a telephone, and the radio was the main source of gaining information of what was going on in the world. I recommend this book to everyone ages 11+.

[Kit731 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tak tenhle díl mě tedy nebavil :(Vůbec netuším, o čem že byl...

[sonofabook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Das exzentrische Ehepaar Barren möcjte ein paar Teile bei der Firma von Titus Jonas kaufen.
Justus, Peter und Bob bringen dem Ehepaar diese Teile, zusammen mit einem Mitarbeiter der Firma.
Doch als diese auf der Ranch, dem Anwesen der Familie, angelangen und die Sachen abliefern, kommen sie nicht mehr zurück ins Dorf, da die Straße vom Militär abgesperrt ist, aufgrund von einem größeren Vorfall.
Kurz darauf merken die Anwohner der Ranch, dass es sowohl kein Radio, als aber auch kein Telefon mehr geht.
Somit sind diese abgekapselt von der Außenwelt.
Die drei ??? trauen der Situation jedoch nicht und machen sich auf die Suche eas genau dahinter steckt? Und was das ganze mit Aliens und Gold zu tun hat.

Irgendwie war mir diese Folge zu abgefahren. Klar, rund um eigentlich ein cooles Prinzip, aber es wurde dann schnell zuviel und die Auflösung war jetzt auch sehr offenkundig.

Keine Empfehlung.

[Cliff · Rating 2 out of 5]

A most convoluted case for the Three Investigators, who just happen to place themselves in the middle of an elaborate mystery just as it takes place. The cases have gotten more clever, but I can't shake this sense that someone was seriously mistaken when the publishers tried to excise Alfred Hitchcock. There are simply too many references in these books which specifically place Hector Sebastian's appearance.

[Charley Schnuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Im Gegensatz zu einigen Teilen davor hat mir dieser Teil ".... und die bedrohte Ranch" wieder gut gefallen. Der ein wenig verschrobene Verschwörungstheoretiker war ein wenig drüber, aber das kam mir so bekannt vor, dass ich darüber nur schmunzeln konnte. Ansonsten war die Geschichte gut und spannend erzählt und hat mich sehr gut unterhalten.

[Birte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dies ist einer der verzwicktesten Fälle und sehr spannend (als ich jünger war, fand ich ihn allerdings spannender🙃)

[Martina V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chýbala tomu ľahkosť a vtip, na ktoré som zvyknutá z iných dielov. Príbeh bol priveľmi prešpekulovaný.

[Roger · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favorite in the series so far.

[JBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sehr überraschend guter Fall!
Er hat mir gut gefallen und ich hatte mich wieder sehr gut aufgehoben gefühlt hier ♡

[Nadja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Auch wenn es eher abenteuerlich als detektivisch ist, hat diese Folge schon etwas, das man sehr gut in Erinnerung behält. Abstrus, aber meisterhaft sozusagen.

[anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is one of the books we didn't have when I was a kid, so this story was new for me. Fun one, especially for fans of space stories and war of the worlds.

[Yuhendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kenangan masa remaja

[Maximilian · Rating 3 out of 5]

• Die drei ??? landen auf der Ranch der Barrons: Er will „einfach“ und autark leben; sie ist überzeugt, eine außerirdische „Superrasse“ von Omega werde die Menschheit retten – das macht sie manipulierbar.
• Die Täter nutzen genau diesen Glauben: Sie bauen eine komplette „UFO“-Show mit Geräuschen, Anzügen und Autoritätsgehabe auf – so entsteht die perfekte Kulisse für einen Raub.
• Schlüsselszene: Als das „Raumschiff“ angeblich landet, soll Barron „alles Unersetzliche“ mitnehmen – er schleppt aber vor allem sein Manuskript („Ruin“) an, nicht das erwartete Gold.
• Der Bluff fliegt auf, als die „Omegaleute“ plötzlich nicht mehr mystisch sind, sondern mit Waffe nach dem Gold fragen – es ging nie um Rettung, nur um Beute.
• Auflösung: Elsie ist die Insiderin; „Leutnant Ferrante“ ist Teil der Bande (Elsie und Ferrante sind Geschwister) – Ziel ist Barrons Gold. Mrs. Barron holt die Polizei, Reynolds übernimmt, die Bande sitzt fest.
• Abspann-Gag mit Aussage: Selbst nach der Entlarvung hält Mrs. Barron weiter an Omega fest – Betrug heilt nicht automatisch den Wunsch zu glauben.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

2018
"Cozy as a rattlesnake in a rainstorm"

Continuing my nostalgic streak...

The boys investigate a possibly alien invasion. A very rich man gets targeted by a group of people looking to get rich quick by staging an alien invasion in hopes that they get quick access to his gold. It's been ages since I read this the first time and I guess I didn't remember it properly because I did have some of the facts wrong in my head. But even without my additions, it was a decent read. The investigators solved the mystery in record time, with the help of a simple phrase, "rattlesnake in a rainstorm." Which is now added into my personal vocabulary because I think it's hilarious.

[Red Heaven · Rating 2 out of 5]

As far as the plots of the series go, this one is pretty preposterous. The lengths the criminals go to in order to stage a fake UFO invasion, so they can induce a millionaire to give them his gold, are pretty hard to believe. As Jupiter says at the end, "almost anything would have been simpler."

This smacks of the authors running out of good ideas after 31 entries, which is somewhat understandable. Even the solving of the mystery is nothing special.

[Jason Towers · Rating 3 out of 5]

By now the series seems to have shifted away from the original pitch of child detectives to Hardy-Boys-style YA adventures. (Although no-one told the cover artist.) Really professionally written and an easy read. Not sure how I feel about the "alien visitors" schtick, but it was 1981.
#T3I

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alien attack?????!!

[Elizabeth S · Rating 3 out of 5]

The boys investigate a UFO scam in this one. A millionaire who is prepared to be self-sufficient in his valley is instead ripe for a group of scam artists.