What’s erased isn’t always gone—and ink never forgets.
The Mystery of the Indefatigable Ink
The Three Investigators Book 9
by Elizabeth Arthur & Steven Bauer
Genre: YA Mystery, Suspense, Adventure
What’s erased isn’t always gone—and ink never forgets.
The Salvage Yard is still there. So is the secret headquarters. And so are the Three Investigators—smarter than ever, a little older, and ready for their most challenging cases yet.
Conceived and co-written by Elizabeth Arthur, the daughter of Robert Arthur, the creator of the Three Investigators universe, this exciting reboot of the classic series takes its iconic characters into a new age. They return reimagined, reinvigorated, and more relevant than ever.
In the ninth book of a 26-book story arc, Jupiter’s trip to the local hardware store seems like an ordinary errand – until a chance meeting with Mrs. Vasiliev, an elderly Russian woman who fled the Soviet Union in the 1980s, puts him on the track of a brand-new mystery. Mrs. Vasiliev asks Jupiter to help a young Russian-American songwriter named Ivan Federov, who’s being threatened with a bogus plagiarism lawsuit.
At first, the case seems straightforward, but as The Three Investigators dig deeper, they uncover a complex and intriguing web of family history. Ivan’s great-grandparents fled the Soviet Union during the Russian Revolution, and his great-grandfather, Fyodor, an Oscar-winning Hollywood actor. Fyodor’s son, Vadim, was blacklisted in the 1950s during the Red Scare after being falsely accused of being a Soviet agent. But Vadim reinvented himself as the wildly successful mystery writer, Edison Ford, winning multiple Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America.
Vadim’s final manuscript, however, is missing. He had completed it just before his death – a literary novel about his parents’ escape from the Soviet regime – but despite years of searching, it’s nowhere to be found. The investigation reveals that the manuscript may not be as lost as everyone thinks – but someone is determined to keep it hidden. An old-fashioned card catalogue has been rifled – though a 1930s movie, Dawn Over Petrograd, holds hidden clues.
In the end, the hunt for the missing manuscript leads The Three Investigators to the American Film History Library where they must race against time to recover it. But when the manuscript falls into the wrong hands, the team faces dangerous opposition. Who is behind the plot to keep it buried? To what lengths will they go to protect their secret? And can Jupiter, Pete, Bob, and Mallory uncover the truth before the manuscript is lost forever?
Join the team as they untangle a Gordian knot of deception, theft, and devious greed in this heart-pounding new chapter of The Three Investigators series.
Elizabeth Arthur is the daughter of Robert Arthur, the creator of The Three Investigators mystery series for young people. She is the author of five literary novels (Beyond the Mountain, Bad Guys, Binding Spell, Antarctic Navigation, and Bring Deeps) and two memoirs (Island Sojourn and Looking for the Klondike Stone.) Her books have been published by Harper and Row, Doubleday, Knopf, and Bloomsbury U.K.
In 2018 Arthur set out to conceive and co-write a re-imagined, contemporary Three Investigators series consisting of twenty-six new books – one for every letter of the alphabet – working with her husband, Steven Bauer. Publication of the series began on March 3, 2025, and the two-part conclusion will be published on March 3, 2027.
Steven Bauer is the son-in-law of Robert Arthur, the creator of The Three Investigators mystery series. He is the author of three books for young people, the young adult fantasy Satyrday, the middle grade novel A Cat of a Different Color, and The Strange and Wonderful Tale of Robert McDoodle, a picture book in verse.
Website * X * Goodreads * Goodreads
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
Nov 3
Kickoff at Silver Dagger Book Tours
Book Bites….with a side of coffee
Stormy Nights, Books and Blogging
Big kids like me would love to read this, thanks for the chance
What an intriguing title. How did you come up with the title?
This sounds like a great book and one I would so enjoy.
YA Mystery, Suspense, Adventure - What a great genre and interesting cover!
Thank you for the excerpt.
Great book cover.
This sounds like an interesting series, and I like the cover!
This sounds so interesting!
Question for author-What's the strangest or most interesting thing you had to research for this book?
Sounds really good.
this sounds pretty interesting
I had never heard of the series before, and I find it interesting that it is being revitalized.
Looks like a great read!
I think that this sounds like a great read. The plot and characters are intriguing.
Very unique cover
This sounds like an interesting book.
Looks like a good read.
Looks very exciting Do you write in a daily journal?
I love the cover they did a great job catching the eye!
This sounds like an interesting mystery for Young Adults.
Looks very memorable.