THE 3 INVESTIGATORS
CRIMEBUSTERS
SERIES
Finally,  two titles, "Hot Wheels" and "Murder To Go", can be found in the larger size paperback Knopf/Bullseye edition printed in June 1991.

Weekly Reader hardbound #1
#2
#7
#5
#6
#3
#8
#10
#11
Knopf/Bullseye #1
Knopf/Bullseye #2
#4
Weekly Reader Hardbound #
#9
In 1989 Random House decided to launch a new updated version of The Three Investigators to compete with the Hardy Boys Casefiles books.  The Crimebusters books were designed for an older teen-age reading audience unlike the original series.  For more details on the background of the Crimebusters' series, please refer to the interview with Gayle Lynds (G.H. Stone).

The following eleven Crimebusters titles saw publication:

#1 HOT WHEELS by William Arden, 1989

#2 MURDER TO GO by Megan & H. William Stine, 1989

#3 ROUGH STUFF by G.H. Stone, 1989

#4 FUNNY BUSINESS by William McCay, 1989

#5 AN EAR FOR DANGER by Marc Brandel, 1989

#6 THRILLER DILLER by Megan & H. William Stine, 1989

#7 REEL TROUBLE by G.H. Stone, 1989

#8 SHOOT THE WORKS by William McCay, 1990

#9 FOUL PLAY by Peter Lerangis, 1990

#10 LONG SHOT by Megan & H. William Stine, 1990

#11 FATAL ERROR by G.H. Stone, 1990


The following two books exist in manuscript form but they were never published because the Crimebusters series was effectively canceled with the retirement of long-time Three Investigators editor Eugenia Fannelli in 1990:

#12 BRAIN WASH by Peter Lerangis

#13 HIGH STRUNG by G.H. Stone


As with the original Three Investigators series, the authors of the Crimebusters did receive a royalty percentage for their work as opposed to being paid a flat fee for each story.

All eleven titles were originally printed in a 4 1/4" X about 7" paperback format published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., a subsidiary division of Random House.  Hector Garrido painted the covers for all eleven titles.  There are no internal illustrations in any of the books.
All eleven Crimebusters titles were also printed in the Random House Gibraltar Library Binding measuring about 5" X 7 1/2".

Two titles (#1 and #6) can also be found in a hardbound "Just For Boys" Weekly Reader edition published by Alfred A. Knopf and measuring about 5 1/2" X 8".
Apparently each of these four different formats saw only a First Printing as I have yet to encounter any later printings.  **UPDATE:  I have encountered SECOND PRINTINGS for Crimebusters #1 and #2 in the original paperback format and it is probable that only the first few stories in the series saw  a Second Printing.  The interesting thing is that the Second Printing of Crimebusters #1 retains the raised red and gold foil "3 Investigators" title found on the front covers of each of the 11 titles but the Second Printing of Crimebusters #2 has the "3 Investigators" title in red and yellow regular flat print.

My thanks to Gayle Lynds for providing some of the information found on this page.


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