# Help ID this children's mystery book - carnival cat?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-childrens-mystery-book-carnival-cat/243178>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 2, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-childrens-mystery-book-carnival-cat/243178 "2004-05-02T18:51:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Grasshopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f19dbf/32.png) [@Grasshopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grasshopper)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-childrens-mystery-book-carnival-cat/243178/1 "2004-05-02T18:51:32Z")

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Hey guys, I need your help. I’m trying to remember the title of a book I read around 1990. I think it was part of a detective series - maybe the HardyBoys - and the detectives were three boys. It seems like they had some underground tunnel. This book was about a carnival and it seems like it had \*Cat \* in the title, or there was some significance to a carnival cat. I think the climax took place in the carnival funhouse.

Any takers?

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**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-childrens-mystery-book-carnival-cat/243178/2 "2004-05-02T19:08:04Z")

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It sounds more like one of the Three Investigators books by William Arden.

In fact… [http://www.tunneltwo.com/secrets/13.html](http://www.tunneltwo.com/secrets/13.html)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Grasshopper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f19dbf/32.png) [@Grasshopper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grasshopper)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-childrens-mystery-book-carnival-cat/243178/3 "2004-05-02T19:15:29Z")

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_awed silence_  
This place rules!  
Thanks, skutir, that’s the one 🙂

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**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2004, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-id-this-childrens-mystery-book-carnival-cat/243178/4 "2004-05-02T19:21:25Z")

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Hey, yeah, I remember those. Great childhood memories.

Actually, the series had several different authors, I always thought the Robert Authur ones were the best.

Re the ‘underground tunnel,’ I recall the boys had a clubhouse in a mobile home trailer under a pile of junk in a junkyard. It had several secret entrances.