Obdurate Outcast
A Magic 8 Ball. An eight-sided house. And a summer job Skinny won’t forget.
Dear Readers,
The Mystery of the Obdurate Outcast is out today, and it’s one of Steven’s and my favorites. It begins as Jupiter watches a morning newscast and discovers that the elder senator from California has died suddenly – and in a way that sets Jupiter’s ever-active mind into immediate motion.
Shortly afterwards, he and the other Three Investigators get a plea for help from Salvage Yard carpenters Lief and Magnus Haldorrson. Their father, an orthopedic surgeon, is being threatened by one of his patients – Draven Chandler, the founder of The Institute for Eternal Consciousness, and a transhumanist influencer intent on both longevity and power.
After Mallory finds a never-posted letter from Jupiter’s long-dead father to a friend of his named Septimus Halfpenny tucked inside a forgotten Spanish conquistador’s helmet in a Salvage Yard shed, Jupiter tracks him down through an online search.
Amazingly, Septimus is currently living on the ocean side of Rocky Beach in an octagonal house that looks a bit like a human head, and Jupiter arranges to meet him. In his top-floor study, Septimus keeps, among other odd things, a Magic Eight ball.
Coincidentally, Septimus is about to give a lecture at a conference at the Institute for Eternal Consciousness, and the Three Investigators suddenly have entry to the spooky, mysterious, and well-guarded place.
There, before the lecture, they run into E. Skinner Norris who has a summer job as an intern, and who barely escapes death when a mirrored disco ball falls from the ceiling of the Institute’s great ballroom. Accident or attempted murder? Who would want to kill Skinny? And why?
This book is a turning point in the series. It brings the team face to face with one of their most dangerous adversaries yet. But the heart of the story belongs to Jupiter — and to the brilliant, eccentric physicist Septimus Halfpenny. Jupiter has never had a living relative or mentor whose brain power truly matches his. After their meeting, he suddenly does.
The climax is one of the tensest yet as a trap is set and then sprung. But before it can successfully secure its prey, a fight to the death breaks out, and Jupiter’s fencing skills come in very handy.
What happens? As the Magic 8 Ball would have it, “Better not tell you now.”
What I can tell you is that Septimus continues as Jupiter’s mentor from The Mystery of the Obdurate Outcast all the way to The Mystery of the Zoroastrian Zodiac. I can also tell you that the “obdurate outcast” of the title is truth itself.
Don’t miss this one.
Warmly,
Elizabeth Arthur
Cover Art By Pashur House
Book Description For The Mystery of the Obdurate Outcast:
In the fifteenth book of a 26-book story arc, Jupiter sees a news report about the sudden death of U.S. Senator Jack Hayden and is immediately struck by strange contradictions in past reports about the Senator's activities. Meanwhile, The Three Investigators are drawn into a blackmail scheme targeting the Haldorsson family, and they quickly uncover a disturbing connection to the late politician.
The blackmailer is Draven Chandler, an enigmatic transhumanist who runs the mysterious Institute for Eternal Consciousness - a place as spooky as it is exclusive. When the team discovers that their old foe, Skinny Norris, is working there for the summer, they wonder if he might actually be of use for once. But things take a dangerous turn when Skinny is nearly killed in what appears to be an accident at the Institute, leading The Three Investigators to dig deeper into Draven Chandler's past – particularly his connection to a Mayan-inspired commune from his childhood.
Meanwhile, Mallory stumbles upon a 16th-century Spanish morrión at the Salvage Yard, which holds in its bowl a never-delivered letter from Jupiter's late father to his old friend, Septimus Halfpenny - a brilliant physicist living in an eight-sided house overlooking the Pacific. With his help, the Investigators set a trap for Chandler, appealing to his vanity and his odd beliefs. But the plan takes an unexpected turn, and soon Jupiter and Septimus find themselves in a life-or-death struggle with a very clever man.
What is Draven Chandler really after? How does his haunted past connect to the blackmail plot? Will the ghost of an old acquaintance and a Magic 8 ball lure him into a big mistake? And most importantly, will The Three Investigators survive their final confrontation with a man as grandiose as he is delusional?
Join Jupiter, Pete, Bob, and Mallory as they face a villain whose ambition is matched only by his ruthlessness. Draven Chandler will stop at nothing to manipulate and control, and the Investigators must find a way to outwit him before he destroys everything in his path.