Random House Paperbacks
(Keyhole Edition)

The keyhole edition got its start with "Scar-Faced Beggar," being the first book without Alfred Hitchcock. The emblem in the upper right corner of the cover was changed from a silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock to a keyhole with "The Three Investigators" arranged in an oval around the emblem.

Random House made the decision that Alfred Hitchcock's name should be purged from all the new printings of the older books; consequently, all the stories were revised in the mid 1980s to introduce the character of Hector Sebastian (with the addition of Reginald Clarke in "Terror Castle" only). In general, the typesetting for these books was redone in its entirety, language was updated (for example, Jupe refers to a puzzle as a "mind-blower" instead of a "skull-buster"), and internal illustrations were not included in any of the volumes.

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