Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sign of the Spiral | 1947 | Fran Striker | Buy |
| 2 | The Telltale Scar | 1947 | Fran Striker | Buy |
| 3 | The Clue of the Cypress Stump | 1948 | Fran Striker | Buy |
| 4 | The Secret of the Lost Mesa | 1949 | Fran Striker | Buy |
| 5 | The Hidden Stone Mystery | 1950 | Fran Striker | Buy |
| 6 | The Secret Of Thunder Mountain | 1952 | Fran Striker | Buy |
| 7 | The Clue of the Inca Luck Piece | 1955 | Fran Striker | Buy |
| 8 | Mystery of the Timber Giant | 2020 | Fran Striker | Buy |
Sign of the Spiral (1947) launched the Tom Quest Adventure series the same year Striker was still producing Lone Ranger novels, demonstrating his productivity across multiple franchises simultaneously. Tom Quest, whose famous scientist father Hamilton disappeared in Peru years earlier, adventures through Central American locations and remote wilderness with his friends, following clues toward the truth of what happened.
Grosset & Dunlap published six of the eight books, placing the series alongside the publisher’s most successful boys’ adventure franchises. Two later entries appeared through Clover Books. The series ran through Mystery of the Timber Giant, which appeared in a new edition in 2020, extending the series’ reach into print decades after Striker’s death in 1962.
The Tom Quest books are firmly in the Grosset & Dunlap mold: accessible prose, fast-moving plots, a loyal group of companions, and mysteries centered on lost places and hidden knowledge. For readers familiar with Striker through the Lone Ranger, the Tom Quest series shows the same productive pulp storytelling instincts applied to a contemporary rather than frontier setting.