My review will include the first ten books in the Hardy Boys series, and I will compare them to the new Hardy BoysAdventures. The books were first released in 1927-1931 and is a mystery children’s book that has come to become a classic. I listened to the audiobook which are rewritten books considering that there are things like cars such as Sedans and mopeds which would suggest that the book was depicted far closer to our time than in the time the books was written.The conclusion is at the end and will review all the ten books.
Book 1: The Tower Treasure
The first book takes place just after the two brothers Frank and Joe was almost run over. The car turns out to be stolen from their friend and tired of following their father around, they decide that this would be their first solo case. It soon turns complicated as one of the riches families in their town have money stolen from them and they believe that the one who stole the car is also the culprit for the other theft. Now, all they have to do is find whoever it could be before their friend’s father takes the fall for the theft.
As this is the first book, I will go easy on it. The mystery is great with some twists and turns but I would have to admit I would have wanted more of a personality on the boys. They seemed the same to me and their only defining feature is that one is blond and the other has black hair.
Book 2: The House on the Cliff
Frank and Joe are searching for smugglers when their days goes south. They save a man only for the man to be kidnapped the day after. Their father goes to follow a lead only to go missing as well. Joe and Frank now have to find their father who they soon realize is kidnapped.
The mystery is more straight forward and isn’t much of a mystery as much it is about a chase. The Hardy Boys stumbles over the culprits early on and the story continues with them trying to find their father. I did find the book enjoyable though I must wonder about the boys apparently ability to fight against fully grown male criminals. They are a bit overpowered. Their father though is rather awesome, and I quite enjoy his character, though he seem to be a bit of an Indiana Jones. Especially since he rarely got any screen time in the new book series, Hardy Boys Adventure.
He is famous, smart, charming and is an incredible shot and escape artist and so on. It is a bit much overall but considering that he had to be saved in this book he does comes across as less of a superman.
Book 3: The Secret of the Old Mill
The Hardy Boys is back as their friend Chet is found to have counterfeit money. As that wasn’t enough, when they try to investigate, they are threatened by letter. Of course that doesn’t deter the boys from continuing their sleuthing.
This story has a good variety of investigation, secrets and actionfilled chases. Overall, I would think it is an overall good book. The largest problem with this one and the books before it is that the culprit isn’t really known to us so we won’t care much when they are caught. I noticed that this is a common problem with older mystery novels such as Nancy Drew and now the Hardy Boys.
Book 4: The Missing Chums
The Hardy Boys are invited to a costume party only to be witness to a robbery. As they tried to investigate, they soon realize that their friends have gone missing and it soon become apparent that they were kidnapped by the robbers and the Hardy brothers take up chase before it is too late.
The story was fine, filled with action and a straightforward mystery. You won’t have to guess the culprit but it still follows a similar structure, with the investigation and revelation at the end, and is straight forward enough to be fine. Though I really had a hard time with the narrator as he tries to do this strange stereotypical Scandinavian accent making the character sound like the Swedish chief. It always annoys me as we swedes learn English at a very young age so we don’t have such a obvious accent, but that is just a nitpick and don’t take away from the story.
Book 5: Hunting for Hidden Gold
The Hardy brothers, Frank and Joe are called over by their father to help in a case, only to get kidnapped. After they escape, they will have to try and hunt down their kidnappers only to go on a hunt across mountains and haunted houses to find their goal and add fame to their name.
This was an action-filled story, I was a bit lost sometimes though as it keeps throwing us into one chase to a haunted house, kidnapping and the like. I had a hard time knowing on what to focus on. It will most likely attract the younger audience but I would have preferred a more stable story that don’t treat me like I am a three-year-old child who cannot be amused if a high action scene is happening.
Book 6: The Shore Road Mystery
In this book, Frank and Joes goes to find a thieving ring who has stolen cars around the shoreline. As they investigate, they encounter smugglers, kidnappings and a lost treasure while danger lurks around every corner.
Much like the previous one, the book is filled with high action. People who read this one suggested it was one of the better one but I found myself fading away as I listened to the audiobook instead of feeling intrigued. It felt like many of the other stories with a similar conclusion of the boys being kidapped and their, much better detective, father saves them in the end. That along with me feeling like there isn’t much mystery as much as it is a chase, going from one place to another, makes me feel a bit bored by it. This is a story better suited for young boys, or girls who like action. I do not so it falls a bit flat for me.
Book 7: The Secrets of the Caves
This book takes place directly after the previous one and refresing a lot of things from that book such as Carl Schaum who was the only one who had escaped from the previous gang Frank and Joe’s father brought to justice. In this one an older lady wants their father’s assistant to find her twin brother. Frank and Joe goes out to some caves to explore only to stumble over what could be her missing twin along with Carl Schaum who they are eager to bring to justice.
This is probably the first book where I felt like it would be a good idea to read the one before as it might be hard to know of the characters from previous books otherwise but it is the missing twin brother who is in main focus. Though the other “mystery”, they pretty much just stumble over Schaum, seem to just be added to drag out the pages. As such, I felt like this book felt a bit uninspiring. Like the author is running out of ideas and just pulling things out of the hat to force books out.
Book 8: The Mystery of Cabin Island
The boys travel to Cabin Island, invited to spend their vacation in a cabin. It soon become strange though as haunting screeches, ghosts and pranks annoys the boys and as they investigate, they soon encounter one mystery after another. One entails a stranger send by a foreign ruler to find and an invaluable metal while a shady person wants to buy the island, most likely to get the hands on the same metal.
This story was far better structured for a mystery with actual thinking instead of high-speed chases and action scenes. Joe also gets far more action in this book and actually comes across as smart as his brother instead of just being the tag along. The mystery still feels a bit simplistic though but that is perfect for the younger audience this book is aimed at.
Book 9: The Great Airport Mystery
The Hardy Boys are sends in undercover to find stolen shipments. They investigate, even taken aerial pictures that are stolen while someone is pretending to be a ghost in all of the chaos. They start to suspect that the pictures they took might reveal the hiding place of the criminals and putting their intelligence together, they try to solve this mystery.
This story varies good between mystery, investigation and action. It becomes obvious that the later books show a better balance and that the author has developed their writing skill.
Book 10: What Happened at Midnight
The Hardy Boys are given a mission by an inventor to protect a secret invention from thieves. They get the invention but Joe is kidnapped from what looks to be a ring of smugglers, Frank has to find him along with trying to lay a trap for the smugglers with the help of their father.
This is the last story I will read and it was fine. By now I have noticed all the tropes and plotlines the author keeps reusing which frankly made me loose interest. I will go into the details in the conclusion though, but if you liked the previous books and wanted more of the same. Then this one will scratch your itch.
Conclusion
Now let me summarize up my thoughts on the ten books. It started a bit rough, being more adventure books than mystery books, which it is advertised as. It was still a good book for the younger audience or the older one, which mostly has a lot of nostalgia by now for the series, who can forgive the rough patches. The two brothers are rather indistinguishable. Frank did get a lot of attention in the first few books while Joe gets a larger part later on but it says a lot when I lost focus for a second during the action scenes and one of the boys are kidnapped while the other is trying to find the kidnapped one and I have no idea who is kidnapped and who is the one searching because they act and talk the same.
There is also very little emotions from the boys, such as them feeling distressed or angry and when they does it feels rather shallow. It doesn’t help that they often have the same emotion. Both gets angry or sad at the same time. This is not something I ever had a problem with in the new series the Hardy Boys Adventure. The boys are distinguished far better in the new series as Joe is the athletic one with a far more adventurous and free spirited mind, searching for big foot and ghost while hunting down the criminals fighting them off. Frank is the intelligent one who solve the cases but have a hard time catching the criminals when they run or fight as he isn’t athletic. He is also far more responsible, practical and logical compared to his brother.
These descriptions doesn’t really suit the Hardy Boys in this series, though the author tries to put more characters on them later in the series. By around the seventh book we see a shift from far too much chase scenes of the previous books to an actual mystery where they investigate and ponder the solution. The problem is that the author is very set in their ways. The criminals are almost always some kind of smuggler ring or thieving rings and they always have a hideout such as caves. Two of the books even have the same hideout. That along with them being thieves with little motives or motivation outside being thieves and doing what thieves does, makes the story feel less deep compared to other mystery series. This is also different from the new series who varies far more and often has one or two culprit with an actual motivation instead of just being thieves with no personality hiding in caves.
I also found the writing in the old books clunky at best. Some comes down to the age as some of the sentences and words aren’t used today, or used in a different way today. The word queer is used quite often and though I know it’s meaning, it still made me frown before I put it in its place. The same goes when one of the boys said something like they would pull a boner. I have no idea what that meant before but I doubt the modern interpretation is what they were going for.
Other times the sentencing was just strange and would not have gotten a pass in todays market such as this sentence.
”Thank goodness our blankets are dry, at any rate,” Joe said philosophically.
– The Secrets of the Caves.
I’m not sure what is so philosophical with dry blankets but maybe someone could explain it to me because the author uses the word philosophically several times and in all cases I feels it made no sense considering the dialog before suggest no great mystery that would suggest it would be philosophical. I’m guessing the author just liked the word and thought it sounded nice.
Now I also previously mention plotlines that are repeated far too often. Some of them are the kidnappings, one of the boys or both are captured by the criminals and needs to be saved by the other or their father, who I really like and think the story should actually be about. The boys keep stumbling across the culprits randomly is another and the criminals pretty much leading the Hardy Boys to them by stealing their car, boat or motorcycle happen in at least half of the books ten I read, if not more. Another think is the threat letters telling the Hardy Boys and/or his father to back off from the investigation. All of these things happen in almost every book, and in some of them several of these things occurred.
There are thinks I preferred in the older books though such as their father having a far larger part in the story, often saving and aiding the boys and he has a bit of Indiana Jones feeling over him which makes him charming. Their friends, especially Chet, is often present and they often help them in the search. Their friends may have a bit of stereotypical personalities but at least they put some color to the story. Chet was present in the new series as well but had a far lesser role.
I also had a hard time with the forced romances of the new series, but I guess they didn’t want to make the boys look gay or something considering that their interest in girls are just mentioned randomly in the first book and then pretty much never visited again. At least not in the later books. In the new series, every Hardy boys has a new girlfriend or love interest in every book and it just felt forced and awkward. In the old series they felt like the boys they are.
Overall, the series is fine, I would say that it is better suited for either a younger audience or for older people who has read this one when they where young. Both this demographic is more likely to be able to read it without seeing or caring about the obvious campiness and lack of mystery. If you are like me who hasn’t read the Hardy Boys when they where young then the risk is that you might wonder why people like it so much.
Many people seem to like it but I must say that I preferred the new series. I want be able to distinguish between the Hardy Boys and actual have to have culprits with motivations outside their roles as thieves. Maybe the books get better later on considering that I saw some growth in the writing in just these ten books but I aren’t interested in finding out. I will give this one a 4 out of 10 though some books was better than others. I just don’t think it hold up as a mystery series and the writing, filled with reused plotlines and stereotypes, just doesn’t hold up in the modern age when we have seemed them a thousand times compared to when they where written, when people might just have seen them ten times. I still adore the Hardy Boys in games though and was quite happy with their appearance in Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem and I hope we see them in more games in the future.
With Kind Regards
Senefer.
Read with Senefer 