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Mystery Box: A Novel About the Creators of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys
Mystery Box is the story of Franklin Dixon and Carolyn Keene, authors of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries. It?s true that these two never actually lived in the real world, but the mystery of their identities has intrigued readers for years. Gordon McAlpine here imagines the lives behind these two well-loved American names.Following parallel escapes from awkward situations at home, Frank and Carolyn both find themselves in Paris in the 1920s, among the glittering expatriate literary circles. Frank, who initially made the trip overseas in search of his lost brother Joe, now runs his own detective agency and frequents the parlor of Gertrude Stein. Carolyn, who left River Heights when her young stepmother made her feel unneeded, has befriended Hemingway and Fitzgerald is trying to craft her own writing style. At the same time, though, Frank and Carolyn each pursue personal mysteries, deeper than those ever undertaken by their youthful characters. the world is full of betrayal and disillusionment. To find themselves, they must find each other?and the truths contained in their soon-to-be written fictions.
190 pages, Hardcover
First published September 16, 2003
2 people are currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Gordon McAlpine
32 books95 followersGordon McAlpine (who sometimes writes as “Owen Fitzstephen”) is the author of Mystery Box (2003), Hammett Unwritten (2013), Woman With a Blue Pencil (2015), Holmes Untangled (2018), and After Oz (2024) –- all shape-shifting novels that play fast and loose with the mystery genre, as well as a middle-grade trilogy, The Misadventures of Edgar and Allan Poe. He’s also the co-author of the non-fiction book The Way of Baseball: Finding Stillness at 95 MPH. He has taught creative writing and literature at U.C. Irvine, U.C.L.A., and Chapman University. He lives with his wife Julie in Southern California. “Owen Fitzstephen,” by the way, is the name of a character, a dissolute, alcoholic writer, in Hammett’s The Dain Curse.
Gordon McAlpine has been described by Publisher’s Weekly as “a gifted stylist, with clean, clear and muscular prose.” A native Californian, he attended the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at the University of California, Irvine.
Once Upon a Midnight Eerie is Mr. McAlpine’s latest book and is the the second volume in his middle-grade trilogy, “The Misadventures of Edgar and Allan Poe”. Publisher’s Weekly describes the book as a “gumbo of jokes, codes, treasure, history, mystery and assorted literary references.” It was published by Viking in April, 2014.
The Tell-Tale Start, published in 2013, is the first book in “The Misadventures of Edgar and Allan Poe”. Publisher’s Weekly writes in a starred review of the award winning audio version of The Tell-Tale Start: “Entertaining and original….Endlessly fun and ultimately very satisfying on every level.”
In February 2013, Seventh Street Books published Hammett Unwritten, a literary mystery novel that revolves around the life of the great detective novelist Dashiell Hammett. Reviews of the novel have been stellar and the novel has appeared on top ten lists for the year.
The Los Angeles Times called Mr. McAlpine’s first novel, Joy in Mudville, an “imaginative mix of history, humor and fantasy…fanciful and surprising”, and The West Coast Review of Books called it “a minor miracle.” Joy in Mudville was re-released in a new e-book edition in late summer 2012.
The Way of Baseball, Finding Stillness at 95 MPH, is a non fiction book and was published by Simon & Schuster in June 2011 to outstanding reviews. Written in collaboration with Major League All-Star Shawn Green, the book illuminates the spiritual practices that enabled Green to “bring stillness into the flow of life.”
The Persistence of Memory, his second novel, was published by the distinguished British publisher Peter Owen Ltd., and his young adult novel, Mystery Box, was published by Cricket Books to critical praise.
Mr. McAlpine has published short stories and book reviews in journals and anthologies both in the U.S.A and abroad. His short story “The Happiest Place” appears in the Akashic Press anthology, Orange County Noir. He has chaired and taught creative writing in the Master of Fine Arts Program at Chapman University in Orange, California, as well as fiction writing classes at U.C.L.A and U.C. Irvine. In his twenties, he developed video games and wrote scripts for film and television.
He is a member of the Author’s Guild and PEN, and he is president of the board of directors of the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation. He lives with his wife Julie in Southern California.
Gordon McAlpine has been described by Publisher’s Weekly as “a gifted stylist, with clean, clear and muscular prose.” A native Californian, he attended the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing at the University of California, Irvine.
Once Upon a Midnight Eerie is Mr. McAlpine’s latest book and is the the second volume in his middle-grade trilogy, “The Misadventures of Edgar and Allan Poe”. Publisher’s Weekly describes the book as a “gumbo of jokes, codes, treasure, history, mystery and assorted literary references.” It was published by Viking in April, 2014.
The Tell-Tale Start, published in 2013, is the first book in “The Misadventures of Edgar and Allan Poe”. Publisher’s Weekly writes in a starred review of the award winning audio version of The Tell-Tale Start: “Entertaining and original….Endlessly fun and ultimately very satisfying on every level.”
In February 2013, Seventh Street Books published Hammett Unwritten, a literary mystery novel that revolves around the life of the great detective novelist Dashiell Hammett. Reviews of the novel have been stellar and the novel has appeared on top ten lists for the year.
The Los Angeles Times called Mr. McAlpine’s first novel, Joy in Mudville, an “imaginative mix of history, humor and fantasy…fanciful and surprising”, and The West Coast Review of Books called it “a minor miracle.” Joy in Mudville was re-released in a new e-book edition in late summer 2012.
The Way of Baseball, Finding Stillness at 95 MPH, is a non fiction book and was published by Simon & Schuster in June 2011 to outstanding reviews. Written in collaboration with Major League All-Star Shawn Green, the book illuminates the spiritual practices that enabled Green to “bring stillness into the flow of life.”
The Persistence of Memory, his second novel, was published by the distinguished British publisher Peter Owen Ltd., and his young adult novel, Mystery Box, was published by Cricket Books to critical praise.
Mr. McAlpine has published short stories and book reviews in journals and anthologies both in the U.S.A and abroad. His short story “The Happiest Place” appears in the Akashic Press anthology, Orange County Noir. He has chaired and taught creative writing in the Master of Fine Arts Program at Chapman University in Orange, California, as well as fiction writing classes at U.C.L.A and U.C. Irvine. In his twenties, he developed video games and wrote scripts for film and television.
He is a member of the Author’s Guild and PEN, and he is president of the board of directors of the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation. He lives with his wife Julie in Southern California.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 24, 2009
What if Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon were real? What would they have been like? Gordon McAlpine attempts to answer that tantalizing question in the ultimately disappointing Mystery Box, dropping them in the middle of 1920s era Paris during the height of the "Lost Generation", when disenchanted writers and artists found their way to the Left Bank. The book is peppered with references and appearances by these famous writers from F. Scott Fitzgerald & his wife Zelda to Alice B. Toklas & Gertrude Stein. It's also peppered with in-jokes and references to the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books themselves.
That's fun in spotting the references, but they're a little too literal. I'd rather have had the names different, because in the end, it feels like Carolyn and Frank were guilty of the exact whitewashing accused of the later revisions. They wanted to remember their families and lives as they wanted them to be -- the perfect idyllic small town lives with the occasional adventure, rather than sad or sordid tales they were, sort of the opposite of Peyton Place. I don't know that that's a bad thing exactly, but it just struck me as odd.
In the end, it's mostly a love story of two would-be writers finding a life's work together. I just wish it didn't come with the odd aftertaste of bathtub gin.
That's fun in spotting the references, but they're a little too literal. I'd rather have had the names different, because in the end, it feels like Carolyn and Frank were guilty of the exact whitewashing accused of the later revisions. They wanted to remember their families and lives as they wanted them to be -- the perfect idyllic small town lives with the occasional adventure, rather than sad or sordid tales they were, sort of the opposite of Peyton Place. I don't know that that's a bad thing exactly, but it just struck me as odd.
In the end, it's mostly a love story of two would-be writers finding a life's work together. I just wish it didn't come with the odd aftertaste of bathtub gin.
February 22, 2025
As a Nancy Drew fan I was skeptical. But this is a great story about Carolyn Keene & the Dixon brothers-hypothetically. I enjoyed it and it kept my interest.
August 28, 2020
The author imagines what the real Carolyn Keene and Frank Dixon would have been like if they had existed beyond the pseudonyms that the names represent. How interesting to drop the two of them into 1920's Paris among expats such as Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Ernest Hemingway, and Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novels of Carolyn and Frank are hardly at the level of these famous authors, but it's fun to imagine their relationships. This book is classified as young adult, but I don't believe many young adults would be interested in the adventures, mystery, or love story of authors they haven't read. I enjoyed it because I have read Nancy Drew novels, and found it interesting that McAlpine would make her home life so different from that of the Nancy Drew novels. I'm also familiar with Stein, Toklas, Hemingway, and the Fitzgerald's, so I was able to enjoy their encounters with Carolyn and Frank. This books will appeal to a limited audience.
December 20, 2018
Well this was... Ambitious. What if Carolyn Keene and Franklin Dixon were real? This small book tries to imagine them as youths who travel to the ever popular Paris in the 20s. As they rub elbows with Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, and the Fitzgeralds they find each other and fall in love.
This was a very sweet little book. Mindless.. but I just can’t get behind that the writers that created the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew got writing advice on the regular from key writers of the lost generation. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Nancy Drew, and will 100% be reading them right after I finish this review, but no one can say ever that they are at the caliber of Hemingway. Nor should they be. Either way, enjoyable for the time. But now I need to find myself in another Nancy mystery.
This was a very sweet little book. Mindless.. but I just can’t get behind that the writers that created the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew got writing advice on the regular from key writers of the lost generation. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Nancy Drew, and will 100% be reading them right after I finish this review, but no one can say ever that they are at the caliber of Hemingway. Nor should they be. Either way, enjoyable for the time. But now I need to find myself in another Nancy mystery.
October 1, 2017
Though there are some fine moments in the story (scenes featuring Frank and Joe, Carolyn and Rose, Frank and Carolyn, Ernest Hemingway and/or Gertrude Stein), the majority of the book reaches for heights it never fully attains and that's a shame as the idea of Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene as real people is an interesting one.
October 6, 2018
This was a wonderful story that kept me engrossed. I really enjoyed the take the author had on Carolyn Keene and Franklin Dixon. The scattering of other literary stars in Paris and the glimpse of Canon Doyle in England made the story even more entertaining. This was a fun story imagining the lives of two favorite childhood authors.
February 18, 2018
Anyone who is a fan of Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys will enjoy this book. It was very enjoyable.
April 10, 2018
Nice premise, but it's not a YA, not interesting, parts were crass, and too slow. Readers and lovers of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys can skip this one.
March 14, 2011
The book "Mystery Box" by Gorden McAlpine is about the creators of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. It was a boring book to me, because It was slow through most of it. It is about Franklin Dixon who's brother ends up disappearing during WW1. He and his family find out he is still alive, but fled, so he goes and searches for him in Europe. Carolyne Keene is the other half of the story, and she ends up leaving home when she finds out her dad's significant other decides she is leaving. They both end up in Paris. Dixon is an investigator and gets a report from a woman that she lost her husbands short stories and novels, which are in a black suitcase. Carolyne and Franklin have to piece their pasts and get the suitcase back.
Is there such thing as fate? Like how two people are brought together and end up producing books read by millions. If so, how does it work? If not, why? Explain.
Is there such thing as fate? Like how two people are brought together and end up producing books read by millions. If so, how does it work? If not, why? Explain.
July 8, 2013
This is a book about Franklin Dixon (the creator of the Hardy Boys) and Carolyn Keene, (author of Nancy Drew). Both characters are fictionalized, but they do have some elements of each author's different lives. It takes a lot to bring these two character's worlds together.
I thought that the idea for this book was cool, and it was. However, it was kind of slow for me. It had mystery, but not a whole lot. It was more like an every day type of novel. About what happens to real people--in some areas at least. It was interesting.
I thought that the idea for this book was cool, and it was. However, it was kind of slow for me. It had mystery, but not a whole lot. It was more like an every day type of novel. About what happens to real people--in some areas at least. It was interesting.
January 13, 2012
From the simple premise (what if the authors of the Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew series were real people) McAlpine spins a delightful yarn full of mystery, romance, and history. The book expertly evokes 1920s Paris and the Lost Generation (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein), and seamlessly blends the life histories of the *characters* of the children's mystery series into the "real-life" histories of their authors.
March 28, 2017
I was expecting something frothier...I mean, a mystery dealing with Carolyn Keene and Frank Dixon as living characters?! However, this was quite a bit darker than I would have supposed from the premise. Both character/writers had to deal with a childhood idol toppling, all while Europe- hopping with famous (real) expats during the 1920's. The two protagonists resolve their own pasts and move forward to create two of the most widely read and beloved children's series of all time: The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.
Note: My favorite part of the whole book is the disclaimer at the beginning which states in part: "The authors of these books never lived in a real-world, tax-paying sense; rather, the names Dixon and Keene are pseudonyms for the many ghostwriters who for generations have spun suspenseful tales..."
Apparently, this has been a well-kept secret from many readers who have been devastated to learn that these legendary writers are exactly that, "legendary." I am doing my part to spread the truth because I don't think it in any way detracts from the quality and appeal of the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys stories.
Note: My favorite part of the whole book is the disclaimer at the beginning which states in part: "The authors of these books never lived in a real-world, tax-paying sense; rather, the names Dixon and Keene are pseudonyms for the many ghostwriters who for generations have spun suspenseful tales..."
Apparently, this has been a well-kept secret from many readers who have been devastated to learn that these legendary writers are exactly that, "legendary." I am doing my part to spread the truth because I don't think it in any way detracts from the quality and appeal of the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys stories.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews