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The Hardy Boys #176
In Plane Sight
WILL THE HARDYS CRASH AND BURN IN THE JEWEL RIDGE AIRSHOW?
Attending an airshow to help out their friend Jamal Hawkins and his dad's air taxi service should be a nice break from the normal grind for Frank and Joe Hardy. But when one of the Hawkinses' planes is mysteriously stolen -- starting a whole wave of crime at the event -- the vacation ends, and the hunt for clues begins!
The brothers' investigation takes them from the airport runway to the nearby mountains, and even into the clouds. Who, or what, is behind the trouble? Could it be one of the exhibitors, a jealous rival, or a former hotshot pilot? The crooks' plans are really taking off -- can the Hardys ground these guys for good?
Attending an airshow to help out their friend Jamal Hawkins and his dad's air taxi service should be a nice break from the normal grind for Frank and Joe Hardy. But when one of the Hawkinses' planes is mysteriously stolen -- starting a whole wave of crime at the event -- the vacation ends, and the hunt for clues begins!
The brothers' investigation takes them from the airport runway to the nearby mountains, and even into the clouds. Who, or what, is behind the trouble? Could it be one of the exhibitors, a jealous rival, or a former hotshot pilot? The crooks' plans are really taking off -- can the Hardys ground these guys for good?
160 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2002
About the author
Franklin W. Dixon
817 books1,008 followersFranklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors who were part of a team that wrote The Hardy Boys novels for the Stratemeyer Syndicate (now owned by Simon & Schuster). Dixon was also the writer attributed for the Ted Scott Flying Stories series, published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Canadian author Leslie McFarlane is believed to have written the first sixteen Hardy Boys books, but worked to a detailed plot and character outline for each story. The outlines are believed to have originated with Edward Stratemeyer, with later books outlined by his daughters Edna C. Squier and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. Edward and Harriet also edited all books in the series through the mid-1960s. Other writers of the original books include MacFarlane's wife Amy, John Button, Andrew E. Svenson, and Adams herself; most of the outlines were done by Adams and Svenson. A number of other writers and editors were recruited to revise the outlines and update the texts in line with a more modern sensibility, starting in the late 1950s.
The principal author for the Ted Scott books was John W. Duffield.
Canadian author Leslie McFarlane is believed to have written the first sixteen Hardy Boys books, but worked to a detailed plot and character outline for each story. The outlines are believed to have originated with Edward Stratemeyer, with later books outlined by his daughters Edna C. Squier and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. Edward and Harriet also edited all books in the series through the mid-1960s. Other writers of the original books include MacFarlane's wife Amy, John Button, Andrew E. Svenson, and Adams herself; most of the outlines were done by Adams and Svenson. A number of other writers and editors were recruited to revise the outlines and update the texts in line with a more modern sensibility, starting in the late 1950s.
The principal author for the Ted Scott books was John W. Duffield.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 1, 2026
3/5 stars
back when i was in middle school, back when i didn’t have the worries and hurt of the life i’m living now, there was always something comforting about opening up a hardy boys mystery and just diving into it, especially those matte-bound hardcovers i grew up on, with their illustrations every few chapters.
as someone who grew up on those 1920s–70s hardcovers (particularly the grosset n dunlap era), where frank and joe chase smugglers through caves, streets or abandoned buildings, and every chapter pushes me to read the next, i came into this book hoping for a similar story, hoping to re-live that experience i had as a kid opening those mysteries.
now that i'm done with the book, i can tell you that this book was def familiar, but also completely different.
so, this can go two ways. the first explanation is the easiest one: i’ve outgrown them, and that doesn’t really need much elaboration. but the second explanation is the point of this review.
i should say, though, the essential hardy boys formula stays intact. you still have frank, the elder brother, the planner, the more sensible one in moments of fight or flight, and then you have joe, the younger one, impulsive, the action man, ready to do what frank might hesitate to do. their interactions, their banter, the way they tackle situations side by side, that’s something i always loved falling into.
it even shaped me a little as an elder brother myself, someone who can be relied upon, but also someone who’s an accomplice and buddy, not just “the older one,” but someone who has his brother’s back as much as the other way around. that semblance is still here in a way, and i’m grateful for that at least isn't gone.
the mystery itself is .. fine. you’ve got stolen planes, a dilapidated airport with some suspicious activity, and a set of eccentric characters. but what really threw me off at the beginning, and what i eventually just accepted, was the pacing. it moves way too quickly. the action sequences are fast, which you expect with chases and stories of the like, but the overall pacing is kind of insane. almost every chapter ends on a cliffhanger or pivotal plot pt, and at some point, it starts to feel ridiculous, though still weirdly fun because of it.
i’m not even sure if this is how the original hardcovers i read were paced. i’d have to go back and check. if they were, it worked for me back then and i didn’t see it as a problem. but here, it kept throwing me off, and i found myself reading it with a much less serious tone as i went on, annotating with snarky comments as i read on.
the structure of this book is quite similar to the classic, but the prose is just functional. it does the job, but it doesn’t have the same flavor as those old matte hardcovers, the ones ghostwritten by leslie mcfarlane and others.
actually, lemme nerd out for a bit. the original ghostwriter was leslie mcfarlane, a canadian journalist hired by edward stratemeyer. he took the outlines and basically brought frank and joe to life. his version of the characters defined the series for a lot of readers, including me. and if i’m not wrong, the pen name “franklin w. dixon” came from combining the names of mcfarlane’s brothers, frank and dick (short for richard).
of course, there were many other writers who contributed under the same name, like andrew svenson, vincent buranelli, james lawrence, and others. i didn’t know most of these names off the top of my head before writing this, but some quick research filled that in hehe
harriet adams is one i did know tho. she is stratemeyer’s daughter, who took over the syndicate after his death. she was a major contributor and revisionist, and also worked on nancy drew under the name carolyn keene. i haven’t read much nancy drew, maybe a book or so as a kid, so i won’t pretend expertise there like i was just going to hehe.
anyway, coming back to the book
like i was saying, it doesn’t have that same flavor. it reads almost like a screenplay outline turned into prose, without much effort to deepen it. the action is rapid-fire but maybe that’s intentional. maybe this is how i would have experienced it back then and just didn’t notice.
and maybe i’m just overthinking it now, overanalyzing and over-critiquing it instead of giving it a fair shot. but i’m just tryna stay honest to what i felt reading it now hmmm
the mystery itself, with the recurring masked figure, is okay. the suspect pool is small enough that you can start narrowing it down fairly early. thankfully it’s not painfully obvious.
at this point, the whole review is basically me trying to articulate why this didn’t hit the same way. maybe i’m even being generous with my rating because of how much i loved this series as a kid. maybe that’s bias. maybe it isn’t. and maybe this is harsher due to my chase of that childhood nostalgia, which this didn't meet.
but now if i had to summarize: the book is fine. it’s not bad. it’s competently plotted for a hardy boys story, even if i haven’t made it sound that way. even the old series which is dear to me, was far from perfect. and if i went back to those older books now, i’d probably find more flaws there too.
but i still do think the difference is this: those older books had texture. not just in the literal sense, with those matte covers, but in the writing itself. they pulled you into their world in which there was charm, atmosphere, a certain soul to them that made you feel like the hardy's accomplice.
and this book has that structure, but not that soul. haha it feels like a neoclassical house trying to imitate a classical style, ending up as a shell. someone unfamiliar with the original might enjoy it, but if you’ve loved the real thing, it just feels .. hollow.
maybe that’s just where i am right now.
if you’re of a younger audience around middle school, you’ll enjoy this fosho. not because it’s a “lesser” book, but because you won’t carry the same bias or literary criticisms i do.
but if you’re an adult chasing childhood nostalgia, you’ll recognize the skeleton, but the soul of those original hardy boys stories, especially the grosset & dunlap era, feels long gone.
i couldve finished this in one sitting. but i dragged it out, partly because i was reading other books, partly because certain events n ppl got in the way, or out of my way actually. and i also did take the time to annotate it a bit, even sketching some of the planes mentioned.
and that’s one thing i’ll give it, it got me a little interested in airplanes, enough to look up some of them. it’s not really a plane-focused book, but i ended up treating it like one at times, trying to understand every detail. and if you opened my copy, you’d probably find a few plane info, detail and sketches in there.
i guess, in the end, this whole review is me, once again, struggling to say something that could’ve probably been said in brevity without all this elaboration. i wasn’t even planning to write a review, let alone, something this long. but here we are haha .. trying to make up for my inability to explain it properly.
but she would’ve understood without me having to explain it at all
back when i was in middle school, back when i didn’t have the worries and hurt of the life i’m living now, there was always something comforting about opening up a hardy boys mystery and just diving into it, especially those matte-bound hardcovers i grew up on, with their illustrations every few chapters.
as someone who grew up on those 1920s–70s hardcovers (particularly the grosset n dunlap era), where frank and joe chase smugglers through caves, streets or abandoned buildings, and every chapter pushes me to read the next, i came into this book hoping for a similar story, hoping to re-live that experience i had as a kid opening those mysteries.
now that i'm done with the book, i can tell you that this book was def familiar, but also completely different.
so, this can go two ways. the first explanation is the easiest one: i’ve outgrown them, and that doesn’t really need much elaboration. but the second explanation is the point of this review.
i should say, though, the essential hardy boys formula stays intact. you still have frank, the elder brother, the planner, the more sensible one in moments of fight or flight, and then you have joe, the younger one, impulsive, the action man, ready to do what frank might hesitate to do. their interactions, their banter, the way they tackle situations side by side, that’s something i always loved falling into.
it even shaped me a little as an elder brother myself, someone who can be relied upon, but also someone who’s an accomplice and buddy, not just “the older one,” but someone who has his brother’s back as much as the other way around. that semblance is still here in a way, and i’m grateful for that at least isn't gone.
the mystery itself is .. fine. you’ve got stolen planes, a dilapidated airport with some suspicious activity, and a set of eccentric characters. but what really threw me off at the beginning, and what i eventually just accepted, was the pacing. it moves way too quickly. the action sequences are fast, which you expect with chases and stories of the like, but the overall pacing is kind of insane. almost every chapter ends on a cliffhanger or pivotal plot pt, and at some point, it starts to feel ridiculous, though still weirdly fun because of it.
i’m not even sure if this is how the original hardcovers i read were paced. i’d have to go back and check. if they were, it worked for me back then and i didn’t see it as a problem. but here, it kept throwing me off, and i found myself reading it with a much less serious tone as i went on, annotating with snarky comments as i read on.
the structure of this book is quite similar to the classic, but the prose is just functional. it does the job, but it doesn’t have the same flavor as those old matte hardcovers, the ones ghostwritten by leslie mcfarlane and others.
actually, lemme nerd out for a bit. the original ghostwriter was leslie mcfarlane, a canadian journalist hired by edward stratemeyer. he took the outlines and basically brought frank and joe to life. his version of the characters defined the series for a lot of readers, including me. and if i’m not wrong, the pen name “franklin w. dixon” came from combining the names of mcfarlane’s brothers, frank and dick (short for richard).
of course, there were many other writers who contributed under the same name, like andrew svenson, vincent buranelli, james lawrence, and others. i didn’t know most of these names off the top of my head before writing this, but some quick research filled that in hehe
harriet adams is one i did know tho. she is stratemeyer’s daughter, who took over the syndicate after his death. she was a major contributor and revisionist, and also worked on nancy drew under the name carolyn keene. i haven’t read much nancy drew, maybe a book or so as a kid, so i won’t pretend expertise there like i was just going to hehe.
anyway, coming back to the book
like i was saying, it doesn’t have that same flavor. it reads almost like a screenplay outline turned into prose, without much effort to deepen it. the action is rapid-fire but maybe that’s intentional. maybe this is how i would have experienced it back then and just didn’t notice.
and maybe i’m just overthinking it now, overanalyzing and over-critiquing it instead of giving it a fair shot. but i’m just tryna stay honest to what i felt reading it now hmmm
the mystery itself, with the recurring masked figure, is okay. the suspect pool is small enough that you can start narrowing it down fairly early. thankfully it’s not painfully obvious.
at this point, the whole review is basically me trying to articulate why this didn’t hit the same way. maybe i’m even being generous with my rating because of how much i loved this series as a kid. maybe that’s bias. maybe it isn’t. and maybe this is harsher due to my chase of that childhood nostalgia, which this didn't meet.
but now if i had to summarize: the book is fine. it’s not bad. it’s competently plotted for a hardy boys story, even if i haven’t made it sound that way. even the old series which is dear to me, was far from perfect. and if i went back to those older books now, i’d probably find more flaws there too.
but i still do think the difference is this: those older books had texture. not just in the literal sense, with those matte covers, but in the writing itself. they pulled you into their world in which there was charm, atmosphere, a certain soul to them that made you feel like the hardy's accomplice.
and this book has that structure, but not that soul. haha it feels like a neoclassical house trying to imitate a classical style, ending up as a shell. someone unfamiliar with the original might enjoy it, but if you’ve loved the real thing, it just feels .. hollow.
maybe that’s just where i am right now.
if you’re of a younger audience around middle school, you’ll enjoy this fosho. not because it’s a “lesser” book, but because you won’t carry the same bias or literary criticisms i do.
but if you’re an adult chasing childhood nostalgia, you’ll recognize the skeleton, but the soul of those original hardy boys stories, especially the grosset & dunlap era, feels long gone.
i couldve finished this in one sitting. but i dragged it out, partly because i was reading other books, partly because certain events n ppl got in the way, or out of my way actually. and i also did take the time to annotate it a bit, even sketching some of the planes mentioned.
and that’s one thing i’ll give it, it got me a little interested in airplanes, enough to look up some of them. it’s not really a plane-focused book, but i ended up treating it like one at times, trying to understand every detail. and if you opened my copy, you’d probably find a few plane info, detail and sketches in there.
i guess, in the end, this whole review is me, once again, struggling to say something that could’ve probably been said in brevity without all this elaboration. i wasn’t even planning to write a review, let alone, something this long. but here we are haha .. trying to make up for my inability to explain it properly.
but she would’ve understood without me having to explain it at all
April 11, 2011
I generally read all the books that my 4th grader is reading so that he can discuss them with me. I really like the Hardy Boys books because they are interesting and hold his attention. This is a newer book, so the brothers have cell phones and computers. :-) It's full of non-stop action that my 9 year old enjoyed (ala James Bond...the Hardy Boys are quite good at what they do!) ;-)
December 3, 2016
Great read!
November 24, 2019
This was a HB digest focused on airplanes, and while they've used planes in the past, they've never really had them as the focus quite like they did here. The winter forest setting was a good choice to make it more interesting too - the ice lake was a good setting.
Utterly ridiculous (in a good way) that they seriously had Joe cling to the outside of a plane as it took off, bust inside, then get pushed out without a parachute and have Frank dive after from a different airplane and maneuver to catch and save him with a single shared chute. That is some Mission Impossible shit and I could not believe they had the audacity to make the brothers do this, haha. Points for this.
Not five stars because the urban legend aspect was added way too late in the story and the main villain was broadcast immediately (although his minions were a surprise to me).
Utterly ridiculous (in a good way) that they seriously had Joe cling to the outside of a plane as it took off, bust inside, then get pushed out without a parachute and have Frank dive after from a different airplane and maneuver to catch and save him with a single shared chute. That is some Mission Impossible shit and I could not believe they had the audacity to make the brothers do this, haha. Points for this.
Not five stars because the urban legend aspect was added way too late in the story and the main villain was broadcast immediately (although his minions were a surprise to me).
April 20, 2011
Very good book, the only problem i had was that the mystery got a little predictable and i was able to solve it before the book ended unlike the others i have read.
March 6, 2016
Great
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews