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The Hardy Boys: Casefiles #6

The Crowning Terror

A dangerous game of double cross.

When Frank and Joe are invited to join their Uncle Hugh for lunch, the main course turns out to be a bizarre kidnap plot. After a violent scuffle, Uncle Hugh is whisked away, and the boys suddenly find themselves in deep trouble with a government espionage team.

Special Agent Starkey is determined to prove that Hugh is a traitor and accuses the boys of helping him to escape. To complicate things, a beautiful mystery woman called Charity is also on their uncle's trail. Frank and Joe are stranded far from home, on the run from two desperate gangs - with orders to shoot to kill...

154 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1987

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About the author

Franklin W. Dixon

956 books1,017 followers
Franklin 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.

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5 stars
74 (22%)
4 stars
106 (32%)
3 stars
118 (36%)
2 stars
26 (8%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
Profile Image for P.S. Broaddus.
Author 2 books29 followers
October 14, 2017
It's the Hardy Boys. It's fun. They meet bad guys. They run. They chase. They figure stuff out. The end.
Profile Image for Jacqueline.
506 reviews20 followers
September 2, 2025
Frank and Joe Hardy meet their "Uncle" at a restaurant, where he is poisoned and kidnapped. Then the Hardys are apprehended by a guy called Starsky who claims to be an intelligence operative. However, the Hardys have their doubts when Starsky seems to be involved in a series of art thefts.
Soon Frank and Joe face danger at every turn: trying to prove their uncle's innocence (Starsky claims he's working with the Russians), out maneuvering a mysterious female thief, obtaining the antidote to the poison that was slipped to their Uncle, and trying to stay alive themselves.
There's plenty of action and an interesting plot to this volume of the Hardy Boys Casefiles series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Kelly Rivera.
161 reviews
February 26, 2026
So weird. So fun. I enjoyed this one. It was much more interesting than the last book, if not completely absurd. Let me just list a few highlights:
-Uncle Hugh is a spy??
-The boys leaping off of the Golden Gate Bridge while Frank was also tied up
-The boys being threatened with acid
-Tech theft?
-Deus ex motorcycle gang
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
199 reviews8 followers
October 14, 2017
One for the highlight reels, so many twist and turns. Much better than casefile # 5
Profile Image for Adeline Warner.
35 reviews
December 19, 2024
Hardy Boys are my go-to books to get out of a slump. This one was good, but I’ve read better hardy boys!!
Profile Image for The Curious Reader.
1,680 reviews262 followers
May 24, 2019
When I first read Hardy Boys, I think I was in class 5, I had such a crush on Frank Hardy. I liked the brainy one over the brawny one and that sums up my first impression of Hardy Boys.
In their late teens, Frank and Joe Hardy take after their detective father Fenton Hardy. Frank is the older of the two and has more breakthroughs in the cases because he is the brainy one. Joe is the younger brother who more often than not is useful when things get hot and they need to fight their way out.
Like Nancy Drew, the books in the The Hardy Boys series re written by ghostwriters under the collective pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon. And yes, the earlier books were better than the latter ones.
4 reviews
Read
May 9, 2012
It's good... but it lacked something, I don't know... maybe it was just too short for my taste, but overall... a must read... =D
Profile Image for Dannuel Delizo.
524 reviews20 followers
July 18, 2014
Well, if Uncle Hugh wasnt really a biological uncle to Frank and Joe, it surely wasnt surprising that he would do something fishy.
4 reviews2 followers
November 14, 2014
A very good book.... The Hardys go helping their so - called uncle Hunt, and get stuck between a dangerous gang..
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews