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Hardy Boys Adventures #25
The Smuggler's Legacy
A buried secret becomes a big problem for Frank and Joe in the twenty-fifth book in the thrilling Hardy Boys Adventures series.
Frank and Joe are on a history club trip to New York City, and their first stop is the Prohibition Museum where they’ll hear about how smugglers building getaway vehicles led to the rise of modern stock car racing. During a tour of damp escape tunnels beneath the museum, Frank slips and breaks a wall panel with his elbow, revealing a hidden compartment containing documents from the 1920s!
The documents reveal that The Gilded Top Hat—the speakeasy which later became the Prohibition Museum—wasn’t actually owned by the Faccini brothers who were arrested for its bootlegging operations. The museum curator is eager to investigate this lead into the speakeasy’s history, and never ones to turn down a good case, Frank and Joe volunteer to help out. But before long, someone steals the documents and sends the boys warnings to stop digging into the past. Can Frank and Joe uncover the truth before it’s buried for another hundred years—and the boys along with it?
Frank and Joe are on a history club trip to New York City, and their first stop is the Prohibition Museum where they’ll hear about how smugglers building getaway vehicles led to the rise of modern stock car racing. During a tour of damp escape tunnels beneath the museum, Frank slips and breaks a wall panel with his elbow, revealing a hidden compartment containing documents from the 1920s!
The documents reveal that The Gilded Top Hat—the speakeasy which later became the Prohibition Museum—wasn’t actually owned by the Faccini brothers who were arrested for its bootlegging operations. The museum curator is eager to investigate this lead into the speakeasy’s history, and never ones to turn down a good case, Frank and Joe volunteer to help out. But before long, someone steals the documents and sends the boys warnings to stop digging into the past. Can Frank and Joe uncover the truth before it’s buried for another hundred years—and the boys along with it?
173 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 14, 2023
17 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Franklin W. Dixon
785 books1,000 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 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 10, 2023
I have read most of this modern day Hardy Boys series and this is one of the best ones I have read. The mystery of this one was very good and held my attention really well. Very enjoyable read!
October 17, 2023
One of the better books in this Hardy Boys series. A little darker than previous mysteries, but overall enjoyable.
March 13, 2023
One of the best in the series! I love the historical connection. As with most of the Hardy Boys Adventures books, I wish they took more time to wrap up after concluding the case (e.g. What happened to Trent Kensington after all the news came out, etc). But a very solid read nonetheless. Can’t wait for the next one!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 20, 2024
Hardy Boys Adventures #25 Smuggler’s Legacy has an intriguing mix of history and mystery set in NYC (New York City) during a Bayport High field trip with cool brothers Frank and Joe Hardy. Chet is also there, which is great.
We enjoyed telling our super cool mom about the mystery – that was fun! She also found it intriguing. 😎 Love that especially.
Cool case, enjoyed solving it and catching clues with my Hardy Boys/Nancy book reading sibling – love that especially. Love the brothers having fun, working together. Love exploring the tunnel and the speakeasy, trying to figure out the mystery from the 1920s. Love the telephone booth, the Tiffany glass, the code to get in, checking it out, finding the previously hidden area off of the tunnel, rediscovered courtesy of Frank’s elbow – Joe describing his brother slipping on the wet floor of the tunnel like he hit a cartoon banana peel was well done.
This adventure is very good except for a few things. This book loses one star because the author references the worst book in the Adventures series, Mayhem Express, and takes us temporarily out of Smuggler’s Legacy, causing disgust at having to think about the non-Hardy-Boys-book-which-is-not-worth-reading. Didn’t like Mona the assistant curator of the Prohibition Museum – confusing character.
I will assume when any of the good guys and gals used God's name, it was in prayer to God, a prayer for help and also exclamations of happiness, not profanity.
Overall, Smuggler's Legacy is a really enjoyable mystery!
You can check out my entire review on --> my Hardy and Drew Mysteries blog
We enjoyed telling our super cool mom about the mystery – that was fun! She also found it intriguing. 😎 Love that especially.
Cool case, enjoyed solving it and catching clues with my Hardy Boys/Nancy book reading sibling – love that especially. Love the brothers having fun, working together. Love exploring the tunnel and the speakeasy, trying to figure out the mystery from the 1920s. Love the telephone booth, the Tiffany glass, the code to get in, checking it out, finding the previously hidden area off of the tunnel, rediscovered courtesy of Frank’s elbow – Joe describing his brother slipping on the wet floor of the tunnel like he hit a cartoon banana peel was well done.
This adventure is very good except for a few things. This book loses one star because the author references the worst book in the Adventures series, Mayhem Express, and takes us temporarily out of Smuggler’s Legacy, causing disgust at having to think about the non-Hardy-Boys-book-which-is-not-worth-reading. Didn’t like Mona the assistant curator of the Prohibition Museum – confusing character.
I will assume when any of the good guys and gals used God's name, it was in prayer to God, a prayer for help and also exclamations of happiness, not profanity.
Overall, Smuggler's Legacy is a really enjoyable mystery!
You can check out my entire review on --> my Hardy and Drew Mysteries blog
March 8, 2025
The Smuggler's Legacy is the final book in the Hardy Boys Adventures series, released in 2023. On a class field trip, Frank and Joe learns about a squeakeasy from the Roaring 20s. While now a museum, they come across a deed showing a name that was not of the initially thought owners. Eager to investigate the true identity of the owner, the boys & the curator start receiving threatening letters to stop their investigation. Somehow this is more than just a history lesson, for Frank and Joe might become history before they are able to unmask the mysterious identity.
I read the older Hardy Boys books when I was younger, and hearing how the publishers decided to continually make new books to the series, especially ones set in modern times, I was interested in picking this up. On Libby, this is unfortunately, the only book in the series available for me to check out, in which, it is also the final release of the latest series. For the most part, it follows the formula used in the original books and the characterization of the brothers are definitely distinguishable. I did find the storyline and stakes to be a bit higher and darker than usual for the series, but it works well. And things do not go as graphic as other young adult series. It's definitely enjoyable to read the exploits of the Hardy brothers as they start deducing the suspect down clue by clue.
I read the older Hardy Boys books when I was younger, and hearing how the publishers decided to continually make new books to the series, especially ones set in modern times, I was interested in picking this up. On Libby, this is unfortunately, the only book in the series available for me to check out, in which, it is also the final release of the latest series. For the most part, it follows the formula used in the original books and the characterization of the brothers are definitely distinguishable. I did find the storyline and stakes to be a bit higher and darker than usual for the series, but it works well. And things do not go as graphic as other young adult series. It's definitely enjoyable to read the exploits of the Hardy brothers as they start deducing the suspect down clue by clue.
October 22, 2023
One of the best in the series! I love the historical connection. As with most of the Hardy Boys Adventures books, I wish they took more time to wrap up after concluding the case (e.g. What happened to Trent Kensington after all the news came out, etc). But a very solid read nonetheless. Can’t wait for the next one!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 7, 2024
I’m impressed with the research on prohibition era speakeasies and gangsters as well as NYC locations which provides actual historical and present day context for this mystery, though it’s not difficult via the Internet. And it’s a solid and unusual mystery for a kid’s book.
June 10, 2025
Love the new hardy Boys stories and all the old hardy Boys books
they speak volumes of happiness from my childhood and into my adulthood and even now
love all the mystery and great story
highly recommend this series and all these books
they speak volumes of happiness from my childhood and into my adulthood and even now
love all the mystery and great story
highly recommend this series and all these books
December 27, 2024
Really good wish they would've kept going with this series.
November 3, 2025
3.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews