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The Hardy Boys #2
The House on the Cliff
Frank and Joe Hardy are investigating a mysterious old house high on the cliffs above Barmet Bay when they are frightened off by a mysterious scream. The boys return to the apparently haunted house and make a connection between the place and a smuggling case their father is working on. When their father goes missing, they start-out investigating the secret caves beneath the house and soon confront the gang of smugglers.
180 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1927
533 people are currently reading
3381 people want to read
About the author
Franklin W. Dixon
734 books991 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 - 30 of 619 reviews
May 13, 2022
Lots of action, adventure, and suspense as the brothers and friends work to rescue the Hardys' kidnapped father and uncover a smuggling ring.
December 23, 2010
I read this book when I was 8 and it's what made me gay. Seriously, Biff's motorcycle is named "Queen" and when Joe "straddles" it and wraps his around Biff (or Chet) he "feels the throbbing engine between his legs." Then Frank and Joe get naked together after swimming in the ocean but that's okay because they're brothers even though they look nothing alike. Yeah right. Even "South Park" picked up on the subtext of the "Hardy Boys" in one episode. But you decide for yourself GoodReaders.
November 30, 2016
The Hardy Boys are legendary books for American boys. Well, perhaps for a certain generation anyway. Written by a collective behind the name Franklin Dixon (who also wrote the Nancy Drew mystery series), they are formulaic but abound with great cliff-hangers on nearly every chapter. In this adventure, there is a haunted house, adventures at sea and the ineffable Fenton Hardy as well as Frank, Joe, Biff and my kid's favourite Chet getting into the action. We have read 7 so far and this one is probably my #1 or #2 favourite. A quick and fun read for bedtime with your son that neither of you will regret.
August 31, 2023
Smugglers, a haunted house high on a cliff, danger lurking around every corner, a secret passage, all the Hardys’ pals we came to love as a kid getting involved and helping out, and Fenton Hardy disappearing make this one of the best of the Hardy Boys series. That’s especially true with this edition from Plotworks, whom I’d never heard of. This is the original version, not the re-write, and so a much better read. It states that a few minor slight edits were made, but having read the original 1927 version in the past, they were not noticeable at all, as this reads like the original.
Everything from the nice new cover with a retro feel, brand new and very good illustrations, and a nice font and layout make this a terrific read on Kindle. This particular version is highly recommended, but it was written in a different time and era, and you’ll need to take that into account and not whine about it. Superior to the re-write, though that one is good as well. It’s non-stop action and mystery for the Hardys in this classic from bygone days. I also picked up the first one, The Tower Treasure, and will have to give that one a re-read as well. It’s great to see the original version of the story presented in such a nice way.
Apparently more are in the works, since there is a preview of The Secret of the Old Mill at the end, so there’s much to look forward to in these original editions of The Hardy Boys. Nostalgic stuff.
Everything from the nice new cover with a retro feel, brand new and very good illustrations, and a nice font and layout make this a terrific read on Kindle. This particular version is highly recommended, but it was written in a different time and era, and you’ll need to take that into account and not whine about it. Superior to the re-write, though that one is good as well. It’s non-stop action and mystery for the Hardys in this classic from bygone days. I also picked up the first one, The Tower Treasure, and will have to give that one a re-read as well. It’s great to see the original version of the story presented in such a nice way.
Apparently more are in the works, since there is a preview of The Secret of the Old Mill at the end, so there’s much to look forward to in these original editions of The Hardy Boys. Nostalgic stuff.
September 18, 2020
This was my first Hardy Boys Mystery. I figured my 10 year old son might like them so I decided to read along with him. There were drug smugglers and white trash characters and all I could think about was how corny the story was. I think I would have LOVED these in Elementary School but now I'm too old and unimpressed by anything that doesn't impress my sensibilities.
Overall, I think it is a feel good innocent story for young people and their imaginations. They are fun, short and engaging and that is a perfect mix for these crazy times.
Overall, I think it is a feel good innocent story for young people and their imaginations. They are fun, short and engaging and that is a perfect mix for these crazy times.
September 18, 2017
What do you read on a rainy day? Me, I often pick up one of my Nancy Drew, Dana Sisters, or Hardy Boys books. This time I picked up the right book.
The Hardy Boys are riding down the road on their motorcycles on a nice sunny day and see this large house on a cliff and decide to go check it out because they had heard that it was now haunted. There was a story about the last owner of the house having been murdered in it and his spirit remains.
They park their bikes under some trees and walk up to the house. Once inside they hear a loud eerie shrieking sound. They run out of the house and back to their bikes. Storm clouds begin gathering, and next they are taking cover in a shed. See, it's a perfect book for a rainy day.
After thoughts:
I wanted to see who wrote this book since they used various writers in the Hardy Boys series. So, I spent some of this rainy day doing research on the internet.
Leslie McFarlane wrote the first 11 books, and then while he is said to have written numbers 12, 13, and 14, the writing in these three books is different. Also these three have the most obvious comments on racism in them. And yet, I had only found one in this book, his second one. Then I read that he also wrote number 14 and 15 before he quit writing this series.
In 1959 all of the series of The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and The Dana Sisters were edited to remove racist comments. While this was a good idea, they also changed other things in the books, which is why I read the old ones.
Next, I wanted to know more about Leslie McFarlane, and so I did some research on him.
He started out as a journalist in Canada and moved to the U.S. where he freelanced the boys adventure books, Dave Fearless. His son Brian wrote: “I was about 10 years old when I discovered the Hardy Boys books on my dad’s bookshelves, and began reading them. One day I asked him why he was interested in reading kids books and he told me he didn’t read them, he wrote them! ‘But don’t tell your friends that I write that nonsense,’ he told me. ”
Leslie McFarlane (1902-1977)
Copyright: 1927
The Hardy Boys are riding down the road on their motorcycles on a nice sunny day and see this large house on a cliff and decide to go check it out because they had heard that it was now haunted. There was a story about the last owner of the house having been murdered in it and his spirit remains.
They park their bikes under some trees and walk up to the house. Once inside they hear a loud eerie shrieking sound. They run out of the house and back to their bikes. Storm clouds begin gathering, and next they are taking cover in a shed. See, it's a perfect book for a rainy day.
After thoughts:
I wanted to see who wrote this book since they used various writers in the Hardy Boys series. So, I spent some of this rainy day doing research on the internet.
Leslie McFarlane wrote the first 11 books, and then while he is said to have written numbers 12, 13, and 14, the writing in these three books is different. Also these three have the most obvious comments on racism in them. And yet, I had only found one in this book, his second one. Then I read that he also wrote number 14 and 15 before he quit writing this series.
In 1959 all of the series of The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and The Dana Sisters were edited to remove racist comments. While this was a good idea, they also changed other things in the books, which is why I read the old ones.
Next, I wanted to know more about Leslie McFarlane, and so I did some research on him.
He started out as a journalist in Canada and moved to the U.S. where he freelanced the boys adventure books, Dave Fearless. His son Brian wrote: “I was about 10 years old when I discovered the Hardy Boys books on my dad’s bookshelves, and began reading them. One day I asked him why he was interested in reading kids books and he told me he didn’t read them, he wrote them! ‘But don’t tell your friends that I write that nonsense,’ he told me. ”
Leslie McFarlane (1902-1977)
Copyright: 1927
November 1, 2022
Like an old-school Saturday morning serial, this series delivers plenty of adventure, mystery, and fun. As a kid at heart, I definitely enjoyed it.
July 20, 2025
4 Stars. This one I remember from my youth. Enjoyed it then, the same this time. I must have been 12. One chapter title is "A Cap on a Peg." I recall it vividly as I wasn't familiar with the word "cap" as a synonym for hat. Still don't use the word. Plus, I was fascinated by the way the Hardy's picked up clues and then deduced what was happening. I continue to enjoy that process - but with adult titles by such authors as Christie, Sandford, Penny, and Doyle. It's not that the H.B. stories are no longer worth reading. They definitely are. They're light and originate 95 years ago in a different era. And juvenile in a kindly way. It starts with Fenton Hardy recounting to his sons his recent work investigating a client's continuing losses of pharmaceutical drugs. He has tracked it down to secret deliveries being made from an ocean vessel to a gang near Bayport. Lead by a master criminal, Snattman. Frank and Joe want to help and their dad asks them to use a high-powered telescope and watch the sea for suspicious boats. From a promontory next to a ramshackle house. Frightful noises and screams suddenly emit from the house scaring them off. The adventure begins. (De2021/Jul2025)
June 18, 2025
3.5 stars
August 6, 2017
Frank and Joe Hardy are thrilled when their father, Fenton, gives them an assignment as part of his latest case. He asks them to go up on the cliff and watch the bay for smugglers. They find the perfect spot near an abandoned house. Yet, they soon hear a cry for help from inside, have part of the telescope stolen, and witness an attempted murder. What’s going on?
This book is a perfect example of some of the weaknesses of the series – characters always making the perfect deduction right away and the thin characters. But even rereading it, I found it very fun. It helps that there is plenty of action. Kids today will get caught up in the story just as I did as a kid and rereading it as an adult.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
This book is a perfect example of some of the weaknesses of the series – characters always making the perfect deduction right away and the thin characters. But even rereading it, I found it very fun. It helps that there is plenty of action. Kids today will get caught up in the story just as I did as a kid and rereading it as an adult.
Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.
May 11, 2021
5 stars & 5/10 hearts. Now this book was a LOT more fun!! I was hooked from the very beginning and remained glued to the story until the last page. The mystery was really cool and I enjoyed the plot. And the climax/showdown was pretty epic. Again, I really appreciated how domestic Frank and Joe are, and how respectful, loving, & helpful they are to their parents, who are pretty awesome themselves! The friends are fun too, and I enjoyed how clean the stories were. The extra characters were great, and the main villain was worthy of attention instead of being a boring non-existent offstage character who disappears halfway through, haha.
July 20, 2021
I still prefer Nancy Drew but they're interesting characters.
January 15, 2024
1927 version: ★★★✰✰
1959 version: ★★✰✰✰
Finished 8/15/17. Skip down three paragraphs for the review(s).
Pre-read note, 2/23/17:
This will show two reads one right after the other, but it's not because I found the book so titillating that I had to reread it immediately. At least I doubt that will be the case. There are two versions of this book: the original written in 1927 and a revision written in 1959 which modernized it and made it a little more PC. I have both and plan to do a comparison. The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page says some stories were completely rewritten right down to the plot, others merely shortened to fit a 180 page length that the powers-that-be deemed proper (publishing costs; literary degradation always comes down to money), and the rest fall somewhere between those two extremes. It also considers the prose quality of the revisions to be quite sub-par. I bitch about this discovery more extensively in the beginning of my Mystery of Cabin Island review. I'm doing this project with The Tower Treasure as well just for shits and giggles.
Since there are too many cooks in the Goodreads kitchen, the two books are not listed separately even though they technically are two different books. I believe librarians who think they are being helpful combine the books when they find a different version, and there's really no way to stop it. It is confusing, after all, seeing two different books from the same author with the same title, so I won't hold it against them. I would probably do the same thing myself were I to stumble upon it without knowing any better.
Since I'm a do-things-in-chronological-order kind of person, and nothing will ever deter me from staying steadfast in that mindset, I'm going to read the original first followed by the revision.
Review, 8/16/17:
For my general gripes about the revision project, see my Tower Treasure review. What I say about it there applies here as well, though the changes aren't quite as bad in this one. But before I get into the revision complaints, I'll point out one advantage it boasts over its predecessor: the editing. The originals I have are the Applewood reprints from the 1990s. They claim to be exact facsimiles of the ones from the 20s, so I don't know if the originals had all these mistakes in them, or if someone at Applewood goofed. Here's an example:
"'What'll we do with 'em, chief?' asked one of the man."
There were also cases of a word being broken up such as "one" appearing as "on e" in the text. I wish I had marked an example, but there were several things like that.
Oh wait, there was one other bonus in the revision, though only gay people would consider this an improvement. (Everyone else is apt to be indifferent). The Hardy boys strip to their skivvies to swim to the cave under the cliff. Hot 17 and 18-year-olds swimming in their underwear and sneaking through tunnels all wet are always fun for the mind's eye, no matter how dorky they are. And really, it's pretty clear that the mid-century incarnation of the boys are gay anyway, so this has potential to be fun. The 1920s boys go out with girls. In the 50s, they're just friends with those same girls, but it's completely platonic. I was hoping the boys would profess their lust for each other in the tunnels before they got to their destination.
"Hey Frank, we're all alone and stripped in this dark, wet place. You wanna play 'who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong' before we go on?"
"No, Joe. We gotta go rescue dad!"
"Ah, gee whiz. Okay."
But that didn't happen, at least not in this book. However, I do remember reading a story (non-canon) a long time ago where that and much more did happen, but that falls under the category of outright smut, and I won't discuss it further here.
The boys carried their clothes and belongings (not to mention some candy bars I'll discuss later) in waterproof packages they just happened to be able to make on the fly in their boat, and they got dressed again later in their complete ensembles which included sweater vests and ties according to one of the pictures near the end. (Like I said: dorky. Couldn't they have left those behind and just taken their pants and undershirts? No. This was the 50s where preps had to be fully dressed when out in public). This scene is probably titillating for gay people only. Biff strips at the end as well to dive into the ocean and get some evidence that was tossed over the side of the boat, but that wasn't quite as hot. In the original, the boys just went through the water fully clothed because they weren't as stupid as their mid-century counterparts, and they knew they had more important business to take care of than keeping their clothes dry. They're only 15 and 16 in that one, and it's possible boys that age aren't as conscientious about looking as dapper as can be at all times (except when you're almost naked). Or perhaps it's kids in the 1920s who just don't get it. Just because you're on a mission to rescue your father doesn't mean you can't take care of your belongings. The revisers realized this and changed the scene to make it more appropriate for a 1950s audience even though it inadvertently added brief nudity. (You can totally see through a pair of wet tighty-whities, after all.)
Other than the editing and the striptease, the original is superior even though some things aren't politically correct. The most glaring example is when one of the Hardys suspected there was "a nigger in the woodpile," a phrase which means something suspicious or sneaky is going on. They had no such supposition in 1959, though at one point "Lithe as Indians the three Hardys hurried across the lawn..." I'm not sure if you're allowed to talk about Indians like that in 2017, but I could be wrong; I don't always know what upsets people nowadays, but apparently it was okay in the late 50s.
There were also many more guns in the original. Someone got shot, and several people got shot at. In the revision there were only a couple of guns, and they mostly remained holstered. I think only a couple of shots were fired, and they were warning shots. In 1927 all the smugglers were packing heat, but in 1959 when the boys escaped notice from two of them Joe observed "'We wouldn't have had a chance with that pair. They looked like wrestlers.'" Never mind that he cold-cocks one of them easily enough later in the book. (That's just one instance of the revision's inconsistencies.) Later still they steal a gun from one of the smugglers who fell asleep while guarding them, and they find out he has only one bullet. Were they being watched by Barney Fife? In the original the gun is loaded for bear because Mr. Hardy empties it firing back at the smugglers. He doesn't do this in the revision because he would never fire at someone until they had fired at him first... Oh, walkin', talkin' Jesus. Mr. Hardy wasn't exactly Han Solo in the original, but did they really have to give him the Greedo-in-the-cantina special edition treatment?
Original: The criminals are smuggling opium and dope. Revision: They're smuggling pharmaceutical drugs. We can't have kids reading about anything as low-class as street drugs, can we?
As with The Tower Treasure, the revision takes a perfectly good story and adds nonsensical elements. Deductions that made sense in the original become silly in the revision due to something added or taken away. By the end, you feel it might be better to put Steve or Joe from Blues Clues on the case. Like I said earlier, it's not as bad in this book as it was in the first as far as clues and deductions are concerned, but the plot really jumps the rails by the end and lands squarely in the world of inanity.
.
There you have it. My assessment is the same for this as it was for the first book: If you decide to read these, go with the original if you can find a copy. If you can't, I reckon the revision is okay on its own if you don't know what you're missing with the original, but when you pit them against each other, the revision kind of sucks.
1959 version: ★★✰✰✰
Finished 8/15/17. Skip down three paragraphs for the review(s).
Pre-read note, 2/23/17:
This will show two reads one right after the other, but it's not because I found the book so titillating that I had to reread it immediately. At least I doubt that will be the case. There are two versions of this book: the original written in 1927 and a revision written in 1959 which modernized it and made it a little more PC. I have both and plan to do a comparison. The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page says some stories were completely rewritten right down to the plot, others merely shortened to fit a 180 page length that the powers-that-be deemed proper (publishing costs; literary degradation always comes down to money), and the rest fall somewhere between those two extremes. It also considers the prose quality of the revisions to be quite sub-par. I bitch about this discovery more extensively in the beginning of my Mystery of Cabin Island review. I'm doing this project with The Tower Treasure as well just for shits and giggles.
Since there are too many cooks in the Goodreads kitchen, the two books are not listed separately even though they technically are two different books. I believe librarians who think they are being helpful combine the books when they find a different version, and there's really no way to stop it. It is confusing, after all, seeing two different books from the same author with the same title, so I won't hold it against them. I would probably do the same thing myself were I to stumble upon it without knowing any better.
Since I'm a do-things-in-chronological-order kind of person, and nothing will ever deter me from staying steadfast in that mindset, I'm going to read the original first followed by the revision.
Review, 8/16/17:
For my general gripes about the revision project, see my Tower Treasure review. What I say about it there applies here as well, though the changes aren't quite as bad in this one. But before I get into the revision complaints, I'll point out one advantage it boasts over its predecessor: the editing. The originals I have are the Applewood reprints from the 1990s. They claim to be exact facsimiles of the ones from the 20s, so I don't know if the originals had all these mistakes in them, or if someone at Applewood goofed. Here's an example:
"'What'll we do with 'em, chief?' asked one of the man."
There were also cases of a word being broken up such as "one" appearing as "on e" in the text. I wish I had marked an example, but there were several things like that.
Oh wait, there was one other bonus in the revision, though only gay people would consider this an improvement. (Everyone else is apt to be indifferent). The Hardy boys strip to their skivvies to swim to the cave under the cliff. Hot 17 and 18-year-olds swimming in their underwear and sneaking through tunnels all wet are always fun for the mind's eye, no matter how dorky they are. And really, it's pretty clear that the mid-century incarnation of the boys are gay anyway, so this has potential to be fun. The 1920s boys go out with girls. In the 50s, they're just friends with those same girls, but it's completely platonic. I was hoping the boys would profess their lust for each other in the tunnels before they got to their destination.
"Hey Frank, we're all alone and stripped in this dark, wet place. You wanna play 'who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong' before we go on?"
"No, Joe. We gotta go rescue dad!"
"Ah, gee whiz. Okay."
But that didn't happen, at least not in this book. However, I do remember reading a story (non-canon) a long time ago where that and much more did happen, but that falls under the category of outright smut, and I won't discuss it further here.
The boys carried their clothes and belongings (not to mention some candy bars I'll discuss later) in waterproof packages they just happened to be able to make on the fly in their boat, and they got dressed again later in their complete ensembles which included sweater vests and ties according to one of the pictures near the end. (Like I said: dorky. Couldn't they have left those behind and just taken their pants and undershirts? No. This was the 50s where preps had to be fully dressed when out in public). This scene is probably titillating for gay people only. Biff strips at the end as well to dive into the ocean and get some evidence that was tossed over the side of the boat, but that wasn't quite as hot. In the original, the boys just went through the water fully clothed because they weren't as stupid as their mid-century counterparts, and they knew they had more important business to take care of than keeping their clothes dry. They're only 15 and 16 in that one, and it's possible boys that age aren't as conscientious about looking as dapper as can be at all times (except when you're almost naked). Or perhaps it's kids in the 1920s who just don't get it. Just because you're on a mission to rescue your father doesn't mean you can't take care of your belongings. The revisers realized this and changed the scene to make it more appropriate for a 1950s audience even though it inadvertently added brief nudity. (You can totally see through a pair of wet tighty-whities, after all.)
Other than the editing and the striptease, the original is superior even though some things aren't politically correct. The most glaring example is when one of the Hardys suspected there was "a nigger in the woodpile," a phrase which means something suspicious or sneaky is going on. They had no such supposition in 1959, though at one point "Lithe as Indians the three Hardys hurried across the lawn..." I'm not sure if you're allowed to talk about Indians like that in 2017, but I could be wrong; I don't always know what upsets people nowadays, but apparently it was okay in the late 50s.
There were also many more guns in the original. Someone got shot, and several people got shot at. In the revision there were only a couple of guns, and they mostly remained holstered. I think only a couple of shots were fired, and they were warning shots. In 1927 all the smugglers were packing heat, but in 1959 when the boys escaped notice from two of them Joe observed "'We wouldn't have had a chance with that pair. They looked like wrestlers.'" Never mind that he cold-cocks one of them easily enough later in the book. (That's just one instance of the revision's inconsistencies.) Later still they steal a gun from one of the smugglers who fell asleep while guarding them, and they find out he has only one bullet. Were they being watched by Barney Fife? In the original the gun is loaded for bear because Mr. Hardy empties it firing back at the smugglers. He doesn't do this in the revision because he would never fire at someone until they had fired at him first... Oh, walkin', talkin' Jesus. Mr. Hardy wasn't exactly Han Solo in the original, but did they really have to give him the Greedo-in-the-cantina special edition treatment?
Original: The criminals are smuggling opium and dope. Revision: They're smuggling pharmaceutical drugs. We can't have kids reading about anything as low-class as street drugs, can we?
As with The Tower Treasure, the revision takes a perfectly good story and adds nonsensical elements. Deductions that made sense in the original become silly in the revision due to something added or taken away. By the end, you feel it might be better to put Steve or Joe from Blues Clues on the case. Like I said earlier, it's not as bad in this book as it was in the first as far as clues and deductions are concerned, but the plot really jumps the rails by the end and lands squarely in the world of inanity.
.
There you have it. My assessment is the same for this as it was for the first book: If you decide to read these, go with the original if you can find a copy. If you can't, I reckon the revision is okay on its own if you don't know what you're missing with the original, but when you pit them against each other, the revision kind of sucks.
January 5, 2023
In my memories of reading this book as a child, this was one of the most exciting of all of the Hardy Boys adventures. While investigating a smuggling operation occurring near their town of Bayport, Frank and Joe’s father, famous detective Fenton Hardy, disappears. A day later, a typed letter, apparently signed by Fenton, comes to the home telling the family he will be out of town for a few days, but the letter does not include a secret sign that their father always includes in his personal correspondence to protect against criminals forging his name. Since the letter does not have this sign, the boys believe their father has been kidnapped and begin to search for him.
Their investigation quickly begins to focus on an old house on the cliff of the title due to a series of events that occurred their earlier in the novel and some clues to their father’s interest in it. They make some mistakes that should be expected of teenaged boys. And they mobilize their friends to help them with the search. There’s the old house. There’s a secret tunnel leading into the bay. And there is an armed villain and his thugs who clearly don’t want the boys poking their noses into the area. All told, this book formed an exciting adventure, many details of which are still with me fifty years after first reading.
As an adult, the investigation looked a lot weaker to me than it did when I was a child, but this is a book geared at the young and I think it works very well as an adventure story with a bit of mystery. As a child, when the boys rescued their father only to become caught up in an even more dangerous problem, I was at the edge of my seat with excitement. As an adult, it still kept my interest.
Their investigation quickly begins to focus on an old house on the cliff of the title due to a series of events that occurred their earlier in the novel and some clues to their father’s interest in it. They make some mistakes that should be expected of teenaged boys. And they mobilize their friends to help them with the search. There’s the old house. There’s a secret tunnel leading into the bay. And there is an armed villain and his thugs who clearly don’t want the boys poking their noses into the area. All told, this book formed an exciting adventure, many details of which are still with me fifty years after first reading.
As an adult, the investigation looked a lot weaker to me than it did when I was a child, but this is a book geared at the young and I think it works very well as an adventure story with a bit of mystery. As a child, when the boys rescued their father only to become caught up in an even more dangerous problem, I was at the edge of my seat with excitement. As an adult, it still kept my interest.
February 11, 2019
I've read both the revised version of this book, and the original, and I just say that I enjoyed the original much better!
This was exciting, fun, and a fast read. While not one I would read over and over in a short time, I did enjoy it and am sure I'll read it again. I do like that Frank and Joe go to their father for advice and care about each other. I'm still not sure though, why Bayport kept such a person as their police chief, but at least they didn't make every law officer dumb.
This was exciting, fun, and a fast read. While not one I would read over and over in a short time, I did enjoy it and am sure I'll read it again. I do like that Frank and Joe go to their father for advice and care about each other. I'm still not sure though, why Bayport kept such a person as their police chief, but at least they didn't make every law officer dumb.
August 14, 2025
#Binge Reviewing my Past Reads:
Hardy Boys (Read between 1990 and 1996 in M.P. Birla School library and punctiliously collected and read thereafter)
This book was the second step in my Hardy Boys apprenticeship, and it deepened the series’ peculiar allure — an intoxicating blend of clean-cut adventure, mild peril, and mystery plots calibrated for swift, wholesome consumption.
Like The Tower Treasure, I first borrowed it from the M.P. Birla School library, the dust jacket threadbare from years of eager hands.
This time, Frank and Joe Hardy are drawn into the orbit of a suspiciously atmospheric mansion perched precariously above Barmet Bay. Their investigation into a smuggling operation — complete with secret passages, coded messages, and villainous henchmen — unfolds with the mechanical precision of the Syndicate formula.
The pacing is brisk, every chapter ending engineered to propel the reader forward. Danger is plentiful but never scarring; violence is tidy, and the boys’ competence is never seriously in doubt.
At eleven, I found the setting mouthwatering — the cliffside house was practically a character, its geography sketched in broad, thrilling strokes. The book satisfied that adolescent hunger for secret places, for the idea that the mundane landscape might conceal a hidden network of intrigue.
Revisiting it now, I notice the absence of psychological shading, the way good and evil are sorted like laundry. Yet its value lies precisely there: in its straightforward delivery of adventure without ambiguity.
The House on the Cliff remains a capsule of simpler narrative pleasures — one that, for me, will always smell faintly of school library shelves and the promise of another case to crack.
Hardy Boys (Read between 1990 and 1996 in M.P. Birla School library and punctiliously collected and read thereafter)
This book was the second step in my Hardy Boys apprenticeship, and it deepened the series’ peculiar allure — an intoxicating blend of clean-cut adventure, mild peril, and mystery plots calibrated for swift, wholesome consumption.
Like The Tower Treasure, I first borrowed it from the M.P. Birla School library, the dust jacket threadbare from years of eager hands.
This time, Frank and Joe Hardy are drawn into the orbit of a suspiciously atmospheric mansion perched precariously above Barmet Bay. Their investigation into a smuggling operation — complete with secret passages, coded messages, and villainous henchmen — unfolds with the mechanical precision of the Syndicate formula.
The pacing is brisk, every chapter ending engineered to propel the reader forward. Danger is plentiful but never scarring; violence is tidy, and the boys’ competence is never seriously in doubt.
At eleven, I found the setting mouthwatering — the cliffside house was practically a character, its geography sketched in broad, thrilling strokes. The book satisfied that adolescent hunger for secret places, for the idea that the mundane landscape might conceal a hidden network of intrigue.
Revisiting it now, I notice the absence of psychological shading, the way good and evil are sorted like laundry. Yet its value lies precisely there: in its straightforward delivery of adventure without ambiguity.
The House on the Cliff remains a capsule of simpler narrative pleasures — one that, for me, will always smell faintly of school library shelves and the promise of another case to crack.
September 5, 2017
.
Frank and Joe Hardy and their chums never fail to provide an entertaining and mysterious escapade. These teenagers are very intelligent, resourceful, and mature for their ages.
My grandsons and I enjoyed sharing them together and would recommend them to others.
Each book is a clean read and can stand on its own.
Frank and Joe Hardy and their chums never fail to provide an entertaining and mysterious escapade. These teenagers are very intelligent, resourceful, and mature for their ages.
My grandsons and I enjoyed sharing them together and would recommend them to others.
Each book is a clean read and can stand on its own.
February 27, 2017
Re-reading the Hardy Boys series with my daughter has been an adventure. I'm giving this one a 5-star rating because it was my favorite as a kid. Exciting story with secret passages, hidden doors and many twists and turns along the way.
January 7, 2022
In this second Hardy Boys adventure, Frank and Joe assist their detective father in solving a drug smuggling mystery. With thrilling twists and turns, The House on the Cliff is the kind of fun and light read we all need once in a while.
July 10, 2021
Between this one and The Tower Treasure, I like this one more. Read this one for a readathon in The Midnight Reader's group. This is the fastest book I've read in a while. 180 pages in 2 hours and 9 minutes. (Yes I kept track) On to my review.
rating - 4 stars only because it's a slightly younger age rating for me.
start date - July 10th, 2021
finish date - July 10th, 2021
Characters -
Frank and Joe Hardy: Classic teenage boys who have an eye for trouble and mystery. Personally, I like Frank a tiny bit for than Joe, because he is a little more sensible. And he's older. haha
Fenton Hardy: The father of the two teenage boys. He's cool. Sounds like a pretty chill dad. I actually genuinely like him.
All the friends of the Hardy Boys: Not bad. I really like Biff in this one. He didn't really appear in the first one, so he's cool.
The plot -
I love this plot! I always enjoy a little action in my books. So the boys and Mr. Hardy were captured, which I enjoyed seeing the characters figuring out how to escape. The beginning was once again a little slow but only because I used to fast-paced books. But it was amazing all the same.
rating - 4 stars only because it's a slightly younger age rating for me.
start date - July 10th, 2021
finish date - July 10th, 2021
Characters -
Frank and Joe Hardy: Classic teenage boys who have an eye for trouble and mystery. Personally, I like Frank a tiny bit for than Joe, because he is a little more sensible. And he's older. haha
Fenton Hardy: The father of the two teenage boys. He's cool. Sounds like a pretty chill dad. I actually genuinely like him.
All the friends of the Hardy Boys: Not bad. I really like Biff in this one. He didn't really appear in the first one, so he's cool.
The plot -
I love this plot! I always enjoy a little action in my books. So the boys and Mr. Hardy were captured, which I enjoyed seeing the characters figuring out how to escape. The beginning was once again a little slow but only because I used to fast-paced books. But it was amazing all the same.
January 29, 2024
I'm not sure but I think this might have been the first book I read cover to cover in the late 40's. I was so excited reading it, and I knew I was reading a complete book, and the adventure was moving so fast like a movie. I was very proud of myself. I could hardly wait to pick up the next one. I have to thank "Frank W. Dixon" for making reading fun. I loved the Hardy brothers and their father, and I loved Mr. Frank Dixon.
I remember telling my mother how excited I was (since she was the one who bought it as a present), reading it in the soft black leather chairs in the lobby of the hotel we were staying in in Beeville, Texas, while my father tended to his duties of drilling for oil nearby. I remember even taking the book with me to the hotel dining room where I had been introduced to pepper steak and cummerbunds, one of which our Mexican waiter wore. They fascinated me.
Although I don't read the Hardy Boys anymore but maybe I will, I still eat pepper steak--if it's well done. I still have never worn a cummerbund.
I remember telling my mother how excited I was (since she was the one who bought it as a present), reading it in the soft black leather chairs in the lobby of the hotel we were staying in in Beeville, Texas, while my father tended to his duties of drilling for oil nearby. I remember even taking the book with me to the hotel dining room where I had been introduced to pepper steak and cummerbunds, one of which our Mexican waiter wore. They fascinated me.
Although I don't read the Hardy Boys anymore but maybe I will, I still eat pepper steak--if it's well done. I still have never worn a cummerbund.
January 20, 2021
This is the kind of writing that was missing from the future books, a lot of adventure yes but this one also had a touch of reality, risk, and resourcefulness. The best of all comradery between a group of friends.
October 3, 2020
It's fun to reread a book you read many, many years ago. It's a book trip down memory lane.
August 25, 2021
مغامرة ممتعة نخوضها مع الشقيقان هاردي
تبدأ المغامرة عندما يطلب منهما والدهما المحقق الشهير دوليا فنتون هاردي المساعدة في التحقيق بقضية تهريب عبر مراقبة بالتلسكوب
يتحمس الفتيان المراهقين جو وفرانك لمساعدة والدهما
يذهبان مع أصدقائهما للبحث عن المهربين
بالعموم القصة جميلة لكنها ليست أفضل ما قرأت
اعتقد أنني لو كنت أصغر سنا لتحمست أكثر للقصة فهي موجهة للناشئين
انصح بها لمن أراد قراءة خفيفة
تبدأ المغامرة عندما يطلب منهما والدهما المحقق الشهير دوليا فنتون هاردي المساعدة في التحقيق بقضية تهريب عبر مراقبة بالتلسكوب
يتحمس الفتيان المراهقين جو وفرانك لمساعدة والدهما
يذهبان مع أصدقائهما للبحث عن المهربين
بالعموم القصة جميلة لكنها ليست أفضل ما قرأت
اعتقد أنني لو كنت أصغر سنا لتحمست أكثر للقصة فهي موجهة للناشئين
انصح بها لمن أراد قراءة خفيفة
December 17, 2023
It's really refreshing to return to this classic after years. Very intriguing how responsible, respectful, and wholesome the boys are. The juxtaposition is so strong when you compare it to modern YA books! The gang has empathy, maturity, and critical thinking skills. Something I never noticed as a kid, but appreciate now, is that the messages shared by Fenton subtly guide kids towards those virtues and towards being productive members of society.
December 1, 2023
2023 reads, #91-95. I recently discovered that the first three Hardy Boys books, all of them published in 1927, have passed into the public domain, so I thought as a nostalgic treat I would go ahead and read them, since they can now be legally downloaded for free. I'm sure I don't have to tell any of my fellow middle-aged Generation Xers how large this book series loomed over my life as a kid in the 1970s; it was essentially the de facto gift that boys always gave other boys whenever they'd get invited to a birthday party at the rollerskating rink or Showbiz Pizza, because it was one of the few book series in those years still being released as hardbacks, so was deemed a "more substantial present" than the Judy Blume paperbacks we were all actually reading in those days, instead of these badly dated snoozers (or so they were perceived by us at the time). That makes it an ironic situation, that I owned something like 20 or 25 Hardy Boys books at the height of my childhood, but I don't think I ever read even a single one of them all the way from the front cover to the back; so this was another thing that made me curious about reapproaching the series, to see if I had avoided them back then simply because I wasn't a fan of these kinds of action-adventure stories (a genre I still don't like very much, even now in my mid-fifties), or if they're perhaps terribly written and we've all collectively built up this false memory of them being good.
That turned out to be difficult to determine in the case of the first three, which I read almost a hundred years after they were first published, because they can't help but be artifacts of their times by now, and so in many ways are so outdated that it appears ludicrous that the publishing industry was still trying to present these as "contemporary stories" back when I was a kid in the '70s. For those who don't know, the series is centered around two brothers in their late teens named Frank and Joe Hardy who live in the small Atlantic Seaboard town of Bayport; inspired by their father, a retired New York City detective who's now a renowned private investigator, the two are fascinated by the act of solving mysteries, especially easy to do in their case since the local police force are the most incompetent group of boobs this side of the Keystone Cops. (Leslie McFarlane, who bitterly ghostwrote the first 25 titles of the series, made it clear in his correspondence with friends that part of his aim with these books was to make an entire generation of youth suspicious of authority figures, since he otherwise hated writing these kinds of children's books and wanted to do something in them to please just himself.)
The first three books of the series are essentially cookiecutter stories with the same exact plot; namely, some ne'er-do-wells slink into Bayport and set up a criminal operation in an abandoned building "on the edge of town" (shuttered mansions in the first two books, a shuttered mill in the third), which the Hardy brothers accidentally stumble across during their motorcycling adventures in the country with their chums (get ready for a lot of references to "chums" and "pals" and "lads" in these novels), which they're then forced to solve themselves because of the local police force not believing them and Dad off on his own adventure, which invariably leads to the Scooby-Doo-like capture of the criminals ("I would've gotten away with it if not for those meddling kids!") and a huge reward from the wealthy industrialist the criminals had been planning on targeting (all in all, around a quarter-million dollars in today's money when you add up the rewards of the first three books, leading to one of the common complaints this series has received over the decades, that the Hardy Boys can essentially drop everything and travel halfway across the world whenever they want, because of being basically millionaires before they've even graduated high school).
That makes the books okay for what they are, and certainly prototypes for the "kids have actual agency" school of thought about children's literature that didn't become the mainstream norm until the 1950s, easily explaining why they were so explosively popular from the moment they began being released (when these were first published, most kids' books were still being written in the Victorian style, in which it was the adults who actually saved the day and children were presented as silent admirers who always deferred to the superior wisdom of "dear Papa"); but they're still a product of their times, including badly outdated slang and technology, a focus on activities no actual teens have been into since your grandparents' times (get ready for a lot of talk about speedboats and ham radios), and clues that by today's standards would be considered cartoonishly obvious (an entire major plot point in the first book, for example, revolves around all of these people being too stupid to understand that a criminal might wear a wig when committing a crime, leading to dozens of pages of teens standing around saying, "But he can't be the robber! HE HAS BLACK HAIR!!!!!!1!!"), making these interesting historical documents but in no way at all fun reading experiences that can be enjoyed in a contemporary way.
However, this still didn't answer my question about why I in particular didn't seem to connect with the Hardy Boys books back in my '70s youth, when the latest titles were being written in the contemporary culture; so after finishing these three, I went to the Chicago Public Library and checked out two of the titles written during my own childhood and that I in fact personally owned back in the day, 1972's The Masked Monkey (ghostwritten by Vincent Buranelli) and 1975's The Mysterious Caravan (ghostwritten by Andrew Svenson). They weren't exactly bad, which means that I definitively rejected them at the time mostly because I simply didn't like the action-adventure genre in general (interestingly, both of these titles are from the Hardy Boys' proto-Indiana-Jones "globetrotting years," in which the stories start in Bayport but before they're over take the brothers to such exotic locations as the South American rainforest and the Moroccan desert); but the pre-read assumption I did confirm is that a big part of why I rejected them at the time was simply because in the '70s they were still being written in the stilted, awkward prose of 1950s Mid-Century Modernism (and being illustrated in this outdated style as well), and all of us back then had gotten used by that point* to adults trying to feed us old 1950s crap and telling us it's still great for contemporary times, and us summarily ignoring all this old 1950s crap without ever going back and giving it even a second thought.
[*It's surreal and hilarious to me now to think back to my childhood in the 1970s and remember just how incredibly much of it still revolved around popular culture from the 1950s; keep in mind that "children's entertainment" hadn't yet become the trillion-dollar industry it now is, and that at that point the '50s were only twenty years old, so back then we didn't think twice about the idea that the only thing on television on weekday afternoons were reruns of things like The Lone Ranger and George Reeves' Superman and ancient old Three Stooges and Little Rascals shorts. Watching those now, another entire 50 years after the fact, it's hard to believe that these kinds of shows were being presented to us as perfectly fine and normal contemporary entertainment, stuff we actual kids just essentially ignored altogether, one of the major reasons Generation X became so obsessed with producing quality children's entertainment once we became adults ourselves.]
So all in all, my mini-dive into the world of the Hardy Boys this month was the kind of mixed bag these experiments always tend to be; illuminating from a historical standpoint, sort of nominally worth my time from an entertainment aspect, but not even close to being anymore the actual contemporary stories appropriate for contemporary kids that Simon & Schuster still desperately want to convince you they are. Have fun if you're an oldie like me, reapproaching them for nostalgic reasons; but for God's sake, don't force these badly dated relics anymore on any actual ten-year-old boys in your life.
That turned out to be difficult to determine in the case of the first three, which I read almost a hundred years after they were first published, because they can't help but be artifacts of their times by now, and so in many ways are so outdated that it appears ludicrous that the publishing industry was still trying to present these as "contemporary stories" back when I was a kid in the '70s. For those who don't know, the series is centered around two brothers in their late teens named Frank and Joe Hardy who live in the small Atlantic Seaboard town of Bayport; inspired by their father, a retired New York City detective who's now a renowned private investigator, the two are fascinated by the act of solving mysteries, especially easy to do in their case since the local police force are the most incompetent group of boobs this side of the Keystone Cops. (Leslie McFarlane, who bitterly ghostwrote the first 25 titles of the series, made it clear in his correspondence with friends that part of his aim with these books was to make an entire generation of youth suspicious of authority figures, since he otherwise hated writing these kinds of children's books and wanted to do something in them to please just himself.)
The first three books of the series are essentially cookiecutter stories with the same exact plot; namely, some ne'er-do-wells slink into Bayport and set up a criminal operation in an abandoned building "on the edge of town" (shuttered mansions in the first two books, a shuttered mill in the third), which the Hardy brothers accidentally stumble across during their motorcycling adventures in the country with their chums (get ready for a lot of references to "chums" and "pals" and "lads" in these novels), which they're then forced to solve themselves because of the local police force not believing them and Dad off on his own adventure, which invariably leads to the Scooby-Doo-like capture of the criminals ("I would've gotten away with it if not for those meddling kids!") and a huge reward from the wealthy industrialist the criminals had been planning on targeting (all in all, around a quarter-million dollars in today's money when you add up the rewards of the first three books, leading to one of the common complaints this series has received over the decades, that the Hardy Boys can essentially drop everything and travel halfway across the world whenever they want, because of being basically millionaires before they've even graduated high school).
That makes the books okay for what they are, and certainly prototypes for the "kids have actual agency" school of thought about children's literature that didn't become the mainstream norm until the 1950s, easily explaining why they were so explosively popular from the moment they began being released (when these were first published, most kids' books were still being written in the Victorian style, in which it was the adults who actually saved the day and children were presented as silent admirers who always deferred to the superior wisdom of "dear Papa"); but they're still a product of their times, including badly outdated slang and technology, a focus on activities no actual teens have been into since your grandparents' times (get ready for a lot of talk about speedboats and ham radios), and clues that by today's standards would be considered cartoonishly obvious (an entire major plot point in the first book, for example, revolves around all of these people being too stupid to understand that a criminal might wear a wig when committing a crime, leading to dozens of pages of teens standing around saying, "But he can't be the robber! HE HAS BLACK HAIR!!!!!!1!!"), making these interesting historical documents but in no way at all fun reading experiences that can be enjoyed in a contemporary way.
However, this still didn't answer my question about why I in particular didn't seem to connect with the Hardy Boys books back in my '70s youth, when the latest titles were being written in the contemporary culture; so after finishing these three, I went to the Chicago Public Library and checked out two of the titles written during my own childhood and that I in fact personally owned back in the day, 1972's The Masked Monkey (ghostwritten by Vincent Buranelli) and 1975's The Mysterious Caravan (ghostwritten by Andrew Svenson). They weren't exactly bad, which means that I definitively rejected them at the time mostly because I simply didn't like the action-adventure genre in general (interestingly, both of these titles are from the Hardy Boys' proto-Indiana-Jones "globetrotting years," in which the stories start in Bayport but before they're over take the brothers to such exotic locations as the South American rainforest and the Moroccan desert); but the pre-read assumption I did confirm is that a big part of why I rejected them at the time was simply because in the '70s they were still being written in the stilted, awkward prose of 1950s Mid-Century Modernism (and being illustrated in this outdated style as well), and all of us back then had gotten used by that point* to adults trying to feed us old 1950s crap and telling us it's still great for contemporary times, and us summarily ignoring all this old 1950s crap without ever going back and giving it even a second thought.
[*It's surreal and hilarious to me now to think back to my childhood in the 1970s and remember just how incredibly much of it still revolved around popular culture from the 1950s; keep in mind that "children's entertainment" hadn't yet become the trillion-dollar industry it now is, and that at that point the '50s were only twenty years old, so back then we didn't think twice about the idea that the only thing on television on weekday afternoons were reruns of things like The Lone Ranger and George Reeves' Superman and ancient old Three Stooges and Little Rascals shorts. Watching those now, another entire 50 years after the fact, it's hard to believe that these kinds of shows were being presented to us as perfectly fine and normal contemporary entertainment, stuff we actual kids just essentially ignored altogether, one of the major reasons Generation X became so obsessed with producing quality children's entertainment once we became adults ourselves.]
So all in all, my mini-dive into the world of the Hardy Boys this month was the kind of mixed bag these experiments always tend to be; illuminating from a historical standpoint, sort of nominally worth my time from an entertainment aspect, but not even close to being anymore the actual contemporary stories appropriate for contemporary kids that Simon & Schuster still desperately want to convince you they are. Have fun if you're an oldie like me, reapproaching them for nostalgic reasons; but for God's sake, don't force these badly dated relics anymore on any actual ten-year-old boys in your life.
December 8, 2023
A nostalgic journey into my youth.
A must read for the teenagers.
A must read for the teenagers.
December 22, 2020
The House on the Cliff is the second Hardy Boys book and the second book I read with my five year old son. Compared to The Tower Treasure, this book got to the action much quicker and was more exciting overall. It was also more adult, with a plot that revolved around stolen drugs, smugglers and hostages. Up through the first 15 chapters, this was a five star book for my son and I, but it didn’t quick stick the landing and petered out in the end.
The story for The House on the Cliff is kick-started by father Fenton Hardy who is investigating some smugglers who are stealing drugs from incoming cargo ships. Hardy doesn’t know how it’s happening, but he believes a man named Snattman is to blame and that the crime is being committed near the local Pollitt house (the titular house of the novel). In Chapter 1, the Hardy boys are on their way to use a telescope and watch for smuggler boats near the Pollitt house. When they get near the house, they think they hear ghosts inside and investigate. It was a great opening to bring in a young readers.
The action continues from there, with the boys rescuing a man from a grenade attack, a farm couple being tied up by armed men, and the discovery of a secret passage inside the cliff itself. Again, for 75% of the book my son and I were really on board with the action. The boys are trying to rescue their father from possible capture and the clues lead one to another in a way that young readers can follow. (The content itself is less young reader friendly; I think you could switch the word drugs to “loot” if you’re concerned, and while there’s gun violence it’s more of the danger/peril than bloody/death variety.)
**Spoilers follow** There is some really exciting stuff with the boys sneaking into a secret area to rescue their dad. They escape, and get captured and escape and get captured again. The final capture in the house coincides with their friends going to get the Coast Huard and discovering the smuggling operation ship. The Hardy’s getting captured twice just seemed like piling on, and we weren’t as interested in the friends’ side adventure. I think the book would have been improved had the Hardy Boys split up so that either Frank or Joe was always involved in the action.
The story for The House on the Cliff is kick-started by father Fenton Hardy who is investigating some smugglers who are stealing drugs from incoming cargo ships. Hardy doesn’t know how it’s happening, but he believes a man named Snattman is to blame and that the crime is being committed near the local Pollitt house (the titular house of the novel). In Chapter 1, the Hardy boys are on their way to use a telescope and watch for smuggler boats near the Pollitt house. When they get near the house, they think they hear ghosts inside and investigate. It was a great opening to bring in a young readers.
The action continues from there, with the boys rescuing a man from a grenade attack, a farm couple being tied up by armed men, and the discovery of a secret passage inside the cliff itself. Again, for 75% of the book my son and I were really on board with the action. The boys are trying to rescue their father from possible capture and the clues lead one to another in a way that young readers can follow. (The content itself is less young reader friendly; I think you could switch the word drugs to “loot” if you’re concerned, and while there’s gun violence it’s more of the danger/peril than bloody/death variety.)
**Spoilers follow** There is some really exciting stuff with the boys sneaking into a secret area to rescue their dad. They escape, and get captured and escape and get captured again. The final capture in the house coincides with their friends going to get the Coast Huard and discovering the smuggling operation ship. The Hardy’s getting captured twice just seemed like piling on, and we weren’t as interested in the friends’ side adventure. I think the book would have been improved had the Hardy Boys split up so that either Frank or Joe was always involved in the action.
June 7, 2024
The Hardy Boys find themselves in some hot soup in this, their 2nd mystery caper, which pits them against a ruthless smuggler named, Snattman, and his crew! This was one action-packed read from the opening page to the last. We have boat chases, a haunted house atop a cliff, hidden tunnels, caves, and waterways, late night criminal activity, sabotage, hostages, and more. This 2nd book does not hold back ... at all. If you like a lot of action sprinkled in with a mystery to be solved, then this is for you.
Frank and Joe Hardy are eager to help their father solve a case that involves smugglers on the bay, so they and a couple of their chums head up to an old house on a cliff overlooking the water and set up a highpowered telescope in hopes of finding suspicious activity. But, when they are distracted by something in the house itself, they return to find the telescope missing it's eye pieces and their motorcyles tampered with. From there on, it is a rollercoaster ride as their own father, Fenton Hardy, goes missing and the two resolute brothers follow the trail right back to the very house the story started out at.
This wasn't much like the 1st book. The first book, "The Tower Treasure", was much more about the sleuthing and investigating ... the mystery. It wasn't nearly as action-y as this one. This one placed our two young brothers in mortal danger, and the action abounded. I don't recall having ever read another Hardy Boys book where their father was so involved either. Usually, he was always the encouraging force behind their mysteries, but in this book, he is smack dab right in the middle of it all. And I really enjoyed that. This is a YA book, and in parts, it definitely reads like it. Even so, considering the time it was written, it still holds up fairly well, and would certainly stir the imagination of any young reader, even by today's standards.
"The House on the Cliff", for me, comes with a high recommend. Of the earlier Hardy Boy books, this one is probably one of the better ones. A lot of precarious situations, hiding in the dark, and as mentioned already numerous times in this review - a lot of action! I give it a 4 stars out of 5 rating. SO much fun reading this one. I just want to keep moving along in this great series of books from my youth.
Frank and Joe Hardy are eager to help their father solve a case that involves smugglers on the bay, so they and a couple of their chums head up to an old house on a cliff overlooking the water and set up a highpowered telescope in hopes of finding suspicious activity. But, when they are distracted by something in the house itself, they return to find the telescope missing it's eye pieces and their motorcyles tampered with. From there on, it is a rollercoaster ride as their own father, Fenton Hardy, goes missing and the two resolute brothers follow the trail right back to the very house the story started out at.
This wasn't much like the 1st book. The first book, "The Tower Treasure", was much more about the sleuthing and investigating ... the mystery. It wasn't nearly as action-y as this one. This one placed our two young brothers in mortal danger, and the action abounded. I don't recall having ever read another Hardy Boys book where their father was so involved either. Usually, he was always the encouraging force behind their mysteries, but in this book, he is smack dab right in the middle of it all. And I really enjoyed that. This is a YA book, and in parts, it definitely reads like it. Even so, considering the time it was written, it still holds up fairly well, and would certainly stir the imagination of any young reader, even by today's standards.
"The House on the Cliff", for me, comes with a high recommend. Of the earlier Hardy Boy books, this one is probably one of the better ones. A lot of precarious situations, hiding in the dark, and as mentioned already numerous times in this review - a lot of action! I give it a 4 stars out of 5 rating. SO much fun reading this one. I just want to keep moving along in this great series of books from my youth.
April 21, 2021
On the trail of a gang of smugglers stealing valuable rare drugs, Fenton Hardy enlists his sons to help him spy. Using the recently vacant and seemingly haunted Pollitt property, ideal for its' location atop a cliff and being right on the water, the boys encounter strange goings-on from the off. Then their father disappears with only a suspicious note for explanation. Worried their father's been captured by the smugglers, Frank and Joe piece together clues. It seems everything leads to the Pollitt property. A second visit by the boys and their friends shows it's now occupied and by very unfriendly characters. Suspicious their father might be a captive here and that these unpleasant people are part of the smuggling gang, the boys try another way to explore the property--via the water. They find a hidden opening in the cliff and secret tunnels under the house. Now it's time to involve the authorities. Devising a plan to both capture the smugglers and rescue their father, they return to the house on the cliff. However, things don't go according to plan and the boys wind up captured with their father. But the smugglers underestimate the Hardy's and their friends.
The second book in the Hardy Boys' series is where the author Franklin Dixon hits his stride. If the first book set things up, this second one is where the real excitement and adventure comes to the fore. The boys seem a little more knowledgeable in detecting, using their minds more in this book. I fairly flew through this story and loved every minute of the Hardy's escapades.
The second book in the Hardy Boys' series is where the author Franklin Dixon hits his stride. If the first book set things up, this second one is where the real excitement and adventure comes to the fore. The boys seem a little more knowledgeable in detecting, using their minds more in this book. I fairly flew through this story and loved every minute of the Hardy's escapades.
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