The Clue of the Broken Blade

The Hardy Boys #21

by Franklin W. Dixon

Frank and Joe Hardy become involved in an intriguing mystery which revolves around their fencing master, Ettore Russo. Proof that Russo is the rightful heir to his grandfather’s estate hinges on retrieving the guard end of a broken saber lost many years ago in California. The young investigators’ quest is complicated by a bank robbery during which some of their father’s important records are stolen. A chase ensues in the grape-growing region of California as the boys engage in a dangerous game of hide-and-seek with the bank robbery gang.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Young Adult, Childrens, Adventure, Classics, Mystery Thriller

193 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Clue of the Broken Blade was the 21st entry in the Hardy Boys mystery series for younger readers. It was produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and was published in 1942 by Grosset & Dunlap. The house pseudonym of Franklin W. Dixon was on the book, of course, which was actually written by John Button from an outline by Edna Stratemeyer Squier. The majority and the best of the first two dozen books in the series were written by Leslie McFarlane, but I think that this one is the best by far of the four or five that Button wrote. From 1959 - 1973, another of Edward's daughters, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, oversaw the revision of the first thirty-eight books in the series, to update and modernize the stories and to shorten and simplify them for younger and more modern readers. Some of the stories were just slightly altered and a few, including this one, were completely replaced by new novels. I have been reading the originals and newer versions of all the boks in the original series back-to-back to compare them. The new version, written by Richard Deming from an outline by Andrew E. Svenson, was released in 1970. The original was 218 pages long and had 25 chapters, and the replacement was 178 pages with 20 chapters. I think this is the only Hardy book that Deming wrote; he had a long and prolific career as a writer of crime fiction, including many television tie-in books from Starsky & Hutch, The Mod Squad, Dragnet, etc., but I don't think he had a good grasp of the Hardy characters. It's a kind of silly story with the idea of telephone-recorded voice spectrographs being (over-) used to identify criminals just like fingerprints. One coincidence is piled upon another, and it gets ridiculous. The Hardy parents are on vacation at the Grand Canyon where they meet a movie director who asks them to investigate a series of mysterious accidents that's plaguing a film he's making. Frank and Joe are taking fencing lessons, and their instructor asks them to locate the lost piece of a sword of his ancestor who's written his will on the blade. Everybody goes to California to follow clues and work undercover and -surprise!- on page 133 the boys meet Laura the script girl and find out that she's their Mom working undercover. They find the missing piece of sword buried in the basement of a house they've been locked up in. California must be a very tiny place. They're in hot pursuit across a lake at one point when their ship sinks and they swim to shore and meet three pretty girls on the beach, Susie Wade, June Fall, and Kay Dover. Later, Frank goes to a library to look for a clue to the sword in a rare book and June Fall just happens to be reading it. The section with the sword's history and a treasure map just happen to have been torn out. One cool thing is that on page 107 Chet stays awake on guard duty for maybe the only time ever. Then they need to search a building and find out it's scheduled to demolished that very afternoon... the bulldozer operator just happens to be a swordsman... California must be a very, very tiny place... The 1942 book doesn't rely on coincidences as much, but it does have a crazy lot of subplots going on. It's set close to home and the blade they're trying to recover has been stolen from the office of a man for whom Dad is trying to solve truck hijackings. His son runs away from home and joins the circus as a trapeze artist but falls, hits his head, and loses his memory. The circus owners' brother is the ringleader of the truck thieves. The main trapeze artist is a former bullfighter who buys the stolen sword. It's another non-stop story, but the characters are much better developed and there's some good humor along the way. There is a bit of racist content, something which never occurred in MacFarlane's stories, but it's minimal. As a bonus trivia, on page 11 we learn that Mom's middle name is Mildred. Eventually, father and son are cured and reunited (despite an attack by viper), the criminals are all caught, and we're ready for the next mystery. I'll give the 1942 four slightly-grudging stars and suggest the book for 12-year-old readers, and the 1970 reboot two and think it appropriate for 8- to 10-year-olds.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Clue of the Broken Blade was the 21st entry in the Hardy Boys mystery series for younger readers. It was produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and was published in 1942 by Grosset & Dunlap. The house pseudonym of Franklin W. Dixon was on the book, of course, which was actually written by John Button from an outline by Edna Stratemeyer Squier. The majority and the best of the first two dozen books in the series were written by Leslie McFarlane, but I think that this one is the best by far of the four or five that Button wrote. From 1959 - 1973, another of Edward's daughters, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, oversaw the revision of the first thirty-eight books in the series, to update and modernize the stories and to shorten and simplify them for younger and more modern readers. Some of the stories were just slightly altered and a few, including this one, were completely replaced by new novels. I have been reading the originals and newer versions back-to-back to compare them. The new version, written by Richard Deming from an outline by Andrew E. Svenson, was released in 1970. The original was 218 pages long and had 25 chapters, and the replacement was 178 pages with 20 chapters. I think this is the only Hardy book that Deming wrote; he had a long and prolific career as a writer of crime fiction, including many television tie-in books from Starsky & Hutch, The Mod Squad, Dragnet, etc., but I don't think he had a good grasp of the Hardy characters. It's a kind of silly story with the idea of telephone-recorded voice spectrographs being (over-) used to identify criminals just like fingerprints. One coincidence is piled upon another and it gets ridiculous. The Hardy parents are on vacation at the Grand Canyon where they meet a movie director who asks them to investigate a series of mysterious accidents that's plaguing a film he's making. Frank and Joe are taking fencing lessons, and their instructor asks them to locate the lost piece of a sword of his ancestor who's written his will on the blade. Everybody goes to California to follow clues and work undercover and -surprise!- on page 133 the boys meet Laura the script girl and find out that she's their Mom working undercover. They find the missing piece of sword buried in the basement of a house they've been locked up in. California must be a very tiny place. They're in hot pursuit across a lake at one point when their ship sinks and they swim to shore and meet three pretty girls on the beach, Susie Wade, June Fall, and Kay Dover. Later, Frank goes to a library to look for a clue to the sword in a rare book and June Fall just happens to be reading it. The section with the sword's history and a treasure map just happen to have been torn out. One cool thing is that on page 107 Chet stays awake on guard duty for maybe the only time ever. Then they need to search a building and find out it's scheduled to demolished that very afternoon... the bulldozer operator just happens to be a swordsman... California must be a very, very tiny place... The 1942 book doesn't rely on coincidences as much, but it does have a crazy lot of subplots going on. It's set close to home and the blade they're trying to recover has been stolen from the office of a man for whom Dad is trying to solve truck hijackings. His son runs away from home and joins the circus as a trapeze artist but falls, hits his head, and loses his memory. The circus owners' brother is the ringleader of the truck thieves. The main trapeze artist is a former bullfighter who buys the stolen sword. It's another non-stop story, but the characters are much better developed and there's some good humor along the way. There is a bit of racist content, something which never occurred in MacFarlane's stories, but it's minimal. As a bonus trivia, on page 11 we learn that Mom's middle name is Mildred. Eventually, father and son are cured and reunited (despite an attack by viper), the criminals are all caught, and we're ready for the next mystery. I'll give the 1942 four slightly-grudging stars and suggest the book for 12-year-old readers, and the 1970 reboot two and think it appropriate for 8- to 10-year-olds.

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much of the story was too far-fetched. The chapter endings were lackluster and the cast of criminals too large. There was too much going on overall and the resolution was more rushed than usual. Still a fun, quick read.

[Ami · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a thrilling book. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Frank and Joe are in search of a saber. The saber is supposed to have an inscription of a will on it. There are many people in search of this sword and they will do anything to get it and claim the inheritance. Will the Hardys find it first or will they be kept prisoners? I would recommend it to people that like action and adventure.

[Josiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this one. It was confusing in the beginning, but got really interesting very soon. My only complaint is that I feel like it was too fast paced.

[Jonathan D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this book is a great book because it has good vocab and perfect for people who like mystery books.

[Cyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite Hardy Boys stories so far (having read numbers 1-21, 46, and 51)--I won't give away exactly why, but part of it is that Laura Hardy gets a bigger role than just being the wife and mother of the more famous Hardys.

The action does take some rather glaring liberties with the geography of California, placing a mountain and ski resort ridiculously close to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and "wine country" and Fresno within much closer driving distance to this area (I live in Sacramento) than they actually are. But I'm willing to overlook these issues given my particular enjoyment of certain plot elements. And they did get the nature of the Delta levee roads, islands, and bridges right.

[John Yelverton · Rating 5 out of 5]

The very first Hardy Boys book that I ever read, and I absolutely loved it.

[David Allen Hines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still enjoyably re-reading the 190 Hardy Boys books, I was eager to re-read this tale, one of my favorites! A note in my well-worn copy says I bought it in 1981 and remember reading it many times! The Hardy Boys are enlisted to find a broken saber that has a man's will inscribed on it. There is a lot of interesting information on the sport of fencing in the story, and I remember it made me want to take up fencing, alas, I never had the chance. The Hardys and their friend Chet find that a relative competing for the inheritance with the man who hired them, will stop at no ends to block them from finding the sword. The adventure is fast-paced and exciting in the best spirit of the original Hardy Boys series and has aged well with one exception: this book is a revision of a much older Hardy Boys book and at one point, the Hardys and some police officers become involved in a gun battle in a city street between rival gangs who use now archaic "tommy guns!" The only weak point of this story is at the very end when the Hardys find the sword buried under a floor right where they happen to need to dig! This strains credulity even for a Hardys tale and makes me want to find a copy of the much older edition from the 1940s to see if the original story was more plausible! But any fan of the original Hardy Boys books will love The Clue of the Broken Blade!

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit blijkt de "nieuwe hardy's" editie te zijn. Vele van de goede stukken zijn er uit gelaten en de rest is (woke) herschreven.
De plot is weer redelijk complex met meerdere verhaallijnen. Er is de verdwenen degen, die hier een soort bijzaak is terwijl in het origineel dit het hoordthema uitmaakt. Dan zijn er de verdwenen documenten maar vooral de diefstallen in de haven en hun transport per vrachtwagen. Doorheen het tweede deel van het boek loopt dan ook nog de vondst van ee weggelopen rijkeluiszoontje met geheugenverlies.
De Hardy's laten zich aannemen in een circus (alsof ze daar op hen zitten te wachten) en mogen binnen de kortste keren zelfs een geweldig trapezenummer opvoeren. Terwijl het publiek haast i zwijm valt schiet de lezer uiteraard in een ongelovig lach en bewondert de gymnasiteklessen daar in Bayport.
Chet Morgan en de meisjes spelen een bijrolletje, Fenton Hardy treedt meer op de voorgrond.
Er wordt weer gereisd, naar Californië dit keer en hotels en treinen worden haast constant gebruikt.
Naast hun eigen wagen en al dan niet gestolen vrachtwagens.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not even Chet Morton tackling and punching bad guys could give this one more than two stars.

The story started off quite well, but then the Hardys went to California and not even suspension of disbelief could pull this mess out of the mud. The parental Hardys show up when the director of a film the boys become a part of just happens to run into Fenton and Laura on their vacation at the Grand Canyon. Huh?!

Worse, two chapters were obviously stretched out when Frank and Joe and Fenton and Chet are captured separately. The only good part of it was the aforementioned head punch from Chet that sent one of the bad guys running away into the woods.

Then, the boys find the title blade in the bad guy's basement. That's not a typo, that is exactly what happened. Then, they lose it to the bad guys one more time just to stretch the story to over 170 pages.

The good news is that for a younger child, it is still a good mystery.

Find it (at a charity shop). Read it.

[Happy Super Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book but Hardy boys is always good but no funny joke at the end 😡 and nobody died

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I personally am growing a bit tired of the formula, but with cars chases, false arrests and a near entombment, this still delivers the thrills to eight and ten year olds.

Upon Third reading: I feel as if I have been thrust into a vortex of alternate reality as I re-read a story I could have sworn I read once, except this time the story is entirely different! That I somehow have gotten ahold of a bona fide 1942 edition of this book should have clued me in, but I did not realize it until I went searching for the title on Goodreads. The other version I read had the brothers going to California and getting trapped in a collector’s dungeon. That one was fairly well written. Here, the brothers mess around chasing trucks and boats and end up shoveling elephant poop at the circus. This original text is quirky, abrupt and patched together. It’s as if it was written by people sitting around a table, where they pass the story around and the next person adds a new paragraph. One thing happens and then another, but the events are barely related. It reads like it was written in this way by a bunch of different people, none of whom were entirely sober.

So I now understand why these books were re-edited in the 1950s and 1960s, and I no longer regret not having access to the originals.

[Rex Libris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apparently all of the boys in Bayport take fencing lessons. So do bulldozer drivers. On top of that, people apparently write wills on swords.

The Hardy's fencing teacher's grandfather wrote the will on a sword. That sword was then broken in a duel in the late 1800's. The part with the will on it was lost. So the Hardys go in search of it.

While the boys get pushed around, the do not get a KO. As this version appears to be a re-write in the 70's, it is probably part of a campaign to have a kinder, more gentler Hardy Boys series.

Book: 0
Series: 27

[David Ballesteros · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clue of the Broken Blade is a vey interesting story of Frank and Joe Hardy looking for an ancient blade that belongs to a fencing instructor Ettore Russo. But other people are looking for it too because the founder of the blade will be granted a huge mansion and a vineyard. The Hardy's retrieve the blade then face challenges with criminals chasing them. Then the brothers trap the criminals and send the blade to Ettore Russo. The hardy's get rewarded i the end with a thousand dollars.

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hardy Boys + Swords. Need I say more?

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An odd mystery...but a good one!

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

#Binge Reviewing My Past Reads:

Hardy Boys (Read between 1990 and 1996 in M.P. Birla School library and punctiliously collected and read thereafter.)

Few Hardy Boys titles had such immediate drama in them. A broken blade already suggests violence past, history fractured, something once whole now rendered incomplete. For my boyhood self in the mid-’90s, this mystery was irresistible because it revolved around fencing—a sport I had only glimpsed in encyclopedias and comic panels. The very idea that a sword could hide secrets made the novel feel exotic, almost aristocratic.

The narrative is steeped in duels, rivalries, and a missing sword that becomes both clue and symbol. At surface level, it was another Franklin W. Dixon adventure, full of coded messages and chases. But in hindsight, The Clue of the Broken Blade feels almost Shakespearean—an object of inheritance, honor, and betrayal. In India of the 1990s, where family heirlooms and property disputes often shadowed drawing-room conversations, this story quietly mirrored familiar anxieties: who owns the past, and what does its fracture mean for the present?

For me personally, it also became a metaphor for adolescence. Growing up felt like carrying a broken blade: the sharpness of ambition was there, but the completeness was not. School syllabi, peer pressure, unanswered questions about future careers—everything seemed like fragments of a weapon I hadn’t yet learned to wield.

Reading Frank and Joe deciphering the mystery, I felt reassured that brokenness itself could lead to clarity, that even a snapped sword could point the way.

Culturally, the story carried a faint echo of America’s obsession with dueling honor and old-world relics, transposed into pulp. It was adventure fiction’s way of playing with history—domesticating it into a teenage riddle. Yet for me, curled up in the library corner, it was simply proof that the Hardy Boys could turn even a broken object into a whole adventure.

In memory, the blade remains. Not as a weapon, but as a reminder: what is broken can still be meaningful, still sharp, still a clue to who we are becoming.

[Jackson Compton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boy oh boy! What a hoot this one was...

I hadn’t read a Hardy Boys book in a while and picked up this one. LOVED IT! Each boy was knocked unconscious and tied up at least once and there were a plethora of fat jokes on Chet’s account, all essential aspects of any Hardy Boys title. One complaint I had is a spoiler so don’t read any farther if you haven’t read the book yet...

SPOILER:
The final discovery of the sword and the inscription was rather disappointing for me and why I rated this book only 3 stars. I mean COME ON! The book was always building to the moment where the boys would find the sword and I was expecting something rather spectacular BUT stumbling on the sword by complete chance was really disappointing to me. Also when they couldn’t find the inscription I was like: ‘hmmm this could get interesting.’ But then the big resolution boiled down to: ‘Oh wait we didn’t really look that hard... here it is!’ Very anti climactic if you ask me and a missed opportunity for something great.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the early, brown cover ed. and have to say that this one is better written than most of the blue covers that I've read. For a while, it seemed like this was edging toward a three- or even four-star review, but it's a shame that the better writing was wasted on a "mystery" that wasn't all that interesting, and as usual relied on too many outrageous coincidences. Plus there's the matter of how a certain minor character was portrayed. All of that held this book to two stars. One thing I did enjoy was to see the boys working directly with their father instead the tired contrivance of having them work on a case that later just happened to be connected to one of FH's. It'd be interesting to see how much the blue cover ed. departs from the original. Side note: FH is invariably described in these books as a "world-famous detective." Everywhere he goes, people know who he is. For all those not directly involved in law enforcement, etc.: can you name even one detective? Except in fiction, detectives do not become world famous. In fact, I'd say that it'd be detrimental for a detective to become famous. Anonymity would be one of the best advantages in tracking down evil-doers, I'd think.

[Stacey Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fencing takes center stage in this Hardy Boys' mystery. At first it seems the mystery will be about a gang stealing voice recognition machines, one of which the Hardy's have just acquired. But another mystery soon takes over....or is it all a part of the same mystery? Frank, Joe and Chet travel to California to search for half of a broken sword that supposedly has a will written on it. Their fencing instructor from Bayport may be an heir but they need the sword of Adalante to prove it. Believing that a vineyard that has mostly been demolished or sold off is the place to look the boys have a hard time finding clues about the long forgotten acreage. Fenton Hardy and even the boys' mother also play a part in the search to find the broken blade. Of course a gang of thugs is also after the blade and give the Hardy's a run for their money. Car chases, a case of mistaken identity, a movie mogul, a disgruntled bulldozer operator and a lot of fencing make for an interesting book.

[Brentman99 · Rating 3 out of 5]

dWhat I've learned so far re-reading the series as an adult is bthat the language and writing in the older books (not the 1960s or 1970s versions) is not really as appropriate for children today.

I'll comment again on how the Hardy Boys are allowed to do pretty much anything, such as take part in a circus trapeze act, that normal people wouldn't do. But I know, this is fiction. But when writing for children, I would think that an author would want to keep it real. But in the good old days when kids could run away and join the circus, maybe this was real.

Using some good deduction, help from Chet (as always) the boys solve the mystery. This one was a bit different in that we heard/saw more from Fenton Hardy than almost any other book, as he was quite involved in this one. The boys even found and saved him when he was kidnapped.

Not a bad story, but I don't think it holds up today.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Recommendation Paragraph
Clash, Clang, want on the sound of the two foils clashing and fighting with each other. The Clue of The Broken Blade is a fascinating book that goes along with the series of the Hardy Boys who are helpers of their father detective. They must find the sword of atlandante to help the maestro Ettori Russo to help get him all the money he needs to continue the school. The book is written by Franklin W. Dixon, but the artist is unknown. P.4 “We can`t give lessons, but we can supervise training for a few weeks” The Hardy Boys and their friends want to help because they have a good motivation and a kind heart. Overall, I think the book was amazing! It showed that we can be kind to other people and we can always have a good heart to encourage others.

[Aurora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good installment

This is full of thrills and adventure as any Hardy boys book is. My main problem is the voice machine, it seemed out of place and unnecessary to the overall story. Heck, it's dropped about halfway through the book and doesn't come back until the end. Definitely could have done without it and more time be given to the blade, which was definitely more interesting. I wanted to learn more about it. Well, maybe the original 30's book would, guess I know which original I'm going to get next, lol. Otherwise, a fairly good mystery, but one I think needed a little more work.

[Connie Kalupa Diamond · Rating 1 out of 5]

My most recent read: "The Clue of the Broken Blade" (A Hardy Boys Mystery) by Franklin W. Dixon. Our vrbo had a set of Hardy Boys mysteries on the shelf. I had never read one, so Michael (who read everything when he was a kid) pulled one off the shelf for me when I was between books. I must say. . . these did not age well. I can see how they would have provided a great escape and a virtual adventure for a boy back in the day though. The series began in 1929 and this book was published in 1942. A few things have changed since then. Some of the throwback stuff is charming to read. Some of it, not so much

[Gordon Geise · Rating 1 out of 5]

Re the revised text: Idiotic. Continually throwing dangerous situations at the boys may be de rigueur, but golly, chums, how do the bad guys expect to find the titular blade when they're toiling 24/7 to kill our heros? And for the first half of the story, *why*, exactly are the miscreants attempting so to do? That is, which of the three (at least three!) completely unrelated crimes across the U.S. and in Switzerland are these evil masterminds afraid the Hardys will nail them for?

And how many snakes do the Hardys have to murder?

[Melissa Namba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure that this really transcends time. I mean, it's hard to believe that any parent would allow their 17 and 18 year old sons to fly to another state to follow a potential criminal. And that motels would actually rent rooms to them. And that police stations would give them access to highly technical equipment. Nevertheless, the fencing portion of the story is fun as is the loopy Geneology. But then again, I guess its kind of like the Supernatural for the 50's.

[Nae · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the number of pages I consider to be few, I thought I could finish this book in one sitting in the library. In fact, this book consumed more of my time and thought effort.
I'm one of those who less familiar with the mystery theme, but this book presents a story that piques my curiosity.
A lot of new vocabulary I learned in the writing of this book. Perfectly suited to me who isn't a native speaker of English.
Maybe this book could be my stepping stone to liking other mystery books.

[Zach W · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Clue of the Broken Blade by Franklin W. Dixion was an interesting one Ettore Russo, a fencing instructor had his grandfather pass away so he was going to visit his family, when he mentioned a famous sword that was in many pieces and had his will to his fortune to his grandson, Ettore Russo. So the Hardy boys went to search for clues about it. They have a handy tool to help them, the voice recognizer. They find out that there was a bank robbery in their hometown bayport and later they receive a call telling them to get out of the state or die. They find a book about the sword but the pages on where to find it were ripped out. They find a famous movie writer and he gives them a role in a movie. They find a ski lift to go to a place where they can hide out and plan, but the gang already found the area they were going to and so they get kidnapped and they get knocked out. They wake up in a small wine cellar of the movie writer that they later find out about and end up finding the sword and they cut their way out, and they give the fortune to Ettore Russo.
I believe that the author did an okay job at writing this story simply because there was just too much characters and they all had a good description and they have nothing to do with the story except that couple of pages. The author always has a great cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. The author did a nice job on the day overview because he would never waste time writing about what time it was when they go to sleep or wake up or eat. He did however add some questionable additions, for example there were two sort of "bad guys/groups" and one was because Joe Hardy beat him in a duel.
I would only recommend this book to people who can remember things well and like mysterys. My reasoning is because it gets kind of sloppy and there are just alot of characters to keep track of. The Hardy boys series are all mysterys. My personal favorite part of the book was when they filming a movie because Chet, (the Hardy boys friend) Chases after a suspicious suspect and it turns out to be the Hardy boy's dad.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ate these up as a kid and usually got them as gifts for birthdays, Christmas and other events. This edition would be quite dated now and I believe they have updated the books. The author was a pseudonym for a plethora of writers who contributed to this series.