Welcome to the August 2016 edition of The Hardy Boys News.This month there is my review of the original text version of “The Great Airport Mystery”, as well as the new releases and Spotlite Book “The Ghost At Skeleton Rock”.
Visit The Hardy Boys Unofficial Home Page’s Facebook Page for your daily fix of Hardy Boys news & trivia!
“The Ghost At Skeleton Rock”Comments and reviews are welcome.
Yahoo Fan Forum – Facebook Fan Forum
Original: 1957 James Lawrence (184 pages)
Revised: 1966 Priscilla Baker-Carr (177 pages)
All Editions For Sale
Revision: Slightly Altered
Art: 1957 Rudy Nappi
Art: 1966 Rudy Nappi
Notes: Revised text PC with 1957 cover art is rare.
The Hardy Boys head to the Caribbean to thwart Durling Hamilton’s plot to fund a Cuban revolution and build an atomic weapon.
Description of current edition from Amazon.com: A cryptic message from their famous detective father and a note concealed in a ventriloquist’s dummy lead Frank and Joe Hardy on a dangerous search to the tropical islands in the Caribbean. There the teenage detectives are constantly beset by vicious henchmen of a criminal mastermind. Danger stalks the boys’ every move, once in an isolated sugar mill, another time in a shark-infested sea. But when Frank and Joe come face to face with the ghost at Skeleton Rock, it will be as much of a surprise to the reader as it was to the young detectives themselves.
3: Water-Ski Wipeout – 08/16For Sale: Paperback – Hardcover – Kindle
Brother detectives Frank and Joe face perils in the wilderness as they try to track down their missing teacher in this thrilling Hardy Boys adventure.
Detective brothers Frank and Joe try to figure out who’s spoiling the fun on a class trip in the third book in an all-new, interactive Hardy Boys chapter book mystery series.
Frank and Joe Hardy are super-psyched for their school trip to Lake Poketoe. Along with their friends, they can’t wait to go tubing, make s’mores, and take nature walks. And Joe is particularly excited to try out his brand-new water skis during the trip!But when the group tries to head out for their first day of boating, Joe discovers his skis are missing! Who could have taken them? And how could they have disappeared without anyone noticing? With time running out on their trip, can Frank and Joe figure out who the sneaky ski thief could be?
Volumes One to Ten with a special slipcover.
2: Hardy Boys Adventures Graphic Novel – 04/17For Sale: Paperback
Scott Lobdell (Author)
Paulo Henrique (Illustrator)
Tim Smith 3 (Illustrator)
For Sale: Paperback
Hardys In Review
The Great Airport Mystery
(original text)
Review by Robert Finnan
Spoiler Alert
The Plot: Bayport’s got a nifty new airport on the outskirts of town and Frank and Joe decide to pay a visit. Longtime Hardy fans know well that no trip undertaken in the first chapter goes smoothly and, sure enough, when nearing the airport they narrowly avoid getting hit by a crashing plane! They go to rescue the pilot, Giles Ducroy, who is drunk and blames them for the crash! However, a friendly farmer has seen the whole thing and backs up the Boys.
Ducroy makes more threats and the Boys go home and tell their father what happened. Fenton promises to square it with his contacts but the Boys worry about this and their upcoming final exams. Later the Boys and Chet run into Ducroy while in town and Ducroy starts a fight but gets beaten up by Frank.
Having passed their finals, the Boys and their chums have a picnic down by Barmet Bay. Spotting Ducroy and his cronies, Ollie Jacobs and Newt Pipps, in an abandoned cabin near the picnic ground, the Boys investigate and overhear them making plans for a robbery. It starts to rain (of course!), so the Boys and their friends have to head home.
After the Boys graduate from High School, Fenton tells them he’s investigating a mail robbery and asks them to help him. They go back to the cabin and find a few clues. Then they head out to Cabin Island with Chet and Biff. Of course, another storm blows up and the boys are forced to make a harrowing run to the store of their old pal, Amos Grice, where they spend the night.
Calling home in the morning, they find out there’s been another robbery at the airport and when they get home, they get arrested for it! Chief Collig seems eager to convict the Boys and shows them all the circumstantial evidence against them. They finally wind up in jail until they get bailed out by Hurd Applegate and Elroy Jefferson.
Due to the Boys arrest, Fenton is taken off the robbery case. The Boys go off to investigate the Ducroy gang, who have blown town. Through some decent detecting, they get on the trail of Ollie Jacobs and finally find the rest of the gang.
The gang has bought an airplane and is planning a major robbery. The Boys decide to stow away in the luggage compartment of the plane and spend the next couple of chapters flying around during the days and spending their nights at farmhouses.
Finally the day of the robbery comes and the Boys awake only to spot the plane flying away! They are about to give up but spot Jacobs and Pipps in town and hurry back to the farmhouse. As evening falls, the Boys once again stow away and the gang is off on their nefarious task. They force a mail plane down in a field and proceed to rob the pilot at gunpoint. Frank and Joe, who somehow now have pistols of their own, capture the gang one at a time.
The Boys and the airmail pilot head back to Bayport in the gangs plane. They have been cleared of all charges and are now the toast of the town. Fenton is back on the airmail case (gee, thought he solved that one!) and even Chief Collig says he never really suspected the Boys!
Comments: This isn’t among the best stories written by McFarlane although there still is plenty to like – particularly his sidelights of the Boys with their chums and the interweaving of characters from previous stories. The climax, however, leaves a lot to be desired. Compare the long thrilling shoot-out in The House On The Cliff to the brief, almost perfunctory capture described here to see what I mean. And just where did Frank and Joe come up with those pistols anyway? And what about that package of Red Ribbon cigarettes Frank found? Nothing ever came of that either!
It’s always bugged me that Frank stupidly tries to outrace the crashing plane in the first chapter. All he had to do was stop the car and Ducroy’s plane would have sailed right past them.
The Syndicate missed a golden opportunity to do a cross-over from the Ted Scott series here – what better story to have Ted make a cameo appearance?
Other commentators have pointed out the logical flow of time in the early Hardy Boys stories. Well, it ends here! Much is made of the Boys graduation from High School, however future stories have them back in good old Bayport High, where they remain to this day – over 80 years later!