Selected review:

The Hardy Boys find themselves in an unusual situation. Their father asked them to break into someone’s home to retrieve a mysterious package. The boys find a way into the house, but almost as quickly as they have entered the house they see car headlights. Soon another set of thieves enter the house. After a tussle with the thieves the Hardy Boys are able to locate the mysterious package in a secret hiding place.

Soon the Hardy Boys are in the midst of one of their most dangerous cases. One of the boys is kidnapped. The boys tail a criminal to New York City and are nearly run down in a subway. Later the boys are in a plane that develops serious engine trouble, threatening the boys with death! Even with all the danger the boys face, there is yet more to come when the boys learn what is in the mysterious package and why the crooks want the package.

The author seems to be hooked on caves. The caves that appeared in “The Shore Road Mystery” appear prominently in this book. I think that once crooks find a good set of caves they must pass the location on to their friends.

I noticed a couple of rough spots where it appeared the more recent authors who revised the story may have eliminated some prose and struggled to smooth out transitions. I also thought the description of the electronics was a bit weak. Why were the electronics so valuable? Of course, today we expect electronics to be inexpensive. In another update perhaps the author will describe the electronics as the only prototype of a new video game in existence, or something similar.

This story moved along briskly, with a lot of action. This story is reasonably well written and held my attention from beginning to end. I think this story is one of the better stories in the series.

Though the Hardy Boys series is written in a relatively archaic fashion, as reading material for an increasingly younger audience they are excellent. The stories were once recommended for children ages 10 to 14. As children are exposed to more violence and seem to require greater levels of stimulation, the recommended age range has move to 9 to 12. I think any child capable of reading some of the challenging words in these books will enjoy them, regardless of how tame most of the action may be. Once a child has reached age 12 or so the stories may be of less interest, but given the combination of mystery and action, these books remain good safe choices for parents who want to know what their children are reading.

People who bought this item also bought:

1. The House on the Cliff (Hardy Boys #2)
2. What Happened at Midnight?