The Secret of the Red Arrow by Franklin W. Dixon
The Secret of the Red Arrow by Franklin W. Dixon
This novel launches a new Hardy Boys series. While growing up, I read the original “blue hardback” series and was surprised and pleased by many of the changes in this new book. First, in the original series, Frank and Joe are all American boys. They play every sport, are loved and respected by all of their classmates, the chief of the Bayport police respects them, and so on. The only problems they have come from criminals. In this novel, Frank and Joe are not clones of each other. Frank is more of a geek, Joe somewhat more athletic. Neither is in the running for most popular kid in their school and the police find them annoying. In fact, their propensity for investigating mysteries has gotten them into a lot of trouble in the past resulting in the “deal” in which they stop all investigations or go to reform school. They don’t stop, of course, but this is a very different setup than that of the original series.
There is also a new cast of friends and classmates in this book. Chet, Tony, Biff, and the girlfriends, Callie and Iola, are gone. There are new friends and classmates in their place, but it made me wonder why they needed to get rid of all the trappings of the original series.
The book opens with a bang with Joe Hardy helping to rob a bank. And while, no, it is not what it appears, it is a great opening and the first chapters of the book are involved in figuring out what was really going on at the bank. Then they get pulled into helping a school bully who has a truly disturbing problem, and they slowly uncover a Bayport urban legend, the Red Arrow. The Red Arrow appears to be a master criminal involved in extortion and blackmail. It was unrealistic that Frank and Joe had never heard of this urban legend, but it was fun to watch everyone clam up when they started asking about it. Clearly there was truth to the legend, and no one wanted to deal with it.
The resolution of the mystery was way too quick and easy. I think the Red Arrow should have been much smarter and not given himself away. The way I think of it, this was more of an “establish the basics” book, putting the basic pieces in place for a new series. I enjoyed it, but much of the enjoyment came from comparing the new series to the old.
