The Secret of the Old Mill by Franklin W. Dixon

The Secret of the Old Mill by Franklin W. Dixon

In the third of the blue hardback Hardy Boys novels, Dixon ups the stakes with several attempts on the brothers’ lives. In the last book, they were captured and threatened, but in this one, they are knocked unconscious and stuck in their boat in circumstances that were intended to lead to an accident where they would have presumably died. Similarly, their boat is later sabotaged so that a potentially lethal accident would result. This is a serious upping of the tension from anything we saw in the first two novels. It was somewhat troubling that their father accepted these attacks as something detectives needed to expect to happen once in a while.

 

The basic plot revolves around two mysteries. The first, affecting the boys, is a counterfeiting ring which appears to be operating in the Bayport area and which tricks two of their friends into accepting bogus money. The second mystery is a secretive case their father is working on. When the threats begin to come in, it isn’t immediately clear which mystery is inspiring the criminals to warn them off.

 

This is a fast-moving book, but it didn’t grab my attention to the same extent that the previous one did. I felt like at times Frank and Joe were just a little too dense in not picking up on obvious clues that they stumbled upon. They were especially slow to become suspicious of a security guard who lies to them. But overall, it was a pretty standard feeling Hardy Boy adventure.