The Hardy Boys 4 The Missing Chums by Franklin W. Dixon
The Hardy Boys 4 The Missing Chums by Franklin W. Dixon
This novel has a very interesting opening because it shows the series’ roots in the Great Depression. It is also a totally unrealistic beginning. Chief Collig, top officer in Bayport’s police force, asks 17-year-old Joe and 18-year-old Frank to investigate a place called Shantytown on the outskirts of Bayport for him. It seems there has been a lot of fights there recently and he wants these two civilian non-police officers to find out what’s going on for him because his police might be recognized. So, a totally absurd premise, but actually also an important window into the respectful relationship the 1960s Hardy Boys rewrites strove to establish between the police and the two boy detectives.
Frank and Joe get a slow start on the investigation choosing instead to go boating with their friends where they are almost in a collision with another boat. This boat seemed to aim for them, and they damage their own vessel getting out of his way. After getting a temporary repair, they go to pick up costumes for a masquerade party they are attending that night only to see what appears to be the owner of the shop being strongarmed by rough-looking customers. As if that isn’t enough, they come out of the shop only to witness a bank robbery. They chase the villains through the fog, but they escape by stealing the Hardy boys’ own boat. And then as if enough strange and apparently unconnected bits of trouble haven’t happened already, two of their friends disappear leaving the party later that night.
Readers will immediately suspect that all of these problems are somehow connected, but the Hardy brothers are not yet ready to make that intuitive leap. The next day, they find their stolen boat and decide to pursue their investigation of Shantytown even though their friends are missing. The first people they encounter there are the troublemakers from the day before and shortly thereafter they see the driver of the boat that previously caused them so much trouble. So, what exactly is going on? The boys then half-break cover by saying they are looking for two missing friends. Almost immediately they find a piece of a gorilla costume that one of the friends was wearing making me wonder what the men of Shantytown they were questioning must have thought. After all, most down on their luck individuals (such as Frank and Joe were pretending to be) don’t wear expensive gorilla costumes.
The investigation continues in this fashion with coincidence doing more to advance the boys’ work than sleuthing did. Then they come up with an absolutely idiotic plan that their father madly agrees to—and unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work out quite the way they expected putting the two boys in great danger and setting up an adrenalin filled ending.
This is by far the most poorly thought out of the first four books, but honestly, despite the many problems it was still entertaining. Still, you have to wonder why the Hardy boys’ friends are still permitted to hang out with them after two were kidnapped because they were mistaken for the Hardys and others were put in grave danger (again) helping them on their case.
