The House on the Point: A Tribute to Franklin W. Dixon and The Hardy Boys

by Benjamin Hoff

In 1982, Benjamin Hoff published The Tao of Pooh , a plainspoken yet startling and complex take on A.A. Milne's Winnie The Pooh stories. Hoff's keen insights propelled the book, and its sequel, The Te of Piglet to total sales of over 2.5 million copies. Now Hoff has turned to another childhood classic, Franklin W. Dixon's beloved Hardy Boys mysteries, and created The House on the Point .

As a child, Hoff loved the Hardy Boys; they were the books that hooked him on his lifelong love of reading. Recently, he revisited The House on the Cliff, one of the classic early Hardy Boys mysteries, and decided to reshape it for readers of all ages. Hoff sets this recast story, now entitled The House on the Point , in 1947, when the Swing Era was giving way to the Baby Boom, and gives it a plot involving a post-war smuggling racket, a young newcomer to town who may have something to hide, and a police chief who's in no hurry to investigate. And he does so with a greater attention to detail, more fully developed characters, and a modern ear for dialogue.

Publishing in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of the first Hardy Boys mystery, The House on the Point is a book for tho se who haven't yet made the acquaintance of the Hardy Boys and those who haven't "grown up" and left their adventures behind.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 17, 2002

About the author

Benjamin Hoff grew up in the Portland, Oregon neighborhood of Sylvan, where he acquired a fondness of the natural world that has been highly influential in his writing. Hoff obtained a B.A. in Asian Art from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in 1973.

Hoff has also studied architecture, music, fine arts, graphic design and Asian Culture. His studies in Asian Culture included reaching the certificate level in the Japanese Tea Ceremony, had two years of apprenticeship in Japanese fine-pruning methods, and four years of instruction in the martial art form of T'ai chi ch'uan, including a year of Ch'i Kung. In his spare time, he practices Taoist Qigong and T'ai chi ch'uan.

Hoff was awarded the American Book Award in 1988 for The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow. The Tao of Pooh was an international bestseller and spent 49 weeks on The New York Times' bestseller list. The Te of Piglet also became an international bestseller and spent 59 weeks on The New York Times' bestseller list.

In 2006, Hoff published an essay on his website titled "Farewell to Authorship", in which he denounced the publishing industry and announced his resignation from book-writing.

Reviews

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author talks about writing the story "as a movie on paper," and I think this is a cause of my dissatisfaction with this elaboration on one of the original Hardy Boys stories. There are probably things from the original that could have been improved on (and the author itemizes what he added), but what I kept noticing were the superfluous additions of references and quotations from period music and the obsession with over-detail (streets have to have names, cars have to have year, make, and model, etc.).

I haven't ever read one of the original Hardy Boys books, only the blue post-1959 revised editions, but I'd like to try the 1927 House on the Cliff.

In addition to the actual story, the book contains a preface giving some background on F. W. Dixon and the Hardy Boys books, an afterword that describes the changes/additions, and a postscript, as well as a lengthy (25-page) essay "The Art of Seeing," that is rather rambling, providing a brief history of detective stories as well as criticisms of the American educational system (regarding art, music, science, etc.). It is somewhat interesting, but not essential and including it in this book feels like padding.

[Shawn Deal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great novel to bring back the nostalgia of my youth. It was the Hardy boy books that got me hooked into reading. I still have my entire collection. I loved those books and the summers day I would find a sunny play to read the newest book I got my hands on. This one was well written and I enjoyed it very much. I would gladly read another one if ever another one comes out.

[John Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a kid I lived a block away from a library. I probably spent a third of my waking hours there as a child. I was hooked on the Hardy Boys and read every single Hardy Boys book - 58 to be exact, the entire original series. I owned quite a few, which meant that I read some more than once. When the TV version (starring Parker Stevenson and Shawn Cassidy) aired I was between the ages of 6 and 8. I never missed an episode. While it was a "modern" take on the story, it was still the stories of the Hardy Boys, the guys I knew so well. It was a world I lived in from time to time. The Hardy Boys, Star Wars, comic books, and my Schwinn Stingray defined my elementary school years. I can't imagine a childhood without them. They were my baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie. my America. Several weeks ago I found The House on the Point in a box of books given to me for the Little Free Library program. I read it immediately. It was a time portal to the past - the 40s for Frank and Joe Hardy and the 70s for me. It took me back to sweltering hot summer days spent in the cool air of the library and my parent's house where I hid under the covers with a flashlight reading into the night. It was everything I wanted from a Hardy Boys story with plenty of nostalgia and reference to the originals. Thank you, Mr. Hoff. You are a good man. It was nice to take a stroll down memory lane in a world I once knew so well and had nearly forgotten.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just a fun book I discovered in college. I had, like many young boys learning to read, devoured The Hardy Boys in elementary school. The second book in the huge series was called The House on the Cliff. Hoff was also a fan of the Hardy Boys and rewrote that volume as The House on the Point. He makes the story a mite more mature in the its style and more realistic, but preserves its sense of innocence. Anyone who ever read the Hardy Boys knows they were formulated and often kitschy. Hoff turns it into a story digestable by adults, yet brings us back to our childhood.

[R♥ A♥ I♥ N♥ B♥ O♥ W♥ Z!]

This book is slightly advanced for a person my age.

I was searchingfor a New Mystery story to read and i Kept passing Nancy Drew ones (for i LOVE!!! but i've read almost every single one and i had some VERY old ones (some from the first copies)and i just didn't to waist any.) So i would just keep going and going. Until my mom found The house on the point and i fell in love!


I HAVE to read more now

[Naomi McCullough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hardy Boy enthusiasts, whet your appetite for a delight. Hoff takes the spirit and essence of Frank and Joe, and fleshes them out, while retaining the sense that this book is actually set in the thirties.
Callie and Iola even get to play a more realistic role and the humor in this story was refreshingly clean and actually funny. Hoff actually worked in the police force for awhile, and he made sure that the Hardy's used real procedures that they would have been taught by Mr. Hardy.
I'm rambling, because I enjoyed it so much and I think you would too, but don't take my word for it-see for yourself! :)

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

This man must have heard my wish that the Hardy Boys had been written more accurately and with personality-he has done so.
A fabulous tribute to Dixon, that all Hardy Boy lovers will relish! Snappy dialogue flies, Iola and Callie endear themselves to you, and even the gangster takes on a human shape, losing his cut and paste style.
The one thing I wish this book didn't have, is so many italics :D I don't know why, but they pepper the pages!

[Mary Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

BORING!!!

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really fun retelling of an old Hardy Boys book. I think the author could have done a bit more with it, but it was still a pleasant reading experience.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Benjamin Hoff takes an old Hardy Boys title, THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF, the first one he read when he was a sickly child of ten, and rewrites it into an adult mystery, making changes in characters and plot points.

The Hardy Boys are still the sons of private eye Fenton Hardy and they aspire to be detectives themselves. Otherwise the writing is less factory and more straight forward.

If you like the Hrdy Boys as a child, you will like this one.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The House on the Point isn't a bad read. I gave the book a lower rating simply because it took so long for it to grab me and hold my interest.

I have often wondered why there hasn't been an attempt to write adult mysteries featuring Nancy Drew and/or the Hardy Boys. This book proves it can be done. It also proves that Iola didn't have to be killed off for the Hardy Boys Casefiles series of the 1980s and '90s. Here, she was interesting.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an odd concept. This is a re-write of an early Hardy Boys book with an effort to make it both a better read and a little bit realistic. I'm not sure it really succeeds on either point but I still kinda liked it. Of course I'm known to still pick up Three Investigators books occasionally, too.

[Sydnee Blackburn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent retelling of Frank and Joe Hardy’s adventures! I enjoyed this tribute more than the originals. What the old ones were lacking in emotion and reality, this book delivered! It was well-researched and thoughtfully written and my only complaint is that this is the only one he (Benjamin Hoff) wrote!

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

"...we simply cannot afford to give way to fears, sorrow, or regrets. They take away our power to act."

[Tom Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never read the originals, so I don't know how it compares. Hoff gets a bit too caught up in technical processes in some scenes. Good story.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know much about the hardy boys. Maybe that's needed before you read this to properly enjoy it