Status Updates From Missing Chums (Hardy Boys #4)

While sluething in Shantytown the brothers get caught by the robber group who were robbing the bank recently. As the guard that is watching them is sleeping they try to escape. They manage to break free and tackle the guard. Almost immediately the police surround the area and he gets arrested. Back at police headquarters they meet up with their dad who tells them that they caught two more robbers. (Climax).

Frank and Joe have a hunch that Chet and Biff may be located at Hermit Island just outside of Shantytown. Callie, Iola, Jerry, and Toney (Hardy's friends) decide to join them on their ride. While investigating, the girls scream at a terrifying sight. An old man is holding a shotgun at them! After leaving the island the brothers think the man is trying to keep something secret away from them. (Rising Action)

After the party the Hardy boys receive a call from both Chet and Biff's mother asking where they are. The brothers have no idea and thought that they went back home. The next morning the brothers search the house where the masquerade party was and find out that Chet's Jalopy is still there. They test the car and discover that the boys didn't have car trouble. They start to search for clues on the missing chums. (R.A)

The brothers unfortunately do not catch up to the robbers at the bank. After the chase they go to the costume store to get their costumes for a masquerade party. But before going to the party they report to the police office about the robbery. (Rising Action)

The brothers unfortunately do not catch up to the robbers at the bank. After the chase they go to the costume store to get their costumes for a masquerade party. But before going to the party they report to the police office about the robbery. (Rising Action)

Frank, Joe, Biff, and Chet nearly get crushed by a strange boat named the Black Cat. Chief Collig also has a new case for the Hardy's that takes place in Shantytown, the town right next to Bayport. Also while the brothers are picking up their costumes from the costume store they see a robbery at the local bank and decide to chase after the culprits.

i just started today right now cuse i finshed te otherone

The kidnappers' plan was to stage a fake drowning and then have the boys write postcards so everyone thinks they peaced out on vacation. Apparently after drowning.
Seems legit.

This thug's great vice is...drinking soda and getting into fights.

Coke must still have been putting cocaine in their drinks.

I can get why the Hardy Boys think it is a good idea to voluntarily get kidnapped so they can find their friends' kidnappers because they are teenage boys without fully developed frontal lobes but what is their Dad's excuse?

Joe: "You can't come with us."
Iola: * begins to cry *
Joe: "Aw shucks, you can come."

>.>

Frank and Joe go completely undercover. Full costume, makeup, "tough tone."
And then they go and blow their cover 5 minutes later.
This is why the Hardy Boys appealed to me more than Nancy Drew growing up. They might be dumb, but they keep the pace going.

"Just walking along the beach," Joe returned in a tough-sounding voice. "Looking for junk."
"Yeah? Well, get out of here and do it some place else. See?"
"This is a free country," Frank retorted, also speaking in a tough tone.

Ah, Frank, love. What a come back.

"The boys may be nearer than I thought. I've already sent out a seventeen-state missing persons alarm."

Well, that is a weirdly specific alarm.

Alternatively, I'll accept the gritty, dark reboot where the chief of police is trying to get the Hardy Boys killed because I'm not really seeing an alternative explanation for why he sends them out in a broken motor boat in the middle of a storm to chase down bank robbers.

The chief of police (a) being backup to arrive at a bank robbery and (b) laughing at the idea of the Hardy Boys having anything to do with said bank robbery despite eyewitnesses really makes we wish we had a gritty, dark reboot where the Hardy Boys are two clean-cut school boys who secretly rob banks in their free time and trade off their Dad's fame to trick the local police.

*And a bank robbery. How could I forget the bank robbery?

3 chapters in and we've got the police chief asking two teenagers to take on a case, a guy falling from a boat house ceiling into the water below during a prank gone wrong, a sailboat trying to ram a motor boat, two thugs threatening a store owner, and...chicken dinner. What the plot lacks in character development it more than makes up for in pizzazz.

This book kicks off with the chief of police asking two teenage boys (one a minor) to "put on old clothes, muss your hair, and hang around Shantytown" to figure out what has the local bums in an "ugly mood" because their behavior is worrying "the charitable landowner who permits them to stay" in a squatter colony.
Which, like, I'm laughing, but also...

This novel is in third person, and doesn't include any flashbacks, which means that is a chronological story. However in all of the previous books I have read in the Hardy boys series, there are many flashbacks.

This novel is in third person, and doesn't include any flashbacks, which means that is a chronological story. However in all of the previous books I have read in the Hardy boys series, there are many flashbacks.

I’m reading this to my youngest son. I enjoy the old time language. We’re nearing the end and we still haven’t solved the mystery!

The book is great 👍

It's great, I love it.

One shocking part was when the hardy boys solved three mysteries at once. It was cool because it was not an easy mystery to solve, yet they solved three. In the text it says “I congratulate you, boys. You solved three mysteries at once” (174-175). This was very cool because they are great detectives.

One funny part was when frank was leaning over into the cave that they found to hear what the guys inside were saying. In the novel it says “ Then he lay on his stomach and inched cautiously forward until his head was just outside the cave opening” (140). This shows how it was funny when frank leaned over in the cave to hear what the guys inside were saying.

An inference that I’m making is that the man that kicked the hardy boys out of the hilltop is part of the bank robbery. In the text it says “there was no nonsense about that gun Joe agreed. I’d like like to know what the man’s trying to keep us away from!” (110) I think that this man is a criminal.

One scary part was when the hardy boy’s boat “the sleuth” wouldn’t turn. It wouldn’t turn because there was some part that was not working. “If only I could turn her! Joe thought.” (Page 72) this proves that it is scary that they can’t turn their boat.

Hardy Boys hot take: Aunt Gertrude is the only sane Hardy. But seriously. After Frank and Joe's dad is publicly revealed on the radio to be helping the police find some bank robbers, and Gertrude points out this fact really didn't need to be broadcast, her brother says, "Don't worry, I'll be careful." SHE'S NOT WORRIED ABOUT YOU, FENTON!

Things move pretty fast in Bayport: we've already had a near-death experience on the high seas, several good-humoured '60s era teenage pranks, the town sheriff deputizing (but not, you know, legally) some teenagers to investigate some shady characters, a bank robbery, a car chase and a case of mistaken identity!