This review concerns the original 1930 edition. Frank and Joe are arrested following the theft of valuable mail bags from the airport and must track down the real thieves in order to clear their names. While there is nothing spectacular about this book to make it stand out from the rest, it is by no means a bad book. The mystery is interesting and there is a decent amount of action. One thing that I did like about this book was that the criminals were featured prominently thoughout the book, unlike in some other volumes where Frank and Joe don't come across the criminals until the last few pages. Many readers will find it odd that the Hardys and their friends graduate from high school in this book (especially since in #10, they are back in high school), apparently, with the beginning of the Great Depression, the author must have been unsure as to whether or not the series would continue. This is an above average book any Hardy Boys fan would enjoy reading.

The Hardy Boys The Great Plane Mystery
Franklin W. Dixon
Reviewed by S. Teran
Period 5

In the beginning of this book, the Hardy boys and their father were trying to get to their house in Bayport after they accidentally took a wrong turn. As they were going through a field, they heard a low pitched droning. They decided to ignore it. A few seconds later, out of no where, a plane came flying at them. They tried to dodge it but the wheel of the plane hit the roof of the car. The car flipped and everyone was knocked out cold. After about 10 minutes or so, they woke up unhurt but their car was almost totaled. Since the Hardys were used to the unexpected, they just went on. The next day, the Hardys flew a helicopter back to the area where they got hit by the plane. They found a shack that would normally be hidden to the naked eye in the forest. Just as they found it, a weird voice came over the radio speakers. It eerily said, "You can not escape the dead person, you know who this is, this is Clint Hill." The next day the Hardys got jobs at Stanwide, a computer/plane/helicopter industry, where Clint Hill last worked. Their jobs were to deliver notes and packages to other parts of the plant. After work and with permission, the Hardys took a helicopter out to the same location. Just as they were about to land, a tornado came towards the helicopter. The winds were too strong and forced them to crash land. No one was hurt but the helicopter was damaged beyond repair. The boys looked for clues until they saw a camouflage tarp covering a cave. Behind it, they found Clint Hill's plane. The Hardys flew to an island off the shores of a lake in Montana. There they found barrels of aviation fuel. They also found a shack like the one at Bayport. At the shack, they saw two people, Anchor and Barney. They were pilots for Stanwell. These two men were up to no good. Before they knew it, the Hardys were captured and thrown into a shack. Once the trap door opened, sleeping gas filed the room which knocked out the Hardy boys. Anchor called all the other pilots who were involved in the smuggling to come to this Island. The pilot, who flew the Hardy boys to this island, got worried and went looking for them. He found the shack and he also fell into the trap door. He was only stunned by the gas. He was able to get the boys out and call for help. He called Mr. Allen, the president of Stanwell, to come to the island. Upon arriving, Mr. Allen was shocked to see platinum and Clint Hill's crashed plane. This plane had crashed off the Cuban shores about 10 years ago. Meanwhile, the police were chasing Anchor, Peterson, and Rodax. The police eventually caught them and interrogated them for 3 days. They told the police of their hide out, the platinum and of the rest of the people who were involved in the smuggling. Mr. Allen had congratulated the Hardys on their findings and was told that someone wanted to talk to them back at Stanwell. They walked into the office and saw Clint Hill. He told the Hardys that 10 years ago, Peterson, who was the command pilot, left him stranded after the plane crashed. He was stranded in Cuba all this time. He explained that the eerie message over the radio wasn't him. It was just Peterson trying to scare people.
I liked this book so much is because it is a Mystery book. I really like Mystery books because the authors always keep you on the edge of your seat. For example, when the mysterious voice came over the radio, it said, "You can not escape the person you have killed." That part crept me out so much. I also liked this book because once I started to reading it, I couldn't stop. Before I knew about Mystery books, I never wanted to have anything to do with reading a book. The only time I would read a book is when one of my teachers would make us read or if they were instructional books on how to play Nintendo games. Franklin W. Dixon, the author of these Hardy boys mysteries, always seems to write amazing storylines.
There really was nothing that I didn't like about this book. If anything, it was just too short of a book.
My favorite part of this book is right in the beginning. It all started when the Hardys were taking a short cut through the plains when they heard a low pitch sound off in the distance. They decided to ignore it and continue as usual. The low pitched sound kept on getting louder as if it was getting closer, but of course, they still ignored it. Finally, Mr. Hardy got scared and turned off his headlights only to find another pair of lights going overhead. Something hit the top of the car to make it flip. Then the headlights mysteriously vanished.

This is a fascimile of the original book. A nice copy and a nice idea. So far they have released about 8 of these fascimile editions in the Hardy Boys series and several in the Nancy Drew and Tom Swift series also.

The Great Airport Mystery is a tale of early flying, mail plane robberies, and races across the countryside in a roadster. It was a long ago time when kids had to pass exams to graduate from High School. No revisionism and mindless updating to make the stories "relevant" to the contemporary reader. This is not great literature, but updating is really little more than colorizing black&white movies.

This is just plain fun, and thanks to the publishers for giving us an opportunity to see what fun was for kids 75 years ago.

The Shore Road Mystery re-write wasn't nearly as good as the original, wherein Frank and Joe bought a used fancy car, fixed it up, and hid in the trunk. Their Trojan Horse technique carried them right into the lair of the auto thieves; after numerous exciting brushes with danger, they were able to escape and bring back the police.

The re-write wasn't nearly as tense. It's possible that was purposeful. At the end of the original, Fenton Hardy muted his pride for his sons' accomplishment with the admonition that their tactic had simply been too dangerous, and they could have been seriously injured or worse.

But that's what made the book good. Kids enjoy stories of that nature because nothing like that ever happens to teens in real life. Really, how many teams of teen-brother detectives do you think are operating in the USA just now, solving crimes and mysteries every other week (while owning cars, motorcycles, ice boats, airplanes, you name it)? Zippo.

This review concerns the revised 1964 edition. Jack Dodd, a schoolmate of the Hardy's, asks Frank and Joe to solve a family mystery involving a treasure hidden during Pilgrim times. However, after Jack and his father are accused of stealing cars along the Shore Road, they disappear. Did the Dodds go onto hiding so that they could search for the treasure? Did they run away because they are guilty? Or were they kidnapped to make it look as if they ran away? Frank, Joe and Chet work to find the answer and solve the mysteries. This book was quite good; it has a realistic plot, plenty of action and was generally enjoyable. Nonetheless, I prefer the original edition to the revised. The original edition was better written as to the flow of the book and the language used. The Pilgrim mystery, which was not a part of the original, felt tacked on and was not woven into the story very well in my opinion. Both editions are worth reading and since they are only similar in their basic plot and only slightly similar in their endings, I think that most fans could read one and then not feel bored reading the second one later. However, if you're only going to read one, I'd say to go with the original.

This book was Super! I liked pretending I was one of the Hardy Boys. I also tried working out the mysteries with the book. I liked it when they found the Hidden Hideout. I also liked when they spied. I like spying on people myself. I also liked their motorcycles. I loved it!

This review concerns the revised 1966 edition. Frank, Joe, Chet and Biff receive permission from Elroy Jefferson to spend their Christmas holiday at his cabin on Cabin Island. Mr. Jefferson also asks for the boys' help in finding his missing grandson. While staying at the cabin, the boys find clues which lead them to believe that a valuable medal collection, stolen from Mr. Jefferson two years ago, is located somewhere on the island. However, before they can find the medals, they must deal with an unscrupulous criminal intent on finding the collection himself and a strange ghost inhabiting the island. This is probably one of the better revisions (I'd give it 3 1/2 stars, if they gave half star ratings); the story closely follows that of the original volume and, while the excellent writing of the original is gone, the book still wasn't written badly. The mystery isn't bad; although, the whole ghost part wasn't very interesting and could have been easily left out. I would recommend reading the original, if possible, but the revision wasn't bad either.

This review concerns the original 1929 edition. While spending the Christmas holiday on Cabin Island with their chums, Chet and Biff, Frank and Joe Hardy stumble upon a mystery surrounding the disappearance of a valuable stamp collection. The mystery related in this book, though interesting, is average. It is the writing that makes this book a joy to read. The scenes are so well described that one could almost picture oneself there at that time and the language used hasn't been dumbed down like in many of the recent volumes. The action is well-paced and it didn't feel as though the mystery was solved too quickly. This was a great book, definately worth reading.

This was my 3rd book and my best. I like the plot, and it's hard to tell the outcome of the ending, even though I found out. I got this book from Boise's library, and it was dirty, old, but terrific. No wonder so many people liked it if the book's the way it is now. The ghost part is the least exciting, I'd have to say. But there are so many good parts it's hard to choose which one is the best!!! So if you want a good mystery and action book, this beats all other mystery and action stuff, guaranteed!!!