Friday, January 1, 2016

Hardy Boys #10 What Happened at Midnight and #11 While the Clock Ticked

In the original text of Hardy Boys #10, What Happened at Midnight, the Hardy boys have an unpleasant encounter with a man in Bayport.  The man carries a grudge, and later, he kidnaps Joe. 

I have always remembered the scuffle in the automat at the beginning of this book.  The Hardy boys behave in a terrible fashion, and the owner of the automat is willing to ignore it since he feels that their actions are "harmless mischief."  If I had a business and young ruffians were creating a disturbance that affects other customers, I wouldn't be willing to put up with it.

Chet has a party, and waxed planks are placed across the lawn to create a dance floor.  That lawn must have been especially flat.

What a strange coincidence for the Hardy Boys to meet two government investigators while hitchhiking back from New York, and the two investigators just happen to be working on the same case.

I did not enjoy the last half of the book very much.  I did greatly enjoy the first half.

In the original text of Hardy Boys #11, While the Clock Ticked, Mr. Dalrymple wants Fenton Hardy to investigate who is somehow gaining entry to a locked room and leaving death threats.  Since Fenton Hardy is out of town, Mr. Dalrymple reluctantly agrees to let the Hardy boys work on the case.

This story is strange.  It annoyed me the way the Hardy boys' friends keep preventing them from investigating.

When the boys go with Dalrymple to check on the secret room for the first time, I thought it was odd that they don't search the house.  They finally search the house on their second visit, discovering stolen goods.

The culprit, who is insane, is fatally injured near the end of the story.  As soon as he is injured, his mind clears up and he admits that he had been crazy.  Right...

This story is not believable, and I didn't like it very much.

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