Hardy Boys #24 Short-Wave Mystery and #25 Secret Panel

In the original text of Hardy Boys #24, The Short-Wave Mystery, Chet embarks on the hobby of taxidermy, which plunges the Hardy Boys into their next mystery.  Stuffed animals are being stolen from all around Bayport.  Meanwhile, a mysterious message, "Help—Hudson," is heard over the short-wave radio.  The Hardy boys also devote their time to helping others, including an amnesia patient and a group of street urchins who are in trouble with the law.  And obviously, all of these events become intertwined in the same mystery.

The Hardy boys make sure that the street urchins go to school before helping with Chet's taxidermy.  On page 24, the boys arrive at the Hardys' home with their schoolbooks as proof that they had been to school.  The Hardys, however, had spent their entire day listening to the short-wave radio.  Don't they have to attend school as well?  Or have they mysteriously graduated from high school again?

On page 168, Fenton has no idea what "Help—Hudson" could possibly mean.  How about the obvious?  Someone needs help!

I thought it rather convenient of the criminals to leave a map behind showing the exact location of Hudson's hideout in Canada.

I skimmed the last part of the book.  When stories are not as logical as they could be and are too coincidental, I often get bored towards the end.  It is ridiculous that the missing men are found near the criminals at the end of the story.  I knew during the entire story that this would be the result.  Once I reached the place where the story reveals that very coincidence, I lost interest and wanted it to be over.

Except for the last part, I greatly enjoyed this story.
 

In the original text of Hardy Boys #25, The Secret Panel, John Mead asks the Hardy Boys to make certain he turned off a light in his home.  The boys have two problems:  John Mead has been dead for five years, and the house has no doorknobs!  In the meantime, a doctor was abducted to care for a patient, and Fenton Hardy asks the boys to help him in this case. 

On page 40, Frank and Joe tell Fenton about Lenny, who is missing.  Fenton replies as follows.

"I don't like it," he remarked.  "Racketeers, shooting—no, it sounds like trouble among members of a gang.  That's something I don't want to get mixed up with."

Say, what?  This is unbelievable.  Fenton is mixed up with dangerous characters all the time, and he is worried about a gang?  Oddly, Fenton changes his mind on page 44 and enthusiastically sends the boys off to investigate.  First, Fenton is worried about a gang, then he decides to pull his sons into the case.  This is just so logical.

I thoroughly enjoyed most of the book.  I was bored once the boys are rescued, because then the book becomes the typical who-did-what.  The last couple of chapters are devoted to a detailed explanation of every single event.  I didn't care, and I seldom do.  I skimmed most of it.