Hardy Boys #58 Sting of the Scorpion and #3 Old Mill Revised Text

In Hardy Boys #58, The Sting of the Scorpion, Fenton Hardy investigates a group of terrorists.  Frank and Joe witness attacks on a dirigible and a wild animal park.  They soon believe that someone is sabotaging the wild animal park to force the owner to sell. 

References to The Mystery of the Chinese Junk and The Secret of Wildcat Swamp are worked into the text of this story.

I greatly enjoyed this book.  I read it very quickly. 

I was originally only going to read the Hardy Boys series up through #45.  I then decided that I was enjoying them enough to proceed to #58.  Once I reached around #50, I decided that I would read the revised text books that were significantly or completely rewritten. 

In some cases, I may not be able to state for certain which version of the text I prefer, since the reading of the original and revised versions of the text are separated by several months and many books.

The revised text of Hardy Boys #3, The Secret of the Old Mill, follows the overall same story as the original text.  I like how the boys interact with Ken, the boy from the mill, in a number of scenes. 

The main thought I had as I read this revised text was that it is better than most of the higher-numbered Hardy Boys books.  The higher-numbered stories have too many villains and tend to have overly complicated plots.  These early books, even in the revised versions, are much simpler and more interesting.

The revised text flows quite well, and I enjoyed most of the story.  I began getting tired of the story once the boys enter the mill near the end.  The conclusion contains too many questions and answers, which always tend to bore me.  I skimmed a lot of the last part of the story.

Since I don't recall skimming any of the original text, I probably liked it better.