Hardy Boys Revised Text #4 Missing Chums, #5 Hidden Gold, and #6 Shore Road

The revised text of Hardy Boys #4, The Missing Chums, follows the overall story of the original text, but almost all of the book has been rewritten.

Early in the story, the boys go to purchase ice cream for the party.  The ice cream is purchased on page 22 and is placed in the carrier of Joe's motorcycle.  The boys then witness a robbery.  They chase the criminals, find out their boat has been stolen, speak to the police, and do all sorts of stuff.  I kept thinking about the ice cream, which was finally put away on page 37 with no mention of it having melted. 

I greatly enjoyed this story.

The revised text of Hardy Boys #5, Hunting for Hidden Gold, follows the same story as the original but is mostly rewritten.  It is improved, and I liked it better.  The search for the gold is more logical.  Stupid events like the cabin sliding off a cliff and landing intact don't happen in this story.  The outlaws' behavior makes more sense.  The story of Dawson is good and is much better than the original text version.  This story is an improvement.

The revised text of Hardy Boys #6, The Shore Road Mystery, is also similar to the original text but has been greatly changed.  The Dodds are accused of stealing the vehicles just like in the original text, but their role in the story is fleshed out better.


A subplot involving a relative to the Dodds and a search for a treasure is added to the story.  I did not feel that the subplot added anything and found it quite uninteresting.  I would rather that part have been left out.

There is a scene in which Chet is to deliver a cake for Aunt Gertrude.  He has been dieting and is greatly tempted by the cake.  He begins removing the frosting from around the edges.  I found during this part of the story that I was so fixated on the cake and what was happening to it that I ignored the mystery.  The same distraction happened to me in a similar scene with Jupiter in the Three Investigators book, The Mystery of the Two-Toed Pigeon.

I greatly enjoyed much of this story, but I believe that I enjoyed the original text more.  I skimmed the revised text book towards the end.