Outboard Boys #3 Pirate Beach and #4 Shark River

In the Outboard Boys #3, The Outboard Boys at Pirate Beach, the boys sell their boat and purchase a houseboat.  When an acqaintance, Mr. Stevens, is abducted, the boys set out in the houseboat to find him. The boys cross paths with the suspected culprits, and they themselves get captured as well.  Meanwhile, a crazy man roams around in the area, and the boys' houseboat is said to be haunted. Indeed, the boys hear a strange wailing sound and cannot identify the source.

The wailing sound in the houseboat is quite mysterious and intriguing.

The boys end up getting captured with two of them in the culprits' boat and one in the houseboat with one of the culprits.  Warren tricks his captor into singing in order to distract him.  This is hilarious.

Lewisson is the man who is crazy.  His behavior is amazingly entertaining and is also plausible.  Mental illness ran in the Garis family, so Roger Garis was quite capable of pulling it off.  I have read Leslie Garis' book, The House of Happy Endings, and it is apparent that Roger Garis himself suffered from mental illness.

This book is quite entertaining and is my favorite book in the set.

In the Outboard Boys #4, The Outboard Boys at Shark River, the Outboard Boys decide to purchase a racing boat.  They rescue a racer, and he helps them get the boat.  Jake Lawson also plans to compete in the boat races.  A man named Max Reba offers to help train the boys.  Max offers a lot of good advice, and it's clear that he is knowledgeable about racing. On one trial run, the boys figure out that Reba is trying to sabotage their boat.  They cut ties with Reba, and Reba begins training Jake Lawson.

While preparing for the races, the boys also investigate mysterious events in an old building.

This is my least favorite of the four books.  I was bored towards the end of the story and skimmed the last several chapters.

Outboard Boys #1 Mystery Island and #2 Shadow Lake

Roger Garis was the son of prolific series book writer Howard Garis.  Roger was also a writer and even published his own magazine for a time.  Roger wrote the Outboard Boys series which was published by A. L. Burt.  Some Burt advertisements refer to the series as the Outboard Motor Boys series.

1.  The Outboard Boys at Mystery Island, 1933
2.  The Outboard Boys at Shadow Lake, 1933
3.  The Outboard Boys at Pirate Beach, 1933
4.  The Outboard Boys at Shark River, 1934

The original Burt books are quite scarce.  Modern reprints are available for purchase at Lulu.com.  Additionally, the text of the books can be found available online for free via online searches.

In Outboard Boys #1, The Outboard Boys at Mystery Island, Terry Blondel, Warren Finn, and Martin Hazzard decide to purchase a boat.  They would also like to purchase an outboard motor for the boat, but they do not have enough money.  The boys learn about an essay contest where the winner will receive an outboard motor.  Martin wins the contest, and the boys get their boat ready.

The boys decide to explore Mystery Island, which is an island that attracts lightning due to a heavy content of metal ore.  Unfortunately, the boys' enemy, Jake Lawson, is staying on the island with a man who acts crazy.  Soon, the boys learn that the man is at the center of a mystery, and they work on solving it.

The book starts out a bit slow, but then it gets good.

The size of the island as compared to the lake confused me.  The lake is large and is said to be around five miles wide.  Many islands are scattered all over the lake. Mystery Island is said to be five to six miles wide. The island sounds like it is about as big as the lake!

In Outboard Boys #2, The Outboard Boys at Shadow Lake, the boys learn about Shadow Lake, which is said to be haunted and contains some kind of large creature.  While at a circus, the boys learn that the circus wants to find a new curiosity for its sideshow. The boys tell the men about Shadow Lake, and the boys are hired to capture the creature for the circus.

Jake Lawson is hired by a rival sideshow and will also attempt to locate the creature.  Jake and his accomplices sabotage the Outboard Boys' efforts in finding the creature, and the boys must work fast in hope of being successful.

On page 129, Warren is lost in the woods. While trying to find his way, he witnesses a lion killing a deer.  Later, Terry and Martin are looking for Warren and view the scene from a cliff.  They see the carcass and at first think that it is what is left of Warren.  How gruesome.

I noticed that "swell" is used often in this book.  I think of "swell" as a word that was used more towards the 1950s, but clearly, it was already in use during the 1930s.  I do not recall seeing "swell" used in other series books of this age.  In any case, I feel like Roger Garis was a little ahead of his time.  As I read the books, I also was struck by how intelligent he was.  For instance, in one passage in one of the books, the binomial theorem, which is a theorem in mathematics, is mentioned.  That's not something that most juvenile series authors would have included in a book.

This is a good book.