Customer Reviews

The Secret of the Caves (Hardy Boys, Book 7)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fenton Hardy is trying to find out who is out to sabotage a new military radar installation. At the same time the boys are on the trail of a missing college professor. It seems the further the boys travel in following the missing professor, the more suspicious characters they discover. Some people they encounter who appear suspicious may not be, and others who appear to be uninvolved may be. How will the boys learn where the missing professor is located?

During the boys investigation they come across a huge complex of caves. During their stay in the cavern the boys have their stuff stolen, and are threatened. What could be so important that someone would want to chase the Hardy Boys away?

I have been a big fan of the Hardy Boys since I was a child. However, I found this particular book to be less enjoyable than some of the other books. The main reason is that the author appeared to know little about the military and military construction, and his description of the sabotage at the radar site would have involved the FBI and much heavier security, among other details. However, if you can get over the minor annoyances, the basic story has some interesting twists.

As I noted in my review of Hardy Boys #6, "The Shore Road Mystery," the author seemed to have a fixation on caves. The five previous books in the series had caves and the next story has a cave. I guess caves are just very mysterious places along with being great criminal hangouts.

Though the Hardy Boys series is written in a relatively archaic fashion, as reading material for an increasingly younger audience they are excellent. The stories were once recommended for children ages 10 to 14. As children are exposed to more violence and seem to require greater levels of stimulation, the recommended age range has move to 9 to 12. I think any child capable of reading some of the challenging words in these books will enjoy them, regardless of how tame most of the action may be. Once a child has reached age 12 or so the stories may be of less interest, but given the combination of mystery and action, these books remain good safe choices for parents who want to know what their children are reading.

"The Secret of the Caves" is book 7 in the Hardy Boys Mystery Series. This review deals with the 1964 Revised Edition and not the 1929 Original. Fenton Hardy, the father of Frank and Joe, is engaged in an investigation regarding a new radar station just outside Bayport. While the brothers want to help their father, they are brought into the mystery of a missing college professor. Their search takes them to the Honeycomb caves as they try to find clues to the location of the professor and what might have happened to him. Through the investigation they find a connection to the case their father is working on.

There is a certain charm to the Hardy Boys. These books are of a more wholesome time in which everybody seems to be part of a Lake Wobegon where all the women are pretty, all the men strong, and all the children above average. Forgive me the comparison, but I am from Minnesota. Seriously, the comparison fits as all the main characters are smart, strong, and courageous and always up to the task, even the girls. On one hand, all the Hardy Boys novels are a little silly, but they are such good tales for young boys and girls, even the ones that are not quite as good. "The Secret of the Caves" has a bit too many fortunate coincidences that are not so much a result of the sleuthing of the Hardys as plain good luck. That is a drawback here, but as with all of the earliest Hardy Boys novels, "The Secret of the Caves" remains good fun.

-Joe Sherry

I really like this book because I love to go exploring, I like caves, and cave mysteries are great! This was the 7th book I read and it's book number 7! I was really surprised about that! In the book, there were lots of storms, and I like camping in caves when there are storms. I recommend that you read this book for total mystery and action.

This review concerns the revised 1964 edition. A young girl asks Mr. Hardy, Frank and Joe to find her brother, a young university professor, who recently disappeared. A clue left by the professor leads Frank, Joe, Chet and Biff to the Honeycomb Caves, not far from Bayport, where the boys discover a connection to Mr Hardy's other case involving sabotage at a new radar station in Bayport. I don't know what the author of the revised edition was thinking; he/she took the original edition, that was already not very good, largely rewrote it, stripped away the only really good thing about the original (its rich language and descriptiveness) and made an already dull book even worse. This is a bad book with a boring mystery and not much action. If you're determined to read this title, read the original if you can, neither one is very good, but at least the original was well written.

Secret of the Caves was a well-paced, well-written book. It's about a crime ring of smugglers operating out of a cave. Franklin Dixon did a great job on this one! I suggest this book to anyone looking for a somewhat fast-paced book and a great mystery!

Now that I look back on it, three books and characters dominated my mental universe as a pre-teen and early teen: Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, and Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes is tbe best and most advanced, and I read this the latest. Encyclopedia Brown is impressive and fantastical and incredibly clever. Yet The Hardy Boys inhabit a moral universe and time that I think all of us at some level aspire to be a part of and to create in ourselves and in others. And herein lies the charm of these books.

Contrary to other reviewers, this was one of my favorite of the Hardy Boys series. In fact, I can remember many times drawing military fortifications in hidden equipment from 4-7th grade on the sides of my notebooks, in imitation of the criminals who hid their gear in the caves in this book. It is more suspenseful than most, and stylistically and in story line will not appeal to those with a tremendous amount of life experience or grandkids, but for the teenage boy I think that it is nearly universally priceless.

Perhaps the best gift to give a son or a nephew or a close family friend between the ages of 8-14 is a series of Hardy Boys books, this being one of the better ones.

(I should note that though I have read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, as there are only two books, this is not too logistically difficult. By contrast, I have read about 40-55 Hardy Boys books, but I strongly suspect that there are many more than this.)

I liked it. I enjoyed when they're driving to Kennyworth and a trailer with a crane on it almosts hits them. I also enjoyed it when a bunch of college kids put them on the train tracks that got my addrainlan going. Good book.

The Hardy Boys are at it again, and going into caves is no place to fool around as they will find out. I couldn't put it down. I love books about adventure in caves. Another book about underground adventure I recommend is, Steward's "Tales, of Dirt, Danger, and Darkness."

This book takes place in a town just south of the Hardy Boys home town Bayport, in a town called Rockaway. The Problem starts when the town police ask the Hardy Boys (Two young tetectives in there upper teens, Frank and Joe Hardy) to help them solve the case of two missing people. When they begin Solving the mystery they find out theat the missing people are not missing, they just left their town to become terrorists, and they plan to take over Rockaway so they can smuggle in drugs a Rockaway point. Find out just how the Hardy Boys solve this mystery by reading this book.

This book is a great mystery book. The author, Franklin W. Dixson does a good job of keeping a fast pace by keeping the action going. Teenagers who want to go into the criminology field would enjoy reading this book.

These books are often compared te the Nancy Drew books, which are the same books just for girls. This is a very good book. There is always somethingk going to keep you interested. I often had to go back and reread some of the book, so I could remember everything that was happening. The auther did a good job of writing this book the way teenagers woud talk. I would really enjoy reading more books in this series.

This review refers to the original text. The book did not live up to its appealing title and is over rated. While it ranks as one of the best volumes in the set, it ranks among the worst of the early volumes. There is actually one criminal Carl Schaum, captured on page 59. Outside of the brothers going through the caves during the middle chapters the book was rather medicore. The revision (1964) was horrible. Still the book is a definite read as are all the early volumes.