While the Clock Ticked (Hardy Boys, Book 11) [Illustrated, Facsimile] [Hardcover]

Franklin W. Dixon (Author), J. Clemens Gretta (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up

Frank and Joe solve the mystery of the secret locked room in the spooky Dalrymple Mansion.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Franklin W. Dixon was the pseudonym devised by Edward Stratemeyer for the author of a series of mystery books he was developing which became the Hardy Boys series. The first book, The Tower Treasure, originally published in 1927, was written by Leslie MacFarlane who went on to write 19 more, including #2 through #16. In all, there are 58 titles in the original Hardy Boys Mysteries series published between 1927 and 1979 written by 17 different men and women. Many of the books were later revised, adding another four "Franklin W. Dixons" to the total.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 212 pages
• Publisher: Applewood Books (October 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557092699
• ISBN-13: 978-1557092694
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #571,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors (Leslie McFarlane, a Canadian author being the first) who wrote The Hardy Boys novels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars While the Clock Ticked......, January 26, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: While the Clock Ticked (Hardy Boys, Book 11) (Hardcover)

This is and always will be my FAVORITE Hardy Boys book of ALL TIME!!! It starts out the boys are hiking and almost get run over. Next their hike takes them to the old Purdy mansion. The cover was very cool. At the end, they're stuck in the house ABOUT TO BE BLOWN UP BY A TIME BOMB! Are they blown to bits? Or do they make it out alive? READ IT! I think you will really enjoy this book.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Intriguing Mystery, September 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: While the Clock Ticked (Hardy Boys, Book 11) (Hardcover)

This review concerns the original 1932 edition and the revised 1961 edition. The revised edition closely follows the plot of the original and the two books are only different in that the revised edition is shorter than the original and some events have been added, eliminated or altered from one book to the other. A man from a neighboring town is receiving death threats, left in the secret room of a mansion that he recently purchased, and upon learning that Fenton Hardy is out of town, reluctantly allows Frank and Joe to investigate. As with all of the low volumes of the original set, this book gets high marks for the writing, in terms of the language used and the level of description applied to the scenes. The mystery is highly intriguing; however, the book is a little light (just a little) on action and this keeps it from ranking as truly one of the best Hardy Boys books.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Explosive Action, April 17, 2005

By 

Lonnie E. Holder "The Review's the Thing" (Columbus, Indiana, United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: While the Clock Ticked (Hardy Boys, Book 11) (Hardcover)

The Hardy Boys have taken on several complicated mysteries, but this one may be the most complicated yet. The mystery begins a visitor looking for Fenton Hardy, the famous detective. Mr. and Mrs. Hardy are on vacation, to the distress of Mr. Dalrymple. The boys explain factually to Mr. Dalrymple that they also solve crimes, but they do so without bragging and without trying to convince him. Mr. Dalrymple suggests the boys take a hike to the Jason Purdy house and look around.

While hiking, a big black car nearly hits the Hardy boys and their friends Chet Morton and Biff Hooper. Once the group reaches the Purdy house they look around without seeing anything too suspicious, but when they report later to Mr. Dalrymple the boys learn that Mr. Dalrymple locked the gate, which they found open, the night before.

The boys also learn that the Purdy house has a secret room in it which Mr. Dalrymple has been using when working on especially difficult contracts. In the room, with its one entrance that has a time lock, Mr. Dalrymple has found threatening notes. One such note read, "Death while the clock ticks!" Mr. Dalrymple has searched the room carefully and determined there is not other entrance. The boys agree to investigate the mystery.

The boys also become involved in a mystery involving harbor thieves, who have been robbing ships and boats in Bayport. The boys also discover that someone has used their boat, the Sleuth, and Tony Prito's boat, the Napoli, to commit some of the robberies. In one chase between the boys and the crooks, one of the boats sinks!

To further complicate this story, we learn that Hurd Applegate, who we met in the very first Hardy boy's mystery, "The Tower Treasure," has had valuable jade jewelry and a chess set stolen from him. Mr. Applegate is upset over how brazen the thieves were. Even more interesting, Mr. Applegate believes that Mr. Dalrymple is one of the thieves.

This already complicated story gets even more complicated when a mysterious man named "Mr. Smith" asks the boys' Aunt Gertrude questions about the boys. Who is the mysterious stranger? Is he a criminal involved in one of the mysteries the boys are investigating? Is it possible he intends the boys harm?

This story gets quite involved, involving hidden places and characters the boys do not meet until late in the story. Some of those characters will turn out to be crooks, and others may not be. The boys will have to sort it all out in an ending that involves the boys being captured by a criminal mastermind and being threatened with a bomb!

This story has as much action or perhaps more than any Hardy Boys book that I have yet read. The action was reasonably easy to follow, though a couple of times I had to go back and re-read short sections. There is a lot of information crammed into few pages. My edition in the 1962 revision, which attempted to update the series and while the update succeeded, there are a few places where the author could have provided additional details. Even so, this book is one of my favorites in this series.

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.