Customer Reviews

While the Clock Ticked [Hardy Boys Mystery stories No. 10 ]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have read the book While the clock ticked. Joe and Frank Hardy are two teenagers who have grown up in a detective family. They have assisted their father Fenton Hardy on many cases. Their father is a retired police officer he has become a famous private detective. Their first case they solved alone was Tower treasure mystery and their most recent mystery was What happened at midnight. 3 of the Hardy's best friend's Chet Phil and Tony always help them. One morning a man comes to the Hardy home and asked for Fenton. The boys said he was not at home so he asked the boys to solve a mystery for him. Frank and Joe round up a gang of smugglers and risked their lives to catch the head of the gang. It is very exciting I would recommend reading it.

First published in 1932 and written by the great Leslie McFarlane. Revised in 1962 by James Buechler. The Plot: Raymond Dalrymple has been receiving death threats left in the secret locked room of the spooky old Purdy mansion on the Shore Road, which he recently purchased. He seeks Fenton Hardy's aid but Fenton's conveniently out of town, so Dalrymple reluctantly allows Frank & Joe to investigate the mystery. Rating: Original text: B+ Revised text: C+

In all of those mystery books I had read, The Hardy Boys is the only kind I really interesting in, and in those Hardy Boys books the one I really love is While The Clock Ticked because I had it...^wink wink^...! Beside, I am a fan of The Hardy Boys after I had read this book from a friend. ... And it worth it, it was really.
It was starting with a mysterious stranger apparently steals some of Mr. Hardy's papers from the Hardy home, suspicious events are occurring at the local Chinese laundry and one of Mr. Hardy's clients demands that his name be cleared of rumors that he is involved in smuggling Chinese immigrants. And there is going to be more action and interesting then what I just wrote. So I suggest you should check you this book. But the whole idea of the book is it focused heavily on the title that I liked and presented a fairly good mystery.
It is really good in the beginning, and terribly good at the end. All people like to read mystery books should check out this book but do not forget to check out all other Hardy Boys books, though. Because I know author Franklin W. Dixon did not write just one book but many of them. I heard others Hardy Boys from him are really good, too. And in a minute I am going to look for them online. So anyway, I recommend you should check them out and save them for your summer reading books. Enjoy reading them and have a fun summer student from Mrs. Lenhardt's class.

Sneaking around, discovering what other teens or adults were up to, solving crimes, ahh, I loved this series.

I read the entire series as a kid, and loved it. It chronicles two brothers and their friends adventures as they solve mysteries of all imaginable kinds. I only learned as an adult that Franklin W Dixon was a pen name used by several different authors, but the series had some great stories. I still enjoy a good mystery.

Paul Buckner,

author of "From Broke to Broker, and other stories of finding financial freedom."

you can't beat the hardy boys casefiles. if your looking for fast past action the hardy boys casefiles are the books for you. they have machine guns, bombs and terrorist the hardy boys casefiles if your looking for these kinds of books are the books for you.

This is the first Harrdy Boys book that I've purchased for my 7 yr old and we're loving it. I use it as part of the bedtime story ritual and it's a lot of fun - though it is TOO exciting at times for encouraging sleep!

This is arguably the best Hardy Boys book I have ever read, and I've read at least 40. Trust me, if you like suspense fiction, you'll love "While the Clock Ticked".

It has a twisty plot filled with loads of exciting adventures and a confusing story line that will keep you guessing who's the bad guy until the end.

Definately recommended!!

[edit: 2 years later: While The Clock Ticked is not the BEST Hardy boys book, since I've now discovered and read over 100, but hey, it's still one of the great revised versions of the "original 58"]