Leslie McFarlane's wife has a go at writing a Hardy Boys book (The Hardy Boys: Phantom Freighter - Franklin W. Dixon)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	The Hardy Boys: Phantom Freighter - Franklin W. Dixon
Date:	07/12/08 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very well written

Disadvantages: A little outdated

A chance encounter with a man wishing to enlist Frank and Joe Hardy's help leads the brothers to investigate a mysterious series of events, starting with the disappearance of a number of documents valuable to their Aunt Gertrude. As the brothers investigate, they find themselves unable to book a freighter trip despite numerous attempts, and they hear rumours of a phantom ship appears out of the gloom at night and then disappearing without a trace.

As the boys investigate even further, a smuggling and theft ring begins to emerge as the most likely result, although this one is dangerous and threatens to make sure that this is the last adventure that Frank and Joe will ever be taking.

The Phantom Freighter is the 26th Hardy Boys book. The books follow the adventures of Frank and Joe Hardy, sons of fictional supersleuth Fenton Hardy, and are written by Franklin W Dixon, a pseudonym. This one was scheduled to be the last for Lelise McFarlane writing under the pseudonym, but he was unable or unwilling to do it, and so his wife Amy penned the story instead.

Amy does a fantastic job of giving us a thoroughly intrinsic plot and keeps us on our toes all the way through. I expected the boys to deteriorate after Leslie's last book, but she does very well indeed.

The books will to many seem a little outdated as they are set in the 1920s and 1930s, the first one having been first published in the mid-1920s and a quick succession of volumes following it. They are aimed at young adults and as such don't make for heavy reading. Dixon's flowing writing style keeps the action coming throughout the books.

The Phantom Freighter is available from amazon.co.uk either as an individual book, part of 3 stories in 1 series or as a hardback copy, and the prices range from 1p to around the £8 mark depending on which version you want.

Summary: The 26th Hardy Boys book