Dummies Guide On How To Make Diamonds from Franklin W Dixon (The Hardy Boys: The Flickering Torch Mystery - Franklin W. Dixon)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	The Hardy Boys: The Flickering Torch Mystery - Franklin W. Dixon
Date:	06/12/08 (9 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good Hardy Boys book

Disadvantages: A bit outdated

As with many of the Hardy Boys books, The Flickering Torch Mystery received a revised edition treatment in the 1970s, and as a result there are two different versions of the book, both bearing little or no resemblance to each other. The book I have read is the revised edition, which sees Frank and Joe investigating the suspicious crashes of two airplanes.

Further sleuthing leads to the discovery of diamond forging and a gang of dangerous criminals who will stop at nothing to ensure that their get rich quick scheme goes to plan. No one can stand in their way, and that includes the Hardy Boys.

The Flickering Torch Mystery is the 22nd 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, the pen name of Leslie McFarlane for the first 16 books before other ghost writers took up the mantle. As a result, the books were not as good when McFarlane wasn't the author, and I liked this one as it marked the return of McFarlane writing as Dixon once more. Some of the revised editions were hits and some were misses. Luckily, this one does quite well, and the characterisation is clever and the suspense makes you not want to put the book down.

The books will to many seem a little outdated as they are set in the 1920s and 1930s, the first one having been first published in the mid-1920s and a quick succession of volumes following it.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 Flickering Torch Mystery 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 22nd Hardy Boys book