Who Wrote It?: Franklin W. Dixon

C’mon, Who Really Wrote it?: Leslie McFarlane in 1935

Was It Revised?: Yes, in 1961 by James Buechler, one of three he did and the first since While the Clock Ticked.

Cover: Rudy Nappi, red and yellow in a sea of blue and green and alligators, oh my!  Looks like a hurricane in the background too.  No easy swim for these lads.

Setting: Bayport and Georgia.  Mostly Georgia.  This is Frank and Joe go south.

Where’s Fenton This Time?: Jamaica.  With the missus.  Oh, don’t worry, Mr. Deux Ex Fenton shows up in Chapter XX as usual and saves the day.  Poor Mrs. Hardy never does get a normal vacation.

Which Chums Show Up?: Chet, the honorary Hardy Boy by this point.

What’s Chet’s Hobby This Time?: Ain’t got none.  Again.

Aunt Gertrude’s Dessert: She’s not in the picture here as the boys spend almost the entire time in Georgia.  Missed her chance for a nice pecan pie!

Plot: A newspaper editor from Georgia is sued for libel and seeks the Hardy’s help.  Down to Georgia they go where they find a feud between two branches of a family that live on a pond that might be more than a pond, he said, but not in any innuendo type of sense, but in a Hardy Boys a-mystery-that-lasts-hundreds-of-years-will-be-cleared-up-by-us-in-a-week sense.

Review:  Doesn’t have quite the gripping end of While the Clock Ticked, and in the end these bad guys sing like canaries in a particularly good mood.  It’s mostly one of those why-is-everybody-trying-to-scare-us-off type of stories, with hidden treasure, old southern feuds, and no doubt grits.

Score: 6