Hardy Boys Adventures, Book 25 - The Smuggler's Legacy

As with Nancy Drew, so with the Hardy Boys - the twenty-fifth book in the Hardy Boys Adventures series is going to be the only one published this year.  Fans will have to wait until 2024 for the next adventure in this series to be published.  It still wouldn't surprise me at this point if Simon & Schuster wasn't planning to reboot both of these series yet again.  While I have no problem with once a year publications if the books were considerably longer and better written; but it still feels like S&S is simply phoning it in with these series, expecting them to sell on the familiarity of the name without any advertising, publicity, or the such to promote the books.  And while both series have had some actually pretty good plots, and while the Hardy Boys' series is honestly better written than the Nancy Drew series, neither of them have the quality that made so many children fans of the series back in the day.  There is definitely something to be said about the Stratemeyers' care for their series books back when they had the rights to them.

The Smuggler's Legacy is a fairly interesting read.  Frank and Joe are heading off to New York City with their fellow classmates in the Bayport High History Club to explore the museums and historical sites of the city, particularly those relating to the Jazz Age and Prohibition.  Of particular excitement for the kids is the visit to the Gilded Top Hat, a prohibition bar located behind a small grocery store that has been restored to its original glory.  The curator, Jennifer Hawking, is thrilled to show the group the museum, as it has been her life's work to discover as much as she can about the era and, in particular, about the Gilded Top Hat and its believed owners - Gino and Sal Facchini.  Their descendants still run the store that provides a "front" to the speakeasy.  As she leads the group through an underground tunnel, though, Frank has an accidental fall that reveals a hidden space in the wall that contains an old metal lockbox.  This, of course, turns out to be a huge find, as the weathered and yellowed documents inside reveals some long hidden secrets regarding the speakeasy and its owners!  The only problem is - someone is determined to keep those secrets from coming to light.

The boys, along with Charlene Vale (the classmate on which Frank is currently crushing), quickly find themselves digging into the mystery of who wants to silence Ms. Hawkings and destroy those documents.  First come the warnings, then come the vandalism, and ultimately, Ms. Hawkings is kidnapped.  The brothers find that a candidate for Mayor of New York City, one Trent Kensington, happens to be a descendant of the man who is now discovered to have owned the speakeasy back in the Prohibition era, and they believe he could be behind everything.  But how can they prove it?  Especially when the police who are investigating the case have made it absolutely clear that they do not want Frank and Joe anywhere near the case.  Plus, who are the men in black that seem to be following Frank and Joe everywhere they go?

Along with the mystery, which is actually really good, the ghostwriter for this book provides plenty of historical information about the Prohibition era and those who lived at that time (including some of the Jazz greats of the era).  Whether it be in the tours taken by the students, or in the research performed by Frank, Joe, and Charlene, the author provides quite a bit of history in this book (which, surprisingly, is 162 pages in length, which is one of the longer books in this series!).  It reminds me a bit of the books from the '70s, which seemed to always be filled with plenty of educational facts alongside the mysteries.

One thing that did bug me about this mystery is how much more Charlene did to investigate the crimes than Frank or Joe.  Quite honestly, had they replaced Charlene with Nancy Drew, it would have made more sense (and would have made a great Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys cross-over mystery!).  While I like the idea of Frank having a girlfriend (whatever happened to Callie), I feel that since this is a Hardy Boys book, the boys should actually be the ones doing the most detective work and figuring out the clues.  On the other side, a good thing about this book is the appearance of Chet Morton, who has not really appeared in too many of thee books since the reboot.  Plus, while they don't necessarily mention the title, they do make reference to the mystery they solved on the Mayhem Express (which was just two books prior).

The climax to this story is actually quite exciting, almost like something you would see on a television show, with timed bombs, huge explosions, tunnel cave-ins, and a daring escape.  The  amount of destruction is sizeable to say the least, and the fact that it occurs in an actual city (New York City) rather than a fictional city (such as Bayport or River Heights) is surprising.  But it does make for a great read, that's for sure.

Of the twenty-five books in this series, I would judge this one to be the best in terms of actual mystery and writing.  While it might not measure up exactly to the original series, it does rate much higher than the Nancy Drew Diaries series and higher than many of the books in this series.  Now, it's time to just sit back and wait a year for the next book to come out and see what it holds in store.

RATING:  8 bricks with warning messages attached out of 10 for providing readers with a mystery that is engaging, educational, and somewhat suspenseful.