The Tower Treasure

The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon is the first Hardy Boys mystery.  The brothers, Joe and Frank, set off to find the Applegate's, a really rich eccentric Bayport family, stolen jewels and securities in order to clear their good friend Slim's dad from being arrested for the crime. The Hardy boys are tenacious and never give up even though many of their efforts to find the thief prove fruitless.

One thing I found very surprising was how involved their father was in helping attempt to solve the mystery.  I say attempt to solve the mystery, but this is book one of the Hardy Boys series, so you can probably guess the eventually outcome, even though I won't say what the actual outcome is. Now back to Joe and Frank's dad, Fenton Hardy is a world class detective.  He actually does a lot of the leg work involved in finding  the missing treasure.  With out his help, the outcome of the story would have been much different than it was.

While reading this book, you can't help but like the Hardy boys. Not only do they never give up but they are also extremely nice to their friends and respectful of their parents and other elders, except for Detective Smuff, whom they tend to mock a little bit. I would too because his name reminds me of Smurf and I kept picturing him as a little blue guy, but that isn't why Joe and Frank mocked him.  Smurfs didn't exist back in 1927, the Hardys just didn't respect Smuff.

In order to solve the mystery of the missing jewels and securities, (Oops I said I wasn't going to spoil the outcome, but come on it is the Hardy Boys and you know what's going to happen.) Joe and Frank did some top notch detective work.  I had closely predicted the eventual solution, but the way it was actually solved surprised even me.  The Hardy Boys and their dogged determination allowed them to solve the case and clear their good friend Slim's dad name.

Once again I would recommend the book.  It is a great mystery and with it's all ages story line perfect for young readers.  It can be found in our school library under the title: The Best of the Hardy Boys.  It is available for purchase at amazon.com.

Reading Level: Slightly above average fifth grade reader

Genre: Mystery