# The Hardy Boys - Ever read them as an adult? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [August 4, 2026, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129 "2026-08-04T00:49:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/101 "2026-08-07T02:06:30Z")
The Three Investigators books are a favorite of mine and are still an entertaining, though dated, read these days. I haven’t read any Hardy Boys books in ages. I also remember and still have quite a few of the Happy Hollisters books, also a mystery series from Stratemeyer. I also remember the Brains Benton series and the Mad Scientists Club books. There weren’t a lot in either series but they are still entertaining reads. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/102 "2026-08-07T02:08:25Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The book series I’ve not seen mentioned yet that I had whole sets of were the Happy Hollisters. We’ve been collecting a whole set by scouring estate sales and antique stores. Something surprising happened the other day and my son-in-law said _“JEEPERS, piped up little Ricky!”_ I had no idea he’d read the Happy Hollisters, where each kid had a catchphrase that they’d blurt out. We’ve also been trying to find ‘young adventure’ books by Leo Edwards, an author who had a cabin on Lake Ripley (Cambridge, WI) in the '20s and '30s. He wrote the Poppy Ott, Trigger Berg, and Jerry Todd books which are a lot of fun, and make me nostalgic for a “free-range childhood”. The cool thing was, Leo’d invite all the kids who lived/summered at the lake to sit on his porch and listen to a rough chapter and give him feedback. My dad was one of that gang, and I imagine him yelling “No way would a real kid do that!” (Those kids became the earliest members of The Order Of The Freckled Goldfish, named after an early Poppy Ott book. Membership pins and wallet cards were available if you wrote to Mr. Edwards at this cabin). He got so much mail from kids that he’d publish pages of letters in the back of the books, and encourage each kid to write to the others and form clubs. “The Chatterbox” was early social media. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/103 "2026-08-07T13:01:11Z")
> [@digs](#): > > By the way … anyone else feel cheated that **the Tom Swift books didn’t have any “Tom Swifties” in them?** I sure did. To be sure, there were often adverbs associated with the speech tags. Things like “Tom said brightly” or “Mary answered sadly.” That kind of thing. But the adverbs formig a pun with what was just said? Not a thing. There was a Tom Swift TV series on the CW in 2022, a spinoff of their Nancy Drew series. It lasted only one season of 10 episodes. It had, according to wikipedia, the lowest viewership of any scripted series on the CW that year. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/104 "2026-08-07T17:05:27Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > I also remember the Brains Benton series and the Mad Scientists Club books. Those were both good. I was only able to get hold of a couple of the Brains Benton books when I was a kid. (Well, a teen, anyway.) “Ellery Queen Jr” wrote a series of ten or so books starring a kid named Djuna (no last name) and his friend, a reporter named Socker Furlong – all of the titles had coloured animals in them (_The Blue Herring Mystery_, _The Golden Eagle Mystery_, &c). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/105 "2026-08-07T17:40:29Z")
None of the Ellery Queen Jr. books were written by Queen. They farmed them out to several writers, mainly Samuel Duff McCoy, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter who moonlighted ghosting kids series. They have a very odd publishing history. The first eight featuring Djuna - Ellery’s houseboy in the real novels - appeared from 1941 to 1954. Those are the ones with colored animal names. In 1961 and 1962, Ellery Queen Jr. reappeared for two non-animal named books, featuring Gulliver Queen, Ellery’s nephew - quite a feat considering Ellery was an only child. Those failed, so in 1965 Djuna was brought back in 1965 for no understandable reason for the ninth book in the series. The Djuna books were regular hardbacks of the sort that libraries bought. The Gulliver Queen pair looked like other kids series because they had the same publisher as Brains Benton, Golden Press. I’ve never even seen them but I’ve read several of the Djuna titles, which are now pricey collectibles. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/106 "2026-08-07T19:36:44Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The Djuna books were regular hardbacks of the sort that libraries bought. The Gulliver Queen pair looked like other kids series because they had the same publisher as Brains Benton, Golden Press. I’ve never even seen them but I’ve read several of the Djuna titles, which are now pricey collectibles. I’ve never considered the Gulliver Queen books to be part of the same series, or even close relatives. Don’t recall ever seeing Djuna in hardback; I had at least two (_Blue Herring_ and I think _Golden Eagle_) in paperback. “Pricey”? You could call it that – Amazon is offering _Blue Herring_ for $289 (only $99.95 for the mass market paperback!) and _Yellow Cat_ for $449. All used copies, of course. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/107 "2026-08-07T19:52:57Z")
> [@digs](#): > > > [@SCAdian](#): > > > > schools got catalogues/order blanks from Scholastic every year, so there was never a shortage of new reading material. > > Oh, man, I loved watching my kids going crazy at a Scholastic Book Fair! Never saw one of those until sometime in the last twenty years or so. We got the order blanks, with descriptions of the books being offered, in class, then turned our order and money in to the teacher to be sent off to Scholastic; the books would be delivered to the school a few weeks later. I got some really good books from them – _The Forgotten Door_, _Escape from Warsaw_ (which I still reread every few years), _The Horse Without a Head_ (ditto), _A Wrinkle in Time_, and others. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2026, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/108 "2026-08-07T20:15:18Z")
“Pricey” is a very medium category for collectibles. The first Ellery Queen in hardback with a dust jacket isn’t available on the internet that I can find, but the second and third are there for more than $8,000 each. $450? Chicken feed. I have all the true Ellery Queen books including a couple of later firsts, but I was never crazy enough to try to collect them. Reading copies and paperbacks are just fine. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2026, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/109 "2026-08-08T12:05:45Z")
The only books mentioned so far that I ever read are The Three Investigators (or Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators, as the cheap paperbacks I had were branded). Here in the UK, the juvenile detectives genre was dominated by the remarkably prolific Enid Blyton, most iconically her “Famous Five” series, but also the “Secret Seven” and the “Five Find-outers”. Like other series already mentioned, the books have been updated over the years, but the most recent TV adaptation of the the Famous Five was set in the post-WWII period, which I think was for the best. I don’t see how a modern-day version could really work, in a world of mobile phones, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2026, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/110 "2026-08-08T18:17:47Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Never saw one of those until sometime in the last twenty years or so. We got the order blanks, with descriptions of the books being offered, in class, then turned our order and money in to the teacher to be sent off to Scholastic; the books would be delivered to the school a few weeks later. I got some really good books from them – _The Forgotten Door_, _Escape from Warsaw_ (which I still reread every few years), _The Horse Without a Head_ (ditto), _A Wrinkle in Time_, and others. The first of these I ordered from was in 1962, I got Robert Silverberg’s first book, _Revolt on Alpha C_, and more importantly to me, _Challenge of the Spaceship_ by Arthur C. Clarke which had a lot to do with me becoming a scientist. Still have both. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2026, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/111 "2026-08-08T20:19:04Z")
Have at it. > **[Mystery Stories](https://thecreativearchive.weebly.com/mystery-stories1.html)** > > The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories refer to the 58 volumes published by Grosset and Dunlap from 1927 to 1978, as well as the Detective Handbook. For many collectors, these are the "true" Hardy Boys... ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/112 "2026-08-10T03:07:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > None of the Ellery Queen Jr. books were written by Queen. They farmed them out to several writers… Everyone here knows that “Franklin W. Dixon” and “Carolyn Keene” are pseudonyms, and the Hardys and the Drew were written by a wide range of writers… But did you know that I’m a personal friend of a Nancy Drew writer and a teacher who wrote two Hardy Boys books? So my “Drew-Hardy Number” is ONE. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/113 "2026-08-10T12:27:42Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > the “Five Find-outers”. Yikes, that is an awkward, terrible name. How did that get past any editor? ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/114 "2026-08-10T13:58:18Z")
> [@ShadowFacts](#): > > Yikes, that is an awkward, terrible name. How did that get past any editor? Well, it’s “The Five Find-Outers and Dog” in full. I don’t know if that takes the curse off it? I think it’s meant to be the sort of name a group of pre-teen children might come up with, but let’s face it – this was Britain in 1943. People had more pressing matters to worry about. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/115 "2026-08-10T14:02:41Z")
How successful had Enid Blyton become by that point? I would think that eventually, she was selling so many books that editors would have given her carte-blanche for whatever she wanted to do. ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/116 "2026-08-10T14:43:03Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > Well, it’s “The Five Find-Outers and Dog” in full. I don’t know if that takes the curse off it? Haha, no, still terrible. But “Dog and the Five Find-Outers” has a little music to it 🙂 > [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > Last night I read probably the first half of _The Secret of Terror Castle_, from the _Three Investigators_ series. I remember just about all of the story beats so far as well as a lot of the scene setting when it comes to the junk yard, the Rolls Royce, etc. > > I gotta say, it was a lot thinner than I remember it these many years on I also just re-read this, having been reminded by this thread, and I agree, it was not good. Jupiter Jones is pretty much a dick, which works for, say, Nero Wolfe because he’s obviously so much smarter than everyone else, but Jupiter just uses big words for the most part. He treats Pete and Bob like lackeys and they just eat it up for some reason. I could go on with more flaws, but suffice it to say, I don’t think they hold up for an adult audience. But as @Pork_Rind said, the secret hideout in the junkyard is genius and I also still want one 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/117 "2026-08-10T14:43:24Z")
When I was ten, The Five Find-outers and Dog seemed like a clever enough name. I read a LOT of Enid Blyton. All of the series books, Famous Five, Five Find-outers, Secret Seven, Adventurers, Naughtiest Girl and god knows how many more. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/118 "2026-08-10T15:31:32Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > How successful had Enid Blyton become by that point? I would think that eventually, she was selling so many books that editors would have given her carte-blanche for whatever she wanted to do. I’m not sure. She seems to have been popular, and a reliable seller, but not yet at her 50s–60s peak, when apparently she was sometimes writing up to 50 books a year (!) Probably what’s more important is people’s attitudes toward her books – they were seen as trivial stories for undemanding children. I suspect very little she wrote got any serious editorial attention until much later, when some of the attitudes and language in her writing began to be seen as problematic. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/119 "2026-08-10T16:35:48Z")
> [@digs](#): > > But did you know that I’m a personal friend of a Nancy Drew writer and a teacher who wrote two Hardy Boys books? > > So my “Drew-Hardy Number” is ONE. Meh. I’m a pen pal of Ellery Queen. When I was a teen I wrote letters to them, asking questions about the books. Fred Dannay answered one and Manfred Lee another. Rex Stout also wrote me back, when I sent him a similar letter. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129/120 "2026-08-10T16:55:19Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Meh. I’m a pen pal of Ellery Queen. You win. Wait, wasn’t there a map case in one mystery? Now we know why! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-hardy-boys-ever-read-them-as-an-adult/1032129.md?page=7)