The Short-Wave Mystery

The Short-Wave Mystery by Franklin W. Dixon (1945) Right after finishing The Melted Coins, partly for research, for something I’m writing, I decided to go onto the next Hardy Boy book, The Short-Wave Mystery (original text), because it was the last one written by Leslie McFarlane, supposedly, and I was curious if it would be even half as weird at the previous one. Also, it’s now winter, and on the picture-cover copy I have, the Hardys are out in the snow. Well, this one started out odd, as well, almost like a formal experiment in being distracted. Frank and Joe are into the short-wave radio thing, but Chet’s new hobby is taxidermy, so they move onto that. Then they chase some thief from an auction, until they come upon a dead deer in the road. They contact the game warden, then later ask for the hide and head of the animal for Chet. They’re supposed to be helping their dad with a mystery using the short-wave radio, when they find their skis in the attic and start polishing them… until they find out a guy told Chet the deer was his pet, and swindled him—and when the Hardys go after that guy, they run into some poor, city kids who they take home to have a nice dinner. Helping the poor kids becomes an enduring theme in this book—and it’s actually pretty heartwarming. The other side plot is the Hardy’s want to help this scientist find his colleagues who have gone missing in the Hudson Bay region (which is, if you haven’t looked at map lately, a “bay” about the size of India). Hardy Boy stories are renowned for their coincidences, but it wouldn’t happen that the unrelated missing scientists and the short-wave gang are not only in the same region, but on either side of a hill. No! Well, it’s not a winter book, but they do spend some time in the snow, up north. Anyway, for all that, it’s still not close to being as outlandish as The Melted Coins.

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