This is a Recap page for all books and media in the Hardy Boys series
Book Series
The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories (1927–2005)
- The Tower Treasure
- The House on the Cliff
- The Secret of the Old Mill
- The Missing Chums
- Hunting for Hidden Gold
- The Shore Road Mystery
- The Secret of the Caves
- The Mystery of Cabin Island
- The Great Airport Mystery
- What Happened at Midnight
- While the Clock Ticked
- Footprints Under the Window
- The Mark on the Door
- The Hidden Harbor Mystery
- The Sinister Signpost
- A Figure in Hiding
- The Secret Warning
- The Twisted Claw
- The Disappearing Claw
- The Mystery of the Flying Express
- The Clue of the Broken Blade
- The Flickering Torch Mystery
- The Melted Coins
- The Short-Wave Mystery
- The Secret Panel
- The Phantom Freighter
- The Secret of Skull Mountain
- The Sign of the Crooked Arrow
- The Secret of the Lost Tunnel
- The Wailing Siren Mystery
The main plot, formula, and continuity of the books remained similar to the original Grosset & Dunlap books still being published at the time. After Harriet Adams died in 1982, the Syndicate continued with five of its partners (Adams' remaining three children, plus authors Nancy Axelrod and Lilo Wuenn), until its sale to Simon & Schuster in 1987.
Night of the Werewolf was originally listed as the next book at the end of Sting of the Scorpion. Grosset & Dunlap continued to list this until they lost a court case against the Syndicate and Simon & Schuster in May 1980. The book was later revised to eliminate the next title and instead referenced the first book in the series, The Tower Treasure. They later published Night of the Werewolf and the next seven titles in 2005, with the permission and collaboration of Simon & Schuster. These last eight titles were discontinued once the license ran out.
After volume 85, the series took a two-and-a-half-year hiatus due to the sale of the Stratemeyer Syndicate to Simon & Schuster. At this point, book packager Mega-Books took over the series, and hired different ghostwriters for the job (many of whom are still unknown). Mega-Books worked on the series until #153 Eye On Crime in 1998. Starting with #154 The Caribbean Cruise Caper, Simon & Schuster handled all books internally. The ghostwriters who are known are ones who have either been discovered through other resources, or have publicly revealed themselves as a ghostwriter for the series.
With the new millennium, the series changed publishers to the Aladdin subdivision of Simon & Schuster. With the reboot of Nancy Drew into Girl Detective, coupled with declining sales, Simon & Schuster ended the original series in April 2005.
Other Series
Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: Be a Detective Mystery Stories
The Hardy Boys Casefiles are aimed at early-to-mid teen readers and have more mature themes, including espionage, murder, and slight romance. The new direction the series would take was set in the first volume, Dead On Target, as a bomb planted in the Hardy Boys' car blows up Joe's longtime girlfriend, Iola Morton, in the first chapter. Book packager Mega-Books and Simon & Schuster released the first two Casefiles under the Archway imprint in April 1987 and continued to release a new title monthly until November 1997. In January 1998 the last Casefile, #127 Dead in the Water, was released. This series was published in mass-market, or rack-sized, paperbacks to widen the distribution of the books to supermarkets and other outlets. In September 1987 the Hardy Boys Digest series was revived and continued with #86 The Mystery of the Silver Star. Events from the Casefiles are not referenced in the Digest series, and Iola Morton is alive and a character connected with Joe Hardy as in the previous 85 titles. The Casefiles universe also merges with the Nancy Drew Files and Tom Swift worlds in titles published as A Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mystery and A Hardy Boys and Tom Swift Ultra Thriller. Several spin-off series were cancelled by Simon and Schuster at the end of 1997, including The Hardy Boys Casefiles.
The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew teamed up in this 36 volume series of paperbacks. This series follows the formula of the main characters and their friends typically involved in separate mysteries that end up being connected. The sleuths join forces to solve the overall mystery. This series is based in the Nancy Drew Files and Hardy Boys Casefiles continuity, so murder, romance, and flirtation between the series regulars are common. Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy share an attraction in this series, though after a brief kiss in The Last Resort this attraction is not acted on. Subsequent books focus on the respect and friendship that developed between the two and their continued feelings for Ned Nickerson and Callie Shaw. Several spin-off series were cancelled by Simon and Schuster at the end of 1997, including the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mystery series. Starting in 2007, in order to differentiate between the new Super Mystery series, many fans started referring to this series as Super Mystery'88.
The two volume Ultra-Thriller series is a short-lived Hardy Boys spin-off that joined boy inventor Tom Swift with the crime-solving Hardy Boys, Frank & Joe. Although the Franklin W. Dixon pseudonym was used, the series was more akin to the then-current Tom Swift IV series and listed in the Tom Swift books as part of that series. Published as mass market paperback books under the Archway imprint of Simon and Schuster.
The Clues Brothers books were aimed at younger readers, particularly in third and fourth grades. The series was introduced in 1997 and was cancelled in 2000 for lack of popularity. Starting in 2013 the series is available as ebooks.
This series had some big differences from the other Hardy Boys books, such as:
The Hardy Boys do not solve major crimes as they do in the others. In these books, Joe and Frank are only 8 and 9, unlike the other books where they are 17 and 18. They go to Bayport Elementary School; in the others, they go to Bayport High School.
The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers is a series of paperback books which replaced the Digest paperbacks in early 2005.
The Hardy Boys are now agents of A.T.A.C. (American Teens Against Crime) and are solving more realistic and/or violent crimes.
This series is written in first-person narrative style with Frank and Joe alternating chapters.
The Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Mystery books are a new series first published in June 2007 and are not to be confused with the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mystery series that was published between 1988 and 1998. Many fans, in order to avoid confusion with the earlier series, refer to this series as the Super Mystery'07 series.
This is a spin-off series of the Nancy Drew: Girl Detective series and The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers series. Books are narrated in the first person with chapters alternating between Nancy's, Frank's, and Joe's view. Series was cancelled with Nancy Drew: Girl Detective and The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers in 2012.
In 2011, Simon & Schuster cancelled the Undercover Brothers series and launched a new series, Hardy Boys Adventures, publishing four volumes in 2013. The reboot series publishes two to three new titles a year in paperback, hardcover book with dust jacket, and as eBooks. This series is written in the first person with chapters alternating between Frank's and Joe's narration. The first four titles had an initial printing of 25,000 copies in paperback and 2,500 copies in hardcover. Books 5 through 8 had an initial print run of 25,000 in paperback and 5,000 in hardcover. Books 9 and 10 had an initial print run of 10,000 in paperback and 5,000 in hardcover. Audio books released starting in 2015 on CD and download, read by Tim Gregory.[5] The first three titles will be published as a single volume in June 2016 using the cover art from the first book in the series.
The Hardy Boys Secret Files is a series begun in 2010 by the publisher Simon & Schuster under their Aladdin imprint. It features the Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe, as grade-school detectives. Three new titles are published yearly as paperback books and eBooks. This series rebooted in 2016 as the Hardy Boys Clue Book series.
This is a re-boot of the Hardy Boys Secret Files series published by Aladdin Paperbacks in paperback, hardcover, and eBook editions written by Franklin W. Dixon with covers and internal illustrations by Matt David. Illustrations and cover art for book #7 by Santy Gutierrez. This is an interactive series, as readers will get to write down their clues and predictions. A page before the final chapter has questions the reader can answer regarding suspects, clues, and solutions. The first book in the series references events in the last book of the Hardy Boys Secret Files series, making this a continuation of that series.
Other Books
The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers Graphic Novels (2005–2010)
The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers – The New Case Files Graphic Novels (2010–2011)
Other Media
- Hardy Boys Adventure Series by Dreamcatcher
- The Hidden Theft (PC 2008)
- The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime (PC 2009)
- The Masked Phantom (PC shelved)
- Hardy Boys Nintendo DS series by Her Interactive & Saga
- Treasure on the Tracks (Nintendo DS 2009)
Comic Books
In this modern take, teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy are accused of the murder of their father - a detective in the small resort town of Bayport - and must team up with the femme fatale Nancy Drew to prove their innocence (and find the real guilty party in the process) in a twisting, hardboiled tale, complete with double-crosses, deceit, and dames.
Film and Television
- The Mickey Mouse Club The Mystery Of The Applegate Treasure
- The Mickey Mouse Club The Mystery Of Ghost Farm
- The Mystery of the Chinese Junk (TV Pilot)
- The Hardy Boys (1969-1971 Cartoon)
- The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977 TV series)
- The Hardy Boys 1995
- The Hardy Boys (2020) The Hardy Boys (2020)
