Mystery of Cabin Island (Hardy Boys Mysteries) [Hardcover]

It's Christmas time in Bayport and the Boys and their chums are enjoying themselves iceboating out on Barmet Bay. They decide to explore lonely s Cabin Island but are chased away by a surly stranger (Hanliegh). On the way back, they nearly come to ruin in an accident with another iceboat manned by Tad Carson and Ike Nash, a pair of obnoxious bullies.

Heading home from this near disaster, they find a message from Elroy Jefferson (who's car they recovered in The Shore Road Mystery). They head over to Jefferson's posh digs to collect a reward and obtain permission to camp out on Jefferson's Cabin Island retreat over the Christmas school holiday.

The Boys along with Chet and Biff head out to the island on their iceboats and have an unpleasant encounter with Ike and Tad, who are in cahoots with Hanliegh. They chase Hanliegh off the island and settle in for some rousing winter adventures. Soon, they find their supplies stolen and head to the nearest town to get more from elderly storekeeper, Amos Grice, and, incidentally, discover from him that Jefferson had a valuable stamp collection stolen many years ago.

Back at the island, they have more adventures, discover a notebook dropped by Hanliegh indicating that the stolen stamps are hidden in the chimney of the cabin. They make a search and, surprise, find nothing.

Later, during a howling blizzard, they are forced to rescue Hanliegh who has come to grief in an iceboat accident. The storm increases in intensity, finally blowing down the chimney of the old cabin. Searching through the rubble, the Boys discover the stamp collection which miraculously has escaped any damage whatsoever despite being walled into a chimney over a huge fireplace for more than twenty years. They return the stamps to Jefferson and pick up yet another reward and Jefferson's offer to let them use his Cabin Island retreat any time they want.

Comments: This tale appears on almost everyone's list of favorite Hardy Boys stories and with good reason. The story is well written and paced and the prose is charmingly evocative and descriptive. One can almost picture oneself ice-boating and camping along with the Boys and their chums.

The mystery is, as usual, solved pretty much by dumb luck (aided by the infamous foul weather that seems to plague Bayport) but this doesn't take away from the excitement and mystery presented here.

The action is not too far removed from that which a teenage detective could accomplish. The villians are bad but not too bad and the mystery not too difficult to solve.

As in a few other of the earlier stories, the Boys arm themselves in this book (this time with rifles) and, although they threaten to use them, no shootings take place (except for a hapless fox who meets his demise in a totally extraneous sequence.)

Apparently the accident with the iceboat shook up Frank more than he cared to admit because the suggestion to go camping had to be made twice to him! When the suggestion was made the second time, Frank acts like he never heard of such a thing before - oh well!

I'm glad to note that, for once, the Boys' chums got a share of the reward but sadly there was no lip-smacking feast to cap off the Boys triumph in this case!

The revised version of this story by Andrew Svenson sticks close to the plot of the original and although the charm of McFarlane's prose is completely lost, it still ranks among the best of the revisions.

While this was not my favorite Hardy Boys book of the original 58 titles written between 1927-1979 and excluding the 38 revisions, I feel that this book might very well have been the best written. My favorites were The Secret of Wildcat Swamp and Hunting For Hidden Gold, but Cabin Island was a very well written book. The plot was complex and interwoven. It was like several stories, all interconnected were being related simultaneously. I cannot rate it a 5 star as there were several other books deserving of that rating. But Cabin Island rates a strong strong 4 star rating.

The Hardy Boys are out for their eighth adventure, this time on an island in Barmet Bay. It is winter and the boys have received permission from Elroy Jefferson to stay at the cabin he owns on Cabin Island. The boys received this permission because they recovered Mr. Jefferson's car in "The Shore Road Mystery."

The boys and their friends Chet Morton and Biff Hooper go to Cabin Island to check it out. They journey on an ice boat the Hardy Boys built themselves. A brief side note. I had always thought of ice boats as being small. The Hardy boy's ice boat is large enough to hold four people and enough supplies to stay for a week on Cabin Island. I think it is safe to say that the boat is quite large.

Once on Cabin Island the four friends head off to see the cabin. The soon discover footprints and a surly man chases them off the island. The boys visit Mr. Jefferson to ask about the man. Mr. Jefferson believes it is Hanleigh, who has been asking Mr. Jefferson to sell him the island for some time. While visiting with Mr. Jefferson the boys learn that Mr. Jefferson has a grandson, Johnny Jefferson, who has disappeared from his school. Johnny is fifteen years old. The boys also learn that Mr. Jefferson had a collection of highly valuable medals that were stolen some years before. The Hardy Boys have a new mystery!

During their trips to and from the island the boys also encounter bullies who attempt several times to wreck their ice boat. Eventually the boys realize that the bullies are trying to keep them from Cabin Island.

As the story progresses the four friends encounter a ghost in the woods, and numerous attempts are made to drive them from the island. The boys also encounter a blizzard, and have to make at least two rescues. I also pointed out in my last review that the author seemed to have a fixation on caves, as the author had written five and now seven stories in a row that featured a cave. The next story also has a cave important to the story.

This story is an interesting Hardy Boys story. The pacing is good, and the mysteries are kept simple, though the boys must work hard to learn the answers. I found myself reading through this book quickly to understand all the pieces to the puzzle, which the author explained nicely. This book is one of the better books of the first eight.

Note that this review is for the 1966 revision. My understanding is that there is a later revision where the author replaced medals with stamps. If that is true, it is unfortunate. I was wondering how medals in a box would withstand the conditions where the thieves hid them, which I will not give away. Being a stamp collector, I can tell you that stamps require a very controlled environment, and the temperature and humidity conditions of their hiding location would not have been good for them.

Though the Hardy Boys series is written in a relatively archaic fashion, as reading material for an increasingly younger audience they are excellent. The stories were once recommended for children ages 10 to 14. As children are exposed to more violence and seem to require greater levels of stimulation, the recommended age range has move to 9 to 12. I think any child capable of reading some of the challenging words in these books will enjoy them, regardless of how tame most of the action may be. Once a child has reached age 12 or so the stories may be of less interest, but given the combination of mystery and action, these books remain good safe choices for parents who want to know what their children are reading.