#45 The Mystery of the Spiral Bridge

[tomswift2002]

Published: 1966
Ghost Author: Andrew Svenson

Plot: Frank and Joe Hardy are determined to bring to justice the vicious criminals who kidnapped their detective father while he was investigating sabotage of a road-building project in the Kentucky wilderness.
After Mr. Hardy 's amazing escape, the boys pick up a clue - the word "Felix" mumbled by their sick father in his delirium. When they discover that the dossier of a notorious ex-convict has been stolen from Mr. Hardy's files, the two young sleuths are doubly spurred to action.
The trail leads them to New York City but ends abruptly in a cemetery! Stunned, Frank and Joe come upon another clue - a spiral symbol. Aided by their pals, the boys take jobs on the highway construction crew in Kentucky to try to track down the kidnappers and the nefarious saboteurs. But who among the crew is friend and who is foe?
In a desperate maneuver that almost costs them their lives, the Hardys bring to a spine-tingling close one of the most action-packed and suspenseful mysteries they have ever solved.

Other Hardy Boys Books by the author: The Secret of The Caves (1964), The Melted Coins (1970), The Sign of the Crooked Arrow (1949), The Secret Of the Lost Tunnel (1950), The Wailing Siren Mystery (1951), The Arctic Patrol Mystery (1969), Danger on Vampire Trail (1971), The Shattered Helmet (1973), The Clue Of the Hissing Serpent (1974), The Mysterious Caravan (1975)

Review:  I remember first reading The Mystery of the Spiral Bridge on a trip to Niagra Falls and Marineland back in 1994.  I think I've read the book once or twice since, but I really do not remember, but have been wanting to re-read it for a while, as I remember liking it back in 1994.  So for me it's almost like a new story this time around.  Plus I didn't remember that Tony had a German Shepherd named Axel.

[tomswift2002]

Just finished it.  Really a very good book.  The author really threw a good red herring in about who the gang leader was---I was guessing right up to the end of the book. 

It's to bad that no one ever wrote a sequel to this book, as it was mentioned that the gang leader, the Baron, had been sent to prison twice before by Fenton Hardy and he was really itching to take revenge on Fenton.  And considering that Frank and Joe sent him to prison in this book for a 3rd time, it would've been interesting to have seen the Baron released years later and was out for revenge against Frank and Joe in a later Mystery Story book.

Rating: 9/10

[MacGyver]

It's been a long time since I've read The Mystery of the Spiral Bridge but I mainly remember that the Baron made a cool villain and I love that most all of The Hardy Boys' chums are in it.

[tomswift2002]

The Baron reminded me of the recent criminal in "Stolen Identity", in terms of having been sent to prison by Fenton.  But SI really failed to make him as interesting as The Baron or Mock from the Casefiles "Flesh And Blood".