The Mystery Of Cabin Island (1929) (Spoilers)

[tomswift2002]

Plot:  Christmas Day is about a week away and the Hardys, Chet Morton and Biff Hooper are planning a winter camping trip.  But where should they go? 

First the four friends decide to take an afternoon out iceboating and land on Cabin Island just to walk around on.  Unfortunately someone else is there and he orders the boys off the island!  Is this the owner of Cabin Island and if so why is he so mean?

When the Hardys get home from their outing they receive a strange message from an Elroy Jefferson, a man whose Pierce-Arrow was stolen during The Shore Road Mystery and who is also the owner of Cabin Island, asking them to come to his house the next day to discuss something of great importance.

So if the man that the Hardys met on Cabin Island wasn't the owner, just who was it and what does the guy want? 

And what sort of trouble do the Hardys and their friends get up to while on their Christmas Vacation?

Review:  This is a must-read for all Hardy Boys fans!  In this story the mystery is the "B" Plot of the story.  The main plot is the Hardys vacation.  And while some people may think that means that this story won't be good, then they are dead wrong. 

Leslie McFarlane was able to added quite a bit of depth to the Hardy Boys, Chet Morton and Biff Hooper with this volume.  We learned that Biff likes to box and shadow boxes in his family's front yard.  Plus we learn that Chet doesn't know how to properly handle a rifle (Biff asks Chet to turn the rifle the other way around since Chet kept pointing the business end at the Hardy's and Biff while on a hike through some woods on the shore).

Also, this version of The Mystery of Cabin Island also had a scene that was really funny, but unfortunately, was dropped from the revised 1966 edition.  The scene takes place on Boxing Day (December 26) when the Hardys go back to the main land to have an outing and stop in at Amos Grice's store, where Amos asks the boys to hunt down a couple of thieves.  But these are not your average two-legged thieves.  These thieves took off with 7 of Amos's "fattest" chickens.  And these thieves are a couple of four-legged foxes. 

So the Hardys, Chet and Biff set off on the trail of the foxes, along with Amos's dog.  During the trip through the woods, the aforementioned incident with Chet occurs, and then when the boys do find the foxes, Chet goes to shoot them, only to hear a "click" in the empty gun chamber.  Meanwhile, the foxes run away, after biting Amos's dog, and the boys split into groups of two.  Chet and Joe go off in one direction while Frank and Biff head off in the other direction to try to close off the foxes routes of escape.

And I won't tell you anymore of the plot, since if you want more you are going to have to read the book yourself.

Applewood Books reprinted this story back in 1999, and Amazon.ca and Chapters.ca both report the book as still being available. 

But if you want a great Christmas story, as good as the Nativity story and Dicken's A Christmas Carol, then you need to pick up this book.

Rating: A+ (Honors)

[003Robin457]

Mystery of Cabin Island was allways one of my favorites too.

[Bigfootman]

Here's my review this is of the revised editoion:

Plot: I forgot the plot, probily because it was so boring. I think it had something to do with a missing kid, maybe a lost treasure?
1

Suspects: You pertty much know the bad guy by the middle of the book.
1

Action: Action wise, this book is worse then Rocky Road. Sadly the funny sence Santa mentioned is not in the revised edition, too bad, becuse it might mave saved the book.
1

Chistmas theme: I found the book quite boring, and putting chistmas in the mix made it worse. Escappily, since the part were chistmas is mentioned the most is ruined by a terrible clifhanger.
1

Good:
Sorry, nothing good here

Bad
-Boring
-Boring Chistmas book
-Boring Chistmas book with zero action
-You get the point

Rating
1
Awfull

This should have been a Nancy Drew book, instead of a Hardy Boys book. This has to be the worst bluespine I have ever read. If you want a Chistmas book, read Conterfit Chistmas, witch is a Nancy Drew file. At least it is desent....

[003Robin457]

Hummm... Well sorry but I'm with Tom here. TMoCI Rules.

[tomswift2002]

Even the 1966 Revised Edition of The Mystery Of Cabin Island is no comparison to the 2005 Rocky Road. 

And the funny thing is, the majority of Hardy Boys fans out there say that The Mystery of Cabin Island (1966) is one of the best revised texts, just like the Original 1929 version is considered by many to be one of the top 3 best Hardy Boys Grosset & Dunlap books.

The 1966 Cabin Island had a subplot with Elroy Jefferson's grandson, a character who was not in the original story, since in the original mention was made of the fact that both Jefferson's wife and son were dead by the time the story took place at Christmas 1928. 

The plot in the revised also contained a lost treasure, just like in the original, except that in the original it was a box of extremely rare stamps that had been missing for nearly 15 years, while in the 1966 story it was a box of medals.

And I still give The Mystery of Cabin Island (1929) a Rating of A+ Honours and it is a must read for any Hardy Boys fan, just like Ghost Of The Hardy Boys is a must read for any Hardy Boys fan.

[SDLagent]

I agree that ''The Mystery of Cabin Island'' is one of the best Hardy Boys books of all time.

[Bigfootman]

I seem to have only remebed the awfull parts now I remeber the good parts, so I'm rasing my rating to a six. But I have to dissage with two of your comments tom:
1)This book IS NOT a must read. There is nothing in this book that I haven't read a thousand times from other Hardy boys, and even Nancy Drew books. You could just read another chistmas book and not miss anything. It's just a book, nothing diffrent about it. Except the chistmasness, witch I didn't care for because it wrecked any possiblty of action, except the ice boat scence and maybe something else.
2)"as good as the Nativity story and Dicken's A Christmas Carol"
This book ranks nowhere eather of those stories. The only book it ranks near is Santa's raindeer, a book with mini letters and books inside.

[tomswift2002]

I seem to have only remebed the awfull parts now I remeber the good parts, so I'm rasing my rating to a six. But I have to dissage with two of your comments tom:
1)This book IS NOT a must read. There is nothing in this book that I haven't read a thousand times from other Hardy boys, and even Nancy Drew books. You could just read another chistmas book and not miss anything. It's just a book, nothing diffrent about it. Except the chistmasness, witch I didn't care for because it wrecked any possiblty of action, except the ice boat scence and maybe something else.
2)"as good as the Nativity story and Dicken's A Christmas Carol"
This book ranks nowhere eather of those stories. The only book it ranks near is Santa's raindeer, a book with mini letters and books inside.

Also, you are talking about the 1966 book, whereas this topic is about the 1929 version.  And both versions are definite MUST READS and are just as good as Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol (of course nothing could be better than the Nativity Story).

[whitetigers]

I loved the Mystery of Cabin Island. I never read the 1929 version but did read the 1966 one. Still just as good as the first one. You could feel the cold as you read this.

[tomswift2002]

I loved the Mystery of Cabin Island. I never read the 1929 version but did read the 1966 one. Still just as good as the first one. You could feel the cold as you read this.

Both Amazon.ca and Amazon.com are reporting that they still have a few copies of Applewood's 1999 reprinting of the 1929 edition of The Mystery of Cabin Island.  However, Chapters.ca is reporting that the only way to get the book through them is to buy it from one of their used book dealers.  So, who knows how much longer the 1999 reprint of this classic 1929 book will be available.

[tomswift2002]

It's been a few years since anyone posted in this topic, but considering that we are into the Christmas season, why not revive the topic?

[MacGyver]

I have read both the 1929 and 1966 versions of The Mystery of Cabin Island and I agree that this is a classic Hardy Boys book. It is certainly one of my favorites, probably because of the Christmas theme more than anything. I'm not sure if I'd rank it up there with Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (which is definitely a classic and I have read that more than once.)- but it is certainly worth the read. Of course, when it comes to Christmas, nothing beats The Nativity account in The Bible of course. (Which is found in more than just The Gospels- the coming of Christ was prophesied as far back as Genesis 3:15, when God promises the Seed of the woman would come. And there are a number of other verses in The Old Testament as well. In the Gospels, we go to Luke 1-2 for the account of Zechariah and Elizabeth having John the Baptist, and then Mary giving birth to Jesus with the angels and shepherds on the scene. The wise men actually get there about 2 years later and we read about that in Matthew 2. Of course, I also love John 1's poetic description of the birth of the Savior. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory...." And Mark 1 just says- Boom! Christ is on the scene- let's get rolling right into His ministry. )
Yay for the Christmas season as we remember the birth of Christ the Savior! Merry Christmas!

[tomswift2002]

I've been reading this book for the past week.  Simply fantastic.  In a way its a Christmas tradition, kind of like rewatching the Rankin/Bass Santa Claus Is Coming To Town/Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Hanna-Barberra The Nativity. 

Its amazing how Leslie McFarlane was able to craft a story that was, essentially, an adventure story that still moves and has become a classic, even though the Hardy Boys are billed as a mystery series!  I think that this was what McFarlane was going for with the original The Secret Warning, (and obviously Harriet Stratemeyer-Adams didn't like it, and had the book re-written and then had the two manuscripts combined together into the mess that TSW became), since the plots seemed to be the same as The Mystery On Cabin Island , where the mystery was the B-plot, while the adventure was the A-plot, which was the reverse from the usual. 

Of course, my favorite chapter in The Mystery In Cabin Island is chapter 14, Christmas Day.  Chet's monologue about Hanleigh is extremely funny.  And of course Joe makes it come to an end really quickly.  That's something that only McFarlane was able to put into the stories, and even in the later McFarlane texts, while he had stricter guidelines, he still managed to get those scenes in. 

Of course this year, in the first time in years, I'm able to get the idea of what Joe, Chet and Biff must've been feeling on Christmas Day morning, as they were ice fishing.  Here in Canada for the past week (and from what I see on the Weather Network right down as far as northern Florida) its been bitterly cold with temps feeling closer to -40.  And with Joe, Chet and Biff ice fishing on a bay that is connected to the Atlantic, the winds would've been frigid, and would've made it feel really cold.

[tomswift2002]

Chapter 21 takes place during New Year's Eve Day.

[MacGyver]

Cool! So it's both a Christmas and New Year's Eve/Day book.