Review of The Secret Warning (1938)

[tomswift2002]

The Secret Warning
Published in 1938
Written by: John Button?  Leslie McFarlane?

Trevor's Rating: 2.0 out of 10

Hits

*The cover artwork was pretty interesting, although I don't remember reading anywhere in the book about the Hardy Boys helping Dick Tracy to chase down the Blank!

*Even though the story was nowhere near that of "The Tower Treasure" (1927) or "The Melted Coins" (1944), it was better than the stories being published in the current Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers series.

Misses

*I kept wondering where the story was or when I was going to get to the mystery!

*It felt like I was reading a book that was written by two completely different authors with two completely different writing styles that were very roughly edited together.

*It also felt like I was reading to incomplete stories, as though parts of two manuscripts had been misplaced, therefore leading to the need to try and "stitch" them together.

*The character descriptions/mannerisms of established series characters would be out of "whack" in one chapter, and right back to the normal descriptions in another chapter.

*Bock and Simon were really getting annoying, but even their descriptions and mannerisms kept changing from chapter to chapter.

*Too many "jump cuts" between scenes.  During the last chapter the book has the Hardys showing the movie that was recorded on the underwater camera to the police, and it ends, and then all of a sudden right in the next sentence the Hardys are on a dock nowhere near police headquarters, sending a signal that had never been mentioned earlier in the book, to Perry and the diving company.

*It felt like the Hardy Boys had major grudges against Bock, Simon and Kuntz, something that is unusual for the Hardys to have, and never appears again in any other book.  A very unusual character trait.

*The "tempo" of the book kept changing from page to page, chapter to chapter.

Here's my breakdown of the book for Author A, Author B and Editor sections.

(Author A = Possible John Button;  Author B = Possible Leslie McFarlane; Editor = Possible Unknown Stratemeyer Syndicate Editor/Author who combined two manuscripts by Author A and B to form a somewhat coherent storyline)

Chapter 1 - Author A
Chapter 2 - Author B (pages 9-10, and the first one and a half paragraphs of page 11); Author A (last three paragraphs of page 11, pages 12-16)
Chapter 3 - Author A
Chapter 4 - Author A
Chapter 5 - Author A; Editor (page 46); Author A (page 47)
Chapter 6 - Author A (pages 40-45); Editor (page 46); Author A (page 47)
Chapter 7 - Author A
Chapter 8 - Author A
Chapter 9 - Author A
Chapter 10 - Author A
Chapter 11 - Author B
Chapter 12 - Author B
Chapter 13 - Editor
Chapter 14 - Editor
Chapter 15 - Author B
Chapter 16 - Author B
Chapter 17 - Author B
Chapter 18 - Author B
Chapter 19 - Author B
Chapter 20 - Author B
Chapter 21 - Author B
Chapter 22 - Author B
Chapter 23 - Author B
Chapter 24 - Author B
Chapter 25 - Author B (pages 214-218, and the ending to the last paragraph on 218 that is at the top of 219); Author A (last three-quarters of 219); Editor (page 220)

[tomswift2002]

So, does anyone want to discuss this book, or has no one else read the Original text of The Secret Warning?

[003Robin457]

I've not read any origonal text yet. (It's on my to do list.)

[SDLagent]

I own the both versins, but I've only read the revised text (which I got first).

[Olivia]

I never have access to the original "originals" (except I think I do own one) so there's the problem right there.

I don't know if "access" is the right term, but whatever.

[003Robin457]

They do have reprints of some. I have 2 of them (#1 & #10) but I havn't read them yet.

[daryy]

Me too!I've not read any origonal text yet

[tomswift2002]

They do have reprints of some. I have 2 of them (#1 & #10) but I havn't read them yet.

Well, The Secret Warning never got reprinted, even though Applewood did have it on the "to be printed" list for about a year and a half.

[the Gray Man]

The Secret Warning isn't as bad as The Disappearing Floor as far as the old texts are concerned.  I've only seen Dr. Button refered to as the author of this book and not McFarlane, but I see what you are getting at.  The real question is, with all the experienced deck hands available, how can two teenagers get the okay to dive and, once they are injured/trapped/have the bends, are able to keep rediving.  I started rereading the original 38 stories and just finished The Mystery of the Flying Express a few weeks ago.  My goal is to finish the 38 and then read 39-58 and reread the casefiles again.  Depending on my work schedule and other books I read, that should take me a few years.

[tomswift2002]

In McFarlane's autobiography, he mentions that he remember The Secret Warning, but he didn't remember any details about the story or the writing of the book. 

And, just before I posted that review, that was the first time that I had read the 1938 version of the book (I still haven't read the 1940 version of The Disappearing Floor) and I was finding that I was lurching from one writing style to another and then back again during the whole book, with some areas looking like someone had "patched" together sentences from 2 different writing styles.  So that is why I question whether Dr. John Button was the sole author of the book, or if it was written by possible Dr. Button and most likely Leslie McFarlane, or someone who wrote in a similar style to McFarlane, and possible an editor at the Syndicate.