#25 The Secret Panel (1969 Revised Text)

[tomswift2002]

Published 1969
Written by Priscilla Baker-Carr

Plot: When the Hardy's help a man with his car after his wheel has come off, he invites them to his house at some future point, and then leaves, but the Hardy's discover a strange key that he dropped.  However when they try to return it, they discover that he died 5 years earlier and had left no known will, and an abandoned house. 

Review:  This is one story that has always been a favorite of mine, especially the plot with the house with, apparently no locks (of course, it makes you wonder just how someone was able to put dust-clothes on all the furniture, since apparently only John Mead and his chauffeur knew how to access the locks, but they were both killed 5 years before, and I doubt the criminals would've bothered with covering the furniture, and yet Chief Collig said that, as far as he was aware, no one was able to figure out how to get in). 

Of course, I don't recall this from the original, but in this text one of the places hit by the gang is "Carr Electronics" which I think the author, Priscilla Baker-Carr put in as an in-joke.  But speaking of the author, had she written this book now in the 2010's, there were a few scenes where I could've seen her inserting the boys using cell phones (or in one scene the boys use a still film camera to take photo's and then mentioning the need to develop the photo's, so I could see that being upgraded to a DSLR) but otherwise most of the activity is pretty timeless. 

When I look at the copyrights, I see that the original wasn't out for that long.  23 years.  Now in 2017, the 1969 text is clearly the classic text, while the original 1946 is pretty hard to come by.  Compare that to "What Happened At Midnight" that was written in 1931, but the wasn't revised till 1967, for 36 years that the original was on the market (not counting the Applewood reprint).  The 1969 Panel has been out for more than double the time than its original (it's been 48 years since 1969).

Rating: 9 out of 10

[MacGyver]

It's been a long while since I've read The Secret Panel (or any of The Hardy Boys original series). I do recall this one being a good one too though, probably because of the secret panel. I love houses with secret passages and stuff like that. I kind of hate how modern technology can kind of ruin these books though. Glad to hear that this one is still pretty timeless. It's fun to read these books as historical fiction as well as mysteries; thus, I imagine the world of 1969 (or whenever the book's written and/or set) and how things would be done before the age of cell phones and instant cameras and such.

[VLoneWolf]

This book is a good book.  I have read the revised text but I own the original.

[tomswift2002]

Yeah I just read "Bound For Danger" from the adventures, and reading an Original series book and then an Adventure, to me, especially since the BFO had 18 chapters vs "The Secret Panel"'s 20, how the story was more structured in Panel, and contained a couple of different plots, but BFD was just one plot that was very loose.

[MacGyver]

Wow! That's got to be quite a jump, going from an original series Hardy Boys book to reading an Adventures book right after it! Interesting to see the progression and compare the series, for sure. I don't think I can quite see the most recent Hardy Boys series quite comparing well...... (However, that doesn't mean I wouldn't be willing to give modern series a read....I just don't know if I'll like them all.)