#26 The Phantom Freighter (1970)

[tomswift2002]

Plot: When someone intercepts a box that a a friend of Aunt Gertrude is sending her, the Hardy's are on the case.  Then a man asks the boys to arrange passage on a freighter for a vacation for him and the Hardy's, however, the local freighter booking agency doesn't want to book passage for them, and when they arrange passage at an agency in another town, someone picks up the tickets before the Hardy's got there.

Review:  This is an interesting story this time around.  When I was younger it was an okay story, but this time around I kept noticing major plot holes that were never cleared up.  Holes such as why a box of wool was sent to Aunt Gertrude, but other people who had had their parcels intercepted never got random parcels of wool.  And how the parcels were redirected; no mention of an agent being employed by the express agency was ever mentioned.  From what it sounded like, the criminals would address the packages to addresses that they apparently knew were empty, and then break-into in order to receive the packages. 

Another major plot hole was why the gang was trying to keep the boys from booking passage.  It was never clearly explained.  As far as I could tell, a number of freighter captains were involved in the gang, but it was never made clear why the crooks didn't want to ship on a freighter, even one like the "Father Neptune" where the Captain and crew were not involved in the gang, and yet the gang goes to great lengths to get a guy onboard.  For what purpose, it was never made clear.

Anyway, throughout this whole book I kept thinking that most kids in 2017 would find this book very odd.  In an age where travel agencies are rare to come by (with most being online only) in the real world, booking passage through Klack's would be odd.  In 2017 the Hardy's probably wouldn't even leave McClintock's hotel room without one of them doing a quick online search, and possible booking, on their cell phone.  So now, in 2017, this book is very antiquated, and if it was ever rewritten, it would need to be heavily rewritten.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

[MacGyver]

Technology changes are one reason I like to read The Hardy Boys original stories (original or revised text) as period pieces and enjoy stepping back into a time before all the instantaneous technological advances. (Perhaps it helps that I can remember living in some of those times too. )

[tomswift2002]

It's an interesting period piece, but with the major plot holes the story has a hard time standing up just on its own.

[MacGyver]

Well, I'd have to reread the book to comment further........I just recall reading it as a kid and enjoying it because I enjoy all The Hardy Boys books to some degree. (It's also easier to overlook or just plain not even notice major plot holes as a kid.)