The Wailing Siren Mystery (1968 Revised Text)

[tomswift2002]

Plot: Frank and Joe are taking a cruise in Barmet Bay in their boat the Sleuth when a violent storm comes up on them.  The Sleuth's engine quits, and Frank and Joe try to get the engine going when they hear a siren over the storm and see a helicopter hovering over another boat.  Then all of a sudden the lights on the other boat and the helicopter go out, just as the boys hear a splash near their boat.  The boys grab the item that splashed in the water and discover that it is a wallet containing $2,000.  Then the next day someone steals Chet's father's truck that contained rifles for hunting big game, a canoe and a bunch of camping supplies.  The Hardy's trace Chet's truck to an area north of Bayport called the North Woods where they again run into the sound of the Wailing Siren.  What is up in the North Woods?  The Hardy's mean to find out.

Review: I've got to ask, with the people who live around North Woods, why did no one ever report the Wailing Siren to the police?  Apparently no one bothered to report that every night a siren comes from the North Woods.

Anyway its a pretty run of the mill Hardy Boys book --- until the end.  Then the end turns into a Casefile!  Fenton Hardy arms the boys with pistols for a raid on a shack in the middle of the North Woods, so the boys go in armed for battle.  Then it turns out that the boys have been chasing a Central American revolutionary group (what would be called a terrorist organization nowadays, kind of like ISIS)(I seem to recall that they were chasing another one in the revised Footprints Under The Window) that has been stealing rifles and other arms, American currency from other countries and using it to purchase weapons in the US.  And then Fenton Hardy and a number of State Troopers swoop down at the end in the helicopter to help the boys arrest the gang.  Plus Chet, Tony, Biff, Callie and Iola all appear in this book.

And by comparison, I can't even say that Attack Of The Bayport Beast is a bad rewrite of this, even though it has a similar premise of the boys going into a local woods on a case.  The Wailing Siren Mystery is way above a grade 2 reading level!

Rating: B

[MacGyver]

It's been a long time since I've read The Wailing Siren Mystery, but I remember rather enjoying this one when I was younger. I think I particularly liked the camping out aspect and the excitement of Frank and Joe's run-in with wolves!

[VLoneWolf]

This mystery was very good.  I own a copy of it now but I first read it went I was a lot younger.

[tomswift2002]

The 1968 version is really just an editing and updating of the original 25-chapter 1951 version.

[Hardy Sleuth]

I've read both The Wailing Siren Mystery (revised) and Attack of the Bayport Beast this year and while I like them both, The Wailing Siren Mystery wins easy since it has even more excitement and more action.

[tomswift2002]

I just got a copy of this this morning for a future Christmas/Birthday gìft for one of my nephews and I noticed that on the copyright page it says "1970 Printing".  I've never seen or heard of G&D printing any publishing information in the pre-1980/81 books, and specific year printing notices was not introduced until the flashlight editions in the 90's.