The Hardly Boys

The Hardly Boys: Volume 1 is a collection of short story mysteries set in the early 1980s in Asheville, North Carolina, with two eleven-year-old boys, Tunder and Mark, as would-be detectives. Combining 80s nostalgia with Maxwell Smart antics, the two boys "solve" 12 mysteries—from busting up a diabolical gang of jewel thieves to outwitting Scottish serial killers—causing havoc along the way, and by doing so convince themselves that they're every bit as talented as the Hardy Boys they've read about, characters created by Franklin W. Dixon. Tunder narrates each story as an adult writing his older sister, and it's apparent that he's never outgrown his smugness, conceit or naïveté. With the southern dialect, banter and charm of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, The Hardly Boys: Volume 1 will entertain adults and teenagers who enjoy southern satire and the uncomplicated bonds of childhood best friends.