Hardy Boys 12 Footprints Under The Window

Footprints lead to the breakup of a ring smuggling Chinese aliens. Published originally in 1933.

A plot to steal a top-secret instrument vital to the United States space program poses a challenging case for Frank and Joe Hardy. After rescuing a South American stowaway who mutters a warning about “Footprints “ and then vanishes, Frank and Joe discover that documents belonging to their famous detective father are missing and that footprints linger under a window. The young detective’s search for the diabolical mastermind of the “Footprints” spy ring takes them on a flight to a group of islands off the coast of South America.

Much has been written about the girl sleuth in fiction, a feminist figure embodying all the potential wit and drive of girlhood. Her male counterpart, however, has received much less critical attention despite his popularity in the wider culture. This collection of 11 essays examines the boy detective and his genre from a number of critical perspectives, addressing the issues of these young characters, heirs to the patriarchy yet still concerned with first crushes and soda shop romances. Series explored include the Hardy Boys, Tow Swift, the Three Investigators, Christopher Cool and Tim Murphy, as well as works by Astrid Lindgren, Mark Haddon and Joe Meno.

An assignment form their famous detective father to track down a ring of credit-card counterfeiters takes Frank and Joe Hardy on an exciting camping trip to the Rocky Mountains. But the cross-country trek with their pals Chet Morton and Biff Hooper is jinxed from the very first day. Strange happenings on a nearly impassable mountain lure Frank, Joe, Chet, and Biff to almost certain death before they discover the sinister reason for the danger on Vampire Trail.

In their motorboat the Sleuth Frank and Joe Hardy search Barmet Bay for a dangerous stranger who has stolen a valuable boat. Suddenly, in the eerie fog, they spot the craft drifting aimlessly out to sea. What happens next starts the young detectives and their pal Chet Morton on an intriguing adventure that takes them to Mexico and into the comparatively unexplored desert and mountain regions of Baja California.