Book Summary
The Great Escape is the 17th installment in The Hardy Boys: Secret Files series, penned under the house pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon. In this fast-paced middle-grade mystery, teenage sleuths Frank and Joe Hardy investigate a puzzling disappearance on a school campus when a live boa constrictor named “Bubba the Boa” vanishes during a visiting traveling menagerie at Bayport Elementary. Amid the buzz of exotic animals—like a baby kangaroo and flying squirrel—the Hardy brothers race against time, uncovering clues, outsmarting mischievous peers, and solving a tangled puzzle of carelessness versus foul play, all while navigating the school’s excitement and chaos .
About the "Author"
“Franklin W. Dixon” is a collective pseudonym created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate for its popular youth detective fiction. The name was first used in 1927 for the original Hardy Boys series and later for spin-off projects like the Ted Scott Flying Stories. The actual stories have been written by a rotating team of ghostwriters—most notably Leslie McFarlane for the earliest volumes—working from detailed outlines provided by the Syndicate. While there is no single real person named Franklin W. Dixon, the pen name carries a legacy of engaging detective adventures beloved by generations of readers.
