Heading home from this near disaster, they find a message from Elroy Jefferson (who's car they recovered in The Shore Road Mystery). They head over to Jefferson's posh digs to collect a reward and obtain permission to camp out on Jefferson's Cabin Island retreat over the Christmas school holiday.

The Boys along with Chet and Biff head out to the island on their iceboats and have an unpleasant encounter with Ike and Tad, who are in cahoots with Hanliegh. They chase Hanliegh off the island and settle in for some rousing winter adventures. Soon, they find their supplies stolen and head to the nearest town to get more from elderly storekeeper, Amos Grice, and, incidentally, discover from him that Jefferson had a valuable stamp collection stolen many years ago.

Back at the island, they have more adventures, discover a notebook dropped by Hanliegh indicating that the stolen stamps are hidden in the chimney of the cabin. They make a search and, surprise, find nothing.

Later, during a howling blizzard, they are forced to rescue Hanliegh who has come to grief in an iceboat accident. The storm increases in intensity, finally blowing down the chimney of the old cabin. Searching through the rubble, the Boys discover the stamp collection which miraculously has escaped any damage whatsoever despite being walled into a chimney over a huge fireplace for more than twenty years. They return the stamps to Jefferson and pick up yet another reward and Jefferson's offer to let them use his Cabin Island retreat any time they want.

Comments: This tale appears on almost everyone's list of favorite Hardy Boys stories and with good reason. The story is well written and paced and the prose is charmingly evocative and descriptive. One can almost picture oneself ice-boating and camping along with the Boys and their chums.

The mystery is, as usual, solved pretty much by dumb luck (aided by the infamous foul weather that seems to plague Bayport) but this doesn't take away from the excitement and mystery presented here.

The action is not too far removed from that which a teenage detective could accomplish. The villians are bad but not too bad and the mystery not too difficult to solve.

As in a few other of the earlier stories, the Boys arm themselves in this book (this time with rifles) and, although they threaten to use them, no shootings take place (except for a hapless fox who meets his demise in a totally extraneous sequence.)

Apparently the accident with the iceboat shook up Frank more than he cared to admit because the suggestion to go camping had to be made twice to him! When the suggestion was made the second time, Frank acts like he never heard of such a thing before - oh well!

I'm glad to note that, for once, the Boys' chums got a share of the reward but sadly there was no lip-smacking feast to cap off the Boys triumph in this case!

The revised version of this story by Andrew Svenson sticks close to the plot of the original and although the charm of McFarlane's prose is completely lost, it still ranks among the best of the revisions.


Very well written   October 12, 1999
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

While this was not my favorite Hardy Boys book of the original 58 titles written between 1927-1979 and excluding the 38 revisions, I feel that this book might very well have been the best written. My favorites were The Secret of Wildcat Swamp and Hunting For Hidden Gold, but Cabin Island was a very well written book. The plot was complex and interwoven. It was like several stories, all interconnected were being related simultaneously. I cannot rate it a 5 star as there were several other books deserving of that rating. But Cabin Island rates a strong strong 4 star rating.


Perhaps The Best Written Of The Books   September 2, 2001
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This review concerns the original 1929 edition. While spending the Christmas holiday on Cabin Island with their chums, Chet and Biff, Frank and Joe Hardy stumble upon a mystery surrounding the disappearance of a valuable stamp collection. The mystery related in this book, though interesting, is average. It is the writing that makes this book a joy to read. The scenes are so well described that one could almost picture oneself there at that time and the language used hasn't been dumbed down like in many of the recent volumes. The action is well-paced and it didn't feel as though the mystery was solved too quickly. This was a great book, definately worth reading.


The best Hardy Boys story ever written   May 7, 2001
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This revised version of the original story sticks close to the original plot and is the very best of all the revised stories. The Hardy Boys and their friends are spending the Christmas holidays camping out on lonely Cabin Island. How they find a lost treasure is an exciting mystery that has thrilled several generations of young readers for more than 70 years.


Mystery Of Cabin Island   July 31, 2001
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This was my 3rd book and my best. I like the plot, and it's hard to tell the outcome of the ending, even though I found out. I got this book from Boise's library, and it was dirty, old, but terrific. No wonder so many people liked it if the book's the way it is now. The ghost part is the least exciting, I'd have to say. But there are so many good parts it's hard to choose which one is the best!!! So if you want a good mystery and action book, this beats all other mystery and action stuff, guaranteed!!!