Hardy Boys Secret Files 01 – Trouble at the Arcade

Franklin W Dixon's Trouble at the Arcade is a Hardy Boys mystery for 7 year olds about the day two brothers become detectives.

What happens

Frank Hardy is nine and his brother Joe is eight. They share a very small bedroom with bunk beds. So when Dad starts doing up the spare room over the garage, there's only one question. Who gets it?

They make a bet. It's the grand reopening of the arcade at Bayport Fun World, with a video game tournament and a brand-new games console as the prize. Whoever wins the contest gets the new room too.

Joe is halfway through a brilliant turn on Alien Blob Blaster when the owner, Mr Fun, stops everything. The money from the entrance has gone missing. And the tournament is off until it comes back.

Who took it? There are plenty of people to wonder about. Adam, the class bully, who just got the top score. Callie, the quiet new girl, who suddenly runs off. Darryl, the owner's grumpy teenage son, who was supposed to be minding the cash. And little Mimi, who's four, dripping in plastic prize jewellery, and says the tickets for it simply jumped into her hand.

What makes this such a good first book is the two brothers. Frank likes to make lists. Joe would rather just go and ask people questions. Their dad is a private investigator, and he's always telling them they're a team (they're not so sure).

They work it out using Dad's Ws. Who, What, When, Where and Why. Plus How, which Frank insists counts because it ends in a W!

There's lots of running about too. The boys chase a suspect by vaulting into the bumper cars and hopping along the Skee-Ball lanes. Joe even interviews a witness from inside a bumper car. Would you answer questions while someone kept crashing into you?

It's the very first Secret Files book and the whole case is sorted out by the last page. It ends with the boys making their tree house into a proper detective headquarters, so it's a lovely place for your reader to start.

What to read next

If this one lands, The Missing Mitt is next in the Secret Files. It's the last Little League game of the season, and a teammate's lucky glove has gone missing.