The Flickering Torch Mystery [SEP] publisher
The Flickering Torch Mystery
The Flickering Torch Mystery is Volume 22 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap. The book was written for the Stratemeyer Syndicate by Leslie McFarlane in 1943. Between 1959 and 1973 the first 38 volumes of the series were systematically revised as part of a project directed by Harriet Adams, Edward Stratemeyer's daughter. The original version of the book was rewritten in 1971 by Vincent Buranelli resulting in two different stories with the same title.
Plot.
Plot Revised edition.
spans. For this reason, many commentators find the new versions nothing less than "eviscerated", foremost among them being the first "Hardy Boys" ghostwriter, Leslie McFarlane, who agreed with a reporter's statement that the books had been "gutted."
In the course of revising and modernizing the series, many plots were completely re-written. "The Flickering Torch Mystery" (1943), for example, was changed from a plot involving an actual flickering torch used as a signal by a gang to