When the father of one of their school friends is wrongly accused of stealing, the Hardy boys take it upon themselves to clear his name and solve the mystery.
In the Casefiles series, the Hardy boys collaborate with The Gray Man, who works for the Network—a secret government intelligence agency—to fight the Assassins, an international terrorist organization responsible for his girlfriend Iola's death.
This was a series of 36 paperback novels in which the Hardy Boys teamed up with intelligent young female sleuth Nancy Drew.
In this series, Frank and Joe are both undercover agents for American Teens Against Crime (ATAC), an organization founded by Fenton Hardy.
The brothers use a more modernized speech style, and frequently tease and get on each other's nerves; nonetheless, they are still very close and protective of each other as in all of the previous series.
Frank and Joe receive a newer model of their yellow convertible from a jewelry firm because they successfully recovered an emerald valued at $1 million dollars in the same book.
In the Undercover Brothers series, Frank and Joe own custom sport bikes, decked out with the latest in accessories.
He lives in the town of Bayport, NY with his parents, Fenton and Laura; his younger brother, Joe; and his aunt, Gertrude.
[4] Frank and Joe both attend Bayport High, along with their friends Biff Hooper, Tony Prito, Phil Cohen, Iola Morton (excluding the Casefiles) and the aforementioned Chet and Callie.
His father, Fenton Hardy, used to work for the New York City Police Department and is currently a private investigator.
Joe's best friend Chet Morton's sister Iola is killed by a bomb in the first Casefiles novel, Dead On Target.
Some of Joe's other friends are Phil Cohen, a computer genius; Tony Prito, the manager of a famous teen hang-out place, Mr. Pizza; and Allen "Biff" Hooper, a well-built football player who has helped the Hardys on more than one case.
He is also the co-founder of a top-secret organization, ATAC, American Teens Against Crime, the agency for which his sons, Frank and Joe, work.
Her maternal care for the boys doesn't seem to put her in any conflict with the brothers' actual mother Laura, but her characteristics — genial overbearingness, comic frettiness, moral disapproval — make her a much more developed character.
In the TV series The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mysteries, the mother has been completely written out and Aunt Gertrude has become Frank and Joe's only maternal figure.
[citation needed] Gertrude frequently expresses her maternal care for the boys and their friends through her cooking, and it is generally agreed (particularly by the occasionally gluttonous Chet Morton) that she excels in this area.
The books describe his bright yellow jalopy, which he had named "Queen", as the "pride of Chet's life", and he works on it daily to "soup up" the engine.
His stature and not-athletic nature make him a frequent source of comic relief; however, it is noted that he can move fast when needed.
Throughout the original canon, Chet is always diving into new hobbies like botany in The Shore Road Mystery or ballooning in The Clue of the Hissing Serpent.
In The Hardy Boys Casefiles first book, Dead on Target, she is killed by a car bomb meant for Frank and Joe.
In the Hulu 2020 series, Biff is a girl in the adaptation with her nickname being shortened for Elizabeth when she couldn't pronounce her name correctly in kindergarten.
Following the death of Iola in book #1, no longer is she merely Frank's date, but a competitive, brave, young woman, who is always ready to assist the Hardys on their cases, whether they want her to or not.
Working on their cases, Callie saves the Hardy brothers, more than once, notably in book #8 See No Evil and #80 Dead of Night.
(However, due to the time period that the original series was set in, these talents were not discussed; instead, Phil was essentially an "everyman" that would occasionally help out the Hardys.)
[10] Helping the Hardys, Phil has faced quite a bit of danger throughout the series, but no matter what happens, always has a good sense of humour.
Sam is a skilled detective and tireless worker, who sometimes has to camp out at stakeouts for days on end while working for Fenton Hardy.
After the case was successfully wrapped up she and Joe started dating and when the Casefiles series was canceled in 1998 with the publication of #127 Dead in the Water, they were still a steady couple.
The Hardys first met him at the funeral of Joe's girlfriend, Iola Morton, who was killed in a terrorist car bomb planted by The Assassins.
Gradually, however, they gained respect (albeit a slightly grudging one) for each other, and even became good friends over time, though (as said before) he still considers them amateurs and, in turn, they don't always trust him.
[15] Brian Conrad is 17 years old, 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 210 lbs, and has short blond hair and blue eyes.