This is the original 1928 story of The Shore Road Mystery: The Hardy Boys book 6. The book has undergone one major revision since originally published in 1928, resulting in two different stories bearing the same title.

Car thieves are busy in Bayport, the home of Frank and Joe Hardy. After cars and trucks are stolen, they seem to simply disappear somewhere along the Shore Road. Then their chum, Jack Dodd, and his father are arrested even though they claim innocence. Are they guilty or is their prior farm hand, Gus Montrose, involved in the thefts? Frank and Joe make a plan to lure the thieves. Do they have enough nerve to go through with it? Their encounter with the desperate criminals leads to grave danger. They are kidnapped! Although the mystery is eventually solved, Frank and Joe agree with their father, Fenton Hardy, one of America's greatest criminologists, assessment, "It was too dangerous."

Much has changed in America since 1928. The modern reader may be delighted with the warmth and innocence of the characters; but uncomfortable with the racial, social, sexist terms and stereotypes. As such, this book is a part of our heritage, a window into our real past.