Just got through proofreading and editing the original version of the Hidden Harbour Mystery, aka the frightfully racist one, and I have to say its a thing.
For those of you who don't know the Hardy Boys stories were rewritten in the late 60's early 70's to remove stereotypes, outdated language and stuff like that and round the boys ages out at 17 - 18. instead of having them grow up over the novels. The later ones got a rewrite for brevity's sake but the earlier ones often were completely rewritten. Hidden Harbour is one of those.
Elements remain that are common to both. In this case a libel case, a feud between the Blackstone and Rand families and the setting of Larchmont Georgia. But for all intents and purposes there are two books.
The remake has the boys camp out near a small pond near the two families estates, which could be the famous hidden harbour that set it all off. They get shipwrecked on a small island where they find some old letters hidden by a lighthouse which just so happen to be pertinent to their case.
The original has them shipwrecked while on a cruise and accused of whacking Mr Blackstone and stealing his money.
The libel case pertains to who wrote a series of plays about the civil war ancestors of both families. These go down with the ship. The boys rescue Mr Blackstone,who they befriend whilst aboard and also notice a shaky Ruel Rand near their stateroom, Mr Blackstone gets KO.d and the boys rescue him and wash up on shore with Frank getting separated from Joe and Chet. When they finally get together, the cops arrest them for the above assault.
So far so good, so where does the racism come into it.
Spoiler alert, the main bad guy in this is called Luke, a black geezer who dresses like, what we would call a pimp, I guess it would be a sort of Jazz get up back then, loud suit and a diamond ring. He talks with a heavy ebonics style of speech (they gave accents to nearly everybody in the old books.) and he runs a gang or secret club of fellow African Americans. He is the son of the main servant of the Blackstone's, who despairs of him and basically thinks of him as a wastrel and a fool.
He runs a gang of fellow blacks, and recruits them into a goofy secret society, which sounds remarkably modern, apart from the secret society nonsense, down at hidden harbour.
It is him and fellow youths, who has been perpetuating the feud between the two families, trying to kill Ruel Rand's mentally ill brother, Ewalt, off with a rock at one point. Its pretty near the point, especially due to BLM and that, and its the first time I've seen a black dude as the criminal in the Hardy universe.
The whole thing ends up with the boys being lynched by a lynch mob and Frank pulling out his knife and cutting the rope and managing to calm the crowd along with the Blackstones and the Rands saying who was whipping up the feud.
Summary of this is, its pretty good. I don't know if this is a Leslie Macfarlane book, it has his style, but the black characters are more sympathetically written in his books. See Hidden Gold where a black farmer rides to their rescue on an old Model T Ford. Although its dated in places, its also bang up to date, in places. Mob justice and the madness of crowds. Copywright and disputed authorship, and being framed for a crime not committed.
If you see it give it a go,you won't regret it.
EDIT Forgot the most hilarious part of it all. Chet spying on Blackstone's Grand daughter and the Hapless private eye she sent after them making out. Due to language creep, Chet says he's watching them making love (Romancing on the detectives part and pretty one sided at that, she want's nothing to do with him.) making him sound like a massive sex pervert in modern parlance.
