Secret of the Red Arro [Paperback]

The Hardy brothers must dismantle a dangerous crime gang in this first book of a fresh approach to a classic series.

Teenagers Frank and Joe Hardy are supposedly “retired” from their detective work. But there is a new mystery in Bayport that needs their investigative expertise—and fast!

Starting with a bank heist, a series of alarming pranks have popped up around Bayport. Ultimately harmless, the pranks turn out to be the work of Seth Diller, an amateur filmmaker who plans to make “zillions” from his reality-horror flick, which he’ll use to help out his brother, a wounded Marine.

But after the Hardy brothers put a stop to the Panic Project, there is a new outbreak of Seth-like pranks—only these have definite victims. All signs point to evidence of a crime gang in Bayport, and Frank and Joe undertake the most dangerous investigation they’ve ever encountered. It’s up to them to save their town—and themselves—before the Red Arrow gets to them first.THE HOLDUP

1

FRANK

IT’S FUNNY TO THINK ABOUT HAVING ENEMIES. Not funny ha-ha. Funny strange.

I was standing in line at the First Bayport Bank on Water Street. Dad had sent me here on an errand, explaining that the Hardy household believed in banking in person, not online. Mistakes were less common, he said, when the tellers had a face to remember. Even plain old Frank Hardy’s face.

I knew it was just an excuse to get me out of the house. “You’re spending too much time cooped up in front of a computer screen.” Dad, Mom, Aunt Trudy, and my brother, Joe, each told me that at least five times a day.

Well, they weren’t the ones who had to give a speech. That’s right: In one week, yours truly had to get up in front of the entire Bayport High School student body to present my American history paper on civil liberties, which my teacher, lC%