The two Hardy's boys are going to a regular horse race in a town outside of Bayport they arrive and one of the best race horses of the current era, Topnotch, has disappeared and they now have a mystery on their hands…
They soon meet a man at Joe's football game named Villnof. He is a very mysterious man. He claims he came from Europe as he has a British accent. Frank and Joe now need to figure out who took the horse so they start investigating.
The boys father Mr. Hardy is also a detective. He is away at work and the boys now have to solve the mystery on their own. They start to investigate the strange man Villnof. They try to sneak into his house and are caught but Mr. Villnof releases them because he doesn't think they were actually spying on him and trying to find clues in the house.
A couple of weeks later the two boys set off again in search of clues toward the missing horse. They are spying through a window but when they lean on it the window breaks. Villnof runs and escapes and from the fall Joe is badly injured. The boys then search around as now no one is here. They find guns, explosives, dynamite and many dangerous things. They call the police to investigate.
They go to tell Ivan, the horse's jockey, information but as they get there he's is just leaving. Later a report comes in on the jockeyIVAN TOPNOTCHES JOCKEY KIDNAPPED!
The boys were astounded -Villnof must have knapped him!!
Later Topnotch's owner pays the ransom of ten grand to get the horse back but the horse is never returned. The matter now is even more serious and now involves cash.
The boys go to investigate Villnof's castle and get through the alarm system at the gate and find Topnotch in a shack. They now need to look for the jockey. They find Ivan locked up and send him a message that they will return.
They return the next day and are wandering around and are caught by Villnof. He takes them to an underground passage, he tries to ditch them, then they run chasing him as he turns through doors and activates walls. They get to the end and Villnof says…
“I hate your country.” “Your country killed my wife. I now shall return what you have done to me I am going to blow up the entire area and all of you will die!”
He finished with “I shall now die.” He steps into an electrical room and is instantly killed. He said to the boys that there will be twenty minutes and then time will be up.
Joe and Frank split up Joe went and saved the jockey and the race horse and Frank tried to control the bomb.
Twenty minutes later the jockey was saved and so was the horse then suddenly a rumble was sent through the ground and they thought it was all over then Frank raised his body up the ladder and said, “I have controlled the bomb.” “The police know and that noise was it detonating underground nothing will happen we are all now saved.”
Rating: I think I would rate this book nine out of ten. The author kept me on the edge and wanting to read the book forever. The one thing is I would like it better if the author didn't tell all about the characters in the very beginning of the book.
Recommendations: I recommend this book to readers that love to read mysteries and like to have suspense throughout the story. Some words are rather difficult but most of them are a grade 5 to 8 reading.
Favorite Part: My favorite part was when they were chasing Villnof through the underground tunnel because it thrilled me and it was rather interesting when they got to the end because I wondered what the two boys and Villnof were going to do.
