Franklin W. Dixon - Mystery on the Mayhem Express

Hardy Boys Adventures

Mystery on the Mayhem Express

Franklin W. Dixon

#1 Secret of the Red Arrow

#2 Mystery of the Phantom Heist

#3 The Vanishing Game

#4 Into Thin Air

#5 Peril at Granite Peak

#6 The Battle of Bayport

#7 Shadows at Predator Reef

#8 Deception on the Set

#9 The Curse of the Ancient Emerald

#10 Tunnel of Secrets

#11 Showdown at Widow Creek

#12 The Madman of Black Bear Mountain

#13 Bound for Danger

#14 Attack of the Bayport Beast

#15 A Con Artist in Paris

#16 Stolen Identity

#17 The Gray Hunters Revenge

#18 The Disappearance

#19 Dungeons & Detectives

#20 Return to Black Bear Mountain

#21 A Treacherous Tide

#22 Trouble Island

COMING SOON:

#24 As the Falcon Flies

This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALADDIN

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing Division

1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

First Aladdin paperback edition June 2021

Text copyright 2021 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Cover illustration copyright 2021 by Kevin Keele

THE HARDY BOYS MYSTERY SERIES, HARDY BOYS ADVENTURES, and related logos are trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Also available in an Aladdin hardcover edition.

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Series designed by Karin Paprocki

Interior designed by Mike Rosamilia

Jacket designed by Tiara Iandiorio

Jacket illustration copyright 2021 by Kevin Keele

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Dixon, Franklin W, author.

Title: Mystery on the Mayhem Express / by Franklin W Dixon.

Description: New York : Aladdin, [2021] | Series: Hardy Boys adventures ; 23 | Audience: Ages 8 to 12. | Summary: Frank and Joes immersive murder mystery experience turns into a real missing persons case.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021000543 (print) | LCCN 2021000544 (ebook) | ISBN 9781534478084 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534478077 (paperback) | ISBN 9781534478091 (ebook)

Subjects: CYAC: Mystery and detective stories. | BrothersFiction. | Railroad trainsFiction. | Missing personsFiction.

Classification: LCC PZ7.D644 Myv 2021 (print) | LCC PZ7.D644 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021000543

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021000544

Detective Parrot Trent Couture

Gangster Eddie Garafalo Alan Biff Hooper

Mafia Mama Garafalo Nadine Shaikh

Aristocrat Debonair Marie Fico

Bootlegger McKing Sebastian Ros

Flapper Schmidt Alyssa Moore

Reporter Archibald Evie Wong

Milkman Frothett Rico Green

Front

Engineers Cab

Coal Tender

Writing Car

Observation Car

Deluxe Suite Car

Parlor Car

Second-Class Sleeping Car

Dressing Room Car

Library Car

Performance Car

Dining Car

Back

T HERES FOUL PLAY AFOOT! EXCLAIMED the detective in the fedora, one hand in his trench coat pocket, the other gripping a pad and pen. It felt like his bright green eyes looked straight through me. Then he scanned the rest of the train car, full of other passengers seated and sipping drinks at little tables along the walls.

Didja hear that? shouted a girl clomping by in a short, beaded evening dress. I choked on the overpowering smell of cheap perfume left in her wake. She paused mid-car and pressed a gloved hand to her chest. The keen gumshoe over there says something dont seem quite right!

This is painful, I whispered to my brother, Joe, and our best friend, Chet Morton.

Chet flashed a playful smile. The Roaring Twenties? More like the Snoring Twenties!

Good one, Morton. Joe fist-bumped him.

The website for the Mayhem Express had promised a three-hour ride on a newly restored vintage train, during which guests could enjoy extravagant desserts and solve a 1920s-themed murder mystery. Since all the real mysteries in Bayport had dried up, Joe and I had been itching to find a way to put our mystery-solving skills to use. Checking out the show had seemed like a good idea when I signed us up in June. A new murder mystery train ride beat out running errands (Mom, Dad, and Aunt Trudy never failed to find tasks for us) and rewatching every single Marvel film on Disney+ with Joe.

Right after I signed us up, Joe and I decided to bet on who could solve the fake mystery first. If I won, Joe would be on dish duty for the rest of the summer, and vice versa.

All Chet had needed to hear was fancy desserts and he was in.

And sure enough, before the actors had ushered us into the performance car for the show, they had served us platters in the dining carlifting silver lids to reveal everything from macarons and precut slices of cake to china bowls of chocolate mousse.

But it wasnt only the desserts that had delivered. Every inch of the train looked like itd come right out of an old black-and-white movie: wood paneling, softly glowing lights, and lace curtains pulled back to revealwhat was it the website had said?a breathtaking view of the coastline overlooking Barmet Bay. The photo on the website had shown a midnight-blue train chugging along the curving cliffside, the little waves of the Inner Harbor tinged orange by a glorious summer sunset. Apparently, the old train no longer ran on steam, but the shows production company had managed to figure out a way to make it look like smoke still streamed from its tall stack (my guess was dry ice), and had even kept the tender that had once housed coal.

At first glance, if someone had told me we had been mystically transported back in time, I would have believed it. Every passenger, including Joe, Chet, and me, was dressed up in snazzy 1920s garb, as the website had encouraged. The three of us were even wearing newsboy hats Chet had scrounged up from his folks attic, which matched our good suits and shined-up dress shoes. Around us, fellow audience members sported everything from panama hats and tweed three-piece suits with wingtips and oxfords to feather headbands and fans.

But the costumes, setting, and grub were where the magic ended.

The train, which wasnt completely restored yet, stank of paint fumes. And instead of a breathtaking sunset, the view outside my window was shrubbery, trash-filled alleys, and chain-link fences. That, combined with the bad acting, and our fun night out was quickly sliding into the stuff of nightmares. We were still in Act One, and I was starting to suspect that not even the actors knew what was going on in their own script and the #keepthesecrets hashtag on the website had more to do with burying bad reviews than preventing spoilers.