Cross-media picks for Franklin W. Dixon fans — films, series, games and books in the same vein.
The picks here orbit a particular kind of storytelling: young protagonists who refuse to leave a mystery alone, plots that move fast and trust the reader to keep up, and a tone that mixes genuine tension with the pleasure of the chase. Whether it's teen ghost detectives in Dead Boy Detectives, a rebellious young Sherlock in Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One, or child sleuths bumbling into adult danger in Mystery Team, the connecting thread is curiosity as courage — asking one more question is always worth the risk.
Film
The Bat
A mystery writer rents a house with a violent criminal past — classic suspense with a puzzle at its heart.
Film
Dressed to Kill
Holmes and Watson race to catch a killer targeting innocent buyers of music boxes hiding stolen secrets.
Film
Bookworm
A bookish girl and her estranged magician father stumble into real adventure on a camping trip.
Film
Frequency
A son uses a strange time-crossing link to prevent his father's death — only to trigger a darker, cascading mystery.
Film
Mystery Team
Former child detectives, now hopelessly out of their depth, tackle a gritty adult murder case.
Film
The Black Windmill
A British agent tracks his kidnapped son alone after realising his own organisation cannot be trusted.
Film
The Last Boy Scout
A private detective and an ex-footballer investigate a murder and uncover corruption that powerful people want buried.
Film
Newsies
Exploited newsboys organise a strike against their publisher in turn-of-the-century New York.
Series
The Hardy Boys
A junior reporter and his computer-hacker brother crack mysteries together — the Hardy Boys formula updated for the 1990s.
Series
The Hardy Boys
Frank and Joe try to impress their detective father by solving mysteries, capturing the series' original earnest spirit.
Series
The Hardy Boys
Frank and Joe investigate a personal tragedy and uncover something far more sinister threatening their whole town.
Series
Detective School Q
Five young detective trainees tackle bizarre urban-legend cases that lead them into labyrinthine mysteries.
Series
Hemlock Grove
Two young men in a Pennsylvania village grapple with dark family secrets as a disturbing mystery closes in.
Series
Dead Boy Detectives
Two teen ghosts and a clairvoyant solve supernatural mysteries until a powerful witch complicates everything.
Series
The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries
Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy bring Frank and Joe Hardy to life in this classic TV adventure series.
Series
Black Books
An eccentric bookshop owner and his hapless assistant career through misadventures with warmly absurdist wit.
Game
A Detective's Novel
A suspicious death in a remote mountain estate sets up a classic locked-room mystery with a tight circle of suspects.
Game
Blues and Bullets
Eliot Ness is drawn out of quiet retirement to investigate a city rotting with corruption — gritty noir told episodically.
Game
Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One
A young, rebellious Sherlock Holmes investigates his mother's death on the Mediterranean island where she died.
Game
Police Quest Collection
A rookie cop's routine car-crash call unravels into a full murder investigation in this methodical adventure game.
Game
Bendy: Secrets of the Machine
Explore a corporate facility, solve puzzles, and contend with something unstable and dangerous lurking within.
Game
The Ratline
Hunt Nazi fugitives across the globe in 1971, analysing evidence and following leads before the trail goes cold.
Game
The Plucky Squire
A storybook hero leaps between 2D pages and a 3D world to stop a villain who knows he's destined to lose.
Game
Drake Hollow
Explore a blighted otherworld and protect its dying vegetable folk in this adventure-survival game.
Book
Final Cut
Frank and Joe go undercover at a movie studio to unmask the killer of a screenwriter.
Book
Acting Up
The brothers investigate sabotage on a Bollywood film set, tackling international intrigue far from home.
Book
Open Season
A cross-country ski trip turns deadly when a conservationist friend is shot and Frank and Joe become targets.
Book
Cave-in
Tracing a kidnapped movie star leads the brothers into dangerous company at a film-location ski resort.
Book
Sheer Terror
An urgent distress call from a chemist friend draws Frank and Joe into peril in remote northern Arizona.
Book
The Borderline Case
A student exchange in Greece escalates from a street brawl into a hornet's nest of espionage and danger.
Book
A Taste for Terror
A poisoning at an Explorer's Guild anniversary in Tunisia sends Frank and Joe hunting a killer among their own company.
Book
False Alarm
A rival brother team challenges Frank and Joe while a deadly trap sets the stage for their most personal case.
Start with the 2021 series The Hardy Boys for a modern take on Frank and Joe's adventures, or go back to The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977) for the classic feel. Dead Boy Detectives offers a fresh supernatural spin on young sleuths.
Yes — Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One captures the thrill of piecing together a mystery from clues, while The Ratline puts you in a 1971 detective thriller hunting fugitives across the globe. Both reward careful deduction over brute force.
The picks include many Hardy Boys novels — titles like Final Cut, Open Season, and The Borderline Case follow Frank and Joe into studios, ski slopes, and international intrigue, delivering the same fast-moving adventure the series is known for.