Mystery of the Whale Tattoo (Hardy Boys)

the long version

One exciting event follows another when Frank and Joe Hardy are hired to apprehend the pickpockets who have been plaguing Solo's Super Carnival. When their friends Tony Prito and Biff Hooper exhibit a stuffed whale dug up at a construction project, they all but put the carnival out of business. Other unforeseen problems ensue when the teen-age sleuths become involved in their father's latest case. Fenton Hardy is tracking down a priceless ivory idol stolen from a Hong Kong art collector. A postcard clue found at the carnival leads Frank and Joe and their buddy Chet Morton to the historic seaport town of Mystic in Connecticut, to a seaman's home in New York City, to a stunning discovery in Los Angeles. In this thrilling mystery the young detectives pit their wits against a gang of thieves whose bizarre identification, a three-part whale tattoo, proves to be a nearly insolvable riddle. - Flyleaf.