In 1979, the Stratemeyer Syndicate took its business to a new publisher: Simon & Schuster, whose Hardy Boys volumes picked up where Grosset & Dunlap left off.

59. Night of the Werewolf 60. Mystery of the Samurai Sword 61. The Pentagon Spy 62. The Apeman's Secret 63. The Mummy Case 64. Mystery of Smugglers Cove 65. The Stone Idol 66. The Vanishing Thieves 67. The Outlaw's Silver 68. Deadly Chase 69. The Four-Headed Dragon 70. The Infinity Clue 71. Track of the Zombie 72. The Voodoo Plot 73. The Billion Dollar Ransom 74. Tic-Tac-Terror 75. Trapped at Sea 76. Game Plan for Disaster 77. The Crimson Flame 78. Cave-in! 79. Sky Sabotage 80. The Roaring River Mystery 81. The Demon's Den 82. The Blackwing Puzzle 83. The Swamp Monster 84. Revenge of the Desert Phantom 85. The Skyfire Puzzle 86. The Mystery of the Silver Star 87. Program for Destruction 88. Tricky Business 89. The Sky Blue Frame 90. Danger on the Diamond 91. Shield of Fear 92. The Shadow Killers 93. The Serpent's Tooth Mystery 94. Breakdown in Axeblade 95. Danger on the Air 96. Wipeout 97. Cast of Criminals 98. Spark of Suspicion 99. Dungeon of Doom 100. The Secret of the Island Treasure 101. The Money Hunt 102. Terminal Shock 103. The Million-Dollar Nightmare 104. Tricks of the Trade 105. The Smoke Screen Mystery 106. Attack of the Video Villains 107. Panic on Gull Island 108. Fear on Wheels 109. The Prime-Time Crime 110. The Secret of Sigma Seven 111. Three-Ring Terror 112. The Demolition Mission 113. Radical Moves 114. The Case of the Counterfeit Criminals 115. Sabotage at Sports City 116. Rock 'n' Roll Renegades

117. The Baseball Card Conspiracy 118. Danger in the Fourth Dimension 119. Trouble at Coyote Canyon 120. The Case of the Cosmic Kidnapping 121. The Mystery in the Old Mine 122. Carnival of Crime 123. The Robot's Revenge 124. Mystery with a Dangerous Beat 125. Mystery on Makatunk Island 126. Racing to Disaster 127. Reel Thrills 128. Day of the Dinosaur 129. The Treasure at Dolphin Bay 130. Sidetracked to Danger 131. Crusade of the Flaming Sword 132. Maximum Challenge 133. Crime in the Kennel 134. Cross-Country Crime 135. The Hypersonic Secret 136. The Cold Cash Caper 137. High-Speed Showdown 138. The Alaskan Adventure 139. The Search for the Snow Leopard 140. Slam Dunk Sabotage 141. The Desert Thieves 142. Lost in Gator Swamp 143. The Giant Rat of Sumatra 144. The Secret of Skeleton Reef 145. Terror at High Tide 146. The Mark of the Blue Tattoo 147. Trial and Terror 148. The Ice-Cold Case 149. The Chase for the Mystery Twister 150. The Crisscross Crime 151. The Rocky Road to Revenge 152: Danger in the Extreme 153: Eye on Crime 154: The Caribbean Cruise Caper 155: The Hunt for the Four Brothers 156: A Will to Survive 157: The Lure of the Italian Treasure 158: The London Deception 159: Daredevils 160: A Game Called Chaos 161: Training for Trouble 162: The End of the Trail 163: The Spy that Never Lies 164: Skin and Bones 165: Crime in the Cards 166: Past and Present Danger 167: Trouble Times Two 168: The Castle Conundrum 169: Ghost of a Chance 170: Kickoff to Danger 171: The Test Case 172: Trouble in Warp Space 173: Speed Times Five 174: Hide-And-Sneak

Simon & Schuster agressively promoted and modernized the books. Here are some of the changes in format:

• A new cover design features "The Hardy Boys" at the top, the cover art in an arch-like border, and the book title at the bottom. The cover art no longer occupies the entire cover.
• The books are also released in paperback; in fact, the paperbacks are much more common.
• Instead of a series checklist, the back cover now contains a plot summary/teaser.
• Credit is given to the cover illustrator and designer, as well as the interior illustrator.
• Interior illustrations are sometimes greyscale, rather than black-and-white line drawings.
• There's no longer a frontispiece illustration.
• The copyright page contains a lot more information.
• The series is consistently referred to as "The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories."

Despite these changes, the books are similar in plot and style to the later Grosset & Dunlap editions.

Simon & Schuster broke with Grosset & Dunlap's longstanding one-book-per-year tradition. For the most part, S & S has released a new volume every second month. Initially, the books were published by Simon & Schuster's Wanderer Books imprint, but they were later switched to the Minstrel Books imprint.

Cover formats

Examples (click for full-size image)

#65, 1981

#83, 1985

#105, 1990

#140, 1996

#174, 2002

The cover format has been revamped several times. The most effective covers were those that used the checkerboard border format of the late 1980s and 1990s, such as volume 105. Recent designs tend to be very trendy, and in the newest layout, Frank and Joe don't even appear in the illustration.

Notice that the covers of volume 105 and 140 proclaim "All-new! First time published!", as Simon & Schuster attempts to convince prospective readers that "this is not your father's Hardy Boys book!"