Mystery of the Desert Giant is Volume 40 in the original The Hardy Boys

The Hardy Boys

The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe Hardy, are fictional teenage brothers and amateur detectives who appear in various mystery series for children and teens....

 Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap

Grosset & Dunlap

Grosset & Dunlap is a United States book publisher founded in 1898.The company was purchased by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1982 and today is part of the British publishing conglomerate, Pearson PLC through its American subsidiary Penguin Group....

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This book was written for the Stratemeyer Syndicate

Stratemeyer Syndicate

The Stratemeyer Syndicate was the producer of a number of mystery series for children, including Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others.- History :...

 by James Buechler in 1961.

Plot summary

The Hardy Boys and Chet Morton

Chet Morton

Chet Morton is a fictional character in the The Hardy Boys book series by Franklin W. Dixon.-Fictional history:Chet grew up with Frank and Joe Hardy and has been one of their best friends since second grade. He usually says he doesn't want to have anything to do with the Hardy boys' mysteries,...

 search on the California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 desert

Desert

A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...

 for missing industrialist, Willard Grafton, and break up a gang of criminals intent on defrauding the US government.

Much of this book takes place in Blythe, California

Blythe, California

Blythe is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the "Palo Verde Valley" of the Lower Colorado River Valley region, an agricultural area and part of the Colorado Desert along the Colorado River. Blythe was named after Thomas Blythe, a gold prospector who established primary...

 and it cites real, current locales, such as Hobson Way and the giant intaglios

Blythe Intaglios

The Blythe Intaglios or Blythe Geoglyphs are a group of gigantic figures found on the ground near Blythe, California in the Colorado Desert. The intaglios are found east of the Big Maria Mountains, about north of downtown Blythe, just west of U.S. Highway 95 near the Colorado River. The largest...

 north of Blythe on U.S. Highway 95. http://www.blytheareachamberofcommerce.com/intag.htm In the end, the boys discover that Grafton's fellow explorer had a part in the gang of criminal's racket. With this, Grafton is rescued, and the thugs who apparently were smuggling illegal cheques across the country are caught.