Hardy Boys Adventures #5 Peril at Granite Peak and #6 Battle of Bayport

In Hardy Boys Adventures #5, Peril at Granite Peak, Frank and Joe enjoy their winter break at Granite Peak Ski Lodge.  A series of accidents endangers several people at the resort.  Frank and Joe soon suspect that someone is sabotaging the resort.

This book has a different tone than the first four books.  The author uses a more colloquial approach, and it reminds me of some of the Nancy Drew Diaries books that I don't like as much. The plot is also blatant sabotage, which doesn't help.

On page 15, Chet smirks at Frank and Joe. Bess and George also smirk at Nancy in some of the Diaries books that aren't as good. I don't like it when the protagonists' friends smirk. It's a word that is better used to apply to an enemy, not a friend.

I wouldn't be surprised if the author of the subpar Nancy Drew Diaries books is also the author of this book.  This book is kind of annoying just like those books.  In fact, I refer to that Nancy Drew Diaries author as the "Obnoxious Author," because that person's writing is obnoxious.

On page 25, we learn that Chet has an old yellow roadster named Queen.  Good grief! How long has it been since we've seen Queen?  She last made an appearance in the era of the revised text Hardy Boys books from the original set, which is no later than the 1970s.

Bathroom needs are mentioned on page 66 and 97.  This is important since I plan to compare this series to the Nancy Drew Diaries series.  It is also important as further circumstantial evidence that this book might have been written by Obnoxious Author.

I enjoyed this book, but it's not as good as the first four books in the series.

In Hardy Boys Adventures #6, The Battle of Bayport, Bayport is conducting a Revolutionary War reenactment, with one group playing British redcoats and the other playing American rebels.  During the battle scene, Don Sterling is shot and killed. Someone's musket had a musket ball inside!

This book begins with an excessive amount of description about the reenactment, and it is all boring.  Even the killing of Don Sterling is not written in an interesting fashion.

I love the quote on page 54 about teachers.

You don't ever think much about your teacher's personal lives.  Or even that they have them.  They're supposed to be kind of like scholastic vampires, who just climb into big school lockers after the day ends and only come back out to teach when the bell rings the next morning.

Pretty much.

Bayport High School is a strange school.  A teacher doesn't show up for class, so the principal cancels it.  The students get to wander around the school or go home.

Except for one chapter, I was never very interested.  I was never compelled to keep reading.  The story is good, but something is missing.  I didn't feel much suspense. While the book is overall good, I did not enjoy it very much.