The Hardy Boys Digest Series Overview

The Hardy Boys Digest series consists of #59 through #190 and is a continuation of the original Hardy Boys series, which consists of  #1 through #58.  My interest in reading the books came from my desire to see how they compare to the Nancy Drew Digest series.  In this post about the Nancy Drew Digest series, I wrote what I thought of the Nancy Drew Digest series.  Now I will do the same for the Hardy Boys series.

#59-84

    59. Night of the Werewolf - excellent
    60. Mystery of the Samurai Sword - good
    61. The Pentagon Spy - good
    62. The Apeman's Secret - good
    63. The Mummy Case - not good
    64. Mystery of Smugglers Cove - excellent
    65. The Stone Idol - not good
    66. The Vanishing Thieves - very good
    67. The Outlaw's Silver - good
    68. The Submarine Caper/Deadly Chase - not good
    69. The Four-Headed Dragon - excellent
    70. The Infinity Clue - very good
    71. Track of the Zombie - very good
    72. The Voodoo Plot - very good
    73. The Billion Dollar Ransom - good
    74. Tic-Tac-Terror - good
    75. Trapped at Sea - good
    76. Game Plan for Disaster - good
    77. The Crimson Flame - good
    78. Cave-In - excellent
    79. Sky Sabotage - good
    80. The Roaring River Mystery - not good
    81. The Demon's Den - very good
    82. The Blackwing Puzzle  - not good
    83. The Swamp Monster - good
    84. Revenge of the Desert Phantom - excellent

I already wrote that I was favorably impressed with the Hardy Boys Wanderer books.  In fact, I consider the Hardy Boys Wanderer books to be much better than their Nancy Drew counterparts, #57-78 in the Nancy Drew series.  This is because the Hardy Boys series retained some of the authors of the original 58 for this portion of the series.  The Nancy Drew series changed to completely different authors due to the passing of Harriet Adams, and quality and continuity suffered as a result.

#85-108

From here on I note which books feature sabotage, which is a theme that is used way too much by Simon and Schuster.

    85. The Skyfire Puzzle -  sabotage, excellent
    86. The Mystery of the Silver Star - sabotage, very good
    87. Program for Destruction - sabotage, excellent
    88. Tricky Business - very good
    89. The Sky Blue Frame - excellent
    90. Danger on the Diamond - sabotage, very good
    91. Shield of Fear - not good
    92. The Shadow Killers - not good
    93. The Serpent's Tooth Mystery - excellent
    94. Breakdown in Axeblade - excellent
    95. Danger On The Air - sabotage, excellent
    96. Wipeout - sabotage, good
    97. Cast of Criminals - sabotage, excellent
    98. Spark of Suspicion - sabotage, good
    99. Dungeon of Doom - good
  100. The Secret of the Island Treasure - very good
  101. The Money Hunt - good
  102. Terminal Shock - good
  103. The Million-Dollar Nightmare - not good
  104. Tricks of the Trade - very good
  105. The Smoke Screen Mystery - very good
  106. Attack of the Video Villains - very good
  107. Panic on Gull Island - not good
  108. Fear on Wheels - sabotage, not good

These are the early books created by Simon and Schuster, and they correspond to Nancy Drew #79-101.  Like with Nancy Drew, this is a good group of books.  Some of them are quite creative while others fall into the boring sabotage plot.  I'd say that overall these are about equally good as the corresponding Nancy Drew books.

#109-135

  109. The Prime-Time Crime - good
  110. The Secret of Sigma Seven - not good
  111. Three-Ring Terror - sabotage, not good
  112. The Demolition Mission - sabotage, very good
  113. Radical Moves - sabotage, good
  114. The Case of the Counterfeit Criminals - excellent
  115. Sabotage at Sports City - sabotage, very good
  116. Rock 'n' Roll Renegades - very good
  117. The Baseball Card Conspiracy - not good
  118. Danger in the Fourth Dimension - excellent
  119. Trouble at Coyote Canyon - sabotage, excellent
  120. The Case of the Cosmic Kidnapping - excellent
  121. The Mystery in the Old Mine - very good
  122. Carnival of Crime - sabotage, good
  123. The Robot's Revenge - sabotage, good
  124. Mystery with a Dangerous Beat - sabotage, good
  125. Mystery on Makatunk Island - sabotage, good
  126. Racing to Disaster - sabotage, not good
  127. Reel Thrills - sabotage, good
  128. Day of the Dinosaur - excellent
  129. The Treasure at Dolphin Bay - very good
  130. Sidetracked to Danger - not good
  131. Crusade of the Flaming Sword - sabotage, not good
  132. Maximum Challenge - very good
  133. Crime in the Kennel - very good
  134. Cross-Country Crime - excellent
  135. The Hypersonic Secret - excellent

The Nancy Drew books that correspond to this group are #102-127.  15 of those 26 books use sabotage.  12 of these 27 Hardy Boys books use sabotage, which is slightly less than the Nancy Drew series.  In both series, the sabotage is repetitive and gets old.

#136-150

  136. The Cold Cash Caper - not good
  137. High-Speed Showdown - sabotage, not good
  138. The Alaskan Adventure - excellent
  139. The Search for the Snow Leopard - very good
  140. Slam Dunk Sabotage - sabotage, very good
  141. The Desert Thieves - good
  142. Lost in Gator Swamp - not good
  143. The Giant Rat of Sumatra - sabotage, good
  144. The Secret of Skeleton Reef - excellent
  145. Terror at High Tide - sabotage, not good
  146. The Mark of the Blue Tattoo - good
  147. Trial and Terror - good
  148. The Ice-Cold Case - excellent
  149. The Chase for the Mystery Twister - good
  150. The Crisscross Crime - very good

Just like with the corresponding Nancy Drew books, the series partially moves away from sabotage and has more varied plots, which are more interesting for the most part.  Also in this group, the publisher reused some words from the titles of the original 58 books for the titles of these books.

#151-190

  151. The Rocky Road to Revenge - excellent
  152. Danger in the Extreme - sabotage, not good
  153. Eye on Crime - not good
  154. The Caribbean Cruise Caper - sabotage, good
  155. The Hunt for the Four Brothers - not good
  156. A Will to Survive - very good
  157. The Lure of the Italian Treasure - good
  158. The London Deception - sabotage, very good
  159. Daredevils - sabotage, very good
  160. A Game Called Chaos - excellent
  161. Training for Trouble - sabotage, very good
  162. The End of the Trail - excellent
  163. The Spy that Never Lies - very good
  164. Skin & Bones - very good
  165. Crime in the Cards - very good
  166. Past And Present Danger - excellent
  167. Trouble Times Two - good
  168. The Castle Conundrum - sabotage, excellent
  169. Ghost of a Chance - sabotage, not good
  170. Kickoff to Danger - excellent
  171. The Test Case - excellent
  172. Trouble in Warp Space - sabotage, not good
  173. Speed Times Five - sabotage, very good
  174. Hide-and-Sneak - sabotage, not good
  175. Trick-or-Trouble - sabotage, not good
  176. In Plane Sight - sabotage, very good
  177. The Case of the Psychic's Vision - very good
  178. The Mystery of the Black Rhino - not good
  179. Passport to Danger - sabotage, not good
  180. Typhoon Island - sabotage, very good
  181. Double Jeopardy - sabotage, not good
  182. The Secret of the Soldier's Gold - very good
  183. Warehouse Rumble - sabotage, not good
  184. The Dangerous Transmission - not good
  185. Wreck and Roll - sabotage, not good
  186. Hidden Mountain - excellent
  187. No Way Out - good
  188. Farming Fear - sabotage, very good
  189. One False Step - very good
  190. Motocross Madness - sabotage, not good

Like in the Nancy Drew series, continuity errors appear at times, particularly noticeable with respect to the boys' boat, The Sleuth.  I feel like the inconsistencies are less noticeable in this series than in the Nancy Drew series, although my perception may be flawed since I am more knowledgeable about Nancy Drew and have read those books multiple times.  The final Nancy Drew Digest books have serious continuity problems, like Nancy's age changing back and forth between 17 and 18 and Ned suddenly becoming blond for the only time in the publishing history of Nancy Drew.  I do not notice those kinds of problems in the final Hardy Boys Digest books.

The overuse of sabotage is problematic in both the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series.  Simon and Schuster must have a list of sabotage plots that they alternate between.  Here are the main types.

museum sabotage
fundraiser sabotage
sports sabotage
television show/movie sabotage
music group/rock star sabotage
business sabotage

I may have left out a few, but those are the main ones that come to mind.

Thanks to the Hardy Boys series, I now absolutely hate sports sabotage.  Sports sabotage involves excessive detail in describing every stage of a sporting event, which always results in sabotage.  The book then describes a second, third, and fourth event in the competition with the same excessive detail, and each one ends in sabotage.  It is so extremely boring!  I marked most of the sports sabotage books as "not good" in my list.

Since the books were written for boys, I assume that male readers enjoy that kind of book more than I do. I get nothing from excessive description of a sporting event that results in sabotage.  I would almost rather eat dirt than read about that.  Almost.

The question is, did Simon and Schuster do better with the Nancy Drew Digest series or the Hardy Boys Digest series?

Nancy Drew Out of 119 books: Not good - 35 books or 29.4% Good - 32 books or 26.9% Very good - 38 books or 31.9% Excellent - 14 books or 11.8% Overall - 43.7% very good or excellent

Hardy Boys         Out of 132 books:         Not good - 34 books or 25.8%         Good - 32 books or 24.2%         Very Good - 36 books or 27.3%         Excellent - 30 books or 22.7%         Overall - 50% very good or excellent

It looks like I overall enjoyed the Hardy Boys Digest series more than I did the Nancy Drew Digest series.  It's not enough of a difference, however, to be significant.  More significant is that I rated 30 Hardy Boys books as excellent and only 14 Nancy Drew books as excellent.  It's important to note that Nancy Drew is my very favorite series.

What makes the difference is that the Hardy Boys are allowed more interesting experiences than Nancy Drew.  The Hardy Boys can be volunteer firefighters or police recruits, and Nancy Drew is never allowed to partake in those kinds of activities.  Simon and Schuster's creative staff has allowed Nancy Drew's gender to hold her back.

That aside, the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series are about equally good.  Some readers say that the Hardy Boys series is more of an adventure series than a mystery series, which is why they prefer Nancy Drew.  I don't really agree with that assessment.  The Hardy Boys series is a mystery series, but the difference is the amount of action.  The Hardy Boys plots involve physical action as they try to apprehend criminals.  For obvious reasons, Nancy Drew doesn't do that.  The action scenes in the Hardy Boys books, which involve lots of running, punching, and kicking, can last for three to five pages and are boring, at least to me.  I skimmed most of those scenes.

The fight scenes with the culprits always play out in one of two ways.  If the fight scene is in the middle of the book, the culprit gets away.  If the fight scene is at the end of the book, the culprit is apprehended.  See?  There's no reason to read the fight scenes unless you love reading about fighting.

To me, the difference between Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys is mainly that the Hardy Boys get into rough fights with the culprits.  They also get to do more exciting activities, since they are boys. 

I overall greatly enjoyed my reading of the Hardy Boys Digest series.  I had less trouble getting through the Hardy Boys Digest books than I did the original 58.  Yes, I do mean that.  I struggled through parts of the original 58 books.  As strange as it might sound, I overall prefer the Hardy Boys Digest books.  This is should not be a surprise, since all along, my opinions have been different from the majority of Hardy Boys enthusiasts.

Hardy Boys #188 Farming Fear, #189 One False Step, and #190 Motocross Madness

In Hardy Boys #188, Farming Fear, Chet and Iola are worried about their grandparents, who live out on the old family farm.  Strange accidents have happened, and someone is trying to force the Mortons to sell the farm.  Frank, Joe, Chet, and Iola spend their winter holidays on the farm in order to help the Mortons.

This book is about sabotage, but it's an interesting sabotage book.  I liked the story being set on the Morton farm.

Since I read this story immediately after reading #186 Hidden Mountain, I couldn't help comparing it to that book.  Hidden Mountain is outstanding, and this book does fall short of that.  However, this book is very good, and I greatly enjoyed it.

In Hardy Boys #189, One False Step, Frank, Joe, and their friends attend Aerocirque in Philadelphia.  In Aerocirque, tightropes are strung between helicopters, and acrobats walk the tightropes as the helicopters fly through the air.  Meanwhile, burglaries of high-rise apartments occur, and the thieves did not enter through the front door.  Frank and Joe soon begin to suspect a connection to Aerocirque.

In the early part of the story, the high-rise burglaries are considered a very puzzling mystery.  The front cover of the book reveals the solution to the mystery.

This book has a very similar premise to #132 Maximum Challenge, but it is a fresh take on the crime.

The last part of the story with Frank, Joe, and the tightrope is not believable at all, and that is my main problem with the story.  The events are as hard and maybe harder to believe than the climax of Nancy Drew #84, The Joker's Revenge.

I enjoyed this book.

In Hardy Boys #190, Motocross Madness, Frank, Joe, and Jamal participate in a motorcycle competition, which is being sabotaged.  What else is new?

On page 26, Aunt Gertrude worries about the boys joining the competition, and Frank comforts her.

"Joe and I have been riding motorcycles for years," he said.  "Our dad rode before us, and our grandparents before him.  I remember reading an account of Hardys riding cycles as long ago as nineteen twenty-seven."  

On page 40, Joe gets reflective.

"Remember that time we rode down Bay Road to that house by the cliffs? ...Sometimes I feel like we've been solving mysteries for the better part of a century."

It's nice that the author inserted these references to the past Hardy Boys books in this final volume of the Hardy Boys series.  Unfortunately, the final Nancy Drew book did not do anything like that.

This story has too much detail explaining the races.  The "sports sabotage" plays out as usual.  The first race begins, and sabotage occurs.  The second race begins, and more sabotage occurs.  It's as boring as always.

I skimmed the second half of the book.  This book is not very interesting, but at least it's not as stupid as the final entry in the Nancy Drew series, Werewolf in a Winter Wonderland.

Hardy Boys #185 Wreck and Roll, #186 Hidden Mountain, and #187 No Way Out

In Hardy Boys #185, Wreck and Roll, Vette Smash is a hot new rock group in Bayport.  Phil's girlfriend is a member of the group, and Phil scores backstage passes for Frank and Joe.  Soon after the boys arrive, some of the group's equipment malfunctions.  Frank and Joe suspect that someone is sabotaging the group.

This is another rock band sabotage story.  If this were the very first rock band sabotage story I had ever read, I probably would have found it good.  Since I have variations of this plot several times, I was not interested.

The book is okay but nothing special.

In Hardy Boys #186, Hidden Mountain, Frank and Joe's friend, Darren Wilkerson, is on the run.  He and his family have been forced to leave Bayport since a crime group has discovered where they were living.  The family is part of the Witness Protection Program and must move to Hidden Mountain, where they will stay for the rest of their lives.  Frank and Joe must help them get to their destination.

This is an excellent story all the way through.  The story is thrilling and suspenseful.  The boys have to get some criminals separated from the Wilkerson family, and the task proves to be very difficult.  They match wits mentally, like making chess moves.  There is no physical fighting involved, which is not usually the case in a Hardy Boys book.

It is unusual that two people die in this book.

This book is outstanding.

In Hardy Boys #187, No Way Out, Frank and Joe participate in the grand opening of a maze in Nova Scotia.  When the owner of the maze disappears, the boys take the case.

The ending of the story implies that a ghost really does exist.  Additionally, the mystery is left unfinished.  A treasure is mentioned, but the boys don't look for it or find it, which is quite strange.

While I enjoyed this book, the loose ends make the story unfulfilling.

Hardy Boys #182 Soldier's Gold, #183 Warehouse Rumble, and #184 Dangerous Transmission

In Hardy Boys #182, The Secret of the Soldier's Gold, Mrs. Rilke, a friend's grandmother, has asked Frank and Joe to find a buried suitcase full of gold bars during their trip to Portugal.  They are to dig up the suitcase of gold and bring it back to Bayport. What could possibly go wrong?

Frank and Joe's task is laughable.  There is no way they could dig up buried gold in Portugal and smuggle it back to the United States without getting into trouble.  Of course it turns out that getting the gold is much more difficult than the boys expect, and others are after the gold as well.  As the plot develops, the story becomes more logical and easier for the reader to accept.

This is a very good story.

In Hardy Boys #183, Warehouse Rumble, Frank and Joe are participating in a reality show competition that is being filmed in a group of abandoned warehouses near Barmet Bay.  Someone is sabotaging the competition!

The story is not that interesting.  It reads like a sports sabotage book.  They have a competition, and something goes wrong.  They have another competition, and something else goes wrong.  It's not apparent why this is happening for most of the story.

The story is not compelling, and I was more bored the further I read.  I skimmed the last part of the book.

I did not enjoy this book.

In Hardy Boys #184, The Dangerous Transmission, Frank and Joe are in London staying with their friend, Jax Brighton.  Jax has invented a transmitter that can be implanted inside a tooth.  When the transmitter is stolen, Frank and Joe take the case.

I was turned off as soon as I began the book.  I was reminded of Biff Brewster, British Spy Ring Mystery, and Brad Forrest, London Adventure.  I do not like either of those books, so I was not inclined to like this one. 

The author wrote a spooky scene in the fog of London, and that is my favorite part of the story.

I did not like this book.

Hardy Boys #179 Passport to Danger, #180 Typhoon Island, and #181 Double Jeopardy

In Hardy Boys #179, Passport to Danger, Frank and Joe volunteer to be part of the crew at a soccer match in Paris.  When the bleachers collapse and the fireworks malfunction, the boys realize that a saboteur is loose.  Fenton Hardy is also in Paris, and he lends the boys some high-tech equipment to help them find the saboteur.

I find it hard to believe that secret tunnels lead into and out of the Louvre, and nobody connected with the museum has any idea.

This book is okay, but I didn't like it very much.

In Hardy Boys #180, Typhoon Island, Frank and Joe visit San Esteban with Callie and Iola.  Soon, the boys fall victim to some scary accidents and realize that they are among enemies and cannot be certain who to trust.  Later, the young people are caught in a hurricane and must find their way to safety.

This book is thrilling from start to finish.  It has caves, tunnels, a hurricane, mudslides, a sniper, arson, snakes, and everything.  The story is sabotage, but it is so different and thrilling that it doesn't feel like sabotage.  I enjoyed every bit of the story.

This is an excellent book.

In Hardy Boys #181, Double Jeopardy, Frank and Joe have press passes to the Formula One championship in Indianapolis.  The top two drivers have a ruthless rivalry going, and it appears they are sabotaging each other.

I didn't like the beginning of the story.  The middle part caught my attention, although the book has too many characters.  Towards the end of the book, I became bored with the story.  This is just another tired-out sabotage book.  Furthermore, I am not interested in racing, so the details are of no interest to me.

I skimmed the last part of the story.  I did not like this book that much. 

Hardy Boys #176 In Plane Sight, #177 Psychic's Vision, and #178 Black Rhino

In Hardy Boys #176, In Plane Sight, Frank and Joe travel with Jamal to pick up a new plane for Jamal's dad's company.  After the plane is stolen, Frank and Joe are plunged into their latest mystery.  Someone is sabotaging the airshow. 

On page 4, Frank and Joe reflect that they had "been dating Iola Morton and Callie Shaw for a long time."  Yeah, for around 75 years!

This book also introduced too many characters too quickly, so I kept getting confused.  Aside from that, this book is exciting and I greatly enjoyed it.

In Hardy Boys #177, The Case of the Psychic's Vision, Colin and his family are new arrivals to Bayport.  Frank and Joe soon learn that Colin and his family are psychics.  Colin is quite gifted, telling Fenton Hardy the solution to his current case the moment the two meet.  Colin then tells Frank and Joe that a girl who attends Bayport High School is not who she thinks she is.  Apparently, she was abducted as a young girl.  Colin helps Frank and Joe solve the mystery.

This is a rather bizarre Hardy Boys story, for obvious reasons.  It's rather odd for a Hardy Boys story to use psychic ability in the plot and to have a psychic reveal information that would have been impossible to acquire otherwise.  If it's that easy, why haven't the Hardys used psychics all along?

This is a pretty good story, but it shouldn't have been published as a Hardy Boys book, since it isn't the right kind of story.

While I greatly enjoyed this story, I don't like it as a Hardy Boys book.

In Hardy Boys #178, The Mystery of the Black Rhino, Frank, Joe, and Fenton travel to Kenya to fight against the illegal killing of wild animals.

This book bored me at first, but later, I found it interesting.  Overall though, this book is just average and nothing special.

Hardy Boys #173 Speed Times Five, #174 Hide-and-Sneak, and #175 Trick-or-Trouble

In Hardy Boys #173, Speed Times Five, Frank and Joe participate in the Fire Creek Mountain Race in Canada.  Soon after the race begins, accidents occur, causing one contestant after another to drop out of the race.  Is someone sabotaging the race?

This book has too many characters which are introduced too quickly.  It took away from my enjoyment at times.  That aside, this is a very good book and is very exciting.

Page 147:

"The thing about sabotage," Frank said, "is that you don't have to actually do it many times.  After a couple of incidents, people start to get paranoid and see sabotage everywhere."

It's not paranoia.  We aren't imagining that almost every single Hardy Boys book is about sabotage!

In Hardy Boys #174, Hide-and-Sneak, Frank and Joe are one of three teams being filmed as part of a student film project.  Each team competes in an impromptu competition on  Barmet Bay.

I was quite dismayed as I began this book.  Having read #173 a few months previously, I had just finished #172 Trouble in Warp Space, which was quite boring, and this book appeared to be a repeat of #172.  Fortunately, the plot is a little different, although it is still weak.

The characters are all introduced fast and in one scene at the beginning with minimal description.  I made no effort to try to remember, especially since I expected this book to be as boring as #172.

The book is better than #172, since the boys are on Barmet Bay in The Sleuth.

It's odd the way the author describes The Sleuth.  It is an old boat, and it is described like the boys seldom use it.  I guess they don't use it much in the digest series, but that's never been mentioned before.

The book has no mystery until two-thirds of the way through the story, so this is a strange book.

I only mildly enjoyed the story.  It's decent but not that great.  I wouldn't want to read it again.

In Hardy Boys #175, Trick-or-Trouble, the Bayport Merchant Association is sponsoring a Halloween mystery contest.  Each merchant has different clues, and a wide range of prizes are available.  Some contestants play dirty, keeping others from getting the clues.  Frank and Joe seek out the culprits, hoping to even out the competition.

This book is also not that great.  The clues didn't interest me.  The entire book consists of the boys going around to get clues, seeing somebody not playing fair, trying to figure out the clues, seeing someone get a prize, and so on.  The boys also get into a few fights with the possible culprits.  The process repeats throughout the book.

This book mostly bored me.

Hardy Boys #170 Kickoff to Danger, #171 Test Case, and #172 Trouble in Warp Space

In Hardy Boys #170, Kickoff to Danger, Bayport High's star football player, Terry Golden, is a bully but nobody calls him out on it.  Golden is too valuable to the team, and he has a staunch group of supporters.  When Biff is severely injured, Frank and Joe try to find the culprit, but no one will talk.

The plot deals with a bully on the football team whose behavior is either excused or ignored by the coach, teachers, and administrators.  Sadly, this type of situation plays out in real life all too often.

This book is interesting from the beginning, although it is a bit strange.  The bullying is the sole plot until page 59.  And even then, the reader can be almost certain who is the probable culprit, although it turns out that someone else unexpected is involved as well. 

Even though atypical for a Hardy Boys book, this is an excellent story.

In Hardy Boys #171, The Test Case, a sealed standardized test is found in Tony's backpack.  Joe is present when Tony pulls the test out of his backpack, and both Joe and Tony are suspended.  Frank and Joe must prove that Joe and Tony did not steal the test.  Frank investigates at school while Joe investigates around Bayport during his suspension.

I like it when books have repeat characters.  The assistant principal, Old Beady Eyes, and student Liz Webling are repeat characters from recent books. 

This is an excellent book.

In Hardy Boys #172, Trouble in Warp Space, Iola has won a contest in which she gets to appear on a science fiction television show.  Frank, Joe, and Chet accompany Iola to the set, where they learn that someone is sabotaging the show.  Frank and Joe try to find the saboteur.

This is another boring sabotage book.  It fits the "sabotage on a movie set" premise, although the setting has been changed to a television show. 

On page 23 Frank says that "sometimes I feel like we've been chasing criminals for seventy-five years or so."  They have indeed, since this book was published in 2002. 

This book is boring.  I skimmed it.

Hardy Boys #167 Trouble Times Two, #168 Castle Conundrum, and #169 Ghost of a Chance

In Hardy Boys #167, Trouble Times Two, new student Tom Gilliam is placed in Frank's group in a class at school.  But Tom can't get along with anyone and constantly starts fights.  Later, Frank and Joe suspect that Tom's dad might be involved in Fenton Hardy's latest case.

I was interested in the story at the very beginning.  But then, Joe helps Fenton on a stakeout.  During the stakeout, Joe and Fenton get into a detailed discussion of motives for possible culprits on Fenton's case, and Fenton's case does not sound interesting at all.  I was bored.

Joe acts like a jerk when the teens plan to see a movie.  Callie even calls him out on it.  He smirks.  This part of the book was not enjoyable.

The first half of the book is nothing special and is not very interesting.  Finally, the story goes back to Tom halfway through the book.  At that point, the book gets interesting.   

The first half of the book is mediocre, and the second half is extremely good.

In Hardy Boys #168, The Castle Conundrum, Frank and Joe help Teen Village International rebuild a deserted town in France.  The town will be used to house refugee children.  The boys soon realize that one of the volunteers is trying to sabotage the project, and the saboteur must be stopped before someone gets hurt.

This story introduces too many characters at once, and I had trouble remembering them.

This is an excellent book.  The story flows well and is interesting from start to finish.  The author keeps the reader guessing at who the villain is.  The only drawback is that I struggled to keep the characters straight.

I mentioned this book in my reviews of #96 Wipeout and #119 Trouble at Coyote Canyon.  All three books have very similar plot elements and may have been written by the same person.

In Hardy Boys #169, Ghost of a Chance, Frank and Joe are animal handlers on a movie set in Tennessee.  Someone is sabotaging the movie!

This is another "sabotage on a movie set" story.  I was quite bored during the early part of the book.  As with all books that feature a film production, too many characters are introduced too quickly.  I couldn't keep all of them straight. 

I felt like I was reading an alternate version of the Nancy Drew Girl Detective books, Light, Camera... and Action!  Like in the Girl Detective books, there is a hidden treasure in the area, and part of the motive for the sabotage is to keep others from finding the treasure.

This is not a satisfying story.  One culprit of the sabotage is discovered, and that person leaves without speaking to anyone.  Another person is also responsible for some of the sabotage.  Oddly, the treasure is not found nor does anyone search for it. 

I found this book to be just mildly interesting and was left with an empty feeling when I finished it.

Hardy Boys #164 Skin and Bones, #165 Crime in the Cards, and #166 Past and Present Danger

In Hardy Boys #164, Skin and Bones, Frank and Joe help Cody Chang figure out who has been burglarizing his store.  Cody specializes in the sale of animal skins and skeletons, and some of his incoming orders have gone missing. 

I greatly enjoyed this book.

In Hardy Boys #165, Crime in the Cards, Chet has gone crazy for Creature Cards, the latest fad at Bayport High School.  Many of the students own sets and seek out valuable cards that will help them win games.  When Chet's cards are stolen, Frank and Joe investigate.

The beginning of the story mentions Chet's hobbies and how this is the latest one.  It's been awhile since any of the Digest books have mentioned Chet having a hobby, which is a mainstay of the second half of the original Hardy Boys set.

Page 36 mentions Bombo Bear from Hardy Boys #160, A Game Called Chaos, which is a nice example of continuity.  This doesn't happen often.

On page 50, I was pretty sure that I had guessed the culprit.  I was correct, although a second culprit is involved.

I greatly enjoyed this book.

In Hardy Boys #166, Past and Present Danger, Aunt Gertrude's old friend, Clayton Silvers, shows up in town.  Clayton is a reporter trying to clear himself of false charges.  Gangsters are trying to kill Clayton, which puts Aunt Gertrude and the Hardys in grave danger.  Frank and Joe must solve the case before someone gets hurt.

This book is excellent from the very first page.  Aunt Gertrude is very involved in mystery.  She is even driving her car with Frank, Joe, and Clayton as passengers when the brakes fail, and she must find a way to avoid going off a cliff.

The Hardys' house and phone are bugged and tracking devices are placed on their van and Aunt Gertrude's car.  This causes the boys to have to ride their bicycles as they investigate, which makes the book a throwback to simpler times.  

This is an excellent story.

Hardy Boys #161 Training for Trouble, #162 End of the Trail, and #163 Spy That Never Lies

In Hardy Boys #161, Training for Trouble, a new combat sports facility featuring judo, fencing, archery, and biathlon has opened in Bayport.  The Hardys and their friends are eager to participate.  Iola gets an electrical shock while fencing, and someone shoots arrows at Frank after dark.  Frank and Joe must find the culprit before somebody is severely injured.

I didn't like the beginning of the story very much, since this book is centered again around sports and sabotage.  The more I read, the more interesting the book became.

This book has more than one villain, and the final villain to be unmasked is surprising.  I enjoyed the suspense.

This is a very good book.

In Hardy Boys # 162, The End of the Trail, Frank, Joe, Chet, Biff, and Phil hike the Appalachian Trail.  When Biff falls out of a tree and breaks his leg, the boys seek help in the town of Morgan's Quarry.  The boys quickly learn that the townspeople of Morgan's Quarry are hiding something and that the boys' presence is not welcome!

This book is interesting from the very first page.  The book was written as a throwback to the original 58 books.  All of Frank and Joe's friends are present.  Food is described and mentioned often.  The tone is similar to the old books.  Chet even helps save the day—more than once!

The book has great humor, like at the top of page 23.

"Ewwww," Biff said.  "It feels like something's about to come bursting out of my leg like in an Alien movie."

"Probably something green and hungry," Joe said.  "Like Chet."

The book has few surprises.  One surprise is startling.

This book is good all the way through.

I find it strange how often my opinion of Hardy Boys books is completely different from everyone else.  In this case, I think this is one of the best stories I have read in many books.  It's really excellent.  So I go to Amazon, where the book has bad reviews.  The reviewers complain that the Appalachian Trail isn't featured enough or that the story doesn't fit the region.  In fact, the bad reviews are from people who live in Appalachia and have nothing to do with the quality of the story.  My conclusion is that you shouldn't read this book if you live in Appalachia, since it will apparently upset you.

This is an outstanding book.

In Hardy Boys #163, The Spy That Never Lies, cameras are going up all over Bayport as part of Councilwoman Hamilton's quest to get rid of troublesome teens.  As Frank and Joe try to help college student Jake Martins, who is accused of wrongdoing, they find a deadly enemy in Hamilton's daughter, who knows how to manipulate her mother's crusade to her own advantage.  

I wasn't that interested in the story at the beginning, mainly because I enjoyed the previous book so much.  After I got into the story, I was quite interested, since the Hardys end up in a lot of trouble and must prove their innocence.

This is a very good book.

Hardy Boys #158 London Deception, #159 Daredevils, and #160 Game Called Chaos

In Hardy Boys #158, The London Deception, Frank and Joe are in England as foreign exchange students.  They help out their friend, Chris Paul, and his father on a play.  It appears that someone is trying to make the play a failure, so Frank and Joe investigate.

I could not keep the male characters straight in this book.  They are introduced too fast and are not memorable.  Aside from that problem, this is a very good book.  I found it quite engaging.

In Hardy Boys #159, Daredevils, Hollywood stuntman Terrance McCauley is in grave danger.  His stunts keep failing, nearly resulting in his death.  The Hardys travel to Hollywood to investigate.  Frank and Joe enter a contest with Terrance in order to keep an eye on him.  Frank and Joe also meet with accidents.

On page 94, Frank gives a reporter a warning.

"Oh," Frank added, turning to face Edrich once more, "don't think I won't let it out what you two are up to if you tell anyone about our talk. Then you'd have to start looking for a new job," Frank added.  "I hear they need ghostwriters for kids' books."

This book starts out like a generic sabotage story on a movie set.  As I read further, the story caught my interest, and I read it quickly.  I greatly enjoyed this story.

In Hardy Boys #160, A Game Called Chaos, computer game designer Steven Royal has disappeared.  Phil Cohen's cousin works for the company that produces Royal's game, so Phil asks Frank and Joe to help find Royal.  Soon, the Hardys find themselves in the middle of a dangerous role-playing game that the culprit has set up.

I correctly guessed the culprit on page 19.  Let's just say that whenever someone dies in a plane crash with no body ever found, only one conclusion can be drawn.  This did not detract from my enjoyment.  Rather, I was intrigued as to how the story would play out and when that person would reappear.

I was bothered about Phil tracing the emails.  He is given paper copies of the emails, and nothing is said about the full headers.  The average printed email would not have the full headers, which is the information needed to trace the messages.

Later in the story, Phil says that he traced the emails to Europe but that his computer isn't strong enough to go further.  This also bothered me.  I think tracing the messages has more to do with the skill of the tracer than the strength of the computer.  I get the idea that the author was writing about something out of their area of knowledge.

The end is thrilling.  While parts of the book are hard to believe, I still found the story to be excellent.

Hardy Boys #155 Four Brothers, #156 Will to Survive, and #157 Italian Treasure

In Hardy Boys #155, The Hunt for the Four Brothers, Frank and Joe take jobs at the Konawa Lake Inn.  A series of robberies has plagued the inn, and the boys investigate.

As I began reading this book, I realized that I wasn't enjoying the book, but that at least it seemed better than the sports sabotage books.  I found it hard to keep the characters straight, so I plowed through the text without caring.  I couldn't connect with the story.

By halfway through the book, I found I didn't care at all and was not interested.  I skimmed to the end of the book.

I did not like this story.

In Hardy Boys #156, A Will to Survive, Frank and Joe investigate strange events at the Shorewood Nature Center.  The center will soon run out of money, since its benefactor never revealed what he did with his money before he died.  Meanwhile, the center is plagued by strange events that threaten to give the center bad publicity that it hardly needs.

This is another story with a group of teen characters who are staying together and are hard to tell apart.  I have mentioned before a group of stories that follow the same blueprint.  One plot device matches one used in most of the books from this group.

This book also has multiple culprits like every other book that fits this blueprint.  The overall tone is similar to those books.  It doesn't mean that the same author wrote all of the books, but they definitely follow the same blueprint.

On page 94, the reader learns that the boys know better than to take a car into the center of midtown Manhattan.  This lesson was apparently learned in #147 Trial and Error when the boys take their van into the city and get a parking ticket.

The treasure in this book, diamonds, is the same as a treasure found in The Castle Conundrum.

This is a very good book, even though I had trouble keeping the characters straight.

In Hardy Boys #157,  The Lure of the Italian Treasure, Frank and Joe join an archaeological dig in Italy.  A priceless artifact is uncovered—a box containing millions of dollars' worth of ancient jewels.  When the box is stolen, Frank and Joe seek the culprit.

The first part of the book is bland and not that interesting.  I feel that the first part of the story could have been written better.  The second half of the book is better, and I greatly enjoyed the last part of the book.

Hardy Boys #152 Danger in the Extreme, #153 Eye on Crime, and #154 Caribbean Cruise Caper

In Hardy Boys #152, Danger in the Extreme, Frank and Joe participate in the Winter Max Games in Bayport.  Also participating is the son of the president.  Frank and Joe are tasked with keeping him safe. 

I get bored with sporting events that are described in great detail, then an accident always occurs with a participant nearly getting killed.  Another event is soon underway with the same excessive description and result.  Then we do it a third time, and so on throughout the entire boring book.

I got more bored the further I read.  I am so sick of this type of sabotage story.  Sabotage in a sporting event is so boring!

I quit halfway through the book and skimmed the end of the story to see the culprit's name.

I did not like this book.

In Hardy Boys #153, Eye on Crime, the Hardys and their girlfriends attend the taping of Monty Mania.  During the taping, Callie and Iola are called onstage and hypnotized.  The girls are told to act like they are committing a crime.  The very next day, the girls are arrested for a robbery.

The opening scene in this book is off.  Callie and Iola whine about their boyfriends ignoring them.  Frank and Joe behave strange in the same scene.  The opening scene was written to set up the Monty Mania taping, but it comes across as fake and forced. 

On page 57, the reader learns that gangs are not a problem in Bayport.  Really?  Then what was all that gang activity in Hardy Boys #146, The Mark of the Blue Tattoo?

The back cover synopsis reveals an event that occurs near the end of the story.  Why do publishers do that?

It takes Frank and Joe forever to figure out that Callie and Iola's arrest is somehow tied to the Monty Mania show.  I realized the connection as soon as Callie and Iola are arrested.  The stupid behavior of Frank and Joe make the story less enjoyable than it could have been.

For some reason, I can't remember how much I actually enjoyed this book.  Since I have already forgotten, I assume that this book is just good and nothing special.

In Hardy Boys # 154, The Caribbean Cruise Caper, Frank and Joe have signed on as consultants for a teen magazine detective contest.  Soon after the contest begins, it is apparent that someone is sabotaging it.

I found it hard to remember the characters.  I wish they had not been introduced so quickly.  The book gave adequate descriptions of some characters but not the rest.

I found it odd that the book ended without the reader knowing which teen would win the contest.

I enjoyed this book.

Hardy Boys #149 Mystery Twister, #150 Crisscross Crime, and #151 Rocky Road

In Hardy Boys #149, The Chase for the Mystery Twister, Frank and Joe travel with a team of storm chasers in Oklahoma.  When a man's house is destroyed by a tornado, Frank and Joe become suspicious that the man has faked the destruction of valuable possessions.  They investigate the possible insurance scam.

I wasn't happy when I started this book.  I don't like Nancy Drew #155, The Mystery in Tornado Alley, so I knew this one would be tough.  You can't make a mystery out of a tornado.  It's a weather phenomenon.  Let's see what happens...

I was so bored at the beginning of the book. We learn everything there is to know about tornadoes and storm chasers.  The information might be interesting to all of you, but I have known it most of my life.  I could hardly stand reading it.

Just like in the Nancy Drew book, the author took real place names in Oklahoma and used them along with fake names.  That's fine, but the real names make no sense.  This book uses Lone Wolf as the primary setting, which is in southwestern Oklahoma, but has it near Tahlequah, which is in northeastern Oklahoma.  Near the end of the book, we learn that the book is set near Tulsa, so Lone Wolf is in the wrong part of the state.

On page 52, Frank discovers that the phone lines are down.  He wonders how Kanner called Bixby to let him know about the damage.  What?!  It's 1998.  Cell phones did exist in 1998.  Later in the book, it is finally mentioned that Kanner has a cell phone.  Frank is such an idiot.

A press conference is called to show footage of this mysterious anticyclonic twister.  The footage is shown on television, but the owner of the footage says he can't share the videotape with anyone.  I couldn't help thinking that since the footage had just aired that a bunch of people had probably recorded it on their VCRs.  But of course nobody considers anything like that!

The insurance scam has to do with someone faking a tornado.  I find it hard to believe that someone could use a tractor to pull apart a house and somehow convince the National Weather Service assessment team that a tornado occurred.  There would be little problems like no debris field.  Real tornadoes scatter the debris everywhere and for miles.

At the end of the book Frank and Joe decide to take a train home because they don't want to fly.  The state of Oklahoma had no passenger rail service from 1979 to 1999, and this book was published in 1998.  Oops.  Even from 1999 to the present, the only passenger rail service is from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, but Frank and Joe are in Tulsa.

The climax of this book is quite unbelievable, but it is more believable than the climax of Nancy Drew, The Mystery in Tornado Alley.  This book also has a better story, albeit highly flawed.

I did not enjoy the first part of the book, but I did enjoy the later part of the book.

In Hardy Boys #150, The Crisscross Crime, smart bank robbers stage a disturbance at one bank while they rob another bank.  The pattern repeats, so Frank and Joe work on predicting where the next robbery will occur so that they can catch the thieves.

This book had me from the first page and is interesting all the way through.  This is a very good book.

In Hardy Boys #151, The Rocky Road to Revenge, the Hardys visit Silver Crest lodge in the Rocky Mountains.  The owner, Clay Robinson, is building a resort nearby.  Several people who live in a nearby town are against it.  A strange orange light is seen in the sky, leaving everyone wondering what it might be.  Robinson disappears, and Frank and Joe wonder if someone against the resort wanted him to disappear.

You'd never know from the cover that this book is about alien abductions and UFOs.  Frank is skeptical, but Joe is mostly convinced that aliens have visited earth.  I like how the boys have opposing views, which means the reader will agree with one of the brothers.  Skeptics will align with Frank, and believers will align with Joe.  It's quite clever.

I think this book could be a bit scary to some children.  A few scenes are spooky and would have scared me if I had read the book when I was quite young.

This author is good about helping the reader keep characters straight.  When characters are mentioned at the beginning of a scene, descriptive words, such as an identifying hair color, are used to help the reader remember each character.  For instance, on page 133 the text reads, "Frank had not had the pleasure of meeting the short blond Bev and the tall dark Myra face-to-face."  This makes reading so much easier.

The question and answer session at the end is not boring, because the reader gets interesting new information during the entire scene.  Strangely, the book never gives an answer for what caused the orange light, leaving the explanation open-ended.  Nothing is implied either way about the orange light, so the reader can make the decision.

This is an excellent book.  I loved it.

Hardy Boys #146 Blue Tattoo, #147 Trial and Terror, and #148 Ice-Cold Case

In Hardy Boys #146, The Mark of the Blue Tattoo, Chet has taken a job as an ice cream truck driver.  Chet gets into trouble immediately when two thugs hijack his truck on his very first day at work!  Frank and Joe soon discover that Bayport has a teen gang problem and that many of the gang members work for the ice cream company.

On page 63, a reporter tries to convince the Hardys to give him information.  He wants to write stories about them.  He tells them "it'll be a big hit.  In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the publishers decided to do a whole series of books about you."

On page 107, Chet tells Frank and Joe that Iola feels left out and that she wants to help them investigate.  Since when?

The crime being committed is a bit lame and not lucrative.  It would have made more sense for the culprits to have been selling drugs, but I guess we can't have that in a Hardy Boys book.

I enjoyed this book.

In Hardy Boys #147, Trial and Terror, Frank and Joe attend a trial in New York City as part of a school project.  They soon take an interest in the case and want to help clear Nick Rodriguez of the charges of attempted murder.

On page 102, Alex enthusiastically tells the Hardys, "You know what I should do?  I should write a book about you guys.  A real-life profile of the Hardy brothers, teenage detectives.  A book like that could really take off.  And I'm talking best-seller here.  I could make you guys famous!"  Um, I think someone has already done that.

I enjoyed this book.

In Hardy Boys #148, The Ice-Cold Case, Frank and Joe work on solving the case of the robberies on Pineview Lake.  Homes have been burglarized and ransacked and not one clue has been found!

I liked this book from the very first page.  This is a normal mystery without a bunch of gimmicks.  The setting is great.  The boys spend nearly the entire book in the vicinity of the lake.  I like books best when they are set in a small area with lots of exploring.  In fact, as I read this book I thought of the Nancy Drew games by Her Interactive and how this story would work perfectly as a game.

On page 97, Joe has just been rescued after having fallen through the ice and been underwater for several minutes.  Mrs. Kwan, who is a nurse, gives Joe a hot bath.  I knew immediately that this is wrong.  I ran a search online and verified that victims of hypothermia should never be given a hot bath.

This is an excellent book.

Hardy Boys #143 Giant Rat, #144 Skeleton Reef, and #145 High Tide

In Hardy Boys #143, The Giant Rat of Sumatra, Joe has joined the cast of the play, The Giant Rat of Sumatra, which is based on Sherlock Holmes.  But will there be a play?  Someone is sabotaging the production, and it is up to Frank and Joe to find the culprit. 

This story is a an obvious retread of earlier stories and is a tired-out sabotage plot.

I enjoyed this story, but it's nothing special.

In Hardy Boys #144, The Secret of Skeleton Reef, Frank, Joe, and Jamal vacation on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia in Jamal's uncle's bungalow.  Soon after their arrival, the boys discover a dazed woman who has washed up on the beach.  Someone apparently tried to murder the woman, and she refuses to reveal what happened.  The boys have an intriguing mystery to solve.

It was when I reached this book that I realized that Simon and Schuster had begun reusing easily identifiable words from the titles of the original 58 Hardy Boys books.  Previous to this book is The Desert Thieves, which is not that obvious.  After I saw this title, The Secret of Skeleton Reef, I looked ahead at later titles and found The Crisscross Crime and The Mark of the Blue Tattoo.  I'd say they did it on purpose.

It is not obvious who the villains are.

The way the boys find the woman on the beach and the way the story develops makes this book quite interesting.  This is a real mystery without an obvious solution.

This is a very engaging book.  I was interested from the very first page, and the book held my attention all the way through.  I greatly enjoyed this story.

In Hardy Boys #145, Terror at High Tide, Callie is interning at a newspaper in Nantucket.  Frank and Joe travel to Nantucket to visit Callie, but soon, Callie's friend Alicia and her father are involved in a mystery.  Someone sabotages Alicia's father's museum, and then he vanishes!

Since this book is set in Nantucket and involves sabotage at a museum, I felt like I was revisiting the Nancy Drew Diaries book, The Phantom of Nantucket.  Exactly how many times is Simon and Schuster going to reuse the "sabotage in a museum" plot?  I guess as many times as they will reuse the "sabotage on a movie set" and "sabotage at a sports competition" plots.

I overall enjoyed this book, but it is not a memorable story.

Hardy Boys #140 Slam Dunk Sabotage, #141 Desert Thieves, and #142 Gator Swamp

In Hardy Boys #140, Slam Dunk Sabotage, Frank and Joe's basketball team is on the verge of winning the conference championship.  Someone is trying to keep the Bayport team from winning by seriously injuring Frank and Joe.

Even though this story is a sabotage book, it is an interesting sabotage book.

I wasn't sure I would enjoy this book, but the story isn't the usual sports story where gamblers bet on a game.  The culprit is obvious, but not because of any mistake the author made.

I greatly enjoyed this book.


In Hardy Boys #141, The Desert Thieves, Frank, Joe, and Fenton vacation in the Arizona desert.  The boys soon find a new case when they discover that valuable organ pipe cactus is being stolen from the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

The author makes the villain extremely obvious because he protests way too much about the Hardys helping find the thieves.  He continues to protest for no good reason, since he ought to want help.  Even though on the surface this person is quite improbable as the culprit due to his role in the story, his bizarre protests make him the most likely culprit.  The author should have had this person protest a little bit and then act happy to have the boys help.  This is another case of an author messing up and making the clues too obvious.  I like for a book to have a little mystery.

I enjoyed this book.

In Hardy Boys #142, Lost in Gator Swamp, Frank and Joe vacation in the Everglades.  The boys soon learn of a bank heist, and the loot is said to be missing in the swamp.  The boys attend a rodeo, where they observe that several participants behave suspiciously.

As I read this book, I wondered why the Hardy Boys can't have a good adventure in a swamp that is actually written well.  Every Hardy Boys book set in a swamp falls far short of what it could have been.

This book is a bit convoluted.  I don't see why it is necessary to have a rodeo.  Furthermore, the book has too many characters, and I had trouble keeping them straight.

Early in the story, the boys are told that the money stolen from the bank was not currency.  Hmm.  It takes the boys forever to figure out that the money had to have been in coins, which likely are in the swamp and recoverable.  Idiots.

Frank and Joe suspect Randy is one of the culprits because he seems suspicious to them.  Randy is participating in the rodeo and is very touchy about his age, continually angrily declaring that he is 18 years old and old enough to compete in the rodeo.  Gee, I wonder what Randy's problem could possibly be? 

On page 82, Frank and Joe are actually told that Randy is in junior high.  They don't pick up on the statement and keep suspecting poor Randy of criminal acts.  This is an example of an author insulting the reader's intelligence.  Frank and Joe should have picked up on the statement about Randy and eliminated him as a suspect.  In fact, young readers would have appreciated Randy's dilemma even more if it had been revealed earlier in the story.  Randy could have then helped the boys from earlier in the story instead of them chasing him around like a suspect.

There is a lot wrong with this book, just like some other Hardy Boys swamp stories I could mention. 

This is a weak story.  I did enjoy it, but it was a bit annoying at the same time.