25th January 2025

The Hardy Brothers find themselves radio presenters, a job that seems to require surprisingly little training, and then naturally find themselves investigating a new crime - pirate radio. I’m not sure that really fits the 90s era, but that’s where we are.

First up, this had some of the most surprising language choices of the series. Yes the earlier stories were racist, and sexism pervades the series, but those weren’t surprises to me, as they are well known issues with these books. This time out though we have one of the main characters using ableist and homophobic slurs, which feels very unusual (although it is the 90s, so not unusual in society at large).

The aside, the plot is quite a fun one, and makes good use of Chet for light relief. It explores businesses, technology, career choices, and a new type of crime - making it quite an educational adventure too.

So all in a mixed experience.

read more

11th January 2025

In one of their weirdest adventures yet, the Hardy Boys visit the Olympic Games, where Chet’s cousin is both competing and under threat.

It’s 1992, and there is an Olympic Games to tie-in to (I also remember from my youth the 1996 Olympics tie-in Hardy Boys novel, but it will be years before I get back to that!). The real Olympics is in Barcelona, but clearly that’s no good for the Hardy Boys - so their version is in an unnamed city that’s far from home but not far enough to be outside America. That’s just a bizarre way to ignore the actual world which makes so little sense to me as an adult reader.

Beyond that though it’s a fairly classic story for the era, with a mix of violence, investigation, and coincidence, and one of the classic tropes of mystery fiction thrown in to wrap it up.

read more

28th December 2024

The Hardy brothers are competing at athletics (they are multiskilled) when they get involved in trainer-based crime. The British use of the word “trainer”, as in the type of shoe.

It’s a fun and dangerous case, and although the regular guest cast get barely a look in, there are an unusual for the era (of these books) number of women represented in business roles.

Nothing massively to criticise in terms of the plot - does well as a mystery with a good number of red herrings and possible routes for the reader’s mind to go down.

read more

26th May 2024

In their 113th novel, the Hardy Boys take up skateboarding (it is 1992 for them after all), meet up with some competitive skateboarders, and naturally get dragged into a skateboard-related mystery.

As they go, it’s a fairly standard Hardy Boys adventure, although none of the regular side characters make an appearance, meaning their traditional roles in the plots have just been added as extra skills and interests of the super/powered brothers.

read more

31st December 2023

The Hardys head to the racetrack to take on a case their father is too busy for, and naturally bring Chet along for the ride.

This is noticeable for the danger in the story, which feels higher than in some, with a lot of ways that the characters could die or sustain serious injury.

However it does manage to provide more female characters than I’m used to from the series, featuring a bigger role for Callie, and a guest character who is a racing driver. Not up to modern levels or passing any sort of test, but a noticeable step forward.

The plot is solid if a bit convoluted, with a lot going on, and the technology feels a lot more modern.

read more

31st December 2023

In book 111 the Hardy brothers and Chet are off to join the circus, Chet as his hobby of the week, and the Hardys to investigate a mystery.

It’s a good investigation with a range of characters, but as a mystery story I think fails a bit in that the clues aren’t solvable by the reader until exactly the same moment they are to the characters.

it’s a good character piece though, and plays up the differences between Frank and Joe that sometimes get overlooked, and makes good use of Chet to add to the plot and to add some comedy, without him being made fun of or letting the side down.

read more

18th November 2023

In their 110th adventure the Hardy Boys head along to the local science fiction convention only to find that the main attraction has been stolen, and they need to investigate.

It feels kind of nice that the authors of the paste eighties and early nineties tried to adopt more of popular culture into the settings of these novels. This feels very relatable.

But the cast of guest characters still feels like a mass of tropes and some more diversity wouldn’t do any harm. There is one female character in the whole book, and while she has a position of authority on paper, she’s shown as fairly powerless in reality.

The mystery is okay as a plot, but not really one with many clues, it’s mostly about accidental coincidence leading to the reveal more than anything cleverer. So pretty average overall.

read more