23rd January 2021

It’s the end of the 1970s for the Hardy Boys and the fifty year old teenagers are now solidly in a technology age as their case this time visits Australia and involves space rockets and nuclear reactors.

However the classic elements are still there - Chet and his hobbies, the two parallel cases, the involvement of the boys’ father, and constantly getting beaten up by the baddies.

There was only the briefest moment of racism, which feels like the writers and editors might almost have got their head into a more modern mindset by this point, and I hope as we head forward in the re-read to the 80s and a change of publisher that this will disappear entirely.

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9th January 2021

After their father calls them in to help investigate a gold theft, the Hardys once again set off on international travels to solve their fifty-sixth mystery.

The format follows the now familiar pattern of the 70s novels, with exotic locales and exploration playing a large role in the storytelling and much investigation taking a back seat.

As they go, not a bad story, but not a particularly remarkable one either.

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30th December 2020

The Masked Monkey, the fifty-first of the Hardy Boys novels, feels a bit like a reversion to before the more modern take in the novels that preceded it. The brothers are dispatched by their father to search for a missing person, and the plot quickly gets weird.

The plot is overly convoluted and involves travelling around and fighting a lot, with little by way of investigation and much overheating of information. Many elements seem less plausible than usual, and like the previous novel I’m left not really clear what was going on.

One thing I have liked is how much more the boys’ friends have been involved in recent adventures, with Biff and Tony seeming promoted to co-investigator status along with Chet, and Chet himself getting an expanded role, although coupled with increased fat-shaming. Chet’s random hobbies have always been one of my favourite recurring aspects of the series and it’s good fun when they contribute meaningfully to the plot.

Overall though probably not one that I’d recommend - there are books in the series that are easier to follow.

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