The Disappearance
Publisher: Aladdin
Publication Date (February 2019)
ISBN 10 - 1534414886
ISBN 13 - 978-1534414884
148 Pages of Story
The most recent Hardy Boys book is unique for a number of reasons. First, the book was originally to be titled The Vanishing Room, but somewhere along the line, that changed. Further, the plot of the book completely changed as well - when it was first advertised as The Vanishing Room, the plot involved the cousin of their school's principal, who noticed that people entered the apartment next to hers, but they never left! "...every person that has stayed in apartment B3 has never returned home. What's worse - most of them have left a trail of debt or angry partners behind them. There are almost too many suspects to count!"
The book that was published, however, The Disappearance, involves only one missing person - - a young woman that Frank, Joe, and Frank's new girlfriend Jones meet at a comic convention in Atlantic City. While, as an adult reader, the solution to this mystery was pretty easy to figure out from the get-go, I can easily see that a young reader (at whom this series is aimed) might be stumped, right along with Frank and Joe. Her hot-headed boyfriend seems to be suspect number one, but in an interesting turn of events, the local police suspect that somehow Frank and Joe are involved when security footage appears showing two hooded individuals - who have the same height and body type as the Hardys - in a video of what appears to be them forcefully taking Harper (the missing friend) from her apartment! So, not only do they have to figure out what really happened to Harper, but they also have to clear their names.
There are a lot of pop-culture references in this book, thanks to the comic book convention theme, including Doctor Who, Wonder Woman, Black Panther, Poison Ivy, among others. It is rather fun to see that Frank is a real comic book aficionado, and that he has found a girlfriend who shares the same interests - for once, Joe is the one feeling left out (which is actually addressed by the author in some of the Joe-centric chapters). The writer clearly knows his or her comic book and sci-fi fandom. Also, there is also a pretty tense scene when the Hardys attempt to get information from Harper's aunt, but she turns on them, afraid that they are some of the less-than-respectable people to whom Harper owes money, and threatens them with a knife if they don't leave her alone.
One other note of interest is the cover - the scene finds Frank and Joe out on a ledge, while a shadowy figure appears in the window of a fourth floor apartment. Unlike all of the previous HB Adventures books, this scene does not appear anywhere in the book, nor even a close facsimile of this scene. It makes me wonder if perhaps the scene was going to appear in the originally scheduled story, but despite the change in plot and overall story, the publisher did not feel the need to change the cover (perhaps they were simply too cheap to pay an artist for a totally new cover art?). It definitely provides a edge-of-your-seat image, but since it doesn't appear in the book, it feels a bit like false advertising.
With the next book titled Dungeons & Detectives, it begs the question - has S&S chosen a ghostwriter (or writers) who love the whole geek fandom thing? Guess when book 20 is solicited, we'll find out!
RATING: 8 strands of chewy saltwater taffy out of 10 for mixing mystery, comic conventions, and geekdom into a thoroughly enjoyable read.
The book that was published, however, The Disappearance, involves only one missing person - - a young woman that Frank, Joe, and Frank's new girlfriend Jones meet at a comic convention in Atlantic City. While, as an adult reader, the solution to this mystery was pretty easy to figure out from the get-go, I can easily see that a young reader (at whom this series is aimed) might be stumped, right along with Frank and Joe. Her hot-headed boyfriend seems to be suspect number one, but in an interesting turn of events, the local police suspect that somehow Frank and Joe are involved when security footage appears showing two hooded individuals - who have the same height and body type as the Hardys - in a video of what appears to be them forcefully taking Harper (the missing friend) from her apartment! So, not only do they have to figure out what really happened to Harper, but they also have to clear their names.
There are a lot of pop-culture references in this book, thanks to the comic book convention theme, including Doctor Who, Wonder Woman, Black Panther, Poison Ivy, among others. It is rather fun to see that Frank is a real comic book aficionado, and that he has found a girlfriend who shares the same interests - for once, Joe is the one feeling left out (which is actually addressed by the author in some of the Joe-centric chapters). The writer clearly knows his or her comic book and sci-fi fandom. Also, there is also a pretty tense scene when the Hardys attempt to get information from Harper's aunt, but she turns on them, afraid that they are some of the less-than-respectable people to whom Harper owes money, and threatens them with a knife if they don't leave her alone.
One other note of interest is the cover - the scene finds Frank and Joe out on a ledge, while a shadowy figure appears in the window of a fourth floor apartment. Unlike all of the previous HB Adventures books, this scene does not appear anywhere in the book, nor even a close facsimile of this scene. It makes me wonder if perhaps the scene was going to appear in the originally scheduled story, but despite the change in plot and overall story, the publisher did not feel the need to change the cover (perhaps they were simply too cheap to pay an artist for a totally new cover art?). It definitely provides a edge-of-your-seat image, but since it doesn't appear in the book, it feels a bit like false advertising.
With the next book titled Dungeons & Detectives, it begs the question - has S&S chosen a ghostwriter (or writers) who love the whole geek fandom thing? Guess when book 20 is solicited, we'll find out!
RATING: 8 strands of chewy saltwater taffy out of 10 for mixing mystery, comic conventions, and geekdom into a thoroughly enjoyable read.
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