Hardy Boys Adventures, Book 19 - Dungeons & Detectives

I really hate the fact that the Hardy Boys books are better written than the Nancy Drew books these days.  I've always been more of a Nancy Drew fan, simply because the Nancy Drew books were more focused on mystery, while it seemed the Hardy Boys books were more about adventure.  And even though this new incarnation of the detective brothers is called "Hardy Boys Adventures," the stories are definitely more about the mystery, and the ghostwriters clearly put more time and effort into the plotting and execution than the writers of the Nancy Drew stories.

The latest HBA book, Dungeons & Detectives, is a prime example of what makes this series a step above the current Nancy Drew books.  First, it is not about sabotage.  While in recent years, the Nancy Drew books seem to all be stories about sabotage, the Hardy Boys books have offered up various mystery tropes - hidden treasures, kidnapped and/or missing people, revenge, hauntings, etc.  This latest book (which, surprisingly, has over 200 pages!  the first Hardy Boys Adventures book to offer such a high page count!) features the brothers hunting down a stolen comic book, all the while dealing with a comic store owner and comic book fans who all have secrets.   Throw in an old castle with a moat and hidden rooms, a Halloween costume party that offers up a myriad of ways for a crook to commit a crime, and a nosy high school reporter who is determined to solve this case before the Hardy Boys do, and you've got the perfect trappings for an exciting story!

Something that does surprise me about this book is how many pop culture references are in the book.  There are mentions of the actual Dungeons & Dragons game, the latest issue of Detective comics, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Chewbacca, Wolverine, Bruce Wayne, James Bond, and even Captain Kirk from Star Trek.  Frank even dresses up like Sherlock Holmes at one point!  I have to say, though, that the top-notch, best pop cultural references goes to pages 106-07, when Frank and Joe meet the intrepid high school reporter, Charlene, in costume:

Her costume rang a bell, but I couldn't quite place it until I saw the HELLO MY NAME IS ... sticker she was wearing with the name Nancy written beneath it. 

"Nancy Drew!" I said.  Nancy was another real-life teen detective, and her master sleuthing had made national headlines a few times. We'd actually teamed up with her to solve a big case last Christmas and became friends--well, I mean, after she got over thinking we were suspects!

It was nice to see a nod to A Nancy Drew Christmas, the Nancy Drew Diaries special edition that was published last year, which featured the Hardy Boys.  This type of reference hearkens back to the olden days when the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books would reference previous mysteries that the teen detectives had solved.  Considering the length of this book and the reference, it makes me wonder if perhaps this mystery was originally intended to be a "special edition" for the Hardy Boys (considering the typical Hardy Boys book is about half the length of this one).  In any event, the reference was great to read!

As for the mystery itself, the brothers must help their local comic book dealer locate a stolen comic book that could potentially be worth tens of thousands of dollars.  Sabers & Serpents #1 was a comic created by the dealer's father and his partner back in the day, and it was based upon a role-playing game the two had created.  Unfortunately, circumstances led to not only the partnership dissolving, but nearly all of the first issues of the comic being destroyed in a fire!  It seems that rare first issue had a map to a treasure, but the partner, Filmore, had torn out the page that contained the map from every comic - well, at least from every issue except the one owned by the comic dealer!  Frank and Joe have to wonder if it was stolen by someone who knew about the treasure map and was determined to find that treasure in the old Scottish castle.

The hunt is on, and honestly, reading about the Halloween party at the old castle, the boys going through the hidden tunnels, finding captives in a dungeon, facing off against a knight in armor with a deadly ax to grind, and chasing after a ghostly menace who is determined to get to the gold - it reminded me of the 1970s' television episodes, "The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula," where the three attend a Halloween party at an old castle and make their way through the catacombs in search of a solution to their mystery.

Overall, the story was a lot of fun (especially for a comic book geek like me!) and the mystery was well-plotted.  Even I was surprised by the identity of the culprit behind everything.  Now to wait for the next book, when the boys return to Black Bear Mountain (the site of a previous mystery in this series)!

RATING:  10 lifeless bodies falling from the rafters out of 10 for proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew can still provide fantastic mysteries for kids today!