Hardy Boys Adventures, Book 20 - Return to Black Bear Mountain

The newest Hardy Boys Adventure does something that very few Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew books ever do, if at all - the undercover brothers return to the scene of a previous mystery! Usually, once a mystery is solved, the characters and the setting for that particular adventure becomes a thing of the past; yet, with this new series, Simon & Schuster decided to give the ghostwriter(s) an opportunity to revisit a previous adventure - in this case, book 12, The Madman of Black Bear Mountain. In that particular mystery, Frank and Joe Hardy dispelled the belief that a bigfoot type creature was roaming the mountainside and ultimately saved the life of a scientist who had been living remotely in the woods to conduct his work. Well, now they are returning to Black Bear Mountain to check in on Dr. Max Kroopnik, with whom no one has had any contact for well over a month, and whose regular communications have suddenly stopped.

Return to Black Bear Mountain sees not only the return of Frank and Joe to a familiar stomping ground, but it also brings back some of the characters from the first mystery - including Dr. K and Commander Gonzo, that cray pilot. The book also sees a bigger involvement with Jones, Frank's ex-girlfriend, who tags along for this adventure and actually becomes a potential suspect (at least, as far as Joe is concerned; Frank, well, he believes in her innocence regardless of the suspicions against her). And speaking of suspects, this book offers them up. There's the couple who own the last chance store near Black Bear Mountain. There's the young woman taking care of the lodge, who could have possibly poisoned Jones. There's the lodge worker who takes Frank and Joe up the mountain, where a tree nearly falls on the boys. There's the scientist who has come to the mountain to complete with Dr. K. There's the crazy pilot, Gonzo, who seems to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. And there's good ol' Dr. K himself - could this all be a set up, just so he could get away with the alleged treasure hidden somewhere on Black Bear Mountain?

This time around, rather than a Sasquatch-type creature in the woods, the boys are (a) searching for a missing scientist and (b) looking to uncover the truth behind the so-called treasure hidden somewhere on the mountain. The brothers face plenty of dangers, what with the previously mentioned tree-falling accident (which nearly crushes Joe on his ATV), a real cliff-hanger experience, a near-miss run-in with a hungry bear, a face-off with not one, but two different guns, and a left-tied-to-a-tree-to-die kidnapping that nearly spelled end for the Hardy Boys and their mystery-solving days! All of this, plus the climatic helicopter vs. airplane chase through the smoke-filled skies over Black Bear Mountain (oh, yeah, did I forget to mention that a portion of the forest was facing a huge forest fire?). This is another high-energy adventure for the Hardys, and I will admit, while I had one of the culprits figured out from early on, the second one came as a bit of a surprise - which was a nice change of pace.

The two things I did not particularly care for with this story: first, there was so much exposition about what happened previously on Black Bear Mountain - in the first few chapters, it felt like every other sentence was a rehash about something that happened in the prior adventure. After a while, it got a bit tiresome. Second, there was quite a bit of encyclopedia recitations about going green, protecting the environment, etc. It felt like this book was meant to be a paid advertisement for "Go Green!" Both of these elements took away from the story and bogged it down unnecessarily. Whether it was meant to be filler to pad the story, or whether it was merely the author promoting his own agenda for saving the environment - either way, it did not come across natural.

One thing I did note, however - the boys mention that their previous adventure happened over a year ago - meaning that the boys should each be a year older now than whatever age they were when the series began - also meaning that time in this series is slowly moving forward (although it is doubtful that will ever be acknowledged). 

Otherwise, it was a good mystery and I hope to see them use Jones more often in this series, as I find her to be a nice contrast to the boys.

RATING:  7 GPS tracking devices out of 10 for giving the series a bit of continuity and some new recurring characters!