Hardy Boys Adventures, Book 24 - As the Falcon Flies

We are now twenty-four books into this latest incarnation of the Hardy Boys, and while the stories, for the most part, have been a vast improvement over the disaster that was the "Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers" series, not every book is exceptional.  The writers of this new series have offered some interesting mysteries, pretty much staying away from the sabotage trope that was overused in the HBUB books.  And this latest book does provide something different - a stolen falcon.  But, as with the latest Nancy Drew book, the execution of the story is somewhat lacking.

 

First, let's talk about the title.  As the Falcon Flies.   I'm sorry, I cannot be the only person who reads that title and automatically thinks, "Soap Opera!"  Let's face it - the title really isn't far off from As the World Turns, a soap that ran on CBS for God-knows how many decades.  Carol Burnett even did her own parody of that in her variety show, with the skit titled "As the Stomach Turns."  And while the mystery itself does center around a fast-flying falcon who is stolen, the title just feels weird.  It certainly doesn't scream "mystery," and anyone just glancing at the title alone would never even connect it to a mystery.  So, I'm not exactly sure whose bright idea it was to use this title, but it seems the series is starting to veer away from the "Mystery of..." "Secret of...." or "Clue in..." titles that paid homage to the original books.  I hope that's not a sign of what direction S&S is planning to take the series.

But, title aside, the plot is fairly good.  The Hardy family has arrived in Anchorage, Alaska to visit old friends - the Adenshaws - and Frank and Joe quickly rekindle their friendship with the Adenshaws' teenage daughter, Kate.  She had captured and trained a peregrine falcon and is proud to show it off to the Hardy brothers.  But the day after the Hardys arrive, the falcon ("Steve") goes missing!  Kate is certain the bird was kidnapped (birdnapped?), but everyone, including Frank and Joe, tell her that she has to consider all possibilities before she accuses anyone of taking the bird.  Joe, who has become infatuated with Kate, decides he is going to find Steve and reunite the bird with its owner before the family returns to Bayport at the end of the week.  The only question is - who had the means, motive, and opportunity?

Now, with such a great plot, one would think the mystery would be really good.  Unfortunately, the author does not truly provide many suspects.  The story focuses on one particular suspect - Leo Blackwell - a wealthy man who has been trying to convince Kate to sell him her falcon so that he can race it for cash prizes.  Frank, Joe and Kate never really stray too far from suspecting Leo, and the story even seems to point to him with all the clues they find.  For me, this does not make for a good read.  There are several other characters in the book who could have been built up as suspects - Kate's mentor and fellow falconer; the taxidermist in town; the carpenter who has known Kate's family for a long time and is familiar with her love of the falcon; the oil company representatives, who are unhappy about the protests Kate and her family are holding to try and stop the pipeline from going through local land; and Leo's assistant, who is quiet and stays pretty much in the background.  But none of these characters are utilized to any extent to confuse the issue and give the Hardys a multitude of suspects, and to me, that makes for a much less interesting read.

And something that may be a minor thing to most people, but for me, it kept taking me out of the story.  Multiple times, the Hardys refer to their parents and Kate's parents as "the" parents.  Any time the author refers to their dad or their mom it was always "my" Dad or "our" Mom.  Yet, whenever the term parents was used, it was almost always "the" parents.  And I realize this may be a northern phrase, as my best friend (who comes from Fall River, Massachusetts) always says that:  "the" parents.  Never "my" parents.  So, perhaps the author hails from the New England area, or perhaps the author felt that since Frank and Joe are from that area, that would be a proper way for them to refer to their parents.  But since that has never been the case in the nearly 100 years of Hardy Boys history, it felt awkward and very out of place, and so each time I came across that term, I felt like I was hitting a road bump that should not have been there.

Something not so minor that lessened the impact of the book is the complete lack of descriptions for the boys' adventures in Alaska.  The family takes a trip out to see the glacier, but instead of any breath-taking descriptions of the glacier and its surrounding area, we get treated to the remark that climate change is melting the glacier, and the boys wonder how long it will be there for future generations to see.  The boys go whale-watching with their parents; but, instead of descriptions of the magnificent creatures and the awe they inspire when watching them in the ocean, the author glosses over the trip and focuses on Kate's whining about how her bird was taken and she knows Leo took it.  The only thing we do get when it comes to descriptive narrative is the Northern Lights, which the author showcases twice in the book - once when Frank sees them, and again when Joe sees them.  Since this was not River Heights, and is a locale that most people in the States do not get to visit and see, it would have been nice had the author provided more description about the area and what the boys got to experience (and again, this may simply be missing the old days when the books did provide such descriptions, making the reader feel as if he or she was actually there and could see what the boys saw).

Overall, it's not a horrible book, but it's certainly not one of the best one in the Hardy Boys Adventures series.  We'll see what the next book has to offer.

RATING:  6 cups of "midnight black" cocoa out of 10 for taking the Hardy Boys out of Bayport and providing them for a different kind of mystery to solve.