June 2011 Book Club Discussion: Sabotage at Sports City

[MacGyver]

Well, I'm still in the middle of rereading this book, but I figured I'd go ahead and get this thread started. Feel free to post your thoughts and comments on The Hardy Boys #115 Sabotage at Sports City here.
      This is a book I read and reread as a child- it's always been a favorite. I think I like it mainly because it deals with sports and in particular, the Summer Olympics. I've always been a fan of the Olympics, so it's pretty exciting for me to read about some of the events. The marathon and the decathlon are featured heavily in the book, along with some gymnastics and swimming, etc. and I enjoy all of those events. I've also long enjoyed track and field and so it was neat to read about those events.
       But beyond that attraction, it was also nice to have Chet there along for the ride as was pretty standard in the Original 58 books and throughout the Digests. And it's pretty cool to see Frank and Joe taking on something of this magnitude- I mean, they are trying to stop a potential terrorist plot here with a real threat of a lot of people getting killed. So the danger and action level is definitely pretty high- and there's a seemingly impossible job in front of them as they try to track down who is trying to sabotage the Olympics when they are overwhelmed with a list of possible suspects. But they manage to make it through and figure it out in the end and the way they do it and obtain their proof was pretty interesting to me too. In some ways it was reminiscent of Encyclopedia Brown (as far as the reasoning and deductive skills go, that is) and I've always liked that about EB and of course, it's an essential part of any good mystery story, so it was great to see Frank and Joe putting their skills in those areas to good use.
         And for action and thrill-seekers, there is definitely at least one very intense scene in the book that puts The Hardy Boys in grave peril and danger. With all those elements combined, along with a good dose of light comic humor as well, it makes for a pretty fun read for me.
        I hope to finish it up soon and I may have some further comments then. But overall, it's a great Hardy Boys book.

[Olivia]

I haven't been able to participate in May's or June's discussion because I don't have those books (and it would take too long to get it another way) but I will likely be able to jump back in soon. In the meantime, I'm just reading the rest of everyone's discussion

[MacGyver]

That's okay- I read about some books on here that I haven't read yet (mainly the Undercover Brothers series) and learn some stuff about the books that way- so that's cool too.
I'm actually not sure if the May one ever got posted- it was supposed to be SDLAgent leading a discussion on The Melted Coins, but I don't know if we ever got to it... or maybe it's just buried here somewhere. Things have been pretty busy for me lately, so I've been behind on some of these books to read...

[tomswift2002]

I'm actually not sure if the May one ever got posted- it was supposed to be SDLAgent leading a discussion on The Melted Coins, but I don't know if we ever got to it... or maybe it's just buried here somewhere.

He never posted it, but I just posted it now.

[MacGyver]

Okay- cool. Thanks for taking care of that then.

[MacGyver]

Well, I finished rereading Sabotage at Sports City today and it was just as great as I remembered. I've pretty much already said my favorite things about it already, so I don't have much to add here. Although one thing I did notice was that Chet helps with doing some of the legwork for Frank and Joe's investigation and actually does come up with some great ideas and plans in the book. (Which is why they call Chet a genius in the book.) So it's nice to see him contributing to the mystery as well and serving as more than just comic relief.