No. 182 Secret of the Soldier's Gold

[CalvinKnox]

Published Date: December 2003
GOLD RUSH! The police in Portugal have asked Fenton Hardy to come help them solve a crime, and Frank and Joe are tagging along. Before they even get on the plane, they're given a mission of their own: Mrs. Rilke, a friend of the grandmother of one of Frank and Joe's classmates, is sending the boys on a treasure hunt! After World War II, a defecting German soldier buried a fortune in gold bars in Mrs. Rilke's childhood backyard. She asks the Hardys to recover the treasure so she can donate it to charity. The problem is that another woman now knows about the gold, and she and her sons are looking for it too. Can Frank and Joe find the loot before it falls into the wrong hands?

I read this book a few nights ago, probably for the first time since 2004.  I received this book, along with Trouble in Warp Space from a friend who's father worked for Scholastic (the Scholastic versions of both books don't seem to be numbered for some reason).  I didn't find it very memorable (unlike Warp Space), before I started reading it again, I could only recall two scenes from it (when they first meet the three Portuguese facist brothers, and when the same brothers hold the Hardys at gun point when they find them digging up the gold. 

Overall it was a decent read, heaps better than any Hardy Boys book that has come out in the last decade.  It made some interesting notes about Portugal and Lisbon, like one character's comment about the Salazar dictatorship that ruled Portugal until the 70s.  With a few changes (or reduced to the original outline) I think it could have worked well as a casefile perhaps, Frank and Joe's rental boat is blown up, pretty serious and well organised villians (the Portuguese neo nazi movement, including at least two law enforcement personal, and two of the bad guys die during the course of the book.  However, Frank and Joe just don't feel anywhere the same as in the Casefiles, I felt as though they suffered from a complete lack of characterisation.

[tomswift2002]

I haven't read it since 2003-04, and I recall that at the time it was ok but not good.  Otherwise in some ways I think it reminded me of "Evil In Amsterdam", but not as good and I don't recall much 20 years later.

[Bigfootman]

The same ghostwriter wrote the Nancy Drew digest "The Mystery in Tornado Alley", which also killed off a villain. George Edward Stanley pretty did whatever he wanted with his books, and the editors didn't seem to care. He is pretty infamous for writing what are considered the worst books in the HB Digest series, "The Case of the Psychic's Vision" and "The Mystery of the Black Rhino". (I will say that one of his ND Digest books, "No Strings Attached", was pretty good)

[MacGyver]

I can't say I remember much about this book but I will say that I do appreciate the title using the classic format that uses words like "mystery" or "secret" or "clue" in the title. The Secret of the Soldier's Gold is pretty cool for that reason at least.

[CalvinKnox]

The same ghostwriter wrote the Nancy Drew digest "The Mystery in Tornado Alley", which also killed off a villain. George Edward Stanley pretty did whatever he wanted with his books, and the editors didn't seem to care. He is pretty infamous for writing what are considered the worst books in the HB Digest series, "The Case of the Psychic's Vision" and "The Mystery of the Black Rhino". (I will say that one of his ND Digest books, "No Strings Attached", was pretty good)

I'm pretty sure I've read The Mystery in Tornado Alley, but it wasn't memorable.  Black Rhino was the first non GD Hardy Boy book I ever read.  I don't remember it being awful, however I dismissed all non GD books for the next 2 years, so there might be a connexion... 

[CalvinKnox]

I haven't read it since 2003-04, and I recall that at the time it was ok but not good.  Otherwise in some ways I think it reminded me of "Evil In Amsterdam", but not as good and I don't recall much 20 years later.

Yes Evil in Amsterdam was heaps better, and not just because I'm dutch.
Spoiler the gold in The Secret of the Soldier's Gold, doesn't actually exist!  Turns out the soldier returned after the war and dug it up (so about 55 years before the story).  He had deposited it into a savings account which is handed over to Mrs. Rilke.