Purge

[tomswift2002]

Four-point-five days and counting till Christmas.   The Hardy's have been on some interesting adventures around Christmas recently from "The Mystery of Cabin Island" to "Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Solve A Christmas Mystery" in the Original Continuity, and even in the Casefiles Continuity the boys have joined Nancy Drew to solve "A Crime For Christmas" involving royalty.

Unfortunately in the Casefiles Continuity there were only a few other books, such as "Foul Play" and "Perfect Getaway" where the stories were set in December, and Christmas was mentioned (although Chet does buy a waffle iron for his mom in "Shock Jock" that the other boys tease him about getting just for himself so that he can have waffles whenever he's hungry) but the Christmas holidays were not a main part of the plot.  So far, in the Undercover Brothers continuity there have been no books set in December or around Christmas.

But in the Original Continuity there is another Christmas story that, for 1984, introduced a crime that was just beginning to appear in news reports and would be later introduced into the Casefiles in #17 "The Number File" where the author would have, in a similar way, describe how the crime occurred as the author of "Purge" did, just like #52 "The Shattered Helmet" introduced the idea of safety film and the "new" type of film that the Hardy's were using in that book.  (The most likely reason that the crime had to be "reintroduced" was probably that "Purge" appeared in 'Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys SuperSleuths! 2', published by Wanderer Books, and was most likely out-of-print by the time that "The Number File" was published in 1988.)


Purge
appears in Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys SuperSleuths! 2
Published in 1984 by Wanderer Books

Plot

The Hardy Boys are in River Heights visiting Carson Drew and his daughter Nancy for Christmas when they get a call from the manager of the River Heights bank asking them to come down to the bank.  It seems that one of the bank's employee's is being accused of stealing $3 million dollars...but only $1 million dollars has appeared in a bank account at Shoreham Bank under the employee's name.  And no one at the Shoreham Bank remembers the guy opening the account or ever dropping in to deposit the money, which was always deposited by mail!

Review

In a twist from the previous Christmas story in SuperSleuths! (Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Solve A Christmas Mystery) this story follows the Hardy Boys around and you can see the beginnings of Frank's "computer nerdiness" starting in this story. 

As I said earlier, for 1984, this story introduced a very hi-tech crime that was an essentially brand-new crime back then.  Embezzlement via electronic means.  As I said, relatively new in 1984. 

It was also surprising to read terms in this story such as "time-sharing" when the computer student at Emerson College was trying to access the bank's system remotely, or when Neil Smith was explaining how the other banks accessed the Master Data program at the River Heights bank.  Plus it was also interesting to read, and funny, about how people had to connect to the "Information Highway" back then, by dialing a number on a regular telephone and then placing the receiver in a cradle that was connected to the computer inorder for the computer to receive the auditory signals coming over the phone and translate them into computer data.  Plus just how long it took (I remember hearing an old dial-up modem once just going 'beep...............beeeepppp.........................beeeeeeeeeeepppppppppp...........................beeeeeeeeeeeeeeepppppppp' by itself inorder to initiate the connection.  So I can just think how much time it must've taken to connect manually).

This is a really great Christmas story and it is even fun to see Joe and Bess throwing snowballs at each other and being a little 'naughty' before Christmas (and possible indicating a direction for the two characters that the Stratemeyer Syndicate was thinking of taking them in before it was bought out).

Rating: A+