February 2012 Book Club Discussion - Hardy Boys Casefiles #37 Danger Zone

[tomswift2002]

I'll post this for AlwaysAJoeFan.  Here's the discussion for February's book, "Danger Zone".  Please post your thoughts and comments here.

[MacGyver]

Thanks for taking the initiative to get this thread posted. Okay- I'll offer a couple of observations here.  [WARNING- Spoilers here for anyone who hasn't read the book.]



First, right off the bat- the book is called Danger Zone- it's already bringing to mind the famous Kenny Loggins song from the famous 1986 Top Gun movie for me. So I'm already in an action mode with an obvious amount of danger all around- and of course, a military mode as well- as both the movie and book cover would indicate. (And in this case, I'm thinking more of the guns and arsenal associated with the military more so than the militia itself.)
       And it hits hard at home from the start with Laura Hardy being kidnapped. And Frank and Joe have to delve into the mysterious case their father's been working on to try to find him so that he can talk to the kidnappers in order to save their mother. So there is a strong tension and anticipation working throughout the book, as Frank and Joe work to free their mother. I also like that a lot of the book's action takes place in Bayport and we get to see Biff Hooper, Phil Cohen, Chet Morton and Tony Prito all involved in the case.
And Aunt Gertrude and Fenton Hardy are both fairly heavily involved. It's always good to see a case that involves all of the family and keeps a lot of the action around home in Bayport (though not all of it necessarily in this case of course).
         And if all that wasn't enough- we also get Office Con Riley making an appearance! And we get Larry Biester making an appearance! And we get the return of MUX! My only slight disappointment was that Joe and Tony didn't actually use one of their own boats (The Sleuth and The Napoli, respectively). But it's a great book overall. There are a lot of characters worked in here, but it's a good balance and everyone gets the right amount of "screen time" as it were. It was also neat to see the Hardy Boys' traditional victory party for when they solve a case at the end of the book with all their friends who were involved in the case there for supper.
I think this book, as usual, balanced the right amount of humor for lighter moments along with the action and adventure and danger.
It's an exciting mystery that's generally pretty well put together. Great book overall.

[tomswift2002]

Yeah, I'm finding it a great book as well. although on page 94 you can see a very obvious editing error that I think has escaped a lot of people's attention over the past 22 years.  But page 13 of this book establishes that Bayport is in New York and not New Jersey or Massachussetts.

Don't forget that the Hardy Boys Wiki also has a page for this book that people can help edit.

[MacGyver]

yeah- I look in on The Hardy Boys Wiki every so often- I do try to contribute some things here and there when I have the time...

[tomswift2002]

I just finished the book last night.  9.5 out of 10.  This book was making me wonder why the UB's didn't have any stories like this, plus the action just never let up (UB 37 was just released last May and in a trilogy it didn't even come close to the "beat" of this story, let alone a closing story for a series).