August 2012 Book Review Evil Inc Casefiles #2

[P. Walker]

PLOT: Frank and Joe go undercover as gun dealers to help the Network take down a French firm involved in illegal activities.

If I?m not mistaken I read the first 7 or 8 Casefiles in numerical order, beginning in 1991 or 1992 or so, and from then on just snatched up whatever was available from the school library or bookstore. If Dead on Target was a blast to read and really had me hooked on the Hardy Boys, then Casefiles #2 was even better. The airplane hijacking plus the shoot out at the Assassins hideout, I remember, had me glued to the pages, wondering what was going to happen next in Dead on Target, but I was really excited just after the first chapter in Evil Inc. here the Hardys are out of their comfortable life in Bayport, out of the States, and in a foreign country with no one to rely on, except themselves. Having just reread it recently, it brought back memories and I can remember as a kid, wondering just how they were going to be able to clear their names after killing that French cop. All in all, a perfect follow-up from the now-classic Dead on Target. The suspense is back and ramped up immensely, and while there?s really no huge scale action set-pieces unlike the aforementioned hijacking and that Brixton district shootout from Dead on Target, I think Evil Inc is a must-read Casefiles.

[MacGyver]

Evil, Inc. was an incredible followup to Dead on Target. I like how Frank and Joe jump in on a Network case and take on something of that magnitude with no backup plan. It was intense with a lot of twists and it was a great and involved sting operation for Frank and Joe. And there were some unexpected characters who turned out to be different than what was first expected. There were also some great one-liners in this book and tons of action of course. It's definitely one of my favorites too. And hey- Frank and Joe get into the punk rock scene with their cover- radical, man!

[tomswift2002]

Plus the book has got too have one of the shortest opening chapters in Hardy history.  Plus it was interesting how the chapter was from the POV of the French officer.  I think Mega-Books and Simon & Schuster delivered one good knock-out with these two books,and really made sure that people understood that these weren't the same old Hardy's.

[MacGyver]

I'm kinda glad that Cult of Crime was a regular case for The Hardys and largely based right there in Bayport. Though the Network did make an appearance and help out some in that book too, I think it helped assure Hardy Boys fans that not every book would be dominated by The Network. And as it happens, as the series progressed, it became the occasional book that featured The Network, but not all the time. The first 10 to 20 books in the series or so kinda made it feel like The Gray Man and the Network would be constantly showing up, but I'm glad they toned that down, much as I love those stories. If the UB series could've made this balance with ATAC, I think that series could have been greatly improved.
      But anyway, that was kind of an aside there. Back to Evil, Inc., I thought the whole book was great and Denise was a great character. The undercover operation was really well done too. It really made the reader sympathize with the bad guys, almost wanting them to escape even though you knew Frank and Joe had to bring them in to justice eventually.