39th Anniversary Review: #63 The Mummy Case

[tomswift2002]

Published: 1980
Publisher: Wanderer Books (1980-1986), Minstrel Books (1987-199?), Grosset & Dunlap (2005-2013 print & digital)
Author: Vincent Buranelli
Other Hardy Boys by Author: #20 The Mystery Of the Flying Express (1970 Revised), #22 The Flickering Torch Mystery (1971 Revised), #49 The Bombay Boomerang (1970), #51 The Masked Monkey (1972), #55 The Witchmaster's Key (1976), #56 The Jungle Pyramid (1977), #57 The Firebird Rocket (1978), #61 The Pentagon Spy (1980), #64 Mystery of Smuggler's Cover (1980), #65 The Stone Idol (1981), #71 Track of The Zombie (1982), #75 Trapped At Sea (1982), #77 The Crimson Flame (1983)

Plot: Called in to investigate the theft of some Egyptian artifacts from a New York museum, the Hardy's find that they must also stop a revolution in a foreign country.

Review:  Maybe it's because it's October, but this seems to be the perfect time to re-read The Mummy Case.  It's been years since I last read it, but I still recalled the opening pages of the book, with the Hardy's playing baseball in their backyard.  And this book is not to be confused with the similarly named Undercover Brothers book, The Mummy's Curse from 2006.

Overall, its a pretty interesting mystery.  Egyptian artifacts have been stolen, and the Hardy's are asked to get them back.  But then the B-plot has the boys helping Fenton Hardy to take down a rebel faction on the Mediterranean island of Rubasa. 

As for the Hardy's friends, well we see Chet, Biff, Tony and Phil make appearances.  Tony and Phil only do a cameo early on at a baseball game, but then Chet and Biff join Frank and Joe on their Atlantic voyage.  They leave Frank and Joe about 2/3 of the way through the book, as the Buranelli has them working on the crew of the "Admiral Halsey", the freighter that Frank and Joe take to Egypt while escorting the Mummy.  Also, interesting thing with Chet and Biff is that both of them have their sailors licenses from the merchant marines, something which was never brought up previously.  I was wondering if it was meant as a nod to The Mystery of The Chinese Junk, as I recall in that book Chet, Biff and even Tony, along with Frank and Joe had to go for their licenses in order to operate the Hai Hau.

As for the artwork, really I think the original Wanderer artwork is really the best for this story.  Sure the Grosset & Dunlap edition uses a cropped version of the Wanderer artwork,  but the cropping also cuts off the Mummy, so you just have Frank holding a jeweled staff and Joe holding some sort of statue.   The Minstrel art, I think is suppose to be representative of a scene from later in the book, but it doesn't really cut it.

Rating: 7.5/10