Perfect Getaway

kosmicdust · May 23, 2014, 05:31:22 AM

#12 "Perfect Getaway" is one of my favorite entries in the Casefiles oeuvre: a thrilling tour-de-force of decent cliff-hangers, nail-biting action, and a satisfactory denouement.

It's also the only book in the series that was issued in ALL 4 paperback formats in the UK:

http://hardyboys.co.uk/gallery/c012.php

So, imagine my surprise when I received an email notification informing me a copy of the ultra-rare Armada edition is up for grabs on Amazon. I already own a copy, luckily, but for anyone who doesn't, quick, go grab it!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0006941087/

tomswift2002 · May 23, 2014, 07:49:25 AM

You can't really say that it was issued in "All" the cover formats, since it was never issued under the UB's banner. But 4 out of 5 formats isn't bad.

MacGyver · May 23, 2014, 12:07:13 PM

Cool! Thanks for the heads-up. Perfect Getaway is a great book- and one of a few Hardy Boys books set at Christmas.

tomswift2002 · December 03, 2015, 08:01:29 AM

I just finished reading this book. This book still holds up after all these years, and read a lot better than the recent Adventure stories. Plus this is a Christmas Hardy Boys.

VLoneWolf · December 03, 2015, 02:02:23 PM

I don't own that one but it was really good.

MacGyver · December 03, 2015, 02:24:40 PM

With Christmas coming up soon, it might be time for a reread of this one.

tomswift2002 · December 04, 2015, 08:10:47 AM

This is one of those books where we know the time of year and the specific dates that the story takes place. Perfect Getaway begins around December 17 (in the book it is mentioned that it is just a week before Christmas and Frank and Joe are trying to figure out what to get) and finishes on December 20 (Fenton Hardy mentions that the boys still have four shopping days left).

MacGyver · December 07, 2015, 02:42:05 PM

Yes, that's true- thanks for the reminder. It's something of a rarity for a Hardy Boys book to have such precise setting information.

tomswift2002 · December 10, 2015, 09:31:04 AM

Of course at times during the book I was finding that I was forgetting that it was set so close to Christmas, as the boys are mostly in the tropics, so no snow or snowball fights between the boys.

MacGyver · December 10, 2015, 11:56:24 AM

Ha- I guess that's true, especially since for many people, Christmas is associated with snow. But people in the tropical islands celebrate Christmas too- just no snow there.

A lot of people in the Caribbean typically go to the beach on Christmas Day instead.

tomswift2002 · May 23, 2018, 07:38:40 PM

So I just finished reading an Armada copy of Perfect Getaway, and it's still a really great book. And hard to believe that for 150 pages, it is so action packed. None of the Undercover Brothers or Adventure books even comes close. I wonder what would happen to sales if a book like Perfect Getaway was published in 2018 (its been 30 years since Perfect Getaway was first published in February 1988).

It was interesting that, even though he didn't show up in the story, Phil Cohen was part of the action in an off-stage-kind-of-way.

I was noticing on hardyboys.co.uk that the 2001 printing of the book changed the title to The Perfect Getaway, which is memorable of the how Aramada would add to the titles on the paperback versions, so that books like The Melted Coins became The Mystery of the Melted Coins.