Hardy Boys Adventures #17 - Gray Hunter’s Revenge

[MacGyver]

I just noticed something else about this book on Amazon.com's page. It lists this book as Book 17 of 18 in The Hardy Boys Adventures series and on the page for "The Disappearance", that book is listed as Book 18 of 18 in The Hardy Boys Adventures series. I wonder if that is just an automated thing to help shoppers keep track of ongoing series. (i.e. Maybe it only says 18 because that's all the books planned for now. And when a 19th. title is ready, the pages will be updated to reflect that.) It's probably nothing but is this maybe a hint that the series is coming to an end?...

[tomswift2002]

On Sunday Chapters told me the paperback has shipped, but I just got another email saying that the hardcovers release date has changed from November 6 to December 4.

[tomswift2002]

I just received The Gray Hunter's Revenge in the mail today.  I haven't read it yet, but its a short story (not as short as Attack of The Bayport Beast at 106 pages) at 124 pages.  The back cover advertises for The Disappearance, however, the sample chapters in the book are from Secret Of The Red Arrow with the caption "Don't Miss Where It All Began".


Considering that they are advertising the first book from 2013, I wonder if this is the death knell for The Hardy Boys Adventures.

[MacGyver]

Wow- interesting! Thanks for the report. Yeah- sure sounds like it might be winding down.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

Just saw this on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Disappearance-Hardy-Boys-Adventures/dp/1534414886/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1534414886&pd_rd_r=3b6d9635-d27e-11e8-b4d0-e1b91b9d888c&pd_rd_w=Yuhrv&pd_rd_wg=dxeDG&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=18bb0b78-4200-49b9-ac91-f141d61a1780&pf_rd_r=MATW41A50G7FGDHYZ101&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=MATW41A50G7FGDHYZ101

It's a case of hidden identities for brother detectives Frank and Joe in the in the eighteenth book in the thrilling Hardy Boys Adventures series.

The Hardy brothers and Frank's new girlfriend, Jones, are attending a local comic book convention on the shore. They meet up with Jones's friend Harper, a fellow comics super fan, on the boardwalk outside the convention. The four of them spend hours running from booth to booth and end the perfect day with pizza at Harper's short-term rental apartment.

Things don't stay so perfect, though. On the way home, Jones realizes she switched phones with Harper by accident and she is getting some really scary texts. When they show up at the apartment the next day, they find it totally destroyed and Harper is missing.

Frank and Joe start digging into their new friend's life, hoping to find out where she might have gone, but the more they find out about her, the more mysterious she becomes. Can Frank and Joe find this secretive character? Or has she disappeared forever?

[tomswift2002]

So I just finished The Gray Hunter's Revenge this morning.  What a doozy of a book. 

The first part just dragged, and was finally resolved in an anti-climatic fashion for a Hardy Boys book, and then the second part really felt like it was trying to redo Casefiles #80 Dead Of Night, including having a scene with a music box, and so far in the Adventures it was probably the best written section of any of the stories.  But then the author, after letting Frank get one punch in, had the second set of criminals give up way to easily and then you had 2 chapters of just confession and wrap-up.  So the actual story only took about 106 pages of the 124. 

And again I was having a hard time pinning down Frank and Joe's personalities, since in the book Frank drives a motorcycle and a car, while Joe only drives a car, so they are both over 16 to have their licenses, but in the first part of the book the boys are depicted as maybe being 12 or 13 in terms of their personalities, but then during the second part it seems like they are 17 and 18 year-olds. 

Rating: 3.5/10

[MacGyver]

Thanks for the review.
As to age depictions of Frank and Joe, remember that even older teenagers can sometimes still be really immature at times.
No chance The Gray Hunter had any tie-in to The Gray Man, I suppose?

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

Thanks for the review.
As to age depictions of Frank and Joe, remember that even older teenagers can sometimes still be really immature at times.
No chance The Gray Hunter had any tie-in to The Gray Man, I suppose?

I wish!

[tomswift2002]

Thanks for the review.
As to age depictions of Frank and Joe, remember that even older teenagers can sometimes still be really immature at times.
No chance The Gray Hunter had any tie-in to The Gray Man, I suppose?

I realize that, but in this book it's like Frank and Joe have multiple personality disorder. 

And the Gray Hunter is not related to the Gray Man. 

[tomswift2002]

As to age depictions of Frank and Joe, remember that even older teenagers can sometimes still be really immature at times.

They can be immature, but as I said in The Gray Hunter's Revenge, it was like you had 2 different Frank and Joe's.  I just finished Trick-or-Trouble where Joe acted immature a couple of times, but it was nothing like how "immature" he and Frank were acting in The Gray Hunter's Revenge.

[MacGyver]

Okay. Thanks for answering that.
As to the maturity level thing- there's also such a thing as really inconsistent writing...