#11 Brother Against Brother (30 Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published January 1988

Plot: Joe is sent to Colorado to warn a witness that a hitman is out to get him.  On the way Joe gets ambushed and losses his memory, and he thinks that his brother Frank is the hitman!

Review:  I'm still reading this one (up to Chapter 5), but I've read the book in the past.

But, you know its interesting, in this recent re-read of the Casefiles series, I'm seeing what made this series the most popular spin-off of the original series.  The first 10 books have been very consistent in staying with the style of the original series, but building onto a style that is reminiscent of the James Bond/Indiana Jones movies.  But at the same time, the books don't keep bringing back the Network or the Assassins in every single book (unlike The Undercover Brothers ATAC, or the Hardy's "deal" in the Adventures and their police troubles).  Just to refresh:

#1 Dead on Target - Network and Assassions (pilot book, sets tone of the series)
#2 Evil, Inc. - Network does appear at the beginning, but then it is the Hardy's by themselves for the rest of the book.
#3 Cult Of Crime - mostly a Frank book, with Joe helping out, and the Network only makes a brief radio appearance (case came from Fenton Hardy)
#4 The Lazarus Plot - a Network/Assassin story, dealing with both brothers
#5 Edge Of Destruction - no Network or Assassin, except in passing mention about the Hardy's experience, otherwise the story is a Hardy's story stand-alone case.
#6 The Crowning Terror - again, a Hardy stand-alone caper, although it does introduce Espionage Resources and the enmity that ER has for the Network
#7 Deathgame - no appearance of the Network, as the book is a Joe story, with Frank helping out
#8 See No Evil - no Network appearance, but for a major switch, it is a Callie Shaw story, with Frank and Joe in supporting roles
#9 The Genius Thieves - again no Network appearance, with Frank taking the majority of the book, while Joe is just in a supporting role (case came from Fenton Hardy)
#10 Hostages of Hate - after 5 books with no peep, except for passing references to the events of Dead On Target, the Network makes a small appearance, however, Espionage Resources also makes a larger apperance, but again its mostly the Hardy's flying solo.

And now with Brother Against Brother, there is a dream sequence to start off the book that references Hostages Of Hate, and a few other dream sequences that reference the earlier books, so the Assassins do make a brief appearnce, but its only in a dream.  Otherwise its a stand-alone story, with Frank and Joe getting a case from Fenton (like they got their cases in Cult Of Crime & The Genius Thieves).  So the first 11 books were offering a variety of stories and cases that helped to define the series from its predecessor, but at the same time also kept some of case styles and ways that the Hardy's stumbled on a case in the original series, in the Casefiles.  But the books were also written in a style that retained the techno-mystery adult novels that were out at the time (like the James Bond novels, Tom Clancy or the Star Trek novels).

[MacGyver]

Brother Against Brother is still one of my all-time favourites of The Hardy Boys Casefiles. This series essentially made The Hardy Boys for adults, but not in the way the recent comic books did. (That just made them "adult"- i.e. full of risque/foul and sinful behaviour).
   The Casefiles still maintained the feel of the original series in some important ways. Though The Hardy Boys were tested more, they still held true to their core moral code as well.
    I think you made a lot of good comparisons between the two that I would largely agree with too.

[tomswift2002]

I haven't finished the recent comic (I only got upto #3, and then I wasn't able to get the rest, but I've got the trade paperback edition on order) so I'm not sure what you are talking about with that story. 

But, yeah, the Hardy Boys Casefiles, especially the early books, made the series an adult oriented series.  [Brother Against Brother I found was really a story that, if a Hardy Boys theatrical movie is ever made, I could see this book being the main storyline, since the book was essentially a techno-thriller.

[MacGyver]

With the comic, I was mainly referring to the language and references to sexual activity outside of marriage and the depictions of characters far outside of their established moral character.

A theatrical version of any of the first 20-30 or so Casefiles could be really good- this book particularly. (I like all of the Casefiles though and there are good stories throughout.)