39th Anniversary Review: #65 The Stone Idol

[tomswift2002]

Published: 1981
Published by: Wanderer Books (1981-1986), Minstrel Books (1987-199?), Grosset & Dunlap (2005-2013)
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), #63 The Mummy Case (1980),  #64 Mystery of Smuggler's Cover (1980), #71 Track of The Zombie (1982), #75 Trapped At Sea (1982), #77 The Crimson Flame (1983)

Plot: When an ancient stone idol disappears, the Hardy Boys are off on another fast-paced adventure. It's a mystery that takes the boys from a primitive village in the Andes Mountains to Antarctica and finally to Easter Island. By using their fine investigative skills, the Hardy Boys find that the mystery of the stone idol is not what it seems.

Review:  So this is the last book in the "trilogy" that Vincent Buranelli wrote in 1980/1981.  There is no over arching story arc in the three books, however, Buranelli did write and have #63 The Mummy Case, #64 Mystery of Smuggler's Cove & #65 The Stone Idol published one after the other, just like he had #55 The Witchmaster's Key, #56 The Jungle Pyramid & #57 The Firebird Rocket between 1976 and 1978.  Other authors who have written 3 in-a-row, up to this point in the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories series are:

James Duncan Lawrence (#37 The Ghost At Skeleton Rock (OT), #38 Mystery At Devil's Paw (OT), #39 Mystery Of the Chinese Junk), (1957-60) #58 The Sting of The Scorpion, #59 Night Of the Werewolf, #60 Mystery of The Samurai Sword) (1979)

Andrew Svenson (#28 The Sign of the Crooked Arrow (OT), #29 The Secret Of the Lost Tunnel (OT), #30 The Wailing Siren Mystery (OT) (1949-1951), #52 The Shattered Helmet, #53 The Clue Of The Hissing Serpent, #54 The Mysterious Caravan) (1973-1975) * Svenson died in 1975, so The Mysteries Caravan was his final Hardy Boys book.

Leslie McFarlane (#22 The Flickering Torch Mystery (OT), #23 The Melted Coins (OT), #24 The Short-Wave Mystery (OT) (1943-1945) * based on McFarlane's autobiography, his writing of the series included #25 The Secret Panel (1946) and the start of #26 The Phantom Freighter (1947) that was then completed by his wife, Amy McFarlane. 

Priscilla Baker-Carr - while she did re-write #'s 24-26, she was not included in this list because those books were revised in different years (1966, 1969, 1970)

Unfortunately, The Stone Idol is Vincent Buranelli's weakest story, and I found that the Hardy's were going places to more or less fill up pages, and it was pretty much A-B-C-D-E, etc. in terms of plot points.  It wasn't like other Hardy Boys books where the Hardy's might be following something regarding Plot A, but then all of a sudden a piece of Plot C makes an unexpected appearance.  This was a pretty straight forward story, that ended in the worst way with the Hardy's discovering that the person who hired them was also the criminal that they were chasing. This is the same thing that Buranelli used in The Jungle Pyramid (https://www.hardyboyscasefiles.com/forums/index.php?topic=2932.0

One interesting thing with this book is that the Hardy's have finally been on all the continents in the world, as the Hardy's visit Antarctica in this book.  Most of the books take place in North America, however, prior to this the Hardy's had been to Europe (The Witchmaster's Key), Asia (The Bombay Boomerang), Africa (The Mummy Case) and Australia (The Firebird Rocket).

Rating: 1/10

[MacGyver]

The Hardy Boys went to South America in The Masked Monkey as well.
   I have not read The Stone Idol in many years but I recall enjoying it well enough. I am particularly fond of the crop of books that came up in the early years of the transition to Simon & Schuster- everything from #59 to #85. (Though, of course, I love all The Hardy Boys books.  )