#71 Track of the Zombie (38th Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Track of the Zombie
Published 1982
Publisher: Wanderer Books (1982-1988), Minstrel Books (1988-199?) (no digital edition as of 2020)
Author: Vincent Buranelli
Other Hardy's by Author: 20R, 22R, 49, 51, 55, 56, 57, 61, 63, 65, 75, 77

Plot:  Frank and Joe Hardy head to Vermont to investigate a series of mysterious fires. Meanwhile, a man asks the boys look into strange accidents at his circus.

Review:  I'm just starting this book and I'm up to Chapter 6.  I read this book once before about 15 years ago on inter-library loan, but I don't recall anything from that time, so for me this is like an all-new adventure.

One thing that's interesting is that Track of the Zombie is a sequel to The Stone Idol, which Vincent Buranelli also wrote.  The person who asks the Hardy's to go to Vermont is the nephew of Bertrand, the co-owner of South American Antiquities from Stone Idol. 

Now then in Chapter 6, the boys are hired to play guitar in a Country & Western act at a hotel in Vermont (the hotel manager mistakes them for the guitar players who were hired, but are late). This is and interesting throwback to The Flickering Torch Mystery in which it was established that the Hardy's could play guitar (Buranelli wrote the Revised text, so there is no mention in the original).  Plus tha Hardy's also played guitar on the Animated series and Joe played guitar and sang on the 77 series.

[MacGyver]

This is another one of The Hardy Boys books I read so long ago that I have no real memories of it now. I will say this though- I particularly like Track of the Zombie and others from this era (roughly from #50 through #85) that incorporated more of the supernatural elements into the stories. Those always make for exciting, intriguing mysteries in my opinion.

[tomswift2002]

Well Track Of The Zombie got me in the mood to pull out Wheels, the 2nd LP from the cartoon!  Unfortunately it didn't do much else, as the story was so-so.  Even now, not a lot has stuck with me.

Rating: 5/10.