#74 Tic-Tac-Terror

[tomswift2002]

Published 1982
Publisher: Wanderer Books (1982-1987), Minstrel Books (1987-199?)
Author: Jim Lawrence
Other Hardy Boys by Author: #16 A Figure In Hiding (RT), #17 The Secret Warning (RT), #19 The Disappearing Floor (RT), #37 The Ghost At Skeleton Rock (OT), #38 The Mystery At Devil's Paw (OT), #39 Mystery of the Chinese Junk, #58 The Sting of the Scorpion, #59 Night Of the Werewolf, #60 Mystery of the Samaurai Sword, #62 The Apeman's Secret, #67 The Outlaw's Silver

Plot: The two young detectives solve a mystery involving a top secret government agency and a world-famous spy who wishes to defect to America.

Review:  In some ways this book read like a Casefile, yet in other ways, it wasn't.  But the plot involving a terrorist organization and even a secretive US intelligence agency reminded me of the Assassins and Network, yet at the time that Tic-Tac-Terror was written, those were in the future.

Also an interesting thing is that in Tic-Tac-Terror the Hardy's yellow sports sedan gets blown up and destroyed, similar to how is was destroyed in Dead on Target.  However, at the end of the book, the Winfield Jewelry company gives them a brand new model of their yellow sports sedan, whereas in the Casefiles it took until Cult of Crime for the Hardy's van, paid for by the Bayport Mall debutted.

[MacGyver]

Armada features that yellow sedan on the cover of its paperback version. The goofy thing though is that they messed up the play on words with the name by renaming it The Tic-Tac-Terror. Yes, I suppose it works to some degree, but it's not nearly the same in my opinion.

[tomswift2002]

Yeah, Armada shows it in just a plain shot.  But Angus & Robertson features the bombing.  Of course Armada features the Sleuth bombing. 

But it's interesting in that from #75 Trapped At Sea to #85 The Skyfire Puzzle the Hardy's are driving a new car, and then at the end of #84 Revenge of the Desert Phantom Chief Collig gives them a used police van that they use to #190 Motocross Madness.  I had read Tic-Tac-Terror years ago, but I completely forgot that their car was destroyed!

[tomswift2002]

It's also interesting that Chet's latest hobby is breeding rabbits and white mice.  Doesn't really play a part in the story except for setting up a joke with Biff Hooper. 

[MacGyver]

He's breeding rabbits with white mice, ala Dr. Moreau? 

[tomswift2002]

What's also interesting with this book is that this is the last Hardy Boys book by prolific Hardy Boys and Tom Swift author, James Lawrence.  As you can see in my updated first post, James Lawrence had been writing Hardy Boys books since 1957 when he wrote the original text of The Ghost At Skeleton Rock.  But Lawrence had been writing books for the Syndicate since at least 1954 when he wrote Tom Swift and His Atomic Earth Blaster and he would go on to write volumes 6, 7 and 9 to 30 in the New Adventures of Tom Swift Jr/The Tom Swift Science Adventures as Victor Appleton II.  So Tic-Tac-Terror was marking the end for one of the great Stratemeyer Syndicate authors.

Plus, and I don't know exactly which book would been out, but Tic-Tac-Terror would've also been the second or third book released after Harriet Stratemyer Adams had died in March of 1982.  (I'm not sure if in 82 they released all 6 books at once, or did they go January-March-May-July-September-November or did they go February-April-June-August-October-December for the releases.)  Of course by March of 1982 there would've been other Hardy Boys in the pipeline, I  just don't know which book was the last one that Harriet edited or had any input on.  Of course, #80 The Roaring River Mystery was the last Hardy Boys book to be fully written and edited by the Stratemeyer Syndicate (and as of 2020, to my knowledge, had any Stratemeyer family input, as #80 was written by Edward Stratmeyer's great-grandson, Karl Herr III, who I believe was Harriet's grandson), #'s 81-83 were written by the Stratemeyer Syndicate, but final editing was done by Simon & Schuster.

Anyway I found Tic-Tac-Terror to be a really good story, better than the previous 2, The Voodoo Plot & The Billion Dollar Ransom, although at times the cliff-hangers were not the best.  But that element that would become the Casefiles seems to have had it starting point in this book.  I know that the Nancy Drew Files were in the planning stages by the Stratemeyer Syndicate before the sale to Simon & Schuster, so maybe the Hardy Boys Casefiles were also in the planning stages and elements that would end up in that series were being tested in earlier books like Tic-Tac-Terror, Revenge of the Desert Phantom & The Skyfire Puzzle.

Rating: 7/10

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

i remember reading this one, once. It reminded me of the Casefiles, but not quite there yet. But it really seemed to be headed that way. Correct me if i'm wrong as it been more than five years.

[tomswift2002]

As I said this book read like a Casefile.  But this a very early test of the format, as "Tic-Tac-Terror" was published in 1982.  Whereas the Casefiles pilots, #'s 84 & 85 were not published until 1985, and the Casefiles didn't start until 1987.

[MacGyver]

Is there any documentation on the formation of the Casefiles that would definitively list any Hardy Boys Digests used as trial runs?

[tomswift2002]

Well when Simon & Schuster took over they wanted to series to go for a higher reading level.  And recently it's been uncovered that the early planning stages for the Nancy Drew Files were actually started by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. 
Plus there's the unpublished manuscript for #86, a manuscript in the Casefiles style of "The Skyfire Puzzle" and "Revenge of the Desert Phantom".  But I'm not sure how far back it started.  Was it one of the last ideas that Harriet had (in the New York Times obituary for her it was reported that she had been working on a new series the day she died) before she died?  Was it started by the partners after her death?  I don't know.

[MacGyver]

Oh, okay. Wow- that's pretty cool. Thanks for the information. It makes sense that there would be some early trials before the start of the Casefiles. It looks like we can count #84 and #85 in that number and maybe #74 too. I think I remember hearing about the early manuscript for #86. That would be interesting to see.
   What I was wondering though is if there are any books that might detail this- Maybe The Secrets of the Stratemeyer Syndicate?

[tomswift2002]

I haven't read that one. 

But you also have to remember that the 3rd season of the 1977-1979 TV series really was a test bed for the Hardy's working with a government agency, like they would with the Network. 

[MacGyver]

Yeah- the 3rd. season of the show actually had a couple of similarities to the Casefiles.