#53 Web of Horror (31st Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published: July 1991
Publisher: Archway Paperbacks (1991-1997)
Author:Unknown as of July 2022

Plot: When your worst nightmare comes true, it's best to stay awake -- if you want to stay alive!

SCREAM BLOODY MURDER!

The Hardys are working security on the set of the latest film in a cult classic series, Horror House V. Frank and Joe get the chance to appear on-screen as victims of the movie's psycho murderer -- the dreaded Reaper. But the fake fun soon turns to true terror when producer Andrew Warmouth meets a death as horrible as anything captured on film!

The movie is being shot on location at an actual haunted house, and the ghastly truth behind the murder is buried within. The investigation leads Frank and Joe into a living nightmare: They must face their worst fears and track down an elusive, cold-blooded killer before he strikes again!

[tomswift2002]

I remember checking this book out of the local library and reading this back in the late-90's.  And while I'm not a horror fan, I remember really liking this book.

I actually have that library copy in my collection and I can see that the library received it in June 1991, and at least between April 1992 and October 1996 it was checked out at least 75 times (I'm going to assume that they probably had a separate sheet on top at first and that was filled between June 91 and April 92).  Plus the book is really taped up—-I remember checking the book out a few times and the cover was half off, and I remember one time putting scotch tape on the cover, since the front cover had fallen off on me.  And even after that, it was still on the shelf for a few more years (and this was after the library had switched to UPC codes for checking out books rather than stamping a card and holder—-I can still make out where the UPC was placed on the front blurb page when the library removed it).

I see on my "Top Ten Casefiles" list from years ago it landed at #51, just outside my Top 50. 

[tomswift2002]

I'm finding that it's interesting how at this point in the series, the editors seem to be trying to keep it away from being a serialized series like it was for the first 40 books, where you had the Assassins & Network line, then you also had the Charity line, the MUX line and the boys aging (even though the books said they were 18 & 17, but if you've seen me mention in my previous anniversary reviews how the Hardy's age in the Casefiles and by WOH they are about 25/26 versus' 18/17).  This seems to be the point where the higher ups at Simon & Schuster were maybe putting pressure on the editors at Mega Books to move the series away from where it started.  I think Bill McCay was still editing at this time, but when you think of what would happen only 12 months after Web of Horror was released, the Operation: Phoenix trilogy was the end of what had set the Casefiles apart from the Mystery Stories.  Sure there were the odd book of that felt like an early Casefiles, but the series got retooled to be less violent and more like the Mystery Stories that were running at the time.  Since that was after McCay's time as editor (and it's really nice that McCay wrote Time Bomb where he wrote a series finale for the part of the Casefiles he worked on, but wrote a reboot chapter, and then a year later still called back to the early Casefiles with The Alien Factor) and the new editors were telling the authors to drop the guns and James Bond/Indiana Jones influence of the early Casefiles.

 

[tomswift2002]

I managed to finish this book in one day.  Unfortunately I found that it was like Brother Against Brother in that it needed additional length, plus about 3/4 of the way through the author had Fenton take off for California all of a sudden.  Apparently the government needed him out there and he had to hightail it out.  It almost felt like the author might've been setting up a plot that would've tied into the main plot, but nothing came of it.  And I was hoping that something would've come of it, because it turned out that all the incidents were happening because of one guy who was out for revenge.

Although with that being said, this is the rare exception to the rule where I hate the gang of one books like The Masked Monkey, The Stone Idol and the Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers series.  The author did a good job constructing a good story, although he didn't know enough about science to know that a bullet to a car's gas tank doesn't cause the car to go up in loud flames like you see in the movies or video games (and the author didn't have any mention in the book of incendiary bullets being on the film set, so the bad guy was just using regular bullets, which nearly 15 years after this book was written, the Mythbusters busted the myth, and showed that even with incendiary bullets you don't get that loud explosion).

Otherwise the book was very fast paced, and even included a theatre scene that reminded me of a similar scene from Dead On Target!  The author also made passing mention (though not named) to Scene of the Crime & The Final Cut as movie/TV sets the Hardy's had been on sometime before Web of Horror.

Rating: 7.0/10

[MacGyver]

Nice review! About the only thing I remember about Web of Horror is that it's one of a few books in the series with a horror theme and Joe's last line about his and Frank's career as professional zombies going up in smoke!