Ghostwriters and Ghostwriter Speculation

[Bigfootman]

I figured it would be good to have a topic listing all the SuperMystery ghostwriters. I'd like to do this for the Casefiles and Files eventually.

Edit: Added some things tomswift2002 mentioned.

A Crime for Christmas- Peter Lerangis

Shock Waves- Peter Lerangis

Buried in Time- Peter Lerangis and Larry Mike Garmon

Spies and Lies- Tracy West

Evil in Amsterdam- Ellen Steiber and an unknown male author. Said author is mentioned as writing 14 action-adventure novels, and several Hardy Boys. (This rules out Christopher Lampton, as looking at a list of books he wrote, he did not write 14 non-Hardy Boys action-adventure novels)

Copper Canyon Conspiracy- Robin Hardy

Process of Elimination- C. J. Henderson


Speculation:

-According to "Rediscovering Nancy Drew", Ellen Steiber wrote another unnamed SuperMystery. She refers to "Evil in Amsterdam" as the one she wrote with a co-writer, so I assume she wrote the other one alone.

- "At All Costs" and the Casefile "Survival of the Fittest" were likely written by the same person due to Kip Cole appearing in both. Due to both books being set in Utah, the ghostwriter is possibly from around there.

- Alice Leonhardt mentions writing a Hardy Boys book about Horses, so she could have written "High Stakes", though it's more likely she wrote the Digest "The Million Dollar Nightmare".

-Due to Mick Devlin appearing, whoever wrote "Danger Down Under" probably also wrote one or more of the books in the "Passport to Romance" files trilogy. They could also have written the files book "The Runaway Bride", due to Mick Devlin appearing in that book as well.

- "Operation Titanic" was possibly written by CJ Henderson.

-  "Dangerous Games"  was mentioned in the Files book "Out of Bounds",  so they might have the same author.

- "The Paris Connection" includes a character from an early files book, so they might share a ghostwriter.

[tomswift2002]

Also Dangerous Games might've been written by the same author that wrote Files #45 Out of Bounds as Nancy recalls the drug use she and the Hardy's uncovered in that book.

Also The Paris Connection features a character that was in a very early Files book.

[Bigfootman]

Also Dangerous Games might've been written by the same author that wrote Files #45 Out of Bounds as Nancy recalls the drug use she and the Hardy's uncovered in that book.

Forgot about that one, thanks.

[MacGyver]

Forgot about that one, thanks.

Also Dangerous Games might've been written by the same author that wrote Files #45 Out of Bounds as Nancy recalls the drug use she and the Hardy's uncovered in that book.

Also The Paris Connection features a character that was in a very early Files book.

Does that Files book actually have Nancy Drew mentioning The Hardy Boys?

[tomswift2002]

Does that Files book actually have Nancy Drew mentioning The Hardy Boys?

The one in relation to Paris?  No.  It's one of the early Files from just before the Casefiles launched or just as they launched.  It might be Deadly Intent or Fatal Ransom.

[MacGyver]

The one in relation to Paris?  No.  It's one of the early Files from just before the Casefiles launched or just as they launched.  It might be Deadly Intent or Fatal Ransom.

Thanks, but I was referring to Out of Bounds.

[tomswift2002]

Thanks, but I was referring to Out of Bounds.

I was reading the Nancy Drew Files #45 Out Of Bounds book today, and on the first page of Chapter 13, Nancy remembers working with the "Hardy brothers" on this case.  Dangerous Games is not mentioned by name, but Nancy had just found out that one of ithe football players in Out of Bounds was most likely using steroids.

I found it interesting that the author used "brothers" rather than "boys" in Out of Bounds.  It made the Hardy's sound like they were older than the 18 and 17 that they are said to be.  But also with continuity, Dangerous Games was said to be sometime before Out of Bounds, and years after the events of Nancy Drew File #1 Secrets Can Kill.

When you think of the Files-Casefiles continuity, it's interesting to think that the A Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys SuperMystery'88 series is the central series that connects everything together.  You have on the one side of the continuity, the Nancy Drew Files & River Heights, then on the other side you have The Hardy Boys Casefiles, Tom Swift, & A Hardy Boys and Tom Swift Ultra Thriller.  But right in the middle, connecting the two main series is A Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys SuperMystery'88.

[MacGyver]

Awesome! Thanks so much!

[Bigfootman]

I missed a ghostwriter.
Robin Hardy wrote "Copper Canyon Conspiracy". (Which was originally called "Conspiracy in Copper Canyon") If anyone manages to visit the New York Public Library, they might have a series bible for the SuperMysteries in the Robin Hardy Papers.

The Robin Hardy Papers also contain a "The Hardy Boys Casefiles Plot List ", so he probably wrote a book in that series too.  According to the NYPL website, "He was ghostwriter under several pseudonyms of numerous young adult novels in mystery and horror series." So he could have written Nancy Drew Files as well.

[Bigfootman]

I know this topic is old, but forgot an author, even though their book never got published:
The Playhouse Mystery-  Louise Munro Foley (they may have written other Supermysteries according to the old HardyBoys.com website. )

One observation, it looks like the editors were mainly looking for writers who had already ghostwritten Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew books before, as most of the known ghostwriters had written HB and ND books before (Robin Hardy might have), and some of the unknown ones appear to have written files or casefiles. 

also: the files book  tomswift2002 mentioned as having a character that appeared in the Paris Connection was "Deadly Intent". Not sure why I didn't include that in my last post, but better late then never.