Casefile reviews

[Bigfootman]

Post your Casefile Reviews here!

[kosmicdust]

1. Dead on Target
(A-) Excellent start to the series. Subject matter a little too grim to be truly enjoyable though.

2. Evil, Inc.
(A) Superb sequel to the first book, with plenty of decent twists and turns.

3. Cult of Crime
(B+) Great thriller, good take on the usual religious cult storyline, although one plot point didn?t make sense to me at the time (I can?t recall what though).

4. The Lazarus Plot
(B) The first Iola?centric book since the debut novel. Heavy sci?fi lean, enjoyable, yet slightly disappointing in that it doesn?t provide any concrete answers to what really happened to Joe?s girlfriend.

5. Edge of Destruction
(B?) Slightly unrealistic depiction of communities living underground in New York. Some good individual scenes, but fizzles?out a bit in the end.

6. The Crowning Terror
(B?) First appearance of re?occurring criminal queen Charity; the Hardys? sometime nemesis. A fun romp around San Francisco, some very OTT action scenes, fairly average overall.

7. Deathgame
(B) Good paintball orientated plot. Possibly written by William McKay? Some great scenes and good climax.

8. See No Evil
(B) First story dealing with corruption in the higher echelons of Bayport?s council and Police force. Slightly disappointing, but enjoyable in that Callie plays a large part in proceedings.

9. The Genius Thieves
(A+) Great debut novel by Peter Lerangis. Takes a little while to get going, but then it really motors along. Great secondary characters at the Academy. Plot strong enough that this one novel could have been expanded into a trilogy. Hardy Boys on Campus anyone?

10. Hostages of Hate
(A) Great terrorist?related novel: more enjoyable than Dead on Target for me. Great climatic scenes and good involvement from Callie.

11. Brother Against Brother
(A?) Inspired plot, and thrilling storyline, only let down by a limp ending that doesn?t do justice to the long awaited reunion between the brothers.

12. Perfect Getaway
(A) Excellent thriller, with the boys getting out of very tight spots in virtually every chapter. Edge of your seat stuff.

13. The Borgia Dagger
(A) A very good mystery story written by Peter Lerangis. However, he recycled the twist in the end of this book in his later Three Investigators novel (Foul Play).

14. Too Many Traitors
(B) Good average adventure thriller set in a foreign location. A little forgettable, though.

16. Line of Fire
(C) Quite poorly written, despite a very interesting premise. No decent twists or revelations, and the action scenes were quite unnecessarily long-winded and pedestrian.

23. Disaster for Hire
(B) Good standard Casefiles story, with plenty of decent action and intrigue, although the identity of the bad guy was fairly obvious from early on.

39. Flesh and Blood
(A) Excellent whodunit that keeps the reader guessing. Well?constructed plot, with well implemented red?herrings. The Callie bomb scene was a little OTT.

56. Height of Danger
(C+) Average mystery story centered on a snowboarding championship. Some of the action was a little too unbelievable, even for this series.

60. Deadfall
(B-) Another standard entry in the series. Environmental theme not too distracting, and good to see Callie play a large part in the story.

This is all I've read so far; I will hopefully update this list as and when time allows.

Ian.

[tomswift2002]

60. Deadfall
(B-) Another standard entry in the series. Environmental theme not too distracting, and good to see Callie play a large part in the story.

I remember when I read the book back in 1999 I found that the book just dragged and really didn't do a whole lot to get the plot kicked up.  Infact, on my ranking I place Deadfall at #120, just above the 2 books tied from #121 Survival Of The Fittest/Cave Trap.

[kosmicdust]

Hmm... I don't think it was that bad, to be honest. In a way, I think it was better than Line of Fire, which really disappointed me - the plot didn't really go anywhere, and the only source of danger was the slightly unhinged butler; I'm surprised that it's as popular as it seems to be.

[tomswift2002]

Line Of Fire is the second story in an unofficial trilogy that includes #8 See No Evil and #55 Beyond The Law.  So when you've read all three you'll see how exciting LOF is, compared to Deadfall. 

#'s 8, 16 and 55 are known by fans as the Bayport Corruption Storyline.

[SDLagent]

I enjoyed your commentary on these books, Ian. Spoiler-free even! I've always wanted to read Hostages of Hate, but, since you rate it so high, I want to read it even more, now!

Speaking of "Casefiles reviews". I just found out yesterday, my cousin-in-law (?) read The Hardy Boys as a kid, including the Casefiles. This is his review:

"When Joe's girlfriend died in the first book, it took The Hardy Boys to a new level of awesomeness!"

He wasn't joking either.

[hardygirl847]

OK so I am slightly a nut about my Hardy Boys. 12 years ago I kept track of all of the books I read...over 100. Sadly, the list is somewhere in the abyss I call the basement. So now that I am rereading them and reading some for the first time, I have a file on my computer to keep a record. I also write them as Favorites, Ones I especially liked, and then just the ones I read. Keep in mind that I rarely dislike a HB book, but I do have some that I like enough to rate it.

#1 Dead on Target is a must read.

#4 The Lazarus Plot....2 sets of Hardy Boys. Need I say more? Plus they have some interesting ways of getting things out of them in this one.

#11 Brother Against Brother...I know some people are disappointed by the end but this is truly my favorite.

#14 Too Many Traitors

#16 Line of Fire...I agree that it is good. I really enjoyed this one.

#17 The Number Fire

#19 Nightmare in Angel City

#27 Nowhere to Run

#29 Thick as Thieves...Good example of "things are not always as they seem"

#33 Collision Course

#37 Danger Zone

#38 Diplomatic Deceit

I still have a lot to reread or read so this is where the list ends for now...I apologize for not expanding on why I like them...I have a problem with not spoiling things sometimes... 

[Bigfootman]

Here's some short reviews of the Casefiles I hated:
Shock Jock- The villian could have won a Darwin Award if they were not a fictional character, and the "gang" was pathetic, they almost blew themseves up halfway through the book!
Brother Against Brother- One of the most over rated books ever, the ending and the fact that the bad guy appeared out of nowhere ruined the book.
Cold Sweat- Chet and Joe were acting like jerks for most of the book, and there was very little action.
Mission: Myhem- more like Mission: Boredom. Mission accomplished.  Why this story was not a Digest is unkown to me.
Survival Of The Fittest- Why was this book published? This book is worse then the entire Murder House trilogy, and that was awfull!

[tomswift2002]

Mission: Myhem- more like Mission: Boredom. Mission accomplished.  Why this story was not a Digest is unkown to me.

Mission: Mayhem introduced a character from NASA who would appear in the preceding book Target For Terror.  Neither book was memorable.

[MacGyver]

I thought they were both memorable just for that reason- outside of established trilogies (like "Operation: Phoenix" and "Ring of Fire") there aren't many Hardy Boys Casefiles that have one story leading into another with the Hardys in the same location and some of the same characters showing up.
(Although you do have books like "Dead Man in Deadwood", which takes place on the way home from the video game conference the Hardys went to in "Virtual Villiany".)

[Bigfootman]

Mission: Mayhem introduced a character from NASA who would appear in the preceding book Target For Terror.  Neither book was memorable.

The supermystery?!? I don't remember a character from NASA appearing in it! Or do you mean "A Taste For Terror" which came after "Mission: Myhem"?

[MacGyver]

Yeah- there's a Supermystery book called "Target for Terror", but I'm pretty sure he meant "A Taste for Terror".

[Bigfootman]

I thought they were both memorable just for that reason- outside of established trilogies (like "Operation: Phoenix" and "Ring of Fire") there aren't many Hardy Boys Casefiles that have one story leading into another with the Hardys in the same location and some of the same characters showing up.
(Although you do have books like "Dead Man in Deadwood", which takes place on the way home from the video game conference the Hardys went to in "Virtual Villiany".)

You just reminded me, I forgot 2 books on my list of worst Casefiles!
Deadman In Deadwood: Boring book, the Hardy Boys doing nothing in the book except listen to boring conversations which last whole chapters. The "Deadman" part of the book does not happen until at least Chapter 7!
Toxic Revenge: 90% of the book is the Hardy Boys investigating a school newspaper and searching for a missing teen. The murder does not happen until near the end, neither does the scene on the cover and the splash page, which by the way, is the only action scene in the book! The bad guy gives up without a fight!

[MacGyver]

Hmm- I like those two well enough. It's been a while since I've read them- but I've actually read "Dead Man in Deadwood" a couple of times. I think some of the historical stuff about the Battle of Little Big Horn in there grabs me some too. But to each his own. I just enjoy all of The Hardy Boys Casefiles to some degree or another. (I'm kinda this way on a lot of things though- I'm no good at choosing favorites. )

[tomswift2002]

The supermystery?!? I don't remember a character from NASA appearing in it! Or do you mean "A Taste For Terror" which came after "Mission: Myhem"?

I meant A Taste For Terror (boy that's one book that is not memorable, even when I'm forgetting the title!)