Trouble At The Arcade & The Missing Mitt

[tomswift2002]

Trouble At The Arcade
Printed April 2010
Plot: Frank and Joe Hardy enter a video game competition at a local arcade for the chance to win a brand-new, deluxe video game console. But before the contest can move forward, someone steals all the entrance fees from the arcade's cash box. Can Frank and Joe save the competition, or could Callie Shaw end up taking the fall?

The Missing Mitt
Printed April 2010
Plot: The Bayport Bandits have lost 0 games this season, and now the Bandits are in the final game of the season against their rivals the Johnston Jupiters. However, even before the game begins, someone has stolen the glove from the Bandits first basemen---and glove that once belonged to the first baseman's father who was a World Series Championship player. Are the Johnston Jupiter's trying to do some low down cheating inorder to win the game? Or is there someone else involved in the mystery that the boys are overlooking?   

Reviews: Well, I must say that after reading these 2 books, I can tell that the Secret Files take place in a Hardy Boys continuity that we've never seen before (unless the UB regular series or the Graphic Novels give her a mention now that she's been introduced), especially considering that in "Trouble At The Arcade" we are introduced to Chet and Iola Morton's baby sister, Mimi who is 4 years old in this series, while Chet and Iola are 9 and 8, respectively. And in the book Mimi seemed to be rather interesting for a 4-year-old character, so it will be intriguing to see where the Mimi character goes from this point forward.  Something that makes this series rather interesting in the first book is seeing the beginnings of the Frank/Callie relationship, which has never really been explored in the books before. Not too much romance stuff occurs in "Trouble At the Arcade", since the book is aimed at a very young audience, but Frank does make mention of how both of them are in the same class. And then Callie lands on not just the Top 4 championship list, but also as one of the suspects in the case.  And the comic at the end of the book is actually a prequel story to the main story. "The Missing Mitt" has the Hardy's looking for a missing baseball glove. Even though I haven't read "The Karate Clue" (Clues Brothers #2), from the write-ups of that book it sounds like S&S borrowed a major plot element from that book for Secret Files #2: a sports item that contains a sports figures name on it. But the book does continue a plot element from "Trouble At The Arcade": Fenton Hardy is building a spare bedroom above the garage. 

So far I would give the series a rating of:

6.5 out 10.

[MacGyver]

But the book does continue a plot element from "Trouble At The Arcade": Fenton Hardy is building a spare bedroom above the garage. 

Maybe so his spinster sister Gertude can have a place to stay when she visits?
(That's cool if they're to work in things like that from the original continuity.)

[tomswift2002]

Maybe so his spinster sister Gertude can have a place to stay when she visits?
(That's cool if they're to work in things like that from the original continuity.)

That wouldn't really work since in the Original continuity Aunt Gertrude moved right into a room in the house, while the boys themselves (with their own money) converted the space above the barn/garage into a lab.

[MacGyver]

Good recall there- yes, you're right at that. Maybe the spare room is for Chris then.

[tomswift2002]

Good recall there- yes, you're right at that. Maybe the spare room is for Chris then.

In the Casefiles Chris was gone before Frank was born.

[MacGyver]

Okay- it's been a long while since I've read "Double Exposure" obviously.

[SDLagent]

Now you can buy a used copy of the library edition of Trouble at the Arcade at Amazon.ca for only $ 444.00 Canadian!

[MacGyver]

Hmm- sounds reasonable enough.

[tomswift2002]

Are you sure that it is a "used library copy"?  On the site it says that both versions are brand-new.

[SDLagent]

Oh, it's new!? I'll definitely buy it now!!!