Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Mystery #5: Bonfire Masquerade

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

All swearing is bad as far as I'm concerned- it saddens me to know that it has seeped into The Hardy Boys- but that is the downward spiral of culture- once you write off one thing as not too bad, everything keeps sliding with it.
(This was not meant to be a personal affront to anyone else's beliefs here- just my perspective on it.)

I believe the same thing.

[Bigfootman]

Plot summery from http://www.amazon.ca/Bonfire-Masquerade-Franklin-W-Dixon/dp/1442403284
Nancy Drew and her friends are going to New Orleans for a vacation -- she even promises not to solve any mysteries while she's down there! But, when she runs into Frank and Joe Hardy, there can't be a mystery too far away. Nancy and the Hardys begin to investigate a crooked real estate scheme admist the glitz and splendor of New Orleans during party season. Throw in a dead body and intrigue, and there's no time for a vacation.

[MacGyver]

Thanks for the summary, dude.
Okay- so it's set at Mardi Gras- I guess that could be fun, if they do it right. I was just flipping through the Voodoo Doll 2-part episode of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries the other day because someone had brought me a little treat packet from Mardi Gras and got me thinking about it. I like that episode fairly well (except for the voodoo content of course- I always get squeamish about such episodes- but thankfully, this one had a somewhat logical explanation and just had enough to leave you wondering at the end - I can usually dig those kinds of episodes- a little bit of magic and intrigue and suspense can be fun- I just have to keep it balanced and in check. And especially when it comes to horror- since I don't dig that at all.)
        But we'll just have to see if the book is all that good or not when it comes out.

[tomswift2002]

Well I don't like how the write-up mentions a "dead-body".  Sounds like the same rehash that has been going on for years now with every single book---"Oh, we have to have a murder in the book so that people will buy it!".

[MacGyver]

I love how the plotline is that Nancy Drew is going on vacation. I mean, even when Nancy and the Hardy Boys go on vacation, of course they still run into a mystery. But when would  a book ever be written with them going on vacation and having nothing happen as far as mysteries go? I mean- they are primarily mystery stories, so there has to be a case- otherwise you'd have a really dull book.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

I love how the plotline is that Nancy Drew is going on vacation. I mean, even when Nancy and the Hardy Boys go on vacation, of course they still run into a mystery. But when would  a book ever be written with them going on vacation and having nothing happen as far as mysteries go? I mean- they are primarily mystery stories, so there has to be a case- otherwise you'd have a really dull book.

Oh yeah. You bet you would!

[tomswift2002]

I love how the plotline is that Nancy Drew is going on vacation. I mean, even when Nancy and the Hardy Boys go on vacation, of course they still run into a mystery. But when would  a book ever be written with them going on vacation and having nothing happen as far as mysteries go? I mean- they are primarily mystery stories, so there has to be a case- otherwise you'd have a really dull book.

I seem to recall that in Terror On Tour, Nancy was attending the Rockpullazza (or whateve it was called) as a break from detective work, and then the rest of the Super Mystery'07 series always has Nancy going away for a vacation and just happening to "cross paths" with Frank and Joe. 

I prefer how the SuperMystery'88 series had them, for the most part doing the same thing, but on different cases it was actually mentioned that Frank and Joe had called and invited Nancy, Bess and George onto the case, or vice versa.  But then, at the same time the 88 series also used an old formula from the Hardy Boys books that allowed the Hardy's and Nancy to join forces, and that was having the three of them on two completely different cases, but then having them find out that they are actually on the same case (ie.  in the pre-1987 books, most of the time the boys would be on a case, and then discover that the case the Fenton Hardy was working on was the same as theirs).

[MacGyver]

Yeah- thankfully they did vary it up here and there in the '88 Supermystery series. It was nice to have a book where we first start the scene with Frank and Joe Hardy rather than Nancy Drew all the time. And they have had different reasons and different methods of crossing paths- but that has to be a hard thing to write and keep fresh over the course of all those books.