The Crisscross Crime & Cross-Country Crime (May include spoilers!)

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

I just finished The Crisscross Crime (The Hardy Boys #150). And I got to say I thought I was reading a Casefile! There was the usual stuff that I'd expect in a casefiles in there, not a digest book. I loved it!

Does anyone else see it as it as a Casefile and not a digest?


I also just finished the Cross Country Crime (The Hardy Boys #134) and this too felt very Casefile-ish.

[MacGyver]

I haven't read either of those Digests in quite a while, but I do know that there has been much speculation that The Criss-Cross Crime was probably a recycled plot for a proposed entry in the Hardy Boys Casefiles series. I'm not sure if that's actually been confirmed yet though. And that's interesting to hear about Cross-Country Crime- I'd have to look at it again before I could comment much more on that.

[tomswift2002]

The Crisscross Crime was originally written as The Hardy Boys Casefiles #130, and would've been published somewhere between March and May 1998, had the series continued, but was rewritten to remove all Casefiles references, but the tone of the book was similar to Mystery Stories #84 and 85.  The book would've followed #129 Explosive Force, had it been published.

[SDLagent]

Beat me to it, Trevor!

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

The Crisscross Crime was originally written as The Hardy Boys Casefiles #130, and would've been published somewhere between March and May 1998, had the series continued, but was rewritten to remove all Casefiles references, but the tone of the book was similar to Mystery Stories #84 and 85.  The book would've followed #129 Explosive Force, had it been published.

That why I thought it was a Casefile! And it really was, sort of. What were the Casefile references that were removed?

[tomswift2002]

That why I thought it was a Casefile! And it really was, sort of. What were the Casefile references that were removed?

I don't know for sure, but most likely it was references to Iola being dead (she's alive in all the other continuities), Vanessa Bender being Joe's girlfriend, stuff like that.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

I don't know for sure, but most likely it was references to Iola being dead (she's alive in all the other continuities), Vanessa Bender being Joe's girlfriend, stuff like that.

They weren't even mentioned at all in that book. Do you think that's weird?

[MacGyver]

No, that's what he was saying- they modified the book so that it would fit into the Digests continuity- because it would have been weird if they did suddenly make reference to Iola being dead and Vanessa now being Joe's girlfriend unless they followed it up with Joe waking up from a horrible nightmare- which would give the Casefiles continuity a Newhart ending.

[SDLagent]

It would have been cool if they'd given the Casefiles continuity some kind of ending. Just saying.

[MacGyver]

Yeah- it seems especially in the first few books and even in books much later on in the series, the mystery of Iola's death was always an ongoing thing. I mean, Frank had pretty much accepted it, but Joe still seemed defiantly holding on to some little bit of hope that perhaps she was still alive. I could maybe have seen some sort of explosive, multi-part ending for the Casefiles with Iola doing a Winter Soldier-type scenario. (i.e. Bucky from Marvel's Captain America comics.)

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

It would have been cool if they'd given the Casefiles continuity some kind of ending. Just saying.

Like what kind of ending?

[SDLagent]

A real ending. A finale. Instead of just cutting the series short.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

A real ending. A finale. Instead of just cutting the series short.

Do you think that the ending was good in the Hardy Boys digest #190, Motocross Madness?

[MacGyver]

For the record, that was #190 actually. And Motocross Madness was a fun enough book, but I don't look at it like a finale to the Hardy Boys Digests series exactly. Although it sadly pretty much did serve as the end of The Hardy Boys that I recognized as they seemed to get further and further from their roots in the Undercover Brothers series- but presumably we can say that the Undercover Brothers series is meant to be the continuation/revamping of the original series. Or that's one view in any case. But seeing as how they didn't number Extreme Danger #191 - I guess it really is best just to call it a spinoff series. Of course, I don't know what really would be a good finale to the Digests series. Something similar to #100 The Secret of the Island Treasure might have been cool- I really enjoyed that book as it brought back characters like Hurd Applegate and took Frank and Joe back to where all their mysteries started. Perhaps some kind of a story that would incorporated all of their various chums throughout the years (including long gone ones like Perry "Slim" Robinson and Jerry Gilroy) and long out of action characters like Jack Wayne and Sam Radley and maybe even Oscar Smuff - along with Chief Collig and Con Riley- and Chet Morton and his jalopy The Queen, and Tony Prito and his boat The Napoli and Biff Hooper and his dog Sherlock (okay- it's not his dog really showed up that often- that one was just kind of a joke- like demanding Ace the Bathound show up in every Batman story ) - and Phil Cohen and Frank and Joe there with both the van and their boat, The Sleuth and maybe even mentioning their original sedan- and Aunt Gertrude, Fenton Hardy and Laura Hardy all having fairly significant roles, along with Iola Morton and Callie Shaw- and perhaps they could have even crossed the long uncrossed line (in the books anyway)- and have the Hardy Boys celebrate their graduation from high school- and establish their own part-time detective agency after studying criminology in college. I don't know what the huge mystery exactly would be- but it should find a way to incorporate some of their past mysteries and adventures and pay tribute to the whole cast of characters while at the same time establishing some new ground- and this kind of thing should definitely be a multi-part story- perhaps a trilogy would be in order. Well- that's my idea on it anyway.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

For the record, that was #190 actually. And Motocross Madness was a fun enough book, but I don't look at it like a finale to the Hardy Boys Digests series exactly. Although it sadly pretty much did serve as the end of The Hardy Boys that I recognized as they seemed to get further and further from their roots in the Undercover Brothers series- but presumably we can say that the Undercover Brothers series is meant to be the continuation/revamping of the original series. Or that's one view in any case. But seeing as how they didn't number Extreme Danger #191 - I guess it really is best just to call it a spinoff series. Of course, I don't know what really would be a good finale to the Digests series. Something similar to #100 The Secret of the Island Treasure might have been cool- I really enjoyed that book as it brought back characters like Hurd Applegate and took Frank and Joe back to where all their mysteries started. Perhaps some kind of a story that would incorporated all of their various chums throughout the years (including long gone ones like Perry "Slim" Robinson and Jerry Gilroy) and long out of action characters like Jack Wayne and Sam Radley and maybe even Oscar Smuff - along with Chief Collig and Con Riley- and Chet Morton and his jalopy The Queen, and Tony Prito and his boat The Napoli and Biff Hooper and his dog Sherlock (okay- it's not his dog really showed up that often- that one was just kind of a joke- like demanding Ace the Bathound show up in every Batman story ) - and Phil Cohen and Frank and Joe there with both the van and their boat, The Sleuth and maybe even mentioning their original sedan- and Aunt Gertrude, Fenton Hardy and Laura Hardy all having fairly significant roles, along with Iola Morton and Callie Shaw- and perhaps they could have even crossed the long uncrossed line (in the books anyway)- and have the Hardy Boys celebrate their graduation from high school- and establish their own part-time detective agency after studying criminology in college. I don't know what the huge mystery exactly would be- but it should find a way to incorporate some of their past mysteries and adventures and pay tribute to the whole cast of characters while at the same time establishing some new ground- and this kind of thing should definitely be a multi-part story- perhaps a trilogy would be in order. Well- that's my idea on it anyway.

I agree!