NOW AVAILABLE: Secret Files #8: Sports Sabotage

[SkyWarp]

The Hardy Boys Secret Files #8 Sports Sabotage is now available on Amazon.com as well as all other places books are sold.

[Hardy Sleuth]

Yep, it's already on my "to get" checklist! Should be good. And appropriate timing for the subject since we'd been talking about sports recently! Thanks, Skywarp, for the links!

[MacGyver]

Ah, an early venture into a form of Track & Field for Frank and Joe then- something they pursued into high school.

[tomswift2002]

I just finished the book yesterday.  I would have to give it a rating of 7 out of 10.  Plus the bonus was getting to see Callie Shaw return to the series.

[MacGyver]

Yay for Callie Shaw showing up again! That's always cool to see classic characters like her make appearances.
Are you collecting the series then? Or borrowing them from the library or something?

[Hardy Sleuth]

I really like Sports Sabotage! Chet has the hobby of wanting to be a spy = fun. I think one of the things I like best is Frank's and Joe's confidence in Chet's character when he is accused by others. The mystery's very good and well thought-out. Callie is written well in this series like she is in the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories.

[SDLagent]

These books actually look more interesting than the UB.

[MacGyver]

Yeah, I had a similar experience reading one of The Hardy Boys: The Clues Brothers books a while back. I've only read the first book in The Hardy Boys: Secret Files series, but maybe I'll have to go get caught up on this series. That says something when even these book series seem to be better done than the Undercover Brothers series....

[tomswift2002]

Yay for Callie Shaw showing up again! That's always cool to see classic characters like her make appearances.
Are you collecting the series then? Or borrowing them from the library or something?

I've got all 8 books in my collection.  Of course in this book Callie's just moved to Bayport which kind of matches up with her character from the Originals/Casefiles where she had been in Bayport a while.  But the Originals/Casefiles also mentioned that she wasn't in Bayport when the boys were 8 and 9.  That's where it was nice that the Clues Brothers didn't have Callie.  But with the Secret Files having Mimi Morton this is a very different universe.

[MacGyver]

But with the Secret Files having Mimi Morton this is a very different universe.

That's true. But did the Originals/Casefiles/UB ever indicate that Chet and Iola were the only children in their family? I admit, it sounds unlikely that a younger sister would never have been mentioned, but it's in the realm of possibility that they had other siblings who just were never mentioned- or perhaps weren't still around, though that would be rather morbid...

[Hardy Sleuth]

The Mysterious Case of the Mysterious Mimi

Mimi Morton: alleged younger sister of Chet and Iola Morton.

Questions: Who is she really? Why has no one ever heard of her outside of those two lone books? Where does she disappear to? And, more importantly perhaps, how is she able to do this so effectively?

Fact: 4 years old

Fact: Appears only in 2 out of 8 Secret Files so far: #1 Trouble at the Arcade and #5 A Monster of a Mystery

Interesting note, but likely not relevant to the mystery: Both books were released on the same day and month (April 5, 2010 and exactly one year later April 5, 2011). Yet one year after that a Secret File was not released on April 5, but instead on April 3...and no Mimi in #8 Sports Sabotage. Does that mean there would have been a Mimi sighting if they had waited two days to release Sports Sabotage?? We'll possibly never know...

Fact: She isn't mentioned or alluded to in the other Secret Files books (or other series/spinoffs) even when the location is at the Morton home.

Answer: Simply put, the author of those two books wanted Chet and Iola to have a younger sister named Mimi for those two stories.

or, for discussion's sake if you want a choice:

Answer: It was a typo, so whenever it said "sister" in reference to Mimi, the actual word intended was "cousin".

The Mysterious Case of the Mysterious Mimi: Case Solved

[MacGyver]

Good analysis, Hardy Sleuth.

[tomswift2002]

Well which ever way the Hardy Boys series goes in the future, Simon & Schuster is going to have to make sure that Mimi is mentioned since they're in a Rerun Van Pelt situation right now.

[Hardy Sleuth]

Good analysis, Hardy Sleuth.

Thanks, MacGyver. I'd been puzzling on the case myself and decided to figure it out while having some fun.

Well which ever way the Hardy Boys series goes in the future, Simon & Schuster is going to have to make sure that Mimi is mentioned since they're in a Rerun Van Pelt situation right now.

I have to admit, I had no idea what "Rerun Van Pelt" even meant, so after seeing your post, I looked it up real quick to find that this is Lucy and Linus' younger brother in the Peanuts comic. Another mystery solved.

[MacGyver]

Well, Rerun Van Pelt is still around as far as I know. I'm thinking Mimi Morton will wind up going through a Judy Winslow situation.
(I would say the Chuck Cunningham situation, but that wouldn't give the same dynamic as the youngest kid.)