30th Anniversary Review: A Crime For Christmas

[tomswift2002]

Published: November 1988

Plot: When Sam Peterson, the chief of the New York Police asks the Hardy's to come to New York find a couple of cat burglars who want to steal the Crown Jewels of Sarconne that are to be on display at the Met to celebrate Sarconne's 500th anniversary as a country.  (In the book Sarconne seems to be most likely based on France.)  Chief Peterson also asks the Hardy's to bring along a few of their friends who are their age to help in the investigation, since the only thing that is known about the cat burglar team, and it is not even known for sure, is that one of the cat burglars is a teenager.  It is also known that the burglars are operating out of the Winslow hotel.

So Frank and Joe invite Nancy Drew and Bess Marvin to join them at the Winslow in order to scout out possible father-son teams who might be the cat burglars.  But on the way to meeting the Hardy's Nancy and Bess decide to do some shopping, which includes stops at Bloomingdales, Macy's and Chocolate Revelations, where Bess manages to charm one of the guys working in the store to give her a chocolate crown.  And just as they are crossing the road to meet up with the Hardy's someone steals Bess' crown.

Frank and Joe, who are on the opposite side of the street, manage to get Bess' bag back with her crown safe, but unfortunately the thief gets away in the busy New York Christmas Shopping Crowd.

Then at the Winslow the Hardy's, Nancy Drew and Bess meet a rather mysterious guy who calls himself "John".    A little while later "John" sneaks in Nancy and Bess' window and asks them and the Hardy's to help him sneak out of the hotel.

But just as they are leaving the hotel a detective from a government agency stops them and tells them that they are under arrest for attempting to kidnap Jean-Claude, the Crown Prince of Sarconne!

Review (2009):

It is really interesting how the author of this volume managed to have, essentially, 3 different plot lines running within the book, with 2 of the plotlines dealing with the Crown Prince, and the other plotline, mostly acting as a B plot for the book, tying in because the crooks in that plotline want the Crown Jewels. 

Also it is amazing just how jealous Joe is in this book over Jean-Claude's affections towards Bess.  You have to remember that in the Casefiles universe Iola died in "Dead On Target", and in this book, "A Crime For Christmas", the author sets Joe up in the position of being the lover who has to fight for Bess' affection while she is "on Cloud 9" with her Prince Charming.  Not to mention that the author then introduces Fiona Fox who is also vying for Joe's attention---and the photo's and negatives that he has been taking of father-son and one father-daughter combo.

This is a really great book and the plot runs over the course of about 6 days.  We know for a fact that the book ends on December 21, because the author has the characters find out the information about when a shipment of chocolate crowns goes out.

Review (2019):  I was looking over my old review from 9 years ago.  And I just finished the book, and really, it is still a CLASSIC, and my review from 9 years ago is still very accurate.

Now then I found the fact that the Hardy's and Nancy are in New York for this case interesting, as the Hardy's were in New York in their previous Casefiles story, Street Spies, so, while there was no mention of the events of Street Spies, it appears that the Hardy's just stayed in New York, especially since Sam Peterson appeared in Street Spies and was mentioned in A Crime For Christmas as asking the Hardy's to work on the cat burglar case.  Nancy's previous case, Pure Poison, took place in Washington, D.C., so she had to fly in for A Crime For Christmas.  Although after this book the Hardy's, if I recall, head home to Bayport and then are called to Washington, D.C. for Double Exposure. 

Oh, and one thing that I found funny, reading the book in 2019, is that at one point Nancy and the Hardy's buy a map of New York, after seeing the one that Francois, the limo driver has, and I was thinking of how, if the book was written now, they would just pull out their smart phones and download the same app that Francois was using to find the location they needed.  Also Joe's photography in this book is using film and there's a whole scene involving a dark room, which had the book been written now, would've been probably upgraded to digital photography, unless Joe was actually written as one of those photography guys that still likes to shoot on film and develop his own photos.  But otherwise, the book really isn't dated. 

Rating: 9.0 out of 10