40th Anniversary Review: #58 The Sting Of The Scorpion

[tomswift2002]

The Sting Of The Scorpion
Published: 1979
Ghost Writer: James Lawrence
Other Hardy Boys by author: #16 A Figure In Hiding (1965), #17 The Secret Warning (1966), #19 The Disappearing Floor (1964), #37 The Ghost At Skeleton Rock (1957), #38 Mystery At Devil's Paw (1959, co-author with Andrew Svenson), #39 Mystery of The Chinese Junk (1960), #59 Night Of the Werewolf (1979), #60 Mystery of the Samaurai Sword (1979), #62 The Apeman's Secret (1980), #67 The Outlaw's Silver (1981), #74 Tic-Tac-Terror (1982).

Plot: A terrorist group is in Bayport stirring up trouble and no one knows who is involved in the group.  The group's leader is only known by the code name "Scorpio".  Meanwhile a new recreation park has opened on the outskirts of Bayport, and the owner is being pressured by two different people to sell.  It is up to the Hardy's to battle the terrorists and figure out just why this new park is wanted so much.

Review:  After the last few books that were written too well, the final "new" Grosset & Dunlap Hardy Boys book goes out in a rather surprising fashion ,with the Hardy Boys battling terrorists!  I had completely forgotten about the terrorists, and in the book the Scorpio gang is referred to numerous times as terrorists, and it's interesting how, only 8 years later, the Hardy's would be battling terrorists in the first Hardy Boys Casefiles book, Dead On Target and terrorism would play a role in numerous stories in that series and its spin-offs. 

It's also interesting that Sting Of The Scorpion actually refers to other Hardy Boys cases in the series, besides just name dropping The Tower Treasure (or in the UK The Mystery of The Aztec Warrior).  The one previous case that most people recall is Mystery of The Chinese Junk, because the Hardy's revisit a local from that book in Scorpion.  On page 94, in Chapter 11, Thomas 'Cap' Bailey from The Secret Of Wildcat Swamp makes a small cameo: Bailey is the Hardy's science teacher at Bayport High and book even mentions that the Hardy's went to Wildcat Swamp with him.  But this cameo is also significant in that, while The Mystery of The Chinese Junk was written by James Lawrence, The Secret Of Wildcat Swamp was not written by James Lawrence.  Wildcat Swamp was written by William Halstead, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, William Dougherty and Priscilla Baker-Carr (Baker-Carr just edited the manuscript in 1969 in order to shorten the original 1952 story down from it's original 25 chapters)!

Also, just from a historical note: it's interesting but in Chapter 10 Frank and Joe call home, at which point Aunt Gertrude tell them to call Sam Radley immediately.  Well the boys are in New York, and they have just enough change to call Bayport once at a payphone, but then Frank needs to visit a nearby pharmacy in order to break a bill to get more change to call Radley!  That's something that dates the book, as if the book was written now, Frank probably would've been using a cell phone that had a monthly plan and he wouldn't have needed all that change to "feed" the pay phone!

Also of interest, the first 4 original printings in 1979 contained a plug for #59 Night Of The Werewolf which was removed by the time that Grosset & Dunlap printed the book for Collins in 1980.  And then ,as I understand it, in the UK, from 1981 to 1991 Sting Of The Scorpion was out of print (American imports were available, but actual British #56 versions were not available), as Collins/Armada didn't get around to Anglicizing and typesetting the book until 1990 and it was finally released in 1991 in its Anglicized format.  And then the Armada edition was only in print from 1991-1995, at which point Collins shut down the Armada imprint and stopped printing any Hardy Boys.  (hardyboys.co.uk) 

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

[MacGyver]

Nice review! Thanks for the historical information and the reminder about all the name-dropping and cameos. I read this book many years ago (like decades ago- lol) and I don't remember that! However, I do remember Chet asking about the Hardys going with him to get a "sky high malt" at the end. 
  I love the continuity in this book! And yeah- fighting terrorists already back in 1979! And I love that the chums Biff, Tony, Phil and Chet all show up in this book.
It even mentions the Chinese Junk mystery by name!

And yep- I'm aware of the mention of Night of the Werewolf at the end of early printings. That's the copy I got as a child and I'm happy to have that version to tie right in to the Digests! 

 

[tomswift2002]

Yeah, hard to believe that it's been 40 years since Simon & Schuster entered the story.  I remember when I was reading "Sting of The Scorpion" in the 90's and at the time I didn't realize it, but it would've only been 15 years old. 

[VLoneWolf]

Yeah the Sting of The Scorpion is really good book. Its been a long time ago when I first read it.