31st Anniversary Review: Dangerous Games

[tomswift2002]

Dangerous Games
Published: August 1989
Author:

Plot:
An urgent message draws NANCY DREW and her friends to the International Championship Games in California. It seems a mysterious figure called the Black Knight wants to force star athletes off the track and into the hospital. But when Nancy starts to dif for clues, the young sleuth finds she is a moving target in a high risk event -- where any mistake is fatal.

MEANWHILE...

THE HARDY BOYS show up at the games to help beef up security -- and uncover a scandal. Along with acts of sabotage, there's evidence of illegal steoid use by certain athletes. But Frank and Joe's most critical problem is the Black Knight. The murderous phantom is about to deal a deathblow to the competition. And the brother detectives are top picks for the all-victim squad.

Review: ...to come.

[MacGyver]

I LOVE the Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Supermysteries series! 
This seems like a great choice to review with the 2020 Summer Olympics (hopefully) coming up soon.

[tomswift2002]

Another SuperMystery'88 book that is a good Olympics tie-in is At All Costs.  Of course, it's kind of dated in 2020, as its about the building of the events in Salt Lake City for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

[MacGyver]

Yeah- that one is a good one too.

[tomswift2002]

I LOVE the Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Supermysteries series! 
This seems like a great choice to review with the 2020 Summer Olympics (hopefully) coming up soon.

Seems to be the theme of Tokyo's games, with Canada pulling out.  2020 Olympic Dangerous Games!

[MacGyver]

Sadly. The games have been postponed as far as I've heard but who knows when they will happen? 

[tomswift2002]

So Dangerous Games has references to both Shock Waves & A Crime For Christmas.  Both books are described as occurring quite a while before DG, which makes sense in the Casefiles continuity, as ACFC & SW occurred between "Casefiles" #23 & 24, where there was about a 9 month gap, and then #'s 25-30 take place in about a 4 month period.

Also Frank remembers what Nancy ordered for breakfast at the Winslow Hotel in A Crime For Christmas.

[MacGyver]

Continuity references are always good.

[tomswift2002]

So I finished the book today.  Boy was Nancy ever getting lost in her memories of Padre Island.  I wonder if Dangerous Games was written by Peter Lerangis, who also wrote A Crime For Christmas & Shock Waves with all the detailed references to those books. 

Also it's interesting just how much the topic of drugs was discussed in this book.  Of course, the B-plot of the story was a drug doping in games story, which is quite an adult storyline for Nancy Drew & the Hardy Boys.  It reminded me of what's happened with Russia in the 2018, 2016 & 2014 Olympic Games.  Of course the 1995 The Hardy Boys TV show aired the episode Smart Drugs, Stupid Mistakes about a drug company trying to illegally acquire a new drug that was developed at a university.  And I think in the original text of The House On The Cliff also had the smugglers smuggling opium.  Of course in DG, the case dated to 2 years before DG.

The A plot was about cheating in games and trying to make sure that one athlete won in order for them to get a large promo contract with the main sponsor of the games. 

At times I felt that the author had too many characters to work with for the story.  Bess and George were in the story, but their contributions were minimal, and the author almost seemed to not know what to do with them.  The story was centered on Nancy, with Frank and Joe being in supporting roles. 

Rating: 7.5/10

[tomswift2002]

Just a note: both versions of The House On The Cliff are about drugs.  The 1927 version is about smuggling opium and other drugs into the USA from the Orient, while the 1959 version is about thefts of drugs from drug companies. 

[MacGyver]

That's a common complaint with the Supermysteries that they're geared more towards Nancy, even though you'd think they would be more even balanced. I never really picked up on it that much when reading the books- or I just didn't care. I still really enjoy reading them all anyway.

[tomswift2002]

I was reading the Nancy Drew Files #45 Out Of Bounds book today, and on the first page of Chapter 13, Nancy remembers working with the "Hardy brothers" on this case.  Dangerous Games is not mentioned by name, but Nancy had just found out that one of the football players in Out of Bounds was most likely using steroids.

I found it interesting that the author used "brothers" rather than "boys" in Out of Bounds.  It made the Hardy's sound like they were older than the 18 and 17 that they are said to be.  But also with continuity, Dangerous Games was said to be sometime before Out of Bounds, and years after the events of Nancy Drew File #1 Secrets Can Kill.

When you think of the Files-Casefiles continuity, it's interesting to think that the A Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys SuperMystery'88 series is the central series that connects everything together.  You have on the one side of the continuity, the Nancy Drew Files & River Heights, then on the other side you have The Hardy Boys Casefiles, Tom Swift, & A Hardy Boys and Tom Swift Ultra Thriller.  But right in the middle, connecting the two main series is A Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys SuperMystery'88.

[MacGyver]

Cool connection! It's good to know for fans like me that never got into reading all the Nancy Drew books. (I've read some and I own some; I just don't have the time or money to invest in them all at this point.)
   Speaking of those connections, it's too bad Nancy Drew never met Tom Swift in the books, though Tom Swift did meet another female mystery solver when he met up with Linda Craig in the 1983 pilot. (Though I believe they are stated to be cousins in the pilot.)
    Nancy will finally get to meet Tom soon though, which is a neat milestone, along with meeting The Bobbsey Twins! Too bad that all goes down on the CW Nancy Drew show and it will be pretty horrible all around because of what has been done to the characters.