#43 Strategic Moves (31st Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published: September 1990
Publisher: Archway Paperbacks (1990-1997?)
Author: Larry Mike Garmon
Other Hardy Boys by Author: Casefiles #27, 36, 39, 46, 126/SuperMystery'88 Buried In Time (co-authored)

Plot: In a game of international intrigue, you can't always play by the rules.

While attending an international summer school at England's Oxford University, the Hardys learn just how much times have changed. Frank's roommate, Pyotr Zigonev, is the USSR Junior chess champ, and he had become a pawn in an international power play. But just as the boys rally to Zigonev, they discover that the CIA has joined forces with the KGB.

The American and Soviet spy masters are out to foil a master of terrorism, and Frank and Joe and Zigonev are caught in the middle. One false move and they'll lose the ultimate game -- a danger-packed contest played out in the cold gray shadows of Stonehenge.

Review:  I'm currently re-reading this Casefile.  I first read it in the mid-90's and then later in the late-90's and sometime in the early-2000's,  but it's probably been about 20 years since I last read it, so I don't remember much of it.  I also remember, as a kid not really enjoying it.

This story seems to fit more in with the first 20 Casefiles, rather than where it is in the line, in terms of chronology.  I would place it as occurring between #11 & #12 (there's a six month gap there were the Hardy's were apparently up to nothing).  Anyway, Strategic Moves is heavily dated, as a major plot element concerns the Glasnost events that were occurring between 1988 and 1991 where the Soviet Union and it's satellite states, under Gorbachev, were trying to open communications with the West even further, and trying to open the Iron Curtain and transform it into a more Democratic state, versus how it had been closed, and communist since after World Ward 2.  It's kind of funny how in 1990, Simon & Schuster published 4 books straight in the Files-Casefiles Continuity that dealt with the Soviet Union, as in June, July and August 1990, they had published the Summer of Love trilogy in the Nancy Drew Files series that dealt with Nancy falling in love with the USSR's Top Ballet Dancer, and then Strategic Moves comes out and the Hardy's need to help the USSR's Top Junior Chess Champion, Pyotr and his sister, Petra Ziganev. 

In a way, this almost feels like the Hardy's version of From Russia With Love!

https://hardyboys.fandom.com/wiki/Strategic_Moves

[tomswift2002]

So between pages 141 and 145 there's an inconsistency in how the story is written.  For some reason Garmon had the rear windshield of the car the crooks are driving have a bunch of cracks in it, then he has Joe throw a rock at the rear windshield and destroy's the windshield—-all without the car driving past Joe!  So, somehow from in front of the car, Joe is able to throw a rock through the back windshield!

[tomswift2002]

I just finished it.  I totally forgot how violent this book was!  Uzi's, Beretta's (Frank even shoots a Beretta at one of the criminal's!), bombings, 2 people are even murdered in a scene, not to mention 2 others are killed in a car crash! 

But it's also interesting how Strategic Moves is a time capsule of that time between the 9 of November 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell (one of the criminals remarks about what it would still be like if the wall had not come down) and the 31st of December 1991 when all aspects of the Soviet Union ceased to exist, except in history books.  Strategic Moves is a rare Hardy Boys book where the story can be pinpointed to a specific era in time.  It's amongst the ranks of the original The Mystery of Cabin Island, The Submarine Caper (it takes place in West Germany) and The Four-Headed Dragon (Dragon also involved the Soviets).  Sure there are the technological sayings, like no cell phones in books from 1927-1983, but to have a Hardy Boys book politically dated is rare. 

Also part of the plot reminded me of the revised Footprints Under The Window, since the Ziganev's father was negotiating for the right for the USSR to use the CRAY satellite for communications that the US had launched.  And it was interesting, and from books and videos I've read it's accurate, but Ziggy mentions how the USSR is years behind the US in terms of technology, the USSR was technologically stagnant.  In different shows and books I've read how in the 80's, while the Western powers were using Airbus AC310's (entered service 1984), the Soviets were using planes like the Ilyushin Il -86 (entered service 1984) that used engines that were comparable to engines on Western aircraft from the mid- to late-1960's.

Anyway it was a fun book, and the author even had you questioning the Gray Man's loyalties.  And it was fun to see the Gray Man return after not being mentioned in Buried In Time, plus this was a Network only book—-the Assassins were mentioned early on and dismissed because the events were not being done with their style.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

[NZone]

So between pages 141 and 145 there's an inconsistency in how the story is written.  For some reason Garmon had the rear windshield of the car the crooks are driving have a bunch of cracks in it, then he has Joe throw a rock at the rear windshield and destroy's the windshield—-all without the car driving past Joe!  So, somehow from in front of the car, Joe is able to throw a rock through the back windshield!

It does say that Markham was leaning out of the back window, so we can assume the windows are down. If Joe is off to the side of the highway, the rock could go through an open side window and then out the back.

[tomswift2002]

It does say that Markham was leaning out of the back window, so we can assume the windows are down. If Joe is off to the side of the highway, the rock could go through an open side window and then out the back.

But it also says that the rock hit the weakened windshield.  So if the window was down, even if the back window went all the way down, Joe would be aiming for a small or non-existant target, being blocked by a larger target.  Also the side windows on a vehicle are usually called windows, not windshields.  Plus, if the gunman got hit by a rock, why would the driver start losing control?  I think the author meant the front windshield, but it wasn't caught in editing, so 31 years later, Joe I still doing a cartoon throw (like how in the cartoons, an inanimate object realizes it missed its target and reverses itself in mid-flight).

[MacGyver]

Nice review! I just remember liking this book because chess is mentioned and played in it.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

I just finished it.  I totally forgot how violent this book was!  Uzi's, Beretta's (Frank even shoots a Beretta at one of the criminal's!), bombings, 2 people are even murdered in a scene, not to mention 2 others are killed in a car crash! 

But it's also interesting how Strategic Moves is a time capsule of that time between the 9 of November 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell (one of the criminals remarks about what it would still be like if the wall had not come down) and the 31st of December 1991 when all aspects of the Soviet Union ceased to exist, except in history books.  Strategic Moves is a rare Hardy Boys book where the story can be pinpointed to a specific era in time.  It's amongst the ranks of the original The Mystery of Cabin Island, The Submarine Caper (it takes place in West Germany) and The Four-Headed Dragon (Dragon also involved the Soviets).  Sure there are the technological sayings, like no cell phones in books from 1927-1983, but to have a Hardy Boys book politically dated is rare. 

Also part of the plot reminded me of the revised Footprints Under The Window, since the Ziganev's father was negotiating for the right for the USSR to use the CRAY satellite for communications that the US had launched.  And it was interesting, and from books and videos I've read it's accurate, but Ziggy mentions how the USSR is years behind the US in terms of technology, the USSR was technologically stagnant.  In different shows and books I've read how in the 80's, while the Western powers were using Airbus AC310's (entered service 1984), the Soviets were using planes like the Ilyushin Il -86 (entered service 1984) that used engines that were comparable to engines on Western aircraft from the mid- to late-1960's.

Anyway it was a fun book, and the author even had you questioning the Gray Man's loyalties.  And it was fun to see the Gray Man return after not being mentioned in Buried In Time, plus this was a Network only book—-the Assassins were mentioned early on and dismissed because the events were not being done with their style.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

I remember reading this, and then trying to find the USSR on a map, no dice. I'm 32, though...

[tomswift2002]

I still remember a few school atlases in the late-90's having the USSR in them.  Also my family had (and still has) an atlas from 1964, so the USSR wasn't the only outdated thing in it (anyone remember Frobisher Bay was Iqaluit, Nunavet's original name?  It was still Frobisher Bay in 1964).

[MacGyver]

Oh yeah! It's funny to think that I remember when there was a country known as Yugoslavia and when it ceased to exist! I remember when Germany used to be East Germany and West Germany! I'm glad it's united again.
I also liked that a character in this book is named Petra, which is also the name of one of my favourite rock bands ever!

[tomswift2002]

I still say West Germany quite a bit, since when people ask were I was born I say West Germany (my dad was in the Canadian Forces at the time and was posted there).

[MacGyver]

That's so cool that you had that experience! Do you remember much of (West) Germany?   

[tomswift2002]

Not that much.  We left when I was only a toddler.

[MacGyver]

Okay- just wondering. It was interesting to me because I like learning about other places and because I have a similar experience too. (I was born in Spain though and also left when I was young. As a missionary's kid, I have lived a couple of places.)
   

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

This is one of my favorite Casefiles. Even though it's hard for me to understand at times.

[Hardy Boys UB Fan]

With everything now going on with Russia and other surrounding counties, it's even more apparent.