reminiscing-wanderer

[concussions-and-clues]

Well since I missed posting yesterday and I loved this show even more than the Nancy Drew one, here is another hotly demanded* review (* review may not have been hotly demanded except by the writer of the review)

Synopsis:

Much like the Nancy Drew series of the same era, this story starts with Frank Hardy hitting a man with his car (apparently this was a real blight for young detectives in 1995). After finding a key on the man the boys are drawn to a car with fake gold in it. Mysterious women, dodgy men, and more trouble than they were expecting, can the boys find the real gold before Frank loses his job and the pair get arrested?

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Frank: [It was] stolen from the tomb of Imhotep in the late 19th century AD.

Joe: From the valley of kings in Egypt to a parking garage in Bayport. Yeah, I think there's a metaphor in there somewhere.

Frank: How about, "all that glitters is not gold"?

Joe: Ah, mon frère, that is not a metaphor, that is an adage.

TL;DR Review:

My review is watch this show! Am I biased by nostalgia? Yes, horrifically. Objectively do I know there are bad parts of this show? Also, yes. But is it legitimately some of the best characterizations of the brothers I have ever seen? An emphatic YES! In fact, it IS the best version of Joe I’ve seen. If you love Joe I think you’ll love this show. On the Retro Rerun channel they have all the episodes on YouTube. Here is a link to the first episode, even though it says episode 2 since they uploaded them out of order.

Even more bias and spoilers below the cut!

Review:

Okay full disclosure, I love this show and will defend it almost to the hilt. The brother’s dynamic is so good. Is this episode a little cringy? Yes. But are the characters perfect? Also yes. This is the first place where I ever saw Frank Hardy portrayed as super uptight. This is the characterization of Frank I saw as a five year old girl in 1995 and said, “Yes, this is the closest approximation to me I have ever seen on television.” And the scary thing is, it still is 25 years later. I have this show on DVD and watch it regularly still. I L.O.V.E. this show!

Joe is really the star of this show and while this episode plays the brothers up equally later episodes leant more into the comedy of Joe with Frank being the sarcastic straight man and boy does the dynamic work. I wish they hadn’t have been cancelled because Paul Popowich and Colin Gray were getting a good rhythm going as the brothers just as it got cancelled.

It is low budget and made in the nineties, so don’t go in expecting amazing visuals but I find the writing is funny, the acting is great, and mysteries are compelling even though they are limited to 22 minutes. You can tell that the writers loved the source material and it really shows. So many of the adaptations are ashamed as of their past as children’s books but they lean into it. The restaurant they are eating at in the very first scene is called the Dixon after Franklin W. Dixon the “writer” (yes, I know it is a collective name for a lot of writers) of the books!

Oh an P.S. the intro is like the most quintessentially garish nineties thing and it is amazing. I take no criticisms!

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Review: The Death of Nancy Drew (Issue #1)

Okay, so before I start the review I want to put in this disclaimer: I know this wasn’t a popular title when it was announced because of the issue with fridging Nancy Drew. I understand this and agree that it was a poor way to celebrate Nancy’s 90th anniversary. Fridging is a rampant issue in comics (and so many other forms of media) the question becomes, did they fridge Nancy? My answer is sort of yes but mostly no; however, I cannot explain further without going into spoilers so there is a better explanation below the cut.

Synopsis:

The first issue of this series starts from Joe Hardy’s point of view as he copes with the death of his long-time friend (and secret crush) Nancy Drew. Everyone keeps telling him it is just an accident, but Joe knows that she was murdered and her death has something to do with Nancy’s take down of the Syndicate (as seen in the previous series “Big Lie”).

Quotation to Pique Your Interest:

Who is Nancy Drew? Simple enough question, right?

She’s a teen detective, always looking to make River Heights a better place. She’s a good daughter, a good student, a good friend. Boring, some would say.

They’re wrong. Well, the question’s wrong. It should be… who was Nancy Drew.

TL;DR Review:

This is a very good prologue to what promises to be an interesting story. It is different but refreshing to see Joe and Nancy’s relationship highlighted (hints of Jancy for those who are interested), since people tend to focus more on Frank and Nancy’s relationship. Hell, it is nice to see a story that focuses on Joe at all! The story is well written and engaging; however, I feel the illustration style took a serious downgrade from “Big Lie” and can be distracting. This being said I found it got better near the end of the issue so it might have been a purposeful stylistic choice. Overall, I think it is definitely worth a read.

Below the cut is a more spoilerish review, plus a better discussion of the fridging issue.

Review:

Okay, so for those who do not know fridging is a truncated/ colloquized version of the phrase “Women in Refrigerators”. The phrase was coined by Gail Simone to describe a horrifically common trope in comics of the hero coming home to find their female significant other dead and stuffed in a fridge. Simone further defined the trope as specifically referring “to how [women] are often harmed, murdered, raped, abused in order to provide motivation for a male lead character to seek revenge”.

With that defined it becomes clear that “The Death of Nancy Drew” would seem to fall squarely into this trope and, uh, yeah it does. Nancy’s death is used to set up Joe’s motivation. Where it gets a little bit tricky is the fact that … big spoilers here… the end of the story makes it clear that Nancy faked her own death.

A key element in fridging is that women almost never return to their full power or agency which is where their deaths differ from those of male heroes (part of the related trope Dead Men Defrosting). Since Nancy is not only not dead, she is arguably more powerful (being dead has an advantage when people are hunting you down) I feel it isn’t truly a Women in Refrigerator moment. It may have been Joe’s motivation, but since he finds out that Nancy is alive AND investigating with his brother I feel the true motivation of the whole series will not be Nancy’s death but figuring out who the rest of the Syndicate are and, from Joe’s point of view, why Nancy and Frank did not trust him (Joe) with the mystery.

Like in “Big Lie”, it is fairly clear that Nancy Drew is the one pulling all of the strings and it looks like nothing has changed in “The Death of Nancy Drew”. It is clearly going to be her story. They set up that she basically singlehandedly took down the entire Syndicate and pissed off a lot of people. But she didn’t care, she was doing what was right. This Nancy Drew is a BAMF. She only gets help when she needs it, especially from the Hardys. They are not there to rescue her, they are there to do what she needs them to.

When I was first asked about it I didn’t really see the big deal, not because I don’t think fridging is an issue, but because it was obvious to me that Nancy faked her death. In the previous series, Nancy got both Frank and Joe out of a fucking MURDER charge with crooked cops in charge, there is no way she was going down without a fight.

Rather unfairly the person who wrote the synopsis for “Big Lie” likened her to a femme fatale, likely due to women not having much to do in classic Noir but be maneaters, but she is so much more in this series. She is more like Batman, having planned for every eventuality and executing plans with the efficiency of a spider luring a fly into a trap. I think Nancy will have a similar arc in this story. The Hardys might be there, but it is Nancy’s story. Even death couldn’t stop her.

[concussions-and-clues]

Synopsis:

Nancy and George are called in to go undercover at an archaeological dig site in Oklahoma where artefacts of a little-studied Native American tribe are going missing. On their first day at the site, they meet the Hardy’s, also in Oklahoma undercover but for a more explosive reason. Two trucks full of nuclear waste have gone missing and the Network wants the boys to find out where they are and what the person who stole them intends to do.

Rattlesnakes, remnants of fabled civilizations, and radioactive waste. Oklahoma’s deserts just got a whole lot riskier.

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

"The old drop-the-handkerchief trick," Nancy said with a laugh. "Leave it to Frank and Joe."

"The what trick?" George asked.

Nancy began walking. "You know, like the old movies. A girl wants to get a guy's attention, but she doesn't want to be obvious. So she drops a handkerchief" -she leaned over to pick up the glasses- "and the guy feels it's his duty to return it. Only this time the handkerchief is a pair of sunglasses. And Frank's the girl in this movie, and we're the guy-"

TL;DR Review:

This book has a really slow start. It was another one I picked up and put down without finishing a year ago. That being said, now that I have finished it I really liked the last quarter of the book. There are a couple scenes that had me on the edge of my seat even though in this series Nancy and the Hardy’s have plot armour so thick it is a miracle they can move. Overall, I would recommend the book with the warning that the first part is very dry.

More bias and spoilers for the book below the cut.

Review:

I think one of the most interesting things about this book is that you can totally see the plot happening in a book set today even though it was written 30 years ago. The upset army general, the home-grown terrorist plot, the mistreatment of Native American lands, and the academic backstabbing is still so relevant. It is a shame the story isn’t more interesting. Don’t get me wrong, the end of the book is great. I was on the edge of my seat as the author described the pickup pushing the detectives off a bridge but getting to that point is rough.

There are two sort of dead-end romance things with Joe and George each falling for an older woman and man respectively but even that peters out pretty quickly leaving no real romance or even mystery to read about. Three-quarters of the book is just the detectives going places and talking to people but not really getting anywhere in the investigation. The characters are also a bit dull. George has the most character but even she is just written like Bess, boy crazy and vapid. I get the feeling that the author really liked to write action sequences because those are all amazing, but everything else was just a little half-assed.

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Back by unpopular demand (lol) my book review/ recommendation series...

Synopsis:

Finally, Nancy and Ned get to go on a vacation! Along with Bess, George, and the Hardy Brothers, Nancy and Ned visit friends on Padre Island. However, the sun and fun are interrupted when one of their Lothario friends, Buck, finds a corpse while diving with Nancy. No one believes him but when things get more and more dangerous for the group of teenagers it becomes necessary for Nancy and the Hardy’s to put aside their vacation and solve the mystery.

Love triangles, corpses, and men-of-war jellyfish… maybe somewhere else would have been a safer vacation destination.

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Frank's face was pale with fright and disbelief.

Joe, hundreds of yards away, was clinging onto the handgrip as if frozen. He was steering right for the jetty.

The sound of the collision when it came was all the more sickening because of its anticipation.

TL;DR Review:

Eh, this one is just okay. I don’t regret having read it, but I wouldn’t read it again. The characters are boring, and there isn’t even any good romance drama in this book to distract from the overall weak mystery. If you can only read one of these books this would not be on the top of my recommendation list.

Spoilers and an even more biased review below...

Review:

Oh yay, spoiled rotten teenagers… my favourite… I found the characters in this book fairly unbearable. Buck and Mercedes were one-note characters and anyone with any hint of personality was barely in the book. I do like how Ned didn’t really get jealous (except for once) because he knew that Nancy was not the type to run around. However, that does lead to another issue. In the previous two books, Nancy was obviously attracted to Frank (like she would have jumped his bones if she wasn’t dating Ned and he wasn’t dating Callie) but she acts as if it is all in the past in this book. It makes it clear that different authors wrote each book. Joe is also very un-Joe like. The death of Iola Morton from the first book in the Hardy Boys’ solo series from the same time is brought up for the first time in a Super Mystery and because of it he is very moody and nowhere near as laid back and fun, leaving Frank to make a fool of himself with a cute girl this time.

For the actual mystery, I feel like it never really gets started until it ends. The detectives mostly just try to have a vacation despite the mystery which feels very out of character. I do like how there is only really one mystery this time which means it doesn’t feel like a mystery is getting short-changed like in a lot of the other Super Mystery books.

[concussions-and-clues]

Synopsis:

Nancy, Bess, Joe, and Frank are in New York for Christmas at the express request of the Chief of Police to help identify and stop a duo of cat burglars who are out to steal the crown jewels of Sarconne! On their first night in town they run into John who has a reciprocal crush on Bess and troubles of his own. 

Kidnappings, shootings, crushes, and chocolate. What you mean everyone else’s visit to New York isn’t like this?!

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

"I'm impressed," Nancy said.

When Frank smiled at her, the subdued lighting softened the sharp angles of his handsome face.

"You should be," he replied. "Now that you're my girlfriend, I have to do things to impress you."

TL;DR Review:

I quite liked this book. It isn’t Christmasy at all, so I didn’t feel weird about reading it in March. The characters are, for the most part, better-rounded than in the first Super Mystery book and the mysteries are pretty interesting even if one of them takes a back seat throughout most of the book. Overall, I would recommend this book

More information, spoilers, and biased review below the cut.

Review:

Why do they insist on making Bess a stereotype? She acts like a silly little girl throughout the book even when she knows the stakes which pisses me off. Other than her the other characters are better balanced in this book than in Double Crossing. Nancy holds her own in quite a few fights and is super smart figuring out key clues left, right, and centre. Joe is still flirty but it is mellowed by his obvious crush on Bess and his poutiness when she finds a new beau. This differs from Bess because Joe is still shown to be competent despite not always thinking with his upstairs brain. I am pretty sure Frank is the author’s favourite character because he is a little Mary Sue-ish.  He is the voice of reason and I don’t think he screws up anything throughout the book. Normally this would be bad but with Bess and Joe being overly emotional throughout the book and the book being written from Nancy’s point of view we needed another reasonable character for Nancy to work with. And whew, they work together a lot. Normally Joe and Frank would split up together and Bess and Nancy would be a team but in this one Frank and Nancy are constantly working together. This is another one where the overtones of Francy so strong that even one of the other character calls Nancy Frank’s girlfriend and no one correct him. And then they joke about it but like not really.

I’ve seen other reviews that complain about the Manhatten Street Finder code being used because it means you would have to know something about New York to solve the mystery but I loved it. It was a very believable thing and I wish that they would use it in one of the Her Interactive games, it would be an awesome but believable puzzle!

One issue I did have with the book was the age of the crew. They go to a late-night comedy club and a dance club in the book but I was pretty sure those were drinking establishments and the drinking age in New York is 21. I was pretty sure Joe was 17 and the other three were 18. Are there clubs for adults below the drinking age in New York? I live somewhere where the drinking age is 18 so I really don’t know…

[concussions-and-clues]

Synopsis:

Nancy is leaving River Heights and heading to the big city to start her college career! On the way to meet Bess and George Nancy accidentally hits a man with her car, but the man takes off before she can check if he is alright. In his haste to get away he drops a bag with herbs in it. When Nancy attempts to return the bag, she find that the herbs are used to treat uncontrollable terror, drawing Nancy down a path of paranoia and assassination attempts.

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Nancy: The city! A new home, a new school, a new life, and two old friends! For the moment I’d be staying with Bess and George. When the right place for me appeared, I would know it. Until then the possibilities were limitless, and I was ready for anything!

TL;DR Review:

So I get the feeling this adaptation of Nancy Drew gets over looked quite a bit and I personally think that is a shame. Released in 1995 it had a modern day (at least 1995 modern) solving cases in the city. This is the first episode of the series. 

I would recommend people check it out,  It isn’t high art but I think it has some charm. As incentive, they even have all of the episodes uploaded on Youtube now, legally! Link here (it says episode 3 but they were uploaded out of order by Retro Rerun)

Review:

Overall everything about this series was panned pretty hard, so it only ran for 13 episodes but I quite enjoyed the series. I saw it when I was five years old for the first time and then they would rerun it every summer at like midnight on weeknights for years (along with the Hardy Boys series from the same era).

So as might be obvious, this show holds a certain nostalgia value for me. “Welcome to the Callisto” was the first live action version of Nancy Drew I ever saw and it still influences how I see her. I think Tracy Ryan was a great Nancy Drew and I wish I could have seen her grow more into the role. Like most pilot episodes “Welcome to the Callisto” is a little shaky and hampered slightly by only being 22 minutes long.

Despite the bad reviews, I do love the characterizations of Nancy, Bess, and George. Nancy is more similar to how she was portrayed in the 1980-1990s book series being absent minded when she’s on a case but still very intelligent. For some reason they made Nancy a brunette, which seems strange but she still acts like the Nancy I know and love. Bess is more practical than her book counter part (at least in the first episode) but still into Girly Stuff TM (although she is not plus sized and has red hair which are points against her). George as portrayed by Joy Tanner is perfect in my opinion. She is tomboyish with short hair and acts tough but has a big heart. She is still basically how I imagine George.

I know not many (or any people) read below the cut but I genuinely think this is a good adaptation. It is low budget and very mid-1990s but still a good lighthearted Nancy Drew romp.

[concussions-and-clues]

Synopsis:

Nancy Drew is on the top of her game in River Heights when she gets a threatening letter beckoning her back to her old hometown, Bayport. Teaming up with her old Bayport friends, Bess, George, Frank, and Joe, and a couple new friends, Nancy is on the path to figure out who sent the message and what they might know about her mother’s death.

But Nancy left Bayport for a reason and while life may be long memories are longer…  

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Nancy: The freaking Hardy Boys. I can’t believe it. I thought you guys moved away a couple years ago.

Frank: We did. But apparently Bayport’s got a mysterious pull… Brings everyone back into its orbit like clockwork.

Joe: Yeah, that or Dad moved back here after the divorce.

Frank: Or that.

TL;DR Review:

This is a great graphic novel. It has everything. A compelling mystery. Really well illustrated. LGBTQA+ representation. Racial diversity. Plus sized character. No one’s dumb. Everyone is in character. Brilliant! I would seriously recommend this as an amazing read, although be warned, it is somewhat mature in nature. Not R rated but definitely PG13 or T.

More of me nattering below the cut...

Review:

This is relatively recent so I was already on Tumblr when they started posting samples of the artwork and I gotta say that is really what drew me in originally. I have a background in illustration (even specifically graphic novels) and most coloured graphic novels really grate on me. Typically they are drawn in a style that doesn’t lend itself to being coloured and it looks weird or off. This book looks amazing. It is cartoony but not over-the-top childish allowing it to work really well with the darker tones that are in the book.

For my shipping friends, there is a little bit of Jancy, a little Francy, and a whole hell of a lot of Jess (which is freaking adorable). All of the characters feel unique personality wise and Nancy herself is a sarcastic as all get out. Every character gets something to do (at least of the main characters: Nancy, Bess, George, Bess, Frank, and Joe) and I really wanted to see more of them. As of right now there isn’t a second book out (despite a staggering cliff-hanger ending) but I am holding out hope there will be one before too long.

Here is my favourite little section that I feel encapsulates all of the characters: Nancy’s witty, Bess’ charm, Joe’s lovability, George’s grouchiness, and Frank’s preparedness.

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And because nobody asked for it, here is another one of my boring reviews :-P

Synopsis:

George and Bess’ cousin Sydney is getting married but a series of pranks and accidents plague her as the wedding day draws closer. In addition to her duties as a bridesmaid Nancy has been tasked with figuring out who is behind the incidents, but it is not as easy as it seems. Sydney’s fiancé is an actor on a reality TV show so is it all just harmless shenanigans for higher ratings or is there a more menacing force at work?

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Nancy: It doesn’t answer some of the other questions I have – excuse me Bess, George, I’m going to go shake the tree a bit.

George: Oh look, Bess, Nancy’s going to do some investigating – just for a change of pace, you understand.

TL;DR Review:

So this game is based on the Model Mysteries trilogy (Model Crime, Model Menace, and Model Suspect) from the Nancy Drew (All New) Girl Detective series, released in late 2000s. It was a series I could never get into and as such I do not personally enjoy this game that much. It is mostly a basic timed hidden object game with a few mini games scattered here and there and the story is stripped down to its barebones. However, when I looked up other people’s ratings for this game I mostly saw four and five star reviews (out of five stars) so maybe it is just not for me…

As always, more spolierific talk below the cut...

Review:

I found this a very strange game, but maybe it is what the books are like too. George seemed to act more like Bess (i.e. talking about being on a diet, refusing to get with technology etc.) and Bess was more George-like (i.e. snarky and sarky in equal measure). Nancy also has a face in this game; as such it is weird to see a Nancy character model and particularly one that is blonde with spectacles (it looks nothing like the photo on the box, FYI). The other characters are bland and interchangeable, and I didn’t really get attached to any of them enough to care. Two-thirds of the way through the game they introduce a new character who we are supposed to believe is the big bad, but because it is a single contained game (rather than the third book in the trilogy) it is obvious that it isn’t her. They also randomly make her have cancer as like a shocking plot twist, but we barely get to know her, so it falls flat.

The mini games a bit boring and weird. Like there are two points where you have to sign something (once as Nancy and once as the fiancé, Vic) and you’d think that that would comeback at some point in time, like proving something is a forgery. But it doesn’t. The game designers legitimately put it in like it was a mini game… So weird.

The writing in this game is dire. I searched for ages trying to find an interesting quotation and that was the best I could come up with… blergh. Given that it is based directly on a book trilogy I would have thought the writing would have been better.

An interesting mechanic in the game is that you are only give three questions total during each interrogation even though there are nine potential questions. This means it is possible for you to completely ask the wrong questions and be unable to logically come to a conclusion when you have to accuse someone. I think this is clever since it means there is a fail state that seems believable and that isn’t just a Fatal Error like in the Her Interactive games.

George’s character model is one of my favourite things in this game even if I am not so fond of any of the other ones. 

Seriously Nancy is blonde. Bess is a red head, a very slim red head. Vic looks like Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day. Some of the models are pixelated, particularly in the third act. It is really hit or miss.

[concussions-and-clues]

Synopsis:

Nancy, Bess, Joe, and Frank are invited on a luxury train with other detectives (wannabes and otherwise) to solve the mystery of Jake Comstock’s missing diamond, lost fifteen years previously. The train isn’t even rolling towards San Francisco before trouble starts brewing.

Missing persons, mysterious men, money, and massive egos… Something tells me it is going to be a long and bumpy ride.

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Frank stood up from the table. "Dinner is early tonight. Laurie announced it just before you came in. Paul's performing at seven, and after that they're showing ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ in the lounge."

Joe grimaced. "Let's hope no one gets any ideas."

TL;DR Review:

Do you like Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon? Well this is the book that that game is based on. Except, well, it’s not as good. Up front, Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon is my favourite Nancy Drew game so I was probably more disappointed than I should have been with the book. That being said, it isn’t bad, it is just kind of boring. I’d still recommend it but don’t go in expecting the game.

More bias and spoilers below the cut!

Review:

You know I don’t mind Bess in the newest series and she was okay, if a little bland, in the older series but this series does her dirty. If she is in a book in this series, she is vapid idiot who does nothing but cause Nancy trouble. I hate it. She’s the butt of the joke in this one, again falling head over heels for another handsome asshole (she definitely has a type). Other than that, I’m not quite sure why they have her in the book. Joe is cast in a similar light, falling in love with another random woman, but at least he does something useful in the book. Nancy and Frank are okay, again being the competent mystery solvers, but having little other personality.

I wonder if the same person wrote the previous Super Mystery because this one also has some great action sequences, such as a chase/ fight on the top of a moving train, but the characters and story are really dull, just like the previous one.

The mystery in this one is very convoluted and it doesn’t quite stick the landing like the previous one did, but it makes up for it by not having nearly as boring start as Buried in Time did.

 A good mystery should be one where you have all the clues but maybe didn’t see them the right way when you read it first, causing you to kick yourself when the culprit is revealed. This book doesn’t do that. Basically, the whole case unfurls in the last few chapters with huge exposition dumps to fill in the blanks leaving a bitter taste and a dissatisfying ending. Oh, since this series was also sold on its romance between Nancy & Frank and Bess & Joe I have to say that this book really doesn’t have any of that. They pay lip service to Francy at the very beginning but not much else.

[concussions-and-clues]

Synopsis:

Nancy and Bess are undercover in Paris to help one of Bess’ old flames bandmates who is suffering due to a series of small accidents that keep occurring during his world tour. By happenstance Frank and Joe just happen to be in Paris too, attending an international conference for detectives who work on art theft cases. Before long one mystery spirals into two leaving the four detectives running around town desperately trying to figure out the Paris connection for their mysteries.

Art, angry artists, and amour proper… dans quoi les détectives se sont-ils embarqués cette fois-ci?

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Frank tensed for the blow, ready to roll to one side, but Nancy ran in then and kicked his attacker hard on the left kneecap. The thug shouted with pain, dropped his chain, and limped away after his buddy.

TL;DR Review:

This isn’t a terrible book but it was a book I put down for a year halfway through and didn’t really mind. Its greatest sin is that it is a little bit boring. The characters all feel a little watered down, especially compared to The Last Resort and the mystery never feels like it has much weight. Overall if you have the book I wouldn’t say don’t read it, but if you don’t have the book I wouldn’t say search it out.

Below the cut is a more biased and spoilerific review.

Review:

Everything just feels a little boring in this book. Bess is swept off her feet (as usual). Nancy has a couple badass moments where she saves the Hardy’s. Frank is very bland, serving as the exposition guy, and Joe is barely in it. I legitimately finished reading this yesterday and I cannot remember anything super memorable about the book. They bring back the Fox family cat burglars from Super Mystery #2 and they are foiled in the exact same way as they were in that book.

As I stated above, I started reading this last year when I was out of town on work and was in a place that didn’t have internet access and even with all of that set up I didn’t finish this book then. I even had to force myself to finish it now. Usually, I can read one of these books in a single sitting but this took me multiple tries. The prose are boring, the mystery is uninteresting, the characters are bland. It gets it’s one and a half stars from me for an interesting scene involving chlorine gas and for Nancy being a badass kicking butt and taking names a few times.

[concussions-and-clues]

Because I can’t find Super Mystery #4 here is a review of Super Mystery #5: The Last Resort...

Synopsis:

Nancy, Bess, George, Frank, and Joe are all called in to solve the mystery of a series of accidents and mischief at a fancy ski resort in Colorado. The closer the resort gets to hosting a music video shoot the more dangerous the incidents get and the more trouble the detectives get in. Not all of them are walking out of there unscathed…

Skiing, blue caviar, a passionate kiss in the face of death… what the hell is going on at Mount Mirage!

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Nancy huddled against him, pressing closer. Frank was so warm, so full of life. She couldn’t bear the thought that this might be the end.

TL;DR Review:

This is probably my favourite Super Mystery book to date. It has a good mystery, good characters, and excellent story writing. If you like Francy, it has got AMAZING Francy. 100% would recommend this book.

Spoilers and my biased blathering below the cut...

Review:

This was an interesting read. As I stated before this is probably my favourite Super Mystery. The characters are well rounded, and even though Bess is head-over-heels in love she isn’t as ditzy, going as far as needling Nancy about her and Frank’s relationship when people tease her. Bess actually helps during the mystery, which is disturbingly novel with her character. Joe is also typically infatuated but also not to the point that he gives up on the mystery or overlooks massive red flags. George is a little bit forgotten but even she helps with the mystery, being on the receiving end of the first major injury in the book but still helping solve the mystery. There is a colourful cast of characters all of whom would have reasonable grounds to commit the murder which turns out to be the actual crime the detectives end up investigating.

However, I don’t think most people read this book for the mystery. Frank and Nancy’s interaction in this book are next level. This is probably the most Francy you’re going to get in a book even compared to the one where they pretend to be married. Despite this being a massive subplot the neither Frank nor Nancy stop being a detective which is something I’ve noticed when authors try to play up their relationship. I think this is very true to the characters since they may love each other but their first love has always been that every wily mistress mystery.

Oh also if you read this can we agree that Frank and Nancy probably did more than kiss in that cabin? Frank’s wink to Pete, the fact that they were on the mattress in a dazed state (yes, I know, oxygen depletion, except you know there was an open exit so I call BS), and the level of guilt that they both felt definitely seems to point that something more happened.

[concussions-and-clues]

Okay so I am going to cut out my ramblings below the cut unless there is something pressing I want to discuss that is spoilery in order to keep these reviews/ recommendations shorter...

Synopsis:

The Hardys are attending a wedding when the groom disappears from outside of the church, leaving his fiancée at the altar. The boys have to figure out if this was a case of cold feet or cement shoes, as Frank and Joe connect the bridegroom to an underground jazz club with a none to reputable past.

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Joe: I can’t believe you told him I was a photographer.

Frank: I didn’t. I told him you had a camera. Didn’t want to get his hopes up.

Joe: Yeah, well you better get a shot of me in this outfit ‘cause this is gonna be the last time.

Frank: Are you saying you’d never get married?

Joe: That’s right.

Frank: Haven’t you ever thought what it’d be like to have someone in your life that you didn’t have to pretend with? Someone who knew you and loved you for who you are?

Joe: Um, no. I like to pretend. Life is pretend. Everybody’s playing a role.

TL;DR Review:

Like my review of the first episode, my general recommendation is to watch this series. It is a lot of fun and (for the most part) gets better with each episode. This episode has some top-notch banter between the brothers and a decently interesting mystery.  No excuses, it is free to watch on YouTube.  Link to the episode on Retro Rerun here. 

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And now for one of my favourite games of all time...

Synopsis:

The Hardy’s have been invited board the Royal Express on a mysterious treasure hunt for the fabled Romanov Family Treasure. On the train with a host of suspicious characters the boys must fight against time and sabotage to collect all the clues to uncover the secrets of the last tsar of Russia.  

Regal art, Russian treasure, the Romanov children’s sad story… Is it ever possible for the Hardy’s to just take a train somewhere?!

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Carol: What on Earth are you doing up so late?

Joe: That’s just what we were going to ask you.

Carol: I’m a dreadful sleeper. Some nights I sleep like a rock, other nights – most nights, I’m afraid – my eyes simply will not stay shut. What’s you excuse?

Frank: Guilty conscience.

TL;DR Review:

I freaking love this game. It gets a little bit samey with some of the puzzles but I found the story charming and the characters interesting. I would highly recommend it; however, fair warning, when I attempted to play in on a 3DS it wouldn’t let me finish the game (almost but not quite), so it seems to work better on older DS systems.

More bias and spoilers below the cut!

Review:

I have never read a book or played a game or watched a movie that was set on a train that wasn’t one of my favourite things ever. This game is no exception. I think it must be something about the limited space, the writers can’t rely on erroneous characters showing up for plot convenience so that story must be thought out and well told. This game was made for younger players so the writing isn’t grim or gritty but it is very well done. Frank and Joe can be so sassy (see the above quotation) and I love it! The writers really seem to understand the characters!

The cover art for this game has my favourite depiction of the Hardy’s of all time and genuinely is how I think of Frank all of the time (Joe is more fluid in my mind). Unfortunately, Nancy doesn’t show up in this game at all (it was made by another game company) but Samantha Quick does show up, strangely enough. In Trail of the Twister the Hardy’s discuss being on a train searching for the Romanov treasure and this is the game they are referring to, so it would have been nice if you did get even just one phone call from Nancy.

This game loses a quarter star in my eyes because of the repetitive puzzles and the poor balancing for some of those puzzles. The footstep ones and the final Simon-says game in particular stand out for me. Some of the footprints barely last on screen for you tap, while sometimes the Simon-says puzzle doesn’t light up for me and when I get it wrong I am forced into a long dialogue before having to do the entire thing again. Argh.

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Like many of you, I am self-isolating and I thought it might be fun to do a little recommendation/ review series on the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys media I have that is not the Her Interactive games. I’ll be tagging all of them #NHBRecRev (as in Nancy and Hardy Boys Recommendations and Reviews). I hope you are all staying healthy and safe! Please enjoy!

Synopsis:

Nancy is a passenger on a Caribbean cruise where George is working as an activities director and the Hardy’s are working undercover. The Hardy’s are on the case of thieves who are stealing from rich passengers but get embroiled with another case with Nancy and George when Nancy overhears a plan to sell CIA secrets.

Murder. Secret agents. Sharks. Double Crossing has it all.

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite: 

“I’m here on vacation. I was curious, though--“

“Better watch that stuff, Drew,” Joe teased. “It killed a cat once, or so I heard.”

TL;DR Review:

Overall it is a fun read but it definitely what I would call an airport book, a book you pick up in the airport when you have nothing else to do, read it, enjoy it but it doesn’t really make that big of an impact. In short if what I wrote grabs your interest I would recommend reading it. If you want a little more information with possible spoilers, I have a more blatantly biased review under the cut.

Review:

Double Crossing is the first in the 1980-1990s Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys Super Mystery series. It was released in 1988 and it shows. There is a literally dark room involved and a decently important plot point revolves around film cameras. The overall story is interesting, although it often feels like Nancy’s mystery takes precedence while the thefts are on the back burner until near the very end when they solve the case in a very anticlimactic manner. The characters are fairly well written, however, if you view George as being a lesbian, as I do, it can be jarring when she crushes on and dates a guy.

Frank and Nancy have a lot of chemistry in this book if Francy is important to you, with the following quotation from page seven setting up the tone of their relationship for the whole series:

Nancy promised herself that no matter how good-looking the guys were on this cruise, she wasn't even going to think about romance.

And especially not with Frank Hardy. She'd crossed paths with Frank and his brother before, and every time she did, Frank had the same powerful effect on her. Nothing had ever happened between them, though, and it wasn't going to this time, either.

Both Nancy and Frank are portrayed in quite a similar manner, to the point that they can feel like the same character skinned in a different gender. They are treated as being almost psychically linked which feels weird given that used to be a trait attributed between Joe and Frank. Nancy unfortunately and horribly gets cast as a damsel in distress quite a few times throughout the book, which is really frustrating. Joe is a little skeezy, as he was often portrayed between the late 1980s and early 2010s, although he is more charming and less creepy than he was typically portrayed in the mid to late 2000s Undercover Brothers series. Everyone is a little bit dumb I would say, not following up on clue immediately or overlooking something obvious.

Overall it is a fun read but it definitely what I would call an airport book, a book you pick up in the airport when you have nothing else to do, read it, enjoy it but it doesn’t really make that big of an impact.

[concussions-and-clues]

Synopsis:

It is Nancy Drew’s first day at Bayport High where she meets two local amateur gumshoes, Joe and Frank Hardy (hey, it’s Frank and Joe Hardy, I’m the older one after all). As if starting a new school part way through the year isn’t bad enough Nancy comes in on the day when all the teachers mysteriously disappear. As the epidemic of missing adults spread it is up to Nancy and the Hardys to figure out what is going on before Bayport is overrun by wild children.

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

Ned: Frank! Biff! I have good news and bad news!

Frank: What’s the good news?

Ned: I had pop rocks for dinner!

Frank: What’s the bad news?

Ned: *groaning* I had pop rocks for breakfast, too.

TL;DR Review:

This is a weird one. When I first read it, it felt like I was on a low key acid trip while reading a Nancy Drew/ Hardy Boys crossover. It isn’t bad, just weird and definitely not for everyone. I don’t not recommend it but I also wouldn’t recommend it, if that makes sense. Oh and also, while I may have posted this review on April 1st it is actually a real book…

If you care, there are spoilers and more personal opinions below the cut.

Review:

The story in this one can only be described as bizarre. It was obviously written for younger children but even so it is just weird. It starts off pretty normal (at least for a Hardy Boys book) with the boys touching down at school in a hang glider, and everyone just goes. “yeah, that is normal for them” to Nancy who is starting her first day of school in Bayport. The teachers start getting all weird and then disappear. And then it just goes off into a sugar fueled dream of kid freedom before ending with a bizarre energy scheme. It is both too childish and too grounded in adult realities to really appeal of anyone, leaving me wondering who this book was made for.  

They don’t quite get the characters right either. As far as I can tell the characters are still supposed to 17/18, but they act like they’re 7-10. The boys are both dumb as bricks and Nancy is like the anti-manic pixie dream girl (she is super grounded and almost overly competent but still mysterious). They pay lip service to a bunch of Hardy Boys related characters which is nice but they don’t really do anything in the book. Side note: why does Nancy always move to Bayport rather than the Hardy’s moving to River Heights? Nancy has more interesting (and consistent) side characters. #BringtheHardystoRH2020

Also I do not like this illustration style. That was my first major turn off. It looks like slightly fleshed out versions of Diary of a Wimpy Kid illustrations and it is just blah for me. They are technically well done, but the colours are muted and the scenes are too busy. From a purely artistic standpoint I would recommend that you give this one a hard pass.

[concussions-and-clues]

Synopsis:

Frank and Joe are retired from the detective business, under threat of incarceration, when a series of dangerous seeming but ultimately harmless pranks start up throughout town. Bad luck for the villains when both Joe and Frank are caught up in the middle of one of the pranks and start perusing the perpetrators. It is, however, also bad luck for the boys since if they get caught investigating, they are going to prison no ifs, ands, or buts. Walking the knife’s edge with the rest of Bayport against them, the Hardy’s delve into a relentless game of cat and mouse. But with the town holding their breath waiting to have the boys arrested, Frank and Joe have to face facts: are they the cats or the mice?

A Quotation to Whet Your Appetite:

See, our dad, Fenton Hardy, was once a world-famous detective. Growing up, Joe and I would help him on his cases. Then we began tackling mysteries on our own. We were proud of our successes. But after one too many close calls, things started to get a little out of hand, for reasons having to do with private investigators' licenses (we didn't have any), insurance (none of that, either), and the threat of being sued by every hoodlum we ever put under a citizen's arrest. Which is not how my brother and I wanted to spend the remainder of our teenage years, provided we're lucky enough to survive them.

TL;DR Review:

This whole series is amazing and I’ll review the rest of the books but I would recommend starting with this one because it helps set up the rest of the books, although you can read most of them out of sequence and it will be fine. I got the audiobooks out from the library when I first got back into the Nancy Drew/ Hardy Boys scene about five years ago and I literally still get excited when I see a new book is coming out still, they are that good. The characterization is very similar to that of the Hardy’s from the Nancy Drew games so it is a good intro for people who are into the games but not the books. I highly, highly, HIGHLY, recommend this series!

Me babbling more with biases and spoilers below the cut.

Review:

Okay the first two chapters of this book are amazing. I legitimately want to do a dramatic reading of them because I love them so much. The rest of the story is a little run of mill but it is set up with such interesting characters that it doesn’t matter. The book as a whole is well written and still relatively interesting, but the one minor niggle I have (not enough to take off a star though) is that this book can be relentlessly grim. In all the other series the boys have people who are helping them but in this one everyone is against them. They are under the threat of going to prison if they investigate and everyone, including their own parents, seem determined to do that. It feels a bit like the Alibi in Ashes game, where everyone suddenly turned on Nancy with such vitriol you had to have wondered if they’d been harbouring it just below the surface for years.

This book did a really good job a setting up Frank and Joe as separate entities, which has always been the biggest complaint that people have (fairly) leveled at the Hardy Boys. Frank becomes the nervous, book smart brother while Joe is more into intuitive smarts and mainstream “basic” things. But they still love each other and that is key. In the Undercover Brother series, they seem to be really mean to each other but in this series, they genuinely care for and worry for each other. For example, at the end of the second chapter comes this exchange:

Frank watched me as I finished up my lunch special and rinsed my plate. “Are you okay?” he asked after a moment. “You must have had a crazy day. I was worried about you.”

Sometimes it’s nice to have a brother.

Sob, I’m not crying and phoning my sister to see if she’s alright, you are…