Eerie goings on in Bayport (The Hardy Boys: The Blackwing Puzzle - Franklin W. Dixon)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	The Hardy Boys: The Blackwing Puzzle - Franklin W. Dixon
Date:	05/05/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Believable, characters, interesting

Disadvantages: A little outdated

This 82nd Hardy Boys book sees a return to home for the boys, and a plot line more befitting a couple of amateur teen detectives than the usual international crime rings that they thwart on a regular basis. The Hardy Boys, brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, are the sons of renowned supersleuth Fenton Hardy, and they often find themselves gallavanting around the world, solving everything from murders to space race sabotage, and occasionally, it just gets a bit too much.

The books are aimed at teenage boys, predominantly. As a result, the main characters, Frank and Joe, have stayed at 18 and 17 respectively ever since the first book came out in the 1920s. This sort of eternal time warp is welcome when you consider the target audience, and as the years go by, the boys adapt to change with the times. This particular book, The Blackwing Puzzle, sees the brothers asked to solve the mystery of a haunted mansion, located nearby in their home town of Bayport.

There have been ghosts in previous Hardy Boys books, and the brothers are sure that there will be a simple explanation to the whole thing. However, as the mystery deepens and the danger levels rise, they find that there is no real logical solution to this one, and they just might have to deal with the fact that the house really is haunted.

When you consider the type of adventure that we usually get with the Hardy Boys, such as dealing with very real and actual villains and potentially deadly situations, this seems on the face of it to be a very tame story. However, the author manages to conjure up a different type of danger: that of the unknown, of the supernatural, and as such, it is a welcome change from the near monotony of constant villain bashing that the boys tend to do.

The books are written by a number of different ghost writers, although the publishing is always done in the name of Franklin W Dixon. The publishers were Grosset & Dunlap for so many years before Simon & Schuster took over in 1979/1980. The books remain popular amongst teens despite their rather old format and style of adventure, but you'll likely find that series such as Stephenie Meyer's Twilight and perhaps the Stormbreaker books target a more modern teen quite effectively, and corner a lot of the market. The Blackwing Puzzle was published in the early 1980s, and so may seem quite old in many ways, but it's still a good read and one of the more down to earth and enjoyable Hardy Boys books. The characterisation is done gently than in other Hardy Boys books, but it's also more descriptive than usual, with good development of main characters such as the brothers, their family and their friends, and also of the characters related solely to this book, such as those in the mansion and others they meet whilst investigating the strange goings on.

The Blackwing Puzzle is hard to get hold of, it seems. There are some second hand books available from amazon.com, but this is from the States and will cost you the postage. The price of the book doesn't seem to be too high, but there aren't many on there. I recommend giving this one a go - it's an enjoyable read, and a ncie change from the usual unlikely adventures they get into.

Summary: Enjoyable 82nd Hardy Boys book