Hardly A Hidden Gem (The Hardy Boys: The Crimson Flame - Franklin W. Dixon)

Member Name: keeperofthematri

Product:	The Hardy Boys: The Crimson Flame - Franklin W. Dixon
Date:	27/08/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reasonably paced, Easy to read

Disadvantages: Formulaic, Nothing that marks it out from the rest of the pack

Frank and Joe Hardy are the teenage sons of famous private detective Fenton Hardy and his wife Laura. Together, (and sometimes from help with family and friends) they investigate all sorts of crimes & strange occurrences....

The Crimson Flame was published in the US in 1983 & was the seventy seventh in the series. The book first appeared in the UK in 1984 and was numbered 75 when it was published by Armada.

The book opens with Frank and Joe killing time in New York before they catch their bus back to Bayport. En route to the World Trade Center, they prevent the mugging of one Alfred McVay, a rancher from Arizona. He's just purchased a ruby known as The Crimson Flame and it soon becomes apparent that the "mugger" was notorious jewel thief Oscar Tamm. Tamm works with a partner known as Nick Summers and there is a further attempt on McVay at his hotel.

After escorting McVay to his plane the boys return home to Bayport but it isn't long before McVay asks them to come out to Arizona. There have been some mysterious occurrences and McVay's anxious about the safety of his ruby. Posing as cowboys at McVay's ranch Frank and Joe's cover is soon blown and the boys find themselves facing runaway horses, a gang of rustlers and a mysterious masked rider.

Events come to a head during a windstorm when the ruby is stolen from the safe in the basement. Who could have done it? Frank and Joe have their suspicions but no proof. And who, or what, is the "Blue Triangle"?

By chance, McVay receives new that a similar sized ruby has been found in Thailand and he asks Frank and Joe to journey there to purchase it on his behalf. But Oscar Tamm and Nick Summers have other ideas and the boys find themselves trapped in a temple with a deadly cobra.......


The usual supporting characters who appear in this book are:-

+ Fenton Hardy
+ Laura Hardy
+ Aunt Gertrude
+ Chet Morton
+ Biff Hooper


When I picked this book up I realised that I couldn't remember a single thing about it. Obviously I'd read it as a child but nothing in it had actually made any sort of lasting impression on me and it's not hard to see why.

The majority of the book is set in the USA, mainly at McVay's ranch (the boys arrive in Thailand on page 120 of my 190 page edition) and it provides little that's new to the series. True, none of the other books set on ranches have walk-in safes in the ranch basement but suspicious foreman, wild horses, chases on the plain etc are nothing that's new to the series. They've all been done before and there's nothing distinctive about any of those things in this book that marks it out from any others.

Things get slightly more interesting when the boys reach Thailand, although being trapped inside a temple with a snake is vaguely reminiscent of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" and the way that particular segment of the book is wrapped up is rather simplistic. There's a sequence when Frank and Joe step through a load of sleeping "baddies" which was a nice touch and was something I didn't remember reading in the series anywhere before.

Characterisation is, on the whole, rather average. Oscar Tamm and Nick Summers are not really featured enough for the reader to form any sort of impression of them, other than the fact they're both criminals. Wat Perkins, McVay's foreman and Wilbur, McVay's butler fare slightly better but neither of them are particularly memorable as characters as they're little more than stereotypes rather than having any individual characteristics that mark them out.

The reader is given some information about the "baddies" as we know from the outset that Oscar Tamm and Nick Summers work together on jewel thefts. It's exceptionally easy to work out who the baddies in Arizona are and it wouldn't tax a 9 year old to work out the identity of the "Blue Triangle.

The book itself has a fairly steady pace, the language used is accessible and undemanding and it's a pleasant enough way to pass a couple of hours or so. Biff and Chet are rather wasted though as they're brought into the story but not really given anything to do.

At best, then this book could only be described as adequate.


At the time of writing the new & used paperbacks are available from 1p upwards.

Summary: Seventy Seventh Hardy Boys Book