The brothers have a sting of their own (The Hardy Boys: Tricky Business - Franklin W. Dixon)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	The Hardy Boys: Tricky Business - Franklin W. Dixon
Date:	12/05/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decent story

Disadvantages: Nothing special, a little outdated

Tricky Business is the 88th Hardy Boys books, and finds itself in the middle of a run of titles that try to be as current as possible, linking the storylines to modern technology in an attempt to bring the Hardy Boys books up to date with current affairs. Tricky Business deals with the more familiar Hardys territory of secret, illegal goings on with a gang of crooks using teens to sell their wares as a front for a much more sinister operation.

The only thing is that, as the book was written in the 1980s, it is a bit outdated in many ways. The story itself is enjoyable, but you have to take it with a pinch of 1980s salt! There are elements of comedy scattered throughout when the danger takes a break, and this keeps the story flowing nicely. The characters are explored to a certain extent, but I find the same with most Hardy Boys books, and that is that the main characters are skimmed over. This is, in a way, understandable, as there are plenty of previous and subsequent books for readers of the books to gain a feel for their characters, but this does somewhat alienate first time readers.

The Hardy Boys are teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, sons of supersleuth Fenton Hardy. In the books, which have been published since the late 1920s, the brothers are always 18 and 17 respectively, and this helps to maintain their appeal to the target audience for the books, which is teenage boys. The writing is not particularly complicated, and very easy to follow in terms of plot, but quite short, as a lot of teenage fiction can sometimes be. The books are written by a series of ghost writers, but published under the pseudonym Franklin W Dixon.

This is an enjoyable read, but the outdated elements are glaringly obvious, which does make it a little hard to relate to at times. Tricky Business, as with most of the Hardy Boys books published since 1980, is quite hard to get hold of in the UK, but is readily available from various online US sites for a fair price. Just beware the P&P prices. Overall, a decent but average book from Dixon.

Summary: An average 88th Hardy Boys book