I'm having some personal problems, and that's why it's taken so long for me to post anything. I won't go into farther detail, but I will try to update this blog more often. I'm working on a review right now and hopefully will have it up soon.
I was looking through LinkedIn again and discovered a whole lot of Ghostwriter information. Not sure how I missed all this last time, but the profiles might not have been there.
First, we have two ghostwriters for the recent "Hardy Boys Adventures" series:
-Ruben Sack wrote #6,7,10,12,15. He also wrote the Diaries book "A Nancy Drew Christmas".
-Paul Crilley wrote #9.
We have three ghostwriters who I know wrote Nancy Drew books, but I'm not sure what ones:
-Louise Ladd was mentioned on someone's page as a Nancy Drew Ghostwriter.
-Janet Jones and Pamela Willis wrote a Nancy Drew Digest in 1996, no information on which one they wrote.
-Cathy Hapka wrote Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books.
Finally, Stacia Deutsch wrote the Nancy Drew Clue Crew book, "Pony Problems", and several other Nancy Drew books.
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Review: "Danger On Ice" (Be a Detective Mystery Stories #2)
To kick off my return to blogging, I've decided to do something special for the next month or three. (Updates are going to be a bit erratic while I get back in the swing of things, apologies in advance) I'm going to be reviewing Gamebooks, which are better known as "choose your own adventure books".
While I will be reviewing a book or two from the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series, and a couple of books from the spin-offs, that's not all I'll be looking at. There was a whole ton of other series published to compete with the CYOA, and I'll be reviewing a bunch of them.
As this blog started out as a Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew focused blog, I figured that I should start with the "Be a Detective Mystery Stories". The "Be a Detective Mystery Stories" series lasted six books, with two more books* planned but never published.
The "Be a Detective" series is a bit unusual in that there are no bad endings at all. (Except for one in "Danger on Ice", but we'll get to that) No matter what choices you make, Frank, Joe, and Nancy always solve the mystery. Instead, your choices change who the villain is, and how the villain is caught.
This is a bit disappointing, as part of the fun of Gamebooks for me is bad stuff happening when you make the wrong choice. It forces you to think about your choices, and it makes getting a good ending more satisfying. (Plus a lot of the time, the bad endings are more entertaining than the good ones)
In "Danger on Ice", Nancy and the Hardys have to rescue a kidnapped figure skater during a trip to Austria.
"Danger on Ice" is surprisingly Hardy-centric. There's only one ending where Nancy catches a criminal on her own and multiple paths where Nancy does almost nothing. The book is also more focused on action scenes then detective work, with plenty of fights and chases.
The focus on action isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the action scenes were well written. It's fun to read about Joe chasing someone in a hang glider, or Frank taking out a bad guy with a snowball, but it would be nice if Nancy was allowed to join in the fun.
That's not to say that Nancy does nothing in the book. She finds an important clue, and in the paths where she goes with Frank and Joe to places, she plays a major part in rescuing Kristy. It's just that she rarely got to do anything on her own.
There are 17 different endings in "Danger on Ice", which is a good amount. There's a whole ton of different choices to make, and the paths are all a decent length. This gives the book plenty of re-readability.
The book takes the reader through a verity of settings, including trains and a castle. Snowmobiles and skis are frequently used due to the book taking place during winter. The book is (mostly) well written and well paced, and never gets boring.
Due to the book's focus on action, the villains sometimes don't even get names. They are pretty much just there to get defeated, and several times, they defeat themselves. A villain breaks his leg hang-gliding, and another one crashes into a tree while skiing.
Once again, that's not necessarily bad, after all, there's only so much space in the book and a whole ton of different choices to make. There's just wasn't the room to give the villains more depth.
The most interesting villain that the detectives ran into was a delusional man who thought that Kristy was his dead daughter, which is surprisingly dark for a Digest continuity book. In another ending, the villains turn out to be terrorists sent to assassinate a diplomat. Said assassins don't have weapons for some reason, but still.
Speaking of dark endings, remember the bad ending I mentioned? Well, it's not only a bad ending, but it's also a badly written ending.
If you call the police as Frank and Joe instead of following some tracks, Nancy reveals had Kristy had randomly decided to run with a never before mentioned boyfriend. She also decided that instead of telling Nancy and the Hardys about this, she would leave a letter at the bottom of Nancy's suitcase. Of course, by the time Nancy finds this letter, the police have been called. So Kristy just wasted police manpower and got everyone panicked for no reason. Good job Kristy.
Yeah, I'm deducting a point for that nonsense.
If it seems I'm being a bit harsh on the book, maybe I am. However, when I read a Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew crossover, I expect at least a decent balance between the characters. The book is supposedly written by both Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon, so why do the Hardys get way more focus? Had Nancy been given more to do, this book would have a higher rating.
"Danger on Ice" was one of the first Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books I ever read, back when I was in Grade 6. I recall liking the book back then, but that was also when I used to do more skimming through books than actually reading them. Even then, I recall liking the other two "Be a Detective" books I had read around that time (#1 and 3) better.
That being said, if you like Gamebooks, you'll likely get enjoyment out of this one. The series is also quite hard to find so this might be the only book in the series you'll get to read.
A five isn't a bad rating, that just means that the book is average with nothing much to recommend about it. I don't use the four-point scale**. Despite my issues with "Danger on Ice", when compared to other Gamebooks that I've read, it is indeed average.
I will be reviewing two more books in the "Be a Detective" series. One of the two books has Frank and Joe visiting Nancy in River Heights, so I'm looking forward to that.
Rating
5 out of 10
* The two unpublished books were "Jungle of Evil" (which would have taken place in the South American jungle) and "Ticket to Intrigue".
**An explanation of the "four-point scale" is here. I'll have a short post explaining my rating scale very soon.
While I will be reviewing a book or two from the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series, and a couple of books from the spin-offs, that's not all I'll be looking at. There was a whole ton of other series published to compete with the CYOA, and I'll be reviewing a bunch of them.
As this blog started out as a Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew focused blog, I figured that I should start with the "Be a Detective Mystery Stories". The "Be a Detective Mystery Stories" series lasted six books, with two more books* planned but never published.
The "Be a Detective" series is a bit unusual in that there are no bad endings at all. (Except for one in "Danger on Ice", but we'll get to that) No matter what choices you make, Frank, Joe, and Nancy always solve the mystery. Instead, your choices change who the villain is, and how the villain is caught.
This is a bit disappointing, as part of the fun of Gamebooks for me is bad stuff happening when you make the wrong choice. It forces you to think about your choices, and it makes getting a good ending more satisfying. (Plus a lot of the time, the bad endings are more entertaining than the good ones)In "Danger on Ice", Nancy and the Hardys have to rescue a kidnapped figure skater during a trip to Austria.
"Danger on Ice" is surprisingly Hardy-centric. There's only one ending where Nancy catches a criminal on her own and multiple paths where Nancy does almost nothing. The book is also more focused on action scenes then detective work, with plenty of fights and chases.
The focus on action isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the action scenes were well written. It's fun to read about Joe chasing someone in a hang glider, or Frank taking out a bad guy with a snowball, but it would be nice if Nancy was allowed to join in the fun.
That's not to say that Nancy does nothing in the book. She finds an important clue, and in the paths where she goes with Frank and Joe to places, she plays a major part in rescuing Kristy. It's just that she rarely got to do anything on her own.
There are 17 different endings in "Danger on Ice", which is a good amount. There's a whole ton of different choices to make, and the paths are all a decent length. This gives the book plenty of re-readability.
The book takes the reader through a verity of settings, including trains and a castle. Snowmobiles and skis are frequently used due to the book taking place during winter. The book is (mostly) well written and well paced, and never gets boring.
Once again, that's not necessarily bad, after all, there's only so much space in the book and a whole ton of different choices to make. There's just wasn't the room to give the villains more depth.
The most interesting villain that the detectives ran into was a delusional man who thought that Kristy was his dead daughter, which is surprisingly dark for a Digest continuity book. In another ending, the villains turn out to be terrorists sent to assassinate a diplomat. Said assassins don't have weapons for some reason, but still.
Speaking of dark endings, remember the bad ending I mentioned? Well, it's not only a bad ending, but it's also a badly written ending.
If you call the police as Frank and Joe instead of following some tracks, Nancy reveals had Kristy had randomly decided to run with a never before mentioned boyfriend. She also decided that instead of telling Nancy and the Hardys about this, she would leave a letter at the bottom of Nancy's suitcase. Of course, by the time Nancy finds this letter, the police have been called. So Kristy just wasted police manpower and got everyone panicked for no reason. Good job Kristy.
Yeah, I'm deducting a point for that nonsense.
If it seems I'm being a bit harsh on the book, maybe I am. However, when I read a Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew crossover, I expect at least a decent balance between the characters. The book is supposedly written by both Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon, so why do the Hardys get way more focus? Had Nancy been given more to do, this book would have a higher rating.
"Danger on Ice" was one of the first Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books I ever read, back when I was in Grade 6. I recall liking the book back then, but that was also when I used to do more skimming through books than actually reading them. Even then, I recall liking the other two "Be a Detective" books I had read around that time (#1 and 3) better.
That being said, if you like Gamebooks, you'll likely get enjoyment out of this one. The series is also quite hard to find so this might be the only book in the series you'll get to read.
A five isn't a bad rating, that just means that the book is average with nothing much to recommend about it. I don't use the four-point scale**. Despite my issues with "Danger on Ice", when compared to other Gamebooks that I've read, it is indeed average.
I will be reviewing two more books in the "Be a Detective" series. One of the two books has Frank and Joe visiting Nancy in River Heights, so I'm looking forward to that.
Rating
5 out of 10
* The two unpublished books were "Jungle of Evil" (which would have taken place in the South American jungle) and "Ticket to Intrigue".
**An explanation of the "four-point scale" is here. I'll have a short post explaining my rating scale very soon.
Saturday, January 19, 2019
I'm Back!
I know I have been gone for almost a year, but a lot of personal stuff has gotten in my way, stuff that I'd rather not talk about. I'm pleased to announce that I now feel well enough to start work on this blog again.
You've might have noticed the blog name has changed. Don't worry, I'll still be reviewing Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, but there's other stuff I'd like to review as well.
I know that this post is really short, but there is a review coming up soon. So stay tuned!
Also, I've just noticed that two comments on my E-Mail Mystery post, and the fact that my discovery ended up on Wikipedia. If whoever made those comments is still reading this blog, thanks!
Edit:
Also, turns out I was wrong, Famous Mistakes actually got published.
Edit:
Also, turns out I was wrong, Famous Mistakes actually got published.
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