Strategic Moves

The Hardy Boys Casefiles #43

by Franklin W. Dixon

While studying at Oxford University for the summer, Frank and Joe Hardy discover the perils of international relations when their new friends, Soviet twins Pyotr and Petra Zigonev, are kidnapped to force their father, a Soviet peace negotiator, to sabotage the arms talks

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Childrens, Adventure, Young Adult

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors who were part of a team that wrote The Hardy Boys novels for the Stratemeyer Syndicate (now owned by Simon & Schuster). Dixon was also the writer attributed for the Ted Scott Flying Stories series, published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Canadian author Leslie McFarlane is believed to have written the first sixteen Hardy Boys books, but worked to a detailed plot and character outline for each story. The outlines are believed to have originated with Edward Stratemeyer, with later books outlined by his daughters Edna C. Squier and Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. Edward and Harriet also edited all books in the series through the mid-1960s. Other writers of the original books include MacFarlane's wife Amy, John Button, Andrew E. Svenson, and Adams herself; most of the outlines were done by Adams and Svenson. A number of other writers and editors were recruited to revise the outlines and update the texts in line with a more modern sensibility, starting in the late 1950s.
The principal author for the Ted Scott books was John W. Duffield.

Reviews

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank and Joe Hardy are invited to a two-week International Foreign Exchange Student program at Oxford University in the UK. They arrive and discover instead of sharing a room, Frank is sharing a room with a Russian student and chess expert and Joe is sharing with a Californian surfer (or so the teenager says). The Hardy boys also meet Frank's roommate's twin sister.
No sooner does everyone meet than the trouble starts with continuous kidnapping attempts on the two Russians and attempts to kill the Hardy brothers.
The four are dragged in international intrigue as bad actors from the Network, the KGB, and British Intelligence (the fictional BCI) attempt to injure or even kill the two Russians to destabilize international relations in an era of Glasnost.
At Stonehenge, everything comes to a head but thanks to Frank and Joe the Russian teenagers are rescued.
Fast moving, complex plot, lots of close encounters - I liked this one alot.

[Bookish Indulgenges with b00k r3vi3ws · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first read Hardy Boys, I think I was in class 5, I had such a crush on Frank Hardy. I liked the brainy one over the brawny one and that sums up my first impression of Hardy Boys.
In their late teens, Frank and Joe Hardy take after their detective father Fenton Hardy. Frank is the older of the two and has more breakthroughs in the cases because he is the brainy one. Joe is the younger brother who more often than not is useful when things get hot and they need to fight their way out.
Like Nancy Drew, the books in the The Hardy Boys series re written by ghostwriters under the collective pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon. And yes, the earlier books were better than the latter ones.

[Meggen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Hardy Boys solve a crime across the pond in England--one involving the KGB and CIA!

[ⓝⓐⓣⓗⓐⓝⓐⓔⓛ♦Depression Sucks♦ · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was GREAT!!!

[Dannuel Delizo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Scary USSR!