Castle Fear

The Hardy Boys: Casefiles #44

by Franklin W. Dixon

Jed Shannon, a young American movie star on location in England, has received a threat against his life. When the Hardy Boys set out to investigate, they are led to a medieval mansion on the moors and are drawn into a case worthy of Sherlock Holmes--and into a conspiracy as thick as the London fog.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Young Adult, Mystery Thriller, Detective

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

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of an adventure thriller than a mystery and seems aimed at a younger reader than the original Hardy Boys series. It opens with Frank and Joe Hardy in London taking on a missing persons case for their father, who is busy elsewhere. A movie star, Jed Shannon, wants them to locate an actress named Jilian Seabright with whom he was supposed to meet. She looks a lot like a rich heiress, Emily Cornwall, which seems to be connected. There's another young woman, Karen Kirk, who's a journalist also trying to locate the missing woman, and Joe seems quite taken with her. None of the regular support characters or settings appear, and most aren't even mentioned. There's a bit of running around London and the surrounding English countryside and some adventurous hijinks and confrontations before the matter is resolved. I read the original series of Hardys books as a youngster and was always intrigued with the differences between the original versions and the rewritten versions. For the last several years I've re-read several of the originals and the rewritten versions that replaced them to compare the two. The original series ended in 1979 with volume #58 and I never read beyond that point, but they continued in different formats until 1985 through volume #85. When the Stratemeyer Syndicate sold the rights to Simon & Shuster publication resumed, up through volume #190 (!?!), and there were several other versions and series as well. Even cross overs with Nancy Drew and Tom Swift. They're still going strong... there's no way you could read them all. This series, the Casefiles, ran from 1987 to 1998, and there are 127 novels in the series. I read somewhere that three of them were written by Ron Goulart, one of my favorite science fiction writers, so I made an exception to my resolve to stop with the originals and got the three Goulart wrote from a used book dealer. So, Castle Fear was written by Goulart (as Franklin W. Dixon, of course!) and was released in October of 1990. As compared to the original series it's quite thin. There are a couple of things that distinguished it for me as a work by Goulart, mostly the dialog with the actors about entertainment procedures (a recurring Goulart theme), and the overall absurdity of the tone of some of the bad guys. Also, seagulls are mentioned a few times, starting on page 101; Goulart almost always mentioned seagulls. It was a very quick read with a few fun bits here and there, but now that I have read it and the other two Goulart novels I'll probably never pick up another Casefile. (Unless I learn that some other favorite ghosted as F.W.D.!) 2.5 stars, rounding up.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank and Joe Hardy arrive in London for a case arranged by their father. However, as soon as they head to their meeting with their client someone starts shooting at them. Then their client's agent (the client is an actor) accused the Hardys of being tabloid reporters out for gossip about his client.
The Hardys finally manage to convince the agent they are detectives not reporters. They talk to Jed (the actor) and find out his true love stage actress girlfriend, Jillian, has gone missing.
Frank and Joe start to investigate and hit dead end after dead end, in between being followed, knocked out, shot at, having their car blown up, and for Joe - being thrown off a moving train. Nothing dissuades the Hardys, even after Joe and Frank are temporarily separated.
Continuing to investigate, the Hardys discover Jillian resembles Emily Cornwall, a local heiress who hasn't been seen in ages but is due to inherit some valuable emeralds.
Joe rescues Emily, while Frank attempts to rescue Jed and Jillian from Castle Fear and gets captured instead. Joe rescues Frank and the others.
Fun read, lots of narrow escapes, and a very, very obvious twin plot. But it's fun, I enjoyed it.

[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.

[Hannah Belyea · Rating 3 out of 5]

While investigating an attempt on the life of famous movie star Jed Shannon, Frank and Joe become the targets of danger as they try to survive following clues around the sets! Dixon is sure to have fans clamouring for more with the action of this entry!

[grundoon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I ran across a handful of these Hardy Boys Casefiles volumes and thought I'd both find out what this "Casefiles" thing was about and revisit my childhood. Well... shorter I think, with more violence, more action, and now routinely with international settings (at least this one was) - same old 17/18-yo Hardys and, even on another continent, same old world in which literally every person encountered is connected to the case.

[Dannuel Delizo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shannon deserved the threats hahaha lol