[.ca] Hardy Boys 32 The Crisscross Shadow (ISBN 0448089327)

"SHADOW" Of A Doubt:
The Hardys get a phone call after football practice from their Aunt Gertrude about a suspicious leather goods salesman selling his product to their mother. Before they enter the house they spot the salesman stealing their fathers key case. Later they discover a photo of their famous dad was taken by the same person also. Their father is try to crack a case involving a group of saboteurs. Meanwhile Joe and Frank are trying to track down where the the leather product the salesman had sold was manufactured. This leads them to a tribe of Ramapan Indians up north. They travel to the Indians settlement and the chief asks them to find the missing deed to the ownership of their land. The Indians have been approached by a person wanting to buy their land and when they refuse he claims that sale of the land was done wrong. The tribe needs the deed to prove him wrong. The Hardys are told that there is a jewelled dagger hidden with the deed. The only clue as to where the deed is located involves finding where the hunter's moon reveals a crisscross shadow. This book was really slow at the start I thought. It did get better as I read the book more. It was average I would say.

The Crisscross Shadow:
I think this book was nice, especially for the action parts like getting klidnapped, the train incidient, and the cliff part. Those are mostly the only things I like about this book. But it's still a classic, no matter how many stars it has. That's a fact.

Swift Paced:
Published in 1953, this was a swift paced adventure that took place primarily in the wilderness near an Indian reservation. The crooks were known early on in the book to the Hardys and there was a great amount of interaction. All & all I really enjoyed this book. The frontispiece ranks among my favorite, the cover was well drawn, the plot and mystery kept the reader turning from page to page. There actually was a good mystery here as the Hardys were in a race with the criminals to learn the location of the Crisscross Shadow. RATED B+

Pedro from Richview Middle School:
There are two main characters in the book. They are Frank and Joe Hardy. When they come home from football practice there is a man in their house named Breck. The man is a leather goods saleman. He tries to sell their mother a key case. When their mother goes to get the money Breck takes a key and a picture from their house. The boys find the picture, but not the key. The boys go on a hunt to try to find where the key case was made. When they get to the place the place is an Indian tribe. The tribe sends them on a hunt for the deed to their property. When the boys find the deed they solve their mystery too.

Average:
This review concerns the original 1953 edition and the revised 1969 edition , which follows a plot similar to the original edition except it is shorter. When a phony leather goods salesman steals the key to Mr. Hardy's filing cabinet, Frank, Joe and Chet track a clue to an indian village and end up helping the indians find the lost deed to their land to prove their ownership. This book isn't bad, but it's not one of the really good ones either. The first half of the book is a little dull, but the last half is pretty good and it isn't until this point that the indian mystery comes into the story. If you don't mind the first part of the book you should enjoy the last part.