Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers #19, Foul Play, is one of the best books in this series. In this volume Frank and Joe are written in character – a very important thing to me. 😎
Foul Play is a very cool and good read. I really enjoyed it and it’s an excellent example of why I like some of the Undercover Brothers books. It has an interesting mystery, fun humor, good action, a couple of fight scenes with bad guys with a dose of poetic justice included. The opening predicament where the brothers were facing Bengal tigers was great edge-of-the-seat stuff and it was exciting how they got out of it. I love how the author writes so you feel you are right in the scene. With the Hardy brothers and those huge Bengal tigers!
I particularly love the entire doughnut scene when the brothers got their assignment. Good writing – enjoyable fun! I love this kind of stuff. 😀
The banter was fun, the way it should be. Good-natured teasing is very enjoyable to read. Banter is an art, just like sarcasm and witty insults, as opposed to flat-out rude, obnoxious insults and there definitely is a difference! I haven’t read all of the UBs yet, but in the ones I have, sometimes the authors write it right and sometimes they miss it like the writer is trying way too hard so then it doesn’t sound real and doesn’t flow. The humor and good-natured affection has to be clear or it’s annoying and falls flat rather than cool and smooth, which is obviously preferable. This book got it right. 😎
There were a number of believable suspects and Frank and Joe had to figure out whom they could trust while keeping their cover safe on a college football team. Injuries, player superstitions, game fixing, sports betting were things they had to deal with while trying to keep anyone from being murdered – including themselves!
Plenty of great lines in this book and my favorite is this excellent one by Frank after fighting a jerk who was trying to bribe him:
“Sorry, dude,” I answered. “You threatened my brother. No amount of money makes up for that.”
My favorite Undercover Brothers books are from the graphic novels series by Papercutz, but this one was up there with them and I will definitely read it again. And I recommend it
Oh, I also really like their cool gadget that they each got – I love the gadgets in the UBs. 😀
I’m more into baseball, hockey, soccer, and X-Games, than football, without a doubt, but I think there is the right amount about the sport in Foul Play. In my opinion, the writer scored a touchdown with this book. Enjoyable. I even learned some interesting stuff! So a hearty recommendation for this Hardy Boys book #19 Foul Play. 😎
Hardy and Drew Mysteries 