The plot summary and cover for ''Haunted'', a Special Ghost Stories Edition in the Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers series have been revealed.
(http://www.hardyboyscasefiles.com/images/comingsoon/UBSM_03.jpg) (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416961690?ie=UTF8&tag=hardboyscasee-20)
The plot summary is as follows:
Frank and Joe start to question their beliefs about the supernatural when ATAC sends them on a special mission to investigate reported hauntings at a juvenile detention center.
When exactly does it come out?
August.
June July August , not to bad
Well, you might think that its bad, considering that right now, Haunted seems to be a stand-alone title that is coming out in the middle of a trilogy and neither have anything in common aside fromt he main characters and the fact that they are apart of the "Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers" series umbrella.
The cover for Haunted has been revealed at Simon & Schuster's official website. By the looks of it this third installment will be a re-make of the 1980's Ghost Stories. I like the background but am not so sure about the models, not how I picture the boys, anyway. Actually maybe it's not the models, it's more how there standing that's seems sort of strange to me.
(http://www.simonsays.com/assets/isbn/1416961690/BC_1416961690.jpg) (http://hardyboys.wikia.com/wiki/Haunted)
If it's a remake of the 1984 book, lets hope that it is not in the first person style.
And I agree about the cover. Joe looks like he's about to have an accident in his pants, and why does Frank look off balance.
Plus, is that a gun in Frank's hand?
the cover sure looks interesting...
and that does look like a gun. that'd be a first for the UB series
I think it is just the background and not a gun.
To me it looks like one of those bad comedies when people are trying to sneak around but doing a bad job of it :D
The official plot summery that will appear on the back cover of ''Haunted'', has been revealed at SimonSays (http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=3&pid=623521&er=9781416961697).
QuoteATAC Briefing for Agents Frank and Joe Hardy:
Special Paranormal Operation
MISSION: Investigate possible supernatural disturbances at the Undercliff House of Detention, formerly an insane asylum in the 1800s.
LOCATION: Juvenile detention center in Glastonbury, CT.
POTENTIAL VICTIMS: Many of the inmates appear to be dying from pure terror!
SUSPECTS: Lara Renner claims to be a psychic with a direct line to the spirit behind the hauntings, but perhaps her motives are more down-to-earth. Then there's the cafeteria worker with a major grudge. Or could it be the culprits are truly ghosts?
Another MURDER story??? And coming in the middle of a MURDER trilogy? Is this going to be a confusing summer of plot repeats or what? What are the people at S&s on?
I never knew Frank was a surfer.
It looks like Frank's going to tip over and Joe is at a really weird angle... :-\
It looks like Frank needs a sufing breck in Hawiwi. This is probily the dumbest undercover brothers cover ever!
''Haunted'' is now available from Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Haunted-Hardy-Boys-Undercover-Brothers/dp/1416961690/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217038491&sr=1-1). And by the looks of it, used copies of the book are already available from Amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1416961690/ref=dp_olp_2)!
Hopefully the book will be better then the cover!
Or I wonder if the UK version has a different cover.
I don't think it is, not by the looks of it on Amazon.co.uk, anyway.
Does anyone have the book yet?
I picked up ''Haunted'' today and according to the title page this is not Super Mystery #3 but Mission #24! Having ''Haunted'' as part of the main Undercover Brothers, makes it even stranger that it was published between Murder House #2 ''House Arrest'' and #3 ''Murder House'', since the trilogy would be numbered like this #22, #23, #25, with #24 right in the middle a totally unconnected story.
I suspected that ''Haunted'' possibly wouldn't officially be part of the UB Super Mystery series, but it never crossed my mind that ''Haunted'' would be part of the main UB series!
However, even if S&S doesn't consider it to be a one, I still consider it part of the UB Super Mystery series, considering it's longer (the only thing that really makes them SM in the first place), and that if this is a regular UB that would mean seven UB would be published this year, rather then the usual six.
Or if not Super Mystery #3, at least a stand alone volume.
Something I found interesting is that while numbered as #24 on the title page, in the list of titles on the opposite page, it is unnumbered.
So, far the books been pretty good, story wise. The first chapter was exciting (of course it has nothing to do with the main story).
Also, Mission #7 ''Operation: Survival'' is mentioned as the last time Frank and Joe went to juvenile detention camp, and ''Extreme Danger'' is indirectly reference, in that it is mentioned that the Hardys got Playback from a low life (can't remember the exact wording). These references are a welcome change from the normal amnesia style, in which the Hardys' past missions seem to have been forgotten.
Q still hasn't returned to the UB continuity, and ''ATAC contact'' is still in his place.
Joe mentioned that he thought Vijay Petal would get a undercover job, pretty fast, which almost made me laugh. Don't you now time doesn't pass in your UB world, Joe?
And it would seem Frank shares the view of many Hardy fans - the boys rely on gadgets to much. When Joe says, he's going to request an ATAC crash-landing pad, Frank sarcastically refers to him as James Bond.
As is the case lately, series dating pop culture references are made, including Jessica Simpson. Other real world subjects are mentioned, that I don't mind and actually enjoy, that wont date the book are ''SI'', Stephen King, and eBay, all of which will last for a long time.
On the back of ''Haunted'' where the last two book have had ''Watch out for our next case, book x'', there is a blank space, and on the back of ''House Arrest'' it said that ''Murder House'' is the next case, so the more I think about it, the more I think the title page is a mistake, and ''Haunted''. If it is a mistake this has to be the biggest mistake in Hardy history, you just can't get the number of your book wrong! Doesn't S&S employ editors? This is pretty hard to do too, I opened up the book and saw it right away.
Also, it would seem that the new cover style has already been altered, on the spine of ''Haunted'', the ''The'' in ''The Hardy Boys'' is just as big as the rest of ''The Hardy Boys'' and is the same color (orange), rather then being in smaller black letters, and it is written diagonally down the spine, rather then horizontally across it.
(Sorry for the triple post)
Didn't I say back in the winter/spring that it was odd how Haunted[/] was coming out in the middle of a trilogy? But I agree. According to Paul Mular, the Nancy Drew Ghost Stories is a completely new Ghost stories book in that series (and there is no numbering for the GD series or even to make it Nancy Drew Ghost Stories #3) amd it is a stand alone title. Even Paul is not sure why Haunted is #24.
Quote from: tomswift2002 on July 30, 2008, 06:34:31 AM
Didn't I say back in the winter/spring that it was odd how Haunted[/] was coming out in the middle of a trilogy? But I agree.
You did say that. I wasn't disagreeing, in fact that's what I was saying, it's even stranger that it was published in the middle of a trilogy now, if it's even part of the same series!
Quote from: tomswift2002 on July 30, 2008, 06:34:31 AM
According to Paul Mular, the Nancy Drew Ghost Stories is a completely new Ghost stories book in that series (and there is no numbering for the GD series or even to make it Nancy Drew Ghost Stories #3) amd it is a stand alone title. Even Paul is not sure why Haunted is #24.
Who's Paul Mular?
I'm on the HardyBoys@yahoogroups.com forum there as well, and Paul Mular is the co-author of Hardy And Hardy Investigations, a pricing and rarity guide for all things Hardy Boys. (Its published by Synsine Press http://synsine.com/current.html).
I got my copy in the mail a few days ago and on the top of my book it says: Special Ghost Series edition.
Yes it does but look on the inside title page, which reads #24 ''Haunted'': A Special Ghost Stories Edition. Weird. eh?
I read the book yesterday, and I thought it was okay, but I'm not really sure if there was a real ghost or not...
I loved it, I thought it was great! I was reading it at 1:30 a.m. and I was getting a little freaked........ :o :o :o
I just got this not long ago and I haven't read it yet. I'm glad someone likes it! I love ghost stories of any kind. But i just looked on the inside cover of the Ghost Stories and the Murder House and they both say # 24. What's up with that? Why didn't they just let it be as a Special Ghost Stories Edition and leave it at that like the first HB Ghost Stories?
Quote from: whitetigers on December 01, 2008, 03:56:39 AM
I just got this not long ago and I haven't read it yet. I'm glad someone likes it! I love ghost stories of any kind. But i just looked on the inside cover of the Ghost Stories and the Murder House and they both say # 24. What's up with that? Why didn't they just let it be as a Special Ghost Stories Edition and leave it at that like the first HB Ghost Stories?
No one's quite sure as to why the title page has the number 24 on it, but a lot of people just chalk it up to being part of a confusing summer and year from S&S. A lot of people think that S&S was being illogical all year long and this trilogy/special edition businesss was just the "cherry on top" of this illogical business with the Hardy Boys. If you were the editor of the Hardy Boys and you were trying to explain to the president of S&S, do you think you could explain why you decided to publish
Murder House Books 1 & 2 in May and July of 2008, then publish
Haunted in August 2008 and then bring back
Murder House in September to finish the story? I don't think you could since it just sounds so illogical. And if it was because of a delay in getting the final manuscript finished in the trilogy, then why wasn't
Haunted published in April, and then the trilogy over the course of the next 6 months?
I am contemplating putting the "new ghost stories" book in the UB Supermystery line. Pros? Cons?
Quote from: SkyWarp on December 01, 2008, 06:50:22 PM
I am contemplating putting the "new ghost stories" book in the UB Supermystery line. Pros? Cons?
I don't think it belongs in the Super Mystery line any more than
Kidnapped At The Casino belongs in that line.
I somewhat consider the SM line to be nothing more than the normal UB books that were just not numbered and yet sold seperately.
I consider ''Haunted'' to be in the UB Super Mystery line.
Quote from: Santa Claus on December 01, 2008, 06:31:12 PM
No one's quite sure as to why the title page has the number 24 on it, but a lot of people just chalk it up to being part of a confusing summer and year from S&S. A lot of people think that S&S was being illogical all year long and this trilogy/special edition businesss was just the "cherry on top" of this illogical business with the Hardy Boys. If you were the editor of the Hardy Boys and you were trying to explain to the president of S&S, do you think you could explain why you decided to publish Murder House Books 1 & 2 in May and July of 2008, then publish Haunted in August 2008 and then bring back Murder House in September to finish the story? I don't think you could since it just sounds so illogical. And if it was because of a delay in getting the final manuscript finished in the trilogy, then why wasn't Haunted published in April, and then the trilogy over the course of the next 6 months?
Plus, wouldn't it have made sense for ''Haunted'' to come out at Halloween time?
That's what i was thinking. And also it would have been interesting to see them do some more short ghost stories like the first one and seen what they would have come up with.
Quote from: SkyWarp on December 01, 2008, 08:12:28 PM
I somewhat consider the SM line to be nothing more than the normal UB books that were just not numbered and yet sold seperately.
I agree, cause there is nothing any more special about them than the others. If there is i don't see it.
Humm... A new Ghost Stories. Whats the chance of a new Dectective handbook?
Quote from: 003Robin457 on December 08, 2008, 05:38:08 PM
Humm... A new Ghost Stories. Whats the chance of a new Dectective handbook?
At least a more updated one!
Quote from: 003Robin457 on December 08, 2008, 05:38:08 PM
Humm... A new Ghost Stories. Whats the chance of a new Dectective handbook?
Considering that the printing rights to the 1959 and 1973 editions of the
Detective Handbook are held by Grosset & Dunlap, and that the book was part of the 1980 court settlement, it would mean that any "updating" done on the book by Simon & Schuster would have to be approved by Grosset & Dunlap, or vice versa if it was done by Grosset & Dunlap.
And since Simon & Schuster basically leaves the reprinting of the first 66 books (the original 58 plus the 8 added in 2005)and the
Detective Handbook to Grosset & Dunlap and Simon & Schuster just looks after making sure that the copyrights are in order and are renewed at the proper times. Simon & Schuster also looks after requests by outside book companies to reprint older Stratemeyer Syndicate titles. An example of that is the Applewood reprints of the Original Texts of
The Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew and the first 3
Tom Swift titles from 1910.
I bought this book recently along with Kidnapped and my receipt said that I bought Super Mysteries #2 and #3.
I think it is supposed to be the third super mystery. Did you read them yet?
Quote from: Fenlaur on July 31, 2009, 05:44:17 PM
I bought this book recently along with Kidnapped and my receipt said that I bought Super Mysteries #2 and #3.
S&S list's it on their site as the third Super Mystery.
I read them both and I thought they were pretty good. I know I read a couple of the regular UBs and didn't find them so great, but I was surprised that I actually liked the super mysteries. I bought Wanted a while back and that one was ok too, but I can't say that the UBs are my favorite.
You'll find that Wanted is the best one, or at least in the top 3. Most of us on here agree on that.
Quote from: Fenlaur on July 31, 2009, 05:44:17 PM
I bought this book recently along with Kidnapped and my receipt said that I bought Super Mysteries #2 and #3.
Sometimes the person inputting the information into the computer will hit the wrong button or type the wrong information. Trust me, I see some weird things at Wal-Mart----I remember I had a customer ask me what was on her receipt since the description of the item was something like 18676492656458634589690 followed by the UPC (which was a completley different number), and here it turned out that it was a hanging basket.
I think that Haunted should have been a HBSM.
It is.
Quote from: tomswift2002 on July 04, 2008, 04:34:52 PM
Another MURDER story??? And coming in the middle of a MURDER trilogy? Is this going to be a confusing summer of plot repeats or what? What are the people at S&s on?
Pills of insanity, that's what!