#38 Diplomatic Deceit (31st Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published: April 1990
Publisher: Archway Paperbacks (1990-1995, stand-alone), (1998-2003, The Hardy Boys Casefiles Collector's Edition #1)
Author:  Unknown as of May 2021



Plot: On the high wire of foreign affairs, one slip can lead to disaster!

The Hardys and friend Callie Shaw are off to Washington, D.C. Callie finally has the chance to meet her Parisian pen pal, Madeleine Berot, whose parents have been assigned to the French embassy. But when Maddy is caught shoplifting, Frank and Joe suspect that there's something rotten in the state of French diplomacy.

Determined to get to the bottom of the Madeleine Berot mystery, the Hardys find themselves caught in a web of international intrigue. They take of on a tingling chase through the nation's capital, pursuing a gang of continental con artists. In a case of D.C. deceit, it's up to Frank and Joe to nip the caper in the bud!

Review:  Diplomatic Deceit is one of the earliest Casefiles that I remember reading back in 1995.  I remember checking it out of the library and reading it during summer vacation 95.  Again, the artwork on the cover is one of the Classic Casefiles covers.  Brian Kotzky painted a Classic cover, that in the UK, Richard James copied it in 1993. S&S should've used the artwork for the cover of the Collector's Edition #1.   The cover is also notorious for misspelling Franklin as Franklyn W. Dixon.

It's interesting, but in the UK, while the text of the book was never released as part of an omnibus, Richard James' artwork was used for the September 1997 The Hardy Boys Casefiles Collection #8 Survival Tactics, which contained #29 Thick As Thieves, #30 The Deadliest Dare & #31 Without A Trace.  Considering that none of those stories take place in Washington, so the Capital building is out of place. 

Otherwise—-I never really found the story to have been that interesting.  Sure it's another Callie Shaw focused book, but the story never really hooked me like See No Evil or Hostages of Hate or The Dead Season. 

Rating: 4.5/10.

[MacGyver]

I love how the French friend's last name, Berot, is only a letter off from the word "beret".