New Year's Evil (32nd Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published: November 1991
Publisher: Archway Paperbacks (1991-2000?), No Digital Edition
Author: Unknown as of March 2024

Plot: America's Hottest Teen Detectives Team Up To Quell A Crime Wave In Quebec

Nancy Drew heads to Quebec City to investigate sabotage on the set of the romantic TV thriller Dangerous Loves.  But the action behind the scenes is far more chilling than anything on camera.  Somebody is secretly determined to turn the film into a flop.  The movie's title adds an ominous twist to the case when Bess falls for its very attractive star---one of Nancy's prime suspects!

Meanwhile...

Frank and Joe Hardy are also in Quebec for the Winter Carnival's spectacular auto ice-racing event.  But they soon find themselves in a race of their own---to catch a murderer!  Racing champion Andrew Junot has turned up dead.  At the same time a photographer from the movie set has turned up missing.  Nancy, Frank, and Joe form a single resolution: infiltrate the criminal conspiracy in...New Year's Evil

Review:  I mentioned New Year's Evil in my review of River Heights #13 A Mind Of Her Own where I mentioned that the first name book-only character is given the name of Emily, and New Year's Evil could've been that rare book where there was a triple crossover event in the Files-Casefiles Continuity.  Unfortunately, they didn't do that.  The Emily in New Year's Evil is not Emily Van Patten from River Heights who had acted in TV, but Emily Anderson who is Bess Marvin's second cousin.

[tomswift2002]

So Chapter 2 has a passing reference to The Paris Connection.  It's very slight, since Bess just says that she's been to Paris.

[tomswift2002]

It's interesting, however, I'm finding that the author seems to have written Nancy, Frank and Joe as how Pamela Sue Martin, Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy had portrayed them, of course updated for the late-80's/very early-90's.  Of course by November 1991 the Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries had been off-the-air for 12 years.  So a little odd, however, in 1985-1987 there had been VHS & Betamax releases, so maybe the author had been watching the tapes (or they had recorded all the episodes off broadcast at some point) just prior to writing and the had the actors in mind.

[MacGyver]

It's interesting, however, I'm finding that the author seems to have written Nancy, Frank and Joe as how Pamela Sue Martin, Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy had portrayed them, of course updated for the late-80's/very early-90's.  Of course by November 1991 the Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries had been off-the-air for 12 years.  So a little odd, however, in 1985-1987 there had been VHS & Betamax releases, so maybe the author had been watching the tapes (or they had recorded all the episodes off broadcast at some point) just prior to writing and the had the actors in mind.

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries was the first pairing of Frank and Joe with Nancy so it seems natural writers probably did look to the TV show as an influence. Of course, the writer of this book would have likely been of the right age to have grown up watching the show in its original run as well.

[tomswift2002]

The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries was the first pairing of Frank and Joe with Nancy so it seems natural writers probably did look to the TV show as an influence. Of course, the writer of this book would have likely been of the right age to have grown up watching the show in its original run as well.

They could have been, however as I noted, by the time the book was written, the show had been off the air for over a decade (and from what I know it didn't last long in Syndication, since there were only 40 episodes, and back then you needed 100 episodes for successful syndication—-Star Trek was the exception).  If you were asked to write a book based on the old Fox series "Fringe" without having seen it since it last aired in 2013, do you think that you could remember how the characters were portrayed or spoke? 

[MacGyver]

They could have been, however as I noted, by the time the book was written, the show had been off the air for over a decade (and from what I know it didn't last long in Syndication, since there were only 40 episodes, and back then you needed 100 episodes for successful syndication—-Star Trek was the exception).  If you were asked to write a book based on the old Fox series "Fringe" without having seen it since it last aired in 2013, do you think that you could remember how the characters were portrayed or spoke? 

No, because I never watched "Fringe".

However, I do have some vivid memories of shows I avidly watched as a kid. In any case, given that this book series was to focus on a crossover between The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, it stands to reason that the authors would likely have studied previous pairings for ideas, so maybe they were watching episodes of the '70s series on Betamax, VHS or LaserDisc.

[tomswift2002]

Just an interesting observation, but with New Year's Evil the SuperMystery'88 series gained a new logo.  Gone is the bar logo, and now is the square logo.

[tomswift2002]

I just finished the book.  I've been busy with other stuff, so today I decided to finish it.

In the end, it turned out that the Hardy's and Nancy were going after two different crooks.  Although, with the Grant Shulman storyline the author kind of dropped it right at the end, when there was still more to it.  The author had Nancy, Bess and the lead actor on the movie do a stake out where the lead actor was wearing a mic and Nancy was able to record the conversation.  Anyway, the actor met with someone who flew in representing another production company, gave some clues, then left, and then the author had Nancy, Bess and the actor rush to the movie set where a bomb had been planted, and the assistant director, Grant Shulman, was arrested, and then nothing else was said about the other production company or the person who had flown in.  Aside from being rivals, it was never really explained why the other production company wanted the movie shut down.

The other plot involving the murder of the race car driver, turns out the President of the Auto Federation was involved as well as a woman race driver, and it wasn't really clear why they wanted to steal the prize money for the race, however, part of her deal was that the President would promote her more in the Federation.  And the race car driver who had been killed had been blackmailing them.

Joe and Bess seemed to have some sort of friendship/romance relationship going on, but it really went nowhere, of course in all the SuperMystery'88 books and I even remember back in the Super Sleuths! books Joe and Bess had that friendship/romance type relationship.    Of course we do know that Joe and Bess do get married eventually...! 

Rating: 7/10

[MacGyver]

I just finished the book.  I've been busy with other stuff, so today I decided to finish it.

In the end, it turned out that the Hardy's and Nancy were going after two different crooks.  Although, with the Grant Shulman storyline the author kind of dropped it right at the end, when there was still more to it.  The author had Nancy, Bess and the lead actor on the movie do a stake out where the lead actor was wearing a mic and Nancy was able to record the conversation.  Anyway, the actor met with someone who flew in representing another production company, gave some clues, then left, and then the author had Nancy, Bess and the actor rush to the movie set where a bomb had been planted, and the assistant director, Grant Shulman, was arrested, and then nothing else was said about the other production company or the person who had flown in.  Aside from being rivals, it was never really explained why the other production company wanted the movie shut down.

The other plot involving the murder of the race car driver, turns out the President of the Auto Federation was involved as well as a woman race driver, and it wasn't really clear why they wanted to steal the prize money for the race, however, part of her deal was that the President would promote her more in the Federation.  And the race car driver who had been killed had been blackmailing them.

Joe and Bess seemed to have some sort of friendship/romance relationship going on, but it really went nowhere, of course in all the SuperMystery'88 books and I even remember back in the Super Sleuths! books Joe and Bess had that friendship/romance type relationship.    Of course we do know that Joe and Bess do get married eventually...! 

Rating: 7/10

This was also played around with to a small degree on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries in "The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula" 2 part episode.
And yes- there is that "marriage" in Secrets of the Nile.