Published: December 1991 (March 2014 digital edition)
Publisher: Minstrel Books (1991-1998), Aladdin (2014-Present)
Author: Unknown as of January 2022
Plot: The Hardy boys never dreamed they'd be swinging for their lives on the circus's flying trapeze, but that's exactly what happens when their pal Chet Morton discovers a college for clowns. But Frank and Joe have no time for clowning around, for they've intercepted a coded message that may turn the greatest show on earth into a carnival of crime. (Current description from Simon & Schustsr.)
Review: I'm only up to Chapter 7 on this re-read, and it's so-so. Even when I first read the book back around 1999-2000, I remember not being impressed back then. And so far I'm not impressed with this book so far. Unfortunately, after #100 The Secret of the Island Treasure, Anne Greenberg and the heads at S&S seemed to be trying to push the Mystery stories away from the level of violent crimes that we saw in the Grosset & Dunlap, Wanderer and first 15 S&S books.
Now then Three-Ring Terror is a throwback to the Grosset & Dunlap and Wanderer books in that Chet has a hobby that ties into the case. In this book, Chet is attending Clown College over Christmas vacation. Chet and the Hardy's seems to think this is Chet's first time with the circus, but I guess he forgot about his other circus escapades (I think he was in the circus in #71 Track of the Zombie and I think the original The Clue of the Broken Blade and Mystery of the Whale Tattoo).
So this book takes place just before Christmas, although Christmas isn't mentioned aside from Christmas vacation. Specifically it takes place from December 18 to 21.
So I just finished the book this morning. While Chet's hobby was a throwback, nothing else was. At one point in the book it's mentioned that Fenton's gone to Philadelphia to check something at police headquarters there, and I was hoping it would turn out that whatever Fenton was working on would tie into the brothers case, but nope, it was just a reason to have Fenton absent. Although, it would've made the plot a lot better since it turned out that Frank and Joe were on the trail of jewel smugglers.
In some ways the plot of this book felt rushed and the author really wasn't sure how to take it.
Rating: 4.0/10