#55 Beyond The Law (Bayport Corruption Part 3) (31st Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published: September 1991, January 1999, 2005
Publisher: Archway Paperbacks (1991-1997, standalone) (1999-2000, Hardy Boys Casefiles Collector's Edition #3, Aladdin Paperbacks (2005-2006, HBCCE #3, Hardcover Reissue with Mystery Stories #152 cover art)
Author: Unknown as of January 2023 (also unknown for See No Evil & Line of Fire)

Plot:
Force of lies!

Power politics and police payoffs make an explosive mix!

Scandal rocks the Bayport police force! New commissioner Mark DeCampo has suspended veteran police chief Ezra Collig, saying he has proof Collig was once a bagman in a bribery scheme. Now Collig is on the run, and when DeCampo barely survives a car bomb, the chief is accused of attempted murder!

The Hardys have had differences with Collig in the past, but they refuse to believe he's a dirty cop. The boys head to Millerton, the town where Collig began his career, and expose a 35-year-old police cover-up. But they also stir up a new case -- a case of deceit, dishonor, and danger that leads straight back to Bayport!


Review:  Beyond The Law is part 3 in what is unofficially known as the "Bayport Corruption Storyline".  And it came over three years after Part 2 had been published in June 1988. 

[tomswift2002]

In all the books where Chief Collig featured, we never got as deep of a look at Collig as we did here.  We also learn that his wife has recently passed away.  She was mentioned at various times throughout the series.

Unfortunately, it's been over 10 years since Collig and even Con Riley have appeared in a new Hardy Boys story.

[MacGyver]

Beyond The Law is a book I remember reading multiple times so I recall some details of it fairly well. It is a favourite for me, as I found it to be interesting to delve into Chief Collig's past. It is also interesting to see the stalwart pillars like the police force be shaken and come out stronger in the end for it.
   

[tomswift2002]

We even get background on Collig's wife, Bea, such as her maiden name was Cowan and Collig met her shortly after she graduated teacher's college and began teaching high school.  And Ezra and Bea were married nearly 35 years before her death.  (In Beyond The Law it's stated that Collig worked on the Millerton force 35 years earlier, and then left the force with, at first an unexplained 6-month absence, then revealed that Collig had returned to high school to finish his diploma, and that's where he met Bea and they were married shortly afterwards.)

[tomswift2002]

And Bea's full first name was Beatrice.

[tomswift2002]

I finished Beyond The Law today.  It was a lot better than Deep Trouble. 

One thing that I noticed in this book was that it seemed like the author of Beyond The Law might've been the same as the author of See No Evil.  The author kept referencing See No Evil but never referenced Line of Fire, so I wonder if LOF was written by a different author and no one let the author of BTL/SNE know about LOF. 

It's also interesting that S&S never issued an omnibus of the 3 books.  In the UK there were legal issues, since See No Evil was issued by Armada, whereas the other two were issued by ARCHWAY UK.  However in North America, Archway US held the rights for all 3 books and could've collected all 3 together.  Beyond The Law was the first story in Collector's Edition #3, and with the 3 Omnibus's released in North America, I think S&S had run out of covers for the individual titles, but still had the inner pages, and decided to just package those together to sell them off.

Overall, Beyond The Law, just on itself is one of those rare Hardy Boys that gives us the back story on a Hardy friend, and was similar to Flesh And Blood where we learned more about Fenton's crime fighting past (interestingly there was no mention of the corrupt Bayport cop from that book in this one). 

Rating:  8.5/10

[MacGyver]

I think Beyond The Law is definitely one of the best books in the series.   
It would have been nice to have a book like this that focused on other supporting characters and offered some back story for them.