Published in April 1989
Ghost Author: Unknown
Plot: Kickbacks always fall into the wrong hands.
Frank and Joe fly to Alaska to trace Scott Sanders, who's supposed to be working on a top-secret project for a mining firm. When company officials claim they've never heard of Scott, the Hardys grow suspicious. They find that some company managers have been selling jobs on the oil pipeline. But before the brother detectives can dig deeper, they're kidnapped and forced to bail out over the arctic wilderness. Stranded, Frank and Joe face their toughest test -- fighting hunger, grizzly bears, and bullets to survive -- while at trail's end a group called the Assassins waits to give them their final exam
Review: So far I've only read Chapter 1, but Frank and Joe clearly seem to be around 19/20 in the book. Also the book is set at the end of summer—-possible September. So it seems that the "Scene Of The Crime, The Borderline Case & Trouble In The Pipeline" take place together and months after "Shockwaves".
I particularly recall liking this book because it involves the Asassins. That and MacGyver-style wilderness survival plus a compelling mystery make for a cool book.
I am also pretty sure this is one of the books referenced in #80 Dead of Night.
Again, like "The Borderline Case", I've read the book before, a couple of times, but the details are lost in a fog of memory. But it's interesting how in the first six chapters the Hardy's just stand around while the bad guys approach them. There was a scene in Chapter 4 where the boys and an Alaskan friend just stand in front of a cabin, while helicopters that they can clearly see are searching for something, instead of hiding in the cabin and looking out the window.
I just finished the book. It felt like it could've been made into a James Bond-style movie. Joe even sleeps with a woman---although not as far as James Bond goes. Joe and the woman jump out of a plane, and land on top of a mountain in the middle of the night in order to wait for a secret meeting early in the morning. So they use their parachutes as sleeping bags and sleep next to a rock. Otherwise, nothing else happens.
It was amazing to see the Hardy's on a case that involved The Assassins---and yet, while it is mentioned in passing---The Network is not part of the case! And then at the end it is revealed that Sandy White is a "big cheese" in the Assassins organization! I had to wonder what the Gray Man felt when he heard that the Hardy's had managed to capture, alive, one of the TOP guys in the Assassins!
Of course, the Hardy's handle a variety of guns in this book, from a revolver to a MAC10. So in comparison to The Hardy Boys Adventures, there is no comparison. I remember first reading this book in the summer between Grade 6 and Grade 7 in the 1990's (I got it at the same time as The Borderline Case) and when I compare it to the books that S&S are putting out targeting that Grade range today in 2019, there is no comparison. The violence level in Trouble In The Pipeline, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the Hardy's just talk the criminals into surrendering, and 10 being a war with military-level assault weapons, Pipeline would be at a 10, whereas the most recent Hardy Boys Adventure: The Disappearance, is a 1.5. By comparison, Night of the Werewolf would be at a 7.5.
This is still #59 on my "Top Ten" list, and really it's because there were a few places in the book that were just "duh!" or "what are they thinking?"
Rating: 6.5/10