#60 Deadfall (33rd Anniversary Review)

[tomswift2002]

Published: February 1992
Publisher: Archway Paperbacks (1992-2000)
Author: Unknown as of April 2025

Plot: Timber country---it's the perfect environment for murder

War In the Woods!

Crosscut, Oregon, is a town divided.  Two rival lumber mills are in fierce competition, while the tension between pro- and anti-logging forces threatens to tear Crosscut apart.  And when an explosion at one mill claims the life of it's owner, the police charge Callie Shaw's uncle, environmentalist Stan Shaw, with the murder!

Frank and Joe refuse to let Stan take the fall.  But the land around Crosscut is cough country---and the men in it are even rougher.  Before the boys can clear Stan's name, they'll have to clear a path through a dangerous world of chain saws and bulldozers, dynamite and double-barrelted shotguns!

Review:
I first got this book and read it in February 1999.  I had to special order it in, and it was a first printing, so by 1999, it's clear that this book did not sell all that well.  And February 1999 is the last time that I read the book, because I remember that I found the book was very dull and boring and could be as bad as #120 Survival of the Fittest sixty books later. 

Of course in a way, this book kind of calls back to The Clue of the Screeching Owl from the Grosset & Dunlap series, since the book featured another uncle of Callie's. 

[MacGyver]

The environmental theme seems timely as that was a big concern in the early '90s, as evidenced by the rise of cartoons like The Raccoons (I know it largely ran in the 1980s though) and Captain Planet and the Planeteers. There's an episode of MacGyver called "Log Jam" that had a similar theme, which also aired around this time. I haven't read Deadfall in a long time and I don't really remember much of it. I don't consider it to be bad but it wasn't really a stand out book either. This post does remind that I still have an ex-library copy of that book and I would like to upgrade it eventually.

[tomswift2002]

I was reading one part early on in the book that was reminding me of this:

https://youtu.be/upsZZ2s3xv8?si=LUHBDADQSml0mZF1

[tomswift2002]

So the book is a bit dated, since on pages 86-87 Callie finds a lighter that has the symbol for the army's paratroopers and "Saigon '72" and Frank starts talking about the Vietnam war, which in 1992 would have been only 20 years earlier, so anyone who would have been in their teens/20's and at Saigon in 1972, in the 90's would have been in their late-30's to 40's, whereas nowadays Vietnam vets would be in their late-60's to 70's and are starting to die off. 

Callie's involvement in this book is interesting because it ties back to the early books in the series, when Bill McKay and those involved with Mega-Books and Simon & Schuster were trying to have Callie be the third member of the Hardy Boys team, and maybe bring the girls around to reading the series, since you had #8 See No Evil where Callie was the main focus, plus she appeared quite a bit in other Bayport-cantered stories.  However, I guess they were having issues figuring out how to get Callie more involved.  Had S&S allowed the writer's to age the characters (which I think Bill McKay did in the background, so in this book Frank, Joe and Callie are portrayed more in their mid-20's rather than high schoolers), I think we could have seen Frank and Callie married and Callie could have joined Frank and Joe on more of their cases outside of Bayport as Frank's wife.  But not aging the characters I think hamstrung Bill McKay and the authors when it came to Callie.  Nancy they could get away with in the SuperMystery'88 series because she was another detective from another city and if their investigations met, then that would make sense and not imply anything was going on between Nancy or Frank or Joe and Bess.

[tomswift2002]

So I just finished the book.  It wasn't as bad as I remembered it, but it was not the best.  In one way it was reminding me of the possible Casefile Breakdown In Axeblade and Line of Fire with the environmental theme and the businesses.  However, in the Nancy Drew Files Nancy had also dealt with environmentalists in Crosscurrents, which was also released in February 1992.  So that seemed to be the environmental month back in 92.

Rating: 5/10

[NZone]

We learn Callie has an uncle that lives in Washington in this one.

We also see the Hardy Boys learning - they make sure to buy extra insurance on their rental car.

[MacGyver]

We learn Callie has an uncle that lives in Washington in this one.

We also see the Hardy Boys learning - they make sure to buy extra insurance on their rental car.

I feel like The Hardy Boys (Along with Callie, of course) visit quite a few of her relatives in the Casefiles. One of her uncles in Deadfall in Oregon, I believe she has another uncle in Vermont maybe (See Pure Evil) and yet more relatives (cousins, I think) in Barbados in The Dead Season. Callie's family is really spread out.

[tomswift2002]

I feel like The Hardy Boys (Along with Callie, of course) visit quite a few of her relatives in the Casefiles. One of her uncles in Deadfall in Oregon, I believe she has another uncle in Vermont maybe (See Pure Evil) and yet more relatives (cousins, I think) in Barbados in The Dead Season. Callie's family is really spread out.

At least she's in the Casefiles!  In the UB's and Adventures, she seemed to be treated like Tiffany or Debbie Gibson.  She belonged to the 80's/90's and needed to be thrown out in the 2000's.

[MacGyver]

At least she's in the Casefiles!  In the UB's and Adventures, she seemed to be treated like Tiffany or Debbie Gibson.  She belonged to the 80's/90's and needed to be thrown out in the 2000's.

I haven't read enough of those books to know but it's definitely a shame if Callie (and Iola, Chet, Biff, Tony, Phil and Jerry, for that matter) get underutilized in the UB and Adventures books.

[tomswift2002]

I haven't read enough of those books to know but it's definitely a shame if Callie (and Iola, Chet, Biff, Tony, Phil and Jerry, for that matter) get underutilized in the UB and Adventures books.

Callie only appeared in UB #5 Rocky Road back in 2005.  Since then she's been MIA.  Iola and Chet have appeared in a few books (and in the Secret Files they even gained a baby sister, Mimi).  Jerry really hasn't been in the books since the 1930's and their 1950's/1960's rewrites.  Tony and Phil, they might've appeared in Rocky Road, but I don't recall. 

And of course, Chief Collig and Con Riley appeared a few time in the UB's, but their last appearance was in like 2009/2010.  The Adventures introduced a pretty forgettable police chief. 

[MacGyver]

Callie only appeared in UB #5 Rocky Road back in 2005.  Since then she's been MIA.  Iola and Chet have appeared in a few books (and in the Secret Files they even gained a baby sister, Mimi).  Jerry really hasn't been in the books since the 1930's and their 1950's/1960's rewrites.  Tony and Phil, they might've appeared in Rocky Road, but I don't recall. 

And of course, Chief Collig and Con Riley appeared a few time in the UB's, but their last appearance was in like 2009/2010.  The Adventures introduced a pretty forgettable police chief. 

You're really making me want to finally read those Adventures books on my bookshelf.

[tomswift2002]

You're really making me want to finally read those Adventures books on my bookshelf.

I wouldn't recommend them.  They are 2nd grade readers masquerading as 6th grade readers.  And S&S setup a major story arc in book 1, similar to the Assassins in the  Casefiles, but dropped it immediately.

[MysteryFan89]

I wouldn't recommend them.  They are 2nd grade readers masquerading as 6th grade readers.  And S&S setup a major story arc in book 1, similar to the Assassins in the  Casefiles, but dropped it immediately.

Yeah, why did they do that? I loved book one, after that, it kind of went down from there.