Plot: Frank and Joe meet a new acquaintance, Jake Martins, through their mutual friend, Jamal. Jake is one of the chief programmers behind Bayport’s new security camera system, so when glitches in the system allows crooks to commit crimes unobserved, Jake becomes a suspect.
“Borrowing” from the past: Frank and Joe mention working on A Game Called Chaos and its featured computer games. Both books were written by Stephen D. Sullivan. Jay Stone, Missy Gates, and Harley Betts will reappear in another book by Sullivan, Trick-or-Trouble (#175).
Jamal Hawkins is ...: Frank and Joe’s “chestnut brown” friend on the make. His father owns a company and planes that Jamal can fly.
Frank and Joe Hardy, future members of the ACLU: Frank and Joe are concerned about the security cameras blanketing certain sections of Bayport, and rightly so. They also wonder about the implications of the cameras only being located in the richer parts of town. But for the Hardys, getting accused of violating someone’s civil rights is something that only happens to other people. When Jake leaves Frank and Joe alone in his room, Joe wants to search it, and Frank says no — not yet. Frank and Joe are also more than happy to encourage a criminal gang to hack into a local college’s computers to find the grades of one of their suspects.
For the record, Fenton also doesn’t like the cameras, but it’s probably because he fears the cops actually catching some crooks without having to hire him.
Because the Man only gives us 150 pages: Frank, Joe, and Jamal are hassled by a cop at the beginning of the mystery because they are loitering teens. Joe and Jamal take it badly. Jamal, who, you know, might have experienced real prejudice before, is somewhat philosophical after he calms down. Joe remains incensed, however, probably because Officer Unfriendly didn’t recognize him as Joe Hardy, Crimebuster!
Live here much?: After we are told Jake studies at Bayport Institute of Technology, lifelong Bayport resident Joe asks, “That’s just down the street, isn’t it?” That’s the observational skills that make Joe the top-notch amateur detective he is.
For your dining pleasure: Bayport has restaurants called Java John’s and the Spud Spa. The latter, a mall-court eatery, belongs on The Simpsons, somewhere between the Texas Cheesecake Depository and Krusty Burger.
When you’re a Bayporter, you’re a Bayporter all the way: Bayport has the worst gang of the 21st century (although technically, this book was published in 2000, the last year of the 20th century). The Kings, whose ranks include Jay, Missy, and Harley, were stolen from a 1950s greaser movie, sanitized, and plopped into The Spy That Never Lies. They were leather jackets with “Kings” on them, making them easily identifiable. They hang out at a garage. And — most importantly — they have only five members. Working on the Bayport PD’s Gangs Task Force must be the cushiest job ever.
Opinions: This is an excellent Hardy Boys book, with a chance for exploring important issues. It doesn’t, of course, but at least it mentions that these issues exist.
Sullivan gives some of the villains credit for a little intelligence, allowing them to reference 1984 and red herrings. It’s not much intelligence, and it doesn’t stop them from buying obviously stolen goods, but it does add a little something to the usually faceless antagonists.
The Hardys already function as a semiautonomous police force, and in The Spy That Never Lies, Frank and Joe act like one: they make a deal with the Kings when they know the gang has committed a felony — and an easily provable one, at that. But hey — the Hardys are interested in justice, dammit, and if a few petty criminals go free, then that’s the price the system will have to pay.
Grade: A
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