Book name: Nowhere to Run
Author: Franklin W Dixon
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Format: Print
Genre: Vintage children’s fiction
Publication Date: 1989
Star Rating: 5/5
Nowhere to Run is one of the Hardy Boys Casefile Collection published by Simon and Schuster and produced by Mega Books between 1987 and 1998.
The feel is a slightly more mature one than some of the original Hardy Boys Mystery Stories.
Joe has a passing interest in lots of different girls, and Frank is dating Callie Shaw.
Joe and Callie have an antagonistic relationship as neither is happy to share Frank with the other.
Most of the Hardy boys’ friends are slightly older than them and are working.
When Nowhere to Run begins, Frank and Joe are playing Frisbee with Callie. A motorbiker roars up and snatches the Frisbee.
Joe and the biker, whose identity is hidden by the visor of his helmet, argue over the Frisbee.
Then the biker removes his helmet and reveals himself as their old friend Biker Conway.
Biker has been in prison, but he’s keen to explain to the boys that he was framed.
Joe is eager to believe his friend, and he spars with Callie over it.
Biker explains that he was working for a watch company in Queens called DalTime as a salesman.
He was then arrested, charged with theft and convicted of stealing half a million dollars’ worth of watches.
The witness at the trial was the truck driver, but the hijacker was wearing a mask so it’s unclear how the driver could identify Biker.
The boys agree to help and suggest asking their dad for advice. They are concerned that Biker has escaped from custody and advise him to turn himself in.
However, when they get to the Hardys’ home, they are met outside by a bounter hunter. Mort Sims is working with Fenton Hardy to find Biker.
The boys are torn between loyalty to their friend and respect for their father.
The evidence against Biker is slender, so the boys set about investigating the original robbery.
I liked the more mature feel to Nowhere to Run. Callie and Joe just can’t get along, so there is plenty of tension at the family level. As usual, Frank is the calming influence.
Callie has a greater role than young women in some of the earlier Hardy Boys Mystery Stories.
Biker’s fiancée Sue Murphy also works to help clear his name.
There was lots of tension around relationships, with Brandon Dalton (son of the watch company owner) trying to steal Sue. Even Joe can’t hide his admiration for Biker’s girl.
The focus was more on tensions between people who already know each other and are of roughly the same age than in the original stories, where the danger tends to come from strangers.
The Hardy boys must work out whether Brandon can be trusted and who has framed Biker.
Biker was a much more complex character than some of the other friends of the Hardy boys we meet in the books. He is charming and persuasive, hence his success as a salesperson. However, he also struggles to control his temper and lets his fists fly at the first opportunity.
Nowhere to Run was a really different story to some of the other Hardy Boys books. I loved them, but I enjoyed the fresh approach of this story too.
Thank you for reading my review.
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