Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Supermystery #1: Double Crossing

NANCY DREW is enjoying a luxury cruise aboard the ship where her friend George is the new social director. It seems like great fun until Nancy overhears a plan to sell CIA secrets to another country. Her vacation turns into a high-risk hunt for a deadly secret agent.

Meanwhile...

THE HARDY BOYS are working undercover on the same cruise ship – Joe in the kitchen, Frank as photographer – trying to track down a dangerous group of thieves who prey on rich passengers.

But when murder comes aboard, Nancy, Joe, and Frank find they're in the same boat – facing death on all sides in DOUBLE CROSSING.


That's right – it's not just Nancy Drew, and it's not just the Hardy Boys. It's a NANCY DREW & HARDY BOYS SUPERMYSTERY.
I read one or two of these as a kid and I distinctly recall being completely taken aback to see the word 'sexy' in a book for children. However, now that I've read Double Crossing (the very first in the crossover series), it doesn't surprise me at all. I will give the author some credit here in that the story itself was not bad – Nancy is on the cruise ship for vacation and happens to run into a mystery (so what else is new?) while the Hardy Boys are already on a case (they don't need luck like Nancy because people actually pay them to do these things- I'd like to see the tables turn some day!). They help each other out with the two cases, get conked on the head and left for dead a few times, and nab the culprits in the end. The action sequences are imaginative (in a good way), and the 'bad guys' they're facing aren't bumbling idiots throwing in halfhearted attempts to scare Nancy, Frank, and Joe off the case – they are actually dangerous people.

So despite the ridiculous romance aspects to this book (and I'll get to that shortly), it wasn't entirely a waste of my time. I actually quite enjoyed it and, as my family can attest to, I spent much of our vacation curled up with this book in a fort I built in the closet (because just sitting in a chair or on the couch wasn't awesome enough).

However, I do need to point out some things, as always. On the subject of romance, if I can just share a passage here that caught my attention (note that this is only 4 pages into the book, and Nancy and Frank have barely been introduced):

Nancy unpacked quickly, pulling a card from Ned Nickerson out of her purse and putting it on top of her bureau, where she could look at it. She read it once again.
“My dear Ms. Detective,” it said. “While you're sailing off into the sunset, how am I supposed to solve a not-so-mysterious case of loneliness? Miss you, and see you when I get home. Love, Ned.”
What a guy. Ned Nickerson had to be the greatest boyfriend a girl ever had or ever could have. Nancy promised herself that no matter how good-looking the guys were on this cruise, she wasn't even going to think about romance.
And especially not with Frank Hardy. She'd crossed paths with Frank Hardy and his brother before, and every time she did, Frank had the same powerful effect on her. Nothing had ever happened between them, though, and it wasn't going to this time, either. She had a boyfriend, he had a girlfriend – and that was that. (4)

We've hardly met Nancy and Frank. As far as anyone is concerned, these could be the first impressions that a young girl or boy has of these two characters. And four pages in, Nancy is already having to remind herself of the reasons why she can't hit it off with Frank. Really now, the ghostwriter wasn't even trying to hint at the romantic tension here. In 1988, subtlety was apparently out the window for any contact between Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy. Later in the book, they even defy the pool rules to go for a midnight swim together. Said swim is naturally ruined when Nancy finds a dead body in the pool, but no big deal. Frank is there to hold her in his warm arms and tell her it's all going to be okay.

The interesting thing is that one character in particular, usually ignored in these types of story arcs, gets a guy of her own.

Nancy watched as George and David swept across the dance floor to a hot Latin beat. Their eyes were locked together, and it wasn't hard to tell that they were getting very interested in each other. (19)

For a little background, David is one guy in a group of five bratty CIA kids on board the cruise ship. Supposedly, David is the only somewhat-friendly one of the entire group, but Nancy questions his motives continuously throughout the book. And for once, George gets a taste of what Bess has to deal with all the time:

George's eyes widened. “Wait just a minute. You're not saying that you think David's involved in all this spy business, are you?” (55)

Oh sweetheart. Haven't you learned anything from Nancy's cases in all these years? Why do you think your cousin is perpetually single? Whenever a good-looking guy comes along, inevitably Nancy either takes him for herself, or he displays an interest in Bess and then turns out to be the culprit. The latter always ends with Nancy handing him over to law enforcement authorities after an action-packed finale revealing a huge twist in the identity of the burglar/saboteur/criminal mastermind – except it's not a twist because if you've read as many Nancy Drew books as I have, the predictability of such books is heightened considerably.

Although, to credit the author yet again, David turns out all right in the end and promises to keep in touch with George. I suppose it's just Bess who gets the shaft every time. And meanwhile, Nancy glows with pride at another job well done. *Snaps for Nancy!* /Legally Blonde

Stay tuned for another installment (cross your fingers for the long-overdue Mysterious Mannequin post)!