Whereas the original series of
Hardy Boys novels were full of niceness and
people with perfect
grammar and relatively little
violence or
sexual innuendo, this new series is a refreshing, and slightly more hardcore, take on every boy's favorite
detectives.
The Hardy Boys Casefiles have a very cinematic feel to them, which I enjoy. They're fast-paced, exciting, and fun. They manage to keep the feeling and atmosphere of the classic Hardy Boys novels, while upping the ante with more hardcore badguys and far more life-threatening situations.
I read nearly all of the original Hardy Boys novels as a young boy, and discovered the Casefiles novels when I was a teenager. I read all the Casefiles I could find in my school library (about the first 20 or so), and enjoyed them immensely. Iola's death in the first novel was shocking, but a brilliant story twist. It provided the means for Joe to become the more hotheaded of the duo, while Frank remained the cool, level-headed one.
Subsequent installments in the series have Frank and Joe posing as cultists, becoming bike messengers, working with the French surete, and posing as actors all in the course of solving mysteries. There's a very James Bond-ish style to the Casefiles, and it fits Frank and Joe quite well.