Arsonists start burning down warehouses. Right after the Hardys become volunteer firefighters. A good kids book, I guess.

I liked this book. It took me two days to read this. I liked how it had unexpected turns like when the apartment building colla pises when the Hardys try find out how their friend Kevin got fired from the apartment as Super. I liked the beginning when they chase the blue car after checking the first warehouse. It was a good book so I can't spill the beans.

This book has plenty of fast-paced action, but it's just your standard Hardy Boys book, there's a murder and the Hardys are gonna find out who did it.

This book is a fast paced thrill ride through drugs,sport and money. Frank and Joe try to relax at a beach complex and take in some volleyball but when one of the players die frank and joe must investigate. It's the game of there life..and the competition is murder.

The best thing about this book is that it has no ending! Just when you think things are over for Frank and Joe, the story takes a complete turn and you realize that this book has no ending. It is the first in the Ring of Evil series, so it is definetly a mus read. This series is great for anyone, not just young boys. I'm a 16 year old girl and have been reading these for many years. They're terrific!

This book is great! I just read it a while ago and loved it. It was so good I read it in one night! Although it is a trilogy and does not totally finish it does solve the main crime in the book. It ends up trying to... better not tell you you aughta read it your self

David Woodman's research for this book is exciting to think about -- carefully turning the thousands of pages from journals written over a hundred years ago -- could he see the fear of frozen fingers (and more) in the marks of thick ink? Woodman's retelling of Sir Franklin's fascinating story is built upon an amazing act of pinning down the oral histories from another culture to the pages of ours. Above all, this book pays tribute to this wonderous art of the Inuit. And speaking of 'our' pages, my paper back edition has come unglued from its spine in just one month! Serious readers my wish to ante up for the hardcover.

Testimony from a number of contradictory sources over what happened to the ships and men; what they were told by ancestors of their beliefs of what may have happened to the men. Much debate over the names of men who were along on the trek. I found the degree of confusion and contradiction interesting in light of what is factually known of Franklin's travels to be very valuable in discounting what is "known" about his journey. While it resolves nothing for sure, it helps to explain why the degree of confusion among early searchers upon trying to get information from Inuits. For the true Franklin researcher, it is highly recommended.

A clue to a string of gallery thefts around Bayport leads Frank and Joe to New Orleans, where they also help a friend's grandfather whose jazz club is being targeted by a voodoo cult. While I enjoyed the book, I expected it to be better than it was. I felt that the voodoo side of the book was not utilized like it could have been and I found the book rather anticlimactic.

a small time breaking and entering case in their hometown of bayport leads frank and joe to a big-time crime ring based in new orleans. somehow the burglary is tied to their friend peter walkerwho is the target of a sinister voodoo cult.

lured into a snake infested swampthe boys pick up a crooked trail that leads to new orleans jazz club owned by peter's grandfather. in the middle of mardi gras they uncover an elaborate plot to put mr. walker out of business for good. frank and joe leap into action- and land into a deadly nest of vipers and crime!!!

Great gift for people who are adopting. Steven Kellogg is one of our favorite illustrators- makes book very inviting!

My son and I read this book together. It kept us guessing to the end. More amazing than that, it kept his attention throughout. He actually asked me to sit down and read with him, so he could learn how the case came out. Like in other books in the series, elementary-age Frank and Joe Hardy work with their friends to solve a mystery and help a friend in need. In this case, they help a magician regain his good reputation by discovering who stole the latest Jimmy Han flick during the magician's show. References to magic and karate wrapped up in a mystery make a great story for young readers.

This book does a fine job of introducing popular audiences to the long-neglected and much maligned Army of the James. Like most of the Civil War works of Edward Longacre, it is fairly well written, entertaining at times, and heavily focused on prominent personalities (as opposed to the common soldier). Throughout most of the book, readers are treated to a fascinating running narrative on the life of Benjamin Butler, the controversial political general who was the guiding spirit of the Army of the James for much of its existence. Indeed, there is almost as much attention devoted to Butler and his political ambitions as to the tens of thousands of soldiers who fought with the Army of the James.

Overall, this book does a fine job of exploring the origins of the Army of the James, following its often discouraging path through the bold campaign leading up to the battle of Drewry's Bluff, the establishment of a foothold on Bermuda Hundred, and the long seige of Richmond and Petersburg that followed. In this respect, a number of battles and skirmishes that have usually been passed over by other historians are given much-deserved attention. Throughout, the author admirably maintains his sole focus on the Army of the James, even after it was largely absorbed into Grant's forces after mid-June 1864. He also follows the fortunes of those units that were on detached service, such as Kautz's cavalry division and two divisions of the X Corps that were sent to capture Fort Fisher in early 1865.

Longacre devotes a modest amount of attention to the somewhat unique make up of this army. It always had a strong component of African-American soldiers in its ranks, and also is notable for being led by a majority of civilian volunteer officers. This led to tensions and dissentions at the highest levels, particularly with career officers like William "Baldy" Smith vying for leadership.

Missing from the book are the finely detailed accounts of the battles fought by the Army of the James. At most, Longacre provides the reader with an overview of these battles, tracing the movement of divisions and brigades, but only providing quick summaries of combat and casualties. In this author's opinion, the book suffers at many points from a lack of decent maps to better illustrate unit movements and battles. Those seeking a more detailed understanding of battles will have to turn elsewhere. For example, Robertson's excellent study of Drewry's Bluff titled BACKDOOR TO RICHMOND.

While it is true that the Army of the James was created in the Spring of 1864, this reader would have appreciated more information about the experiences of the various units and generals that joined the Army of the James prior to this year.

In the end, the reader may have mixed feelings about Longacre's sympathetic treatment of Butler. History has not been kind to this personality, and maybe for good reason. There is little doubt, however, that one will come to better appreciate the vital contributions and many sacrifices offered by the men who served in the Army of the James in the last year and a half of the Civil War.

The author is a U.S. diplomat assigned to watch things in Korea right around the time of Theodore Roosevelt, and he reports what he sees: Russian and German spies plying for advantage, and the weak hereditary monarchy of Korea creaking toward collapse in the face of the modern world.

Sands gives us some cogent historicism on the origins of the Koreans, Japanese and Chinese, and in general he seems to have accomplished convincing us that as an American diplomat, he can function as the same high level of urbanity and effectiveness as an Englishman.

Things get tense, and the Koreans want him to work as a kind of private advisor to the Hereditary loser-class, but Washington has other ideas, and the book ends with Sands departing this fascinating part of the world and wondering aloud what other intriguing assignment he might be able to find next.

So what was Korea before the war of North and South in the 1950s; before the Japanese overlords were blown apart by the U.S. in WW II; and before the Japanese overran the place, grabbed all the big houses, built huge industrial businesses, enslaved the locals and raped all the women before that? This book gets beneath these generalities and overstatements, and gets us part of that anterior answer.