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The Clue in the Embers (1955)

por Franklin W. Dixon

Series: The Hardy Boys (35)

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748829,847 (3.34)4
In solving the mystery of two medallions missing from an inherited curio collection, the Hardys wind up in a desolate area of Guatemala at the mercy of dangerous thugs.
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There are a LOT of absurdities I will overlook in these Stratemeyer books, but this is a bridge too far.

The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew don't have a great history with archaeology or a general awareness of how time works, but the boys get mixed up in a...very weird, very specific grudge that ultimately leads to South America. They need to go unnoticed, but thankfully they have an Italian friend who can double as a Native American.

Oh man. It doesn't go well, but it was still just... .so dumb. It gets worse as they get closer to the end of the mystery.

Hardy Boys

Next: 'The Secret of Pirate's Hill'

Previous: 'The Hooded Hawk Mystery' ( )
  ManWithAnAgenda | Mar 24, 2024 |
review of
Franklin W. Dixon's The Clue in the Embers
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - April 7, 2012

In the past yr, my friend, the poet & essayist Alan Davies, conducted an email interview w/ me in wch he wrote: "I would be interested in knowing which books first struck you / as a boy / which authors – and the reading of what things might have pointed (pushed?) you in the direction of writing and the other arts." This unleashed a flood of memories about childhood reading wch led to my thinking of The Hardy Boys.

The Hardy Boys bks, a series of mysteries starring teenage brothers Frank & Joe & a supporting cast of friends, were probably staple reading for most white boys like myself from the time of their inception in 1927 'til when? I'm not sure what the answer to that is. At any rate, I probably read every one I cd get my hands on from ages 7 to 9 if not beyond. Then, of course, my tastes got more sophisticated, & I moved on w/ no desire to revisit childish things. Now, tho, I find it moderately fascinating to reread something that I wd've last read 50 yrs ago to reappraise the culture that they represented at the time.

As I replied to Alan regarding a list of bks that I'd read as a child:

"It's not too hard to find things that these bks had in common that're still meaningful to me today. The White bks anthropomorphized a mouse & a spider, etc - wch fed into my natural inclination to identify w/ non-human life. Of course, Carroll & Tolkien did much the same thing. There's science, there's myth, there's fantasy; nonsense, struggle, freedom, hero's journeys. Twain's sense of justice.

"Kids bks seem to be generally written by people w/ a sense of ethics, people who want to inspire children to aspire to leading a life of integrity pushing for just societies."

SO, it was of interest to me to read in Wikipedia's Hardy Boys entry:

"The Hardy Boys have evolved in various ways since their first appearance in 1927. Beginning in 1959, the books were extensively revised, largely to eliminate racial stereotypes. The books were also written in a simpler style in an attempt to compete with television. Some critics argue that in the process the Hardy Boys changed, becoming more respectful of the law and simultaneously more affluent, "agents of the adult ruling class" rather than characters who aided the poor."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hardy_Boys

I think that I wd've read both the original, pre-revision versions, & the post-1959 ones. The cover I uploaded for the edition I read wd've been from the earlier versions. This bk read like a serial. Most, if not all, chapters end w/ a 'cliff-hanger'. I'm reminded of the more recent Raiders of the Lost Ark movies insofar as this bk, & probably all of the series, immediately starts off w/ something over-the-top & keeps going. This one, in particular, is 'exotic', from the perspective of a middle-class American boy,

On the 1st page, the Hardys learn that their friend has inherited some shrunken heads. Now this, for me, was esp vivid b/c when I was a kid rubber novelty shrunken heads were common & I had one. When I was about 18, in 1971 or 72, I started trying to write a somewhat Captain Beefheart inspired poem that probably had some formal restriction on it that eventually defeated me. The subject? Shrunken heads. I sometimes wonder what happened to that failed attempt. Most likely I destroyed it. I'm sure I've wondered since then where I got the info about shrunken heads that I used in it. Then I reread The Clue in the Embers where shrunken heads are explained as follows & realized that I'd probably gotten it from there!:

"The savage Andean Indians used to take the heads of their enemies in local warfare. After the removal of the skull from the severed head, the rest was reduced by boiling to the size of a man's fist. The eyes and lips were pinned and laced, and the interior treated with hot stones and sand. With the use of a local herb, the hair remained long and kept its original luster."

Assuming such details to be at least somewhat accurate rather than purely fictional, I like such touches in The Clue in the Embers. There're a few others. Mostly what amuses me about them is the way the Hardy family is presented as 'normal' while the sons are plunged into life-threatening, world-traveling adventures on a rapid-fire basis at the same time that they go on dates & do other 'normal' kid things. Take this paragraph from page 3:

""I'll sure need some nourishment if I'm going to hassle with a lot of shrunken heads," Frank declared. "Joe, let's finish that clam chowder Mother made yesterday. It always tastes better the second day.""

Ha ha! Nothing like a little of mom's clam chowder before an inspection of a shrunken head collection! Now the character who inherits this stuff immediately gets a threatening phone call from a man named "Valez". I then wondered whether there'd be racial stereotyping of Latino guys as sinister. On page 7 it's written:

"Glancing around the platform, the boys saw no one who resembled what they thought Valez might look like. Most of the faces were familiar and the others were those of teen-agers."

Ok, what did they think Valez might look like? They didn't have much to go on since they'd only heard his voice over the phone & didn't even know if his name was a pseudonym or not. When reading, before I read the Wikipedia entry quoted above, I thought that the author avoided racial stereotypes by eliminating the people at the train stn b/c they were either familiar or were too young. 'Dixon' didn't write something like 'They didn't see any swarthy skulking sinister South Americans.' As such, I found the story throughout to walk a thin line between stereotypes & attempts to be sensitive & anti-racist.

The 'exotica' plunges on when the Hardys are attacked by a blowgun. I'm sure this was the type of detail that was meant to be particularly thrilling. How common was blowgun imagery in 1955? I don't know. I reckon it was plentiful. Then, by page 36, a man w/ tattoos is introduced. Tattoos definitely weren't common in my neck of the woods in 1955 so this wd've been 'exotica' from my childish perspective too. Putting him in context, he's a seaman. In the narrow-minded world I was raised in, a tattooed man wd've probably been pretty frightening to my mom. Here, he's described as having a "voice no less friendly than his handshake."

I don't know what it's like for boys growing up in the 21st century, but in my youth becoming a boy scout & learning to "be prepared" was the 'norm'. I hated the cub scouts & the boy scouts. In The Clue in the Embers, the Hardys always have a flashlight handy & have no problem repairing a broken window. What wd most kids use for lite these days? Their cellphones? & wd they be able to repair a broken window?

By page 101, Valez is suspected of being an illegal immigrant. An illegal immigrant from south of the US border? Is there a racist generalization at work here? Again, a thin line.

&, then, in the midst of action like Joe's being waylaid & trussed-up, curses, shrunken heads, blowdart arrowheads, etc, the boys go out on a date w/ the girls for a picnic & some fun at the Amusement Park. I mean, they're not under any stress or anything, right? They just take it all in stride. &, of course, the reader is being set up for something almost serious to happen in this idyllic picnic setting. I think of things like Leopold & Loeb, rich kids who kidnapped a boy, possibly sexually molested him, & killed him, trying to get ransom - all in an attempt to commit a 'perfect crime' - not b/c they needed the money. If James Ellroy were to rewrite a Hardy Boys story I reckon it might go somewhat more along such lines.

The previously mentioned 'curse' involved the making of a cone of ashes from mahogany - &. perhaps such a practice exists or existed. It's one of the details in the bk that I suspect came from some sort of anthropological source.

Back to the stereotyping tightrope:

"Aunt Gertrude spoke up for the first time and snapped. "Why those Indians might kill you if they found you looking for their treasure!"

"Mr. Putnam smiled tolerantly. "The Indians in Guatemala respect the white man. The boys wouldn't have any trouble with them, but I also doubt that they would receive any clues about the treasure. No, you're more likely to have trouble with an occasional band of hostile, renegade Ladinos who have fled to the mountain regions.

""Ladinos," the explorer explained, "are Spanish-speaking, mixed-breed people. They are very proud and do no manual work like laboring in the fields or carrying loads. Mainly, they own stores and cantinas in the towns and villages and hold political offices.""

Now, I sortof cringe when I read of people described in terms of "breeding". It makes me think of 'good breeding' (rich people) & 'ill bred' (poor people) or of mating a poodle w/ a pit-bull or something. It reeks of nazi genetics.

2/3rds of the way thru the bk, one of the villains, a man, is in disguise as a woman. Oh! The 1950s! Nowadays that wd scream of drag queen but, here, it's just a "disguise". Later, Tony's luggage goes missing & he moans about what he's going to do w/o his clothes.

""You'll have to dress like an Injun!" Joe laughed and folded his arms across his chest Indian style. "You heap big chief of our tribe.""

This is where it gets even more ridiculous. Maybe we have Mark Twain to thank for the use of "Injun" as an acceptable "Americanism'. After all, "Injun Joe" was a famous character of his, a villain - &, as much as I love Twain, his depiction of Native Americans in Roughing It (if I remember correctly) is completely racist, demeaning, insensitive, & hateful. It's not quite so bad here. Nonetheless, Tony's imitation of a indigenous person in Guatemala is immediately convincing to the natives. Not fucking likely.

""Suppose we all wander into the village," Frank proposed. "By the time we get there they'll probably have elected Tony chief of the tribe!""

In the meantime, NO, the locals aren't that stupid, thank goodness:

"Tony sobered. "This shaman business was a fake," he said. "They knew right away I wasn't an Indian."

In the meantime, they barely survive a volcano (might as well throw one of those in, right?) & a native ritual where they're trussed. Perhaps the most annoying scene for me, & the one most reflective of an uncritical attitude towards the 'white man's' imperialist 'right' to go anywhere he wants, is when the Hardys & friend Chet decided to just go into a bldg that has 2 people blocking the entrance. When they're stopped from entering they get outraged & immediately attack the guards - How dare anyone stop them from going anywhere they want to!

&, of course, they find the treasure, big surprise, & hand it over to the government w/ the blessing of the wise old 'Indian' chief whose people accumulated the treasure in the 1st place. Right, like the government's going to then distribute the wealth for the good of the people! I wonder what the rewritten version's like? Does the government come in & slaughter all the 'Indians' to take their land? That wd be more realistic.

But, of course, this is a kid's adventure tale meant to instill a sense of sensible daring in boys & not to delve into the complex miseries of human rottenness &.. yeah, I enjoyed it as such. ( )
1 vota tENTATIVELY | Apr 3, 2022 |
I absolutely loved Nancy Drew growing up. This was a series I latched on to for dear life and never let go. So after my obsession with Nancy Drew started to dwindle (mostly because I had read all the ones I could get my hands on), I moved on to The Hardy Boys because that was the natural next step, duh. Love the Hardy Boys (though they weren't quite as amazing and Nancy Drew and her friends). ( )
  justagirlwithabook | Aug 1, 2018 |
I think this is better than most of the other Hardy Boys books I've read. Not great, but better. Normally when I read Hardy Boys it's just as a filler book between two larger and harder books to read. Generally I could care less about the mysteries and the only motivation for reading the book is the fact that somehow it ended up on my shelf. However I found this book to be a little more interesting than all the previous Hardy Boys books I've read. I was even curious about the mystery and had a desire to read to the end. I would only recommend this book to young children interested in mysteries. I would never go out of my way to acquire a Hardy Boys book, but if I received for free (like this book) I would read it. ( )
  RickyHaas | Nov 28, 2016 |
Non capita a tutti di ricevere in eredità, grazie ad uno zio buonanima, un'eterogenea collezione di oggetti di ogni tempo e di ogni paese. Questa volta il fortunato è un amico di Frank e Joe. che alla fine dell'inventario si ritrova tra le braccia addirittura... uno scheletro. Di plastica, per fortuna. L'opinione dei tre giovani è che si tratti di roba di scarso valore, tranne qualche pezzo di relativo interesse archeologico. Ma c'è quancuno che assolutamente non è d'accordo; anzi, è tanto interessato ad entrare in possesso di certi misteriosi medaglioni, che non si fa scrupolo di ricorrere prima all'inganno e poi alla forza. Questo qualcuno ha l'inconsueta abitudine di bruciare frammenti di esotico legno qua e là. dove gli capita: magari anche all'interno di un prezioso sarcofago egizio. Inizia così un'intricata avventura che alla fine vedrà Frank e Joe attraversare le secolari foreste peruviane, nel tentativo di scoprirel'affascinante mistero di un'antica città sepolta.
  edascenzi | May 24, 2010 |
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The shrill ringing of the Hardy telephone greeted Frank and Joe as they swung into the driveway after a preseason football practice at the Bayport High field.
UK: The shrill ringing of the Hardy telephone greeted Frank and Joe as they swung into the driveway after a midsummer ball practice at the Bayport High playing fields.
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In solving the mystery of two medallions missing from an inherited curio collection, the Hardys wind up in a desolate area of Guatemala at the mercy of dangerous thugs.

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