Never read the Hardy boys but Nancy Drew books were some of the books that got me obsessed with reading as a kid. I heard about this comic book because apparently it's written by an alumnus of my university and had to pick it up because it sounded like Riverdale (my fave tv at the moment) but with Nancy Drew (my ultimate role model).

I loved the plot of this comic, combining these two well-loved series and modernizing them. The main plotline this series will follow is solving the murder of the Hardy boys' dad, who was a detective accused of shady business. Nancy and the Hardy boys are trying to solve this murder and to do this, they have to do a bunch of illegal stuff to get to the truth.

I loved Nancy's relationship with the boys and even the brothers' relationship was very fun to read. This comic has a very noir vibe going for it and it's done really well with the art and the amount of murder that happens within an issue. I wasn't the biggest fan of the art but it did a great job of creating the perfect atmosphere for this dark story. If you're as obsessed with Riverdale as I am, you're going to love this comic book to bits.

Highly recommend to people who loved either Nancy Drew or the Hardy boys and want a new modern tale.

Sort of Noir

This volume collects issues 1-6 of "Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie", and is a complete story, ending with a hint of additional collections to come. It is being promoted as "a twisty hardboiled noir tale", which struck me as a bit of an exaggeration, but a fair enough description. I thought that compared to the original Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books this counts as hardboiled, but compared to actual hardboiled fiction this is more like hardboiled-lite. That's not necessarily bad, you just shouldn't get your hopes way up if you like classic noir pulp.

The authors do an excellent job of bringing Frank and Joe and Nancy into a darker and more grownup world. Fenton Hardy has been murdered, and there are dark doings in Bayport. This isn't low rent smugglers in caves and the other mainstays of the Hardy and Drew series. This is drugs and dirty cops and a body count. Frank and Joe can still be a bit juvenile, and they seem to be more on the cusp of moving into adulthood than they are actual adults. Nancy Drew just has hints of the sexy femme and also sort of wavers between being a grownup and being a teen phenom. That was actually O.K. by me because I'm not sure if I was ready for the Boys and Nancy to be really broken and dark noir heroes. As I say, noir-lite.

At first the drawing was a bit disappointing because it felt and looked mostly just like old-school classic comic drawing. But, that style actually worked for the story, felt right, (that is, not slick), for the characters, and nicely complemented the story being told. There were some sharp touches around the edges, some interesting and more impressionistic panels, and good handling of light and dark. I know this sounds simple, but I appreciated the fact that the lettering was readable.(There's an alternate cover gallery at the end of the book that is intriguing and well worth a close look.)

The upshot is that this was an entertaining and imaginative update and reimagining of some favorite characters, and that struck me as all to the good.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

A nice revisioning of the original comic series. Fun art style as well.