Title: Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie by Anthony Del Col, illustrated by Werther Dell’edera 

Pages: 162

Genres: Mystery, Thriller, Graphic Novel/Comic (Rating Teen+)

Published by: Dynamite Entertainment (Nov. 28, 2017)

Summary

Volume collects issues 1-6

A Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery unlike any other you’ve ever read! When the teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy are accused of the murder of their father – a detective in the small resort town of Bayport – they must team up with Nancy Drew to prove their innocence (and find the real guilty party in the process) in a twisting noir tale, complete with double-crosses, deceit, and dames. Writer Anthony Del Col (Assassin’s Creed, Kill Shakespeare) and artist Werther Dell’Edera (Batman: Detective Comics, House of Mystery) bring the iconic teen detectives into the modern age, and redefine noir for a new generation of readers!

What I Thought

*I received this book in exchange for an honest review. A huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!*

I love Nancy Drew!  I have around 100 books, all the computer games, and own the movies and TV show.  So, I was quite intrigued when I heard about this new comic series earlier this year.  I hadn’t gotten around to checking out the individual issues yet though.  So, when I found out all six issues of the series were becoming one volume, and that it was available on NetGalley, I was quite excited!

When I read the first issue, I was a bit unsure on how I felt about it.  This isn’t the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books from your childhood.  That being said, the more I read, the more this story grew on me!

While this mystery is more mature and darker than the books, I really felt like the spirit of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys was there.  The characters were edgier, but really their personalities were the same, just amplified, and I really loved that!

The actual mystery, in itself, was really well done.  It was a bit difficult accepting the fact that Fenton Hardy was murdered, but ultimately, doing something so risky as to kill off such a prominent character in the original Hardy Boys series really showed what this series was about.  I don’t want to give away anything, so Ill just say that The Big Lie was filled with plot twists and suspense, and overall, it was just really good.  The artwork was really great too.  I absolutely loved how the back of the book featured all the various covers for each individual issue.  My favorite cover is issue #3, which was created by Fay Dalton.

Another thing I really appreciated were all the references to other characters from the Stratemeyer Syndicate.  You may not be aware, but Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon were not real people.  All the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy books were created by Edward Stratemeyer, as well as several other not quite as well-known series (like the Bobbsey Twins and Tom Swift) and ghost written by various people, under the Stratemeyer Syndicate.  So, that was really fun to see those references!

Overall, The Big Lie was really well done.  I’m quite new to graphic novels and comic books, so I’m still learning what I like and dislike, but I found this one to be very enjoyable. I plan on buying myself a physical copy to add to my Nancy Drew collection soon! I would definitely recommend this book to fans of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, as well as to anyone who is a fan of mystery comics.  I look forward to, hopefully, reading more titles in this series in the future!

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys: The Big Lie will be released November 28th, 2017!  However, you can check out the first issue for FREE on Amazon Kindle and comiXology now!

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