A Con Artist in Paris is the fifteenth book in the Hardy Boys Adventures by Franklin W. Dixon. The Hardy Boys was originally created by the author Edward Stratemeyer while the new books are written by ghostwriters under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon. The original series was first released in 1927, but this book was published in 2017 by Aladdin. I listened to the audiobook on this short mystery novel, narrated by Tim Gregory.
The young detectives are back, this time coming with their father to a conference for detectives in Paris. Walking around, watching the art they soon find themselves in the middle of a strange theft, first on the Mona Lisa which turned out to be false to then reveal another theft. All signs point to the street artist known to paint activist paintings all over the world while walking on the wrong side of the law. Now the two brothers find themselves in a chase against time with a master thief and perhaps, just perhaps, two.
There are a lot of characters, such as the grumpy French chief of police who make Olaf look like a kitten, a lot of pompous artists, and greedy collectors. The new police chief is pretty much just Olaf, but more hardcore and I frankly feel like the other characters are just stereotypical passionate, and rebel Frenchman, talking about revolution and the like. It is a romanticizing of Paris and artists.
The mystery itself actually felt quite well, it goes back to its root after all the adventures and feels more solidly a mystery compared to the previous two books. It wasn’t that unpredictable though, and the motive comes down to simple greed for money and fame. It wasn’t that complicated, though I give it props for trying to give the mystery more depth. It was enough to make me feel like it was one of the top books in this new series.
There were some rather funny, though I suspect they were meant to be intriguing, objects in this book that lowered the realism. A drone, a scooter that can dive and a flying car among others made this feel a bit like a spy movie like James Bond instead of the Hardy Boys. A bit too cheesy for me and the tropes are there but I can see people adoring this book for it, especially the younger audience.
Overall, it was a quick-paced mystery with a lot of quirky, overdramatic moments, making the book feel like a spy thriller in some scenes. I would rate it an 8 out of 10, maybe even a 9, the tropes does drag it down a bit and I disliked the ridiculous gadgets such as the drones, but it was entertaining and the mystery actually felt like a mystery which is always a plus for a book advertised as such. I would recommend it for those a fan of the new series as I do think it is on the top along with The Vanishing Game and Into thin Air. Though I think the character development is better in those two books, while here it’s more focused on the mystery, but that is to be expected since The Vanishing Game and Into thin Air is connected, while this one only had one book. It is only natural that it would have the limit of the few pages it was written on.
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