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The Ultra-Thriller series is a detective/action fiction series published between August 1992 and June 1993 by Archway Paperbacks (an imprint of Simon & Schuster). It was a spin-off of The Hardy Boys Casefiles and the Tom Swift IV series and joined boy inventor Tom Swift with the crime solving Hardy boys, Frank & Joe. Although The Hardy Boys pseudonym, Franklin W. Dixon was used, this series was more akin to the Tom Swift IV series by Victor Appleton.
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 | This article about a mystery novel for children first published in the 1990s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. See guidelines for writing about novels. Further suggestions might be found on the article's talk page. |
Tom Swift is the main character of six series of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention, and technology. Inaugurated in 1910, the sequence of series comprises more than 100 volumes. The first Tom Swift – later, Tom Swift Sr. – was created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book packaging firm. Tom's adventures have been written by various ghostwriters, beginning with Howard Garis. Most of the books are credited to the collective pseudonym "Victor Appleton". The 33 volumes of the second series use the pseudonym Victor Appleton II for the author. For this series, and some later ones, the main character is "Tom Swift Jr." New titles have been published again from 2019 after a gap of about ten years, roughly the time that has passed before every resumption. Most of the series emphasized Tom's inventions. The books generally describe the effects of science and technology as wholly beneficial, and the role of the inventor in society as admirable and heroic.
The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a publishing company that produced a number of mystery book series for children, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others. They published and contracted the many pseudonymous authors doing the writing of the series from 1899 through 1987, when the syndicate partners sold the company to Simon & Schuster.
Tom Swift Jr. is the central character in a series of 33 science fiction adventure novels for male adolescents, following in the tradition of the earlier Tom Swift ("Senior") novels. The series was titled The New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures. Unlike the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys titles that were also products of the prolific Stratemeyer Syndicate, the original Tom Swift stories were not rewritten in the 1950s to modernize them. It was decided that the protagonist of the new series would be the son of the earlier Tom Swift and his wife, Mary Nestor Swift; the original hero continued as a series regular, as did his pal Ned Newton. The covers were created by illustrator J. Graham Kaye. Covers in the later half of the series were mostly by Charles Brey. A total of 33 volumes were eventually published.
Franklin W. Dixon is the pen name used by a variety of different authors who were part of a team that wrote The Hardy Boys novels for the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Dixon was also the writer attributed for the Ted Scott Flying Stories series, published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Edward L. Stratemeyer was an American publisher, writer of children's fiction, and founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. He was one of the most prolific writers in the world, producing in excess of 1,300 books himself, selling in excess of 500 million copies. He also created many well-known fictional book series for juveniles, including The Rover Boys, The Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, The Hardy Boys, and Nancy Drew series, many of which sold millions of copies and remain in publication. On Stratemeyer's legacy, Fortune wrote: "As oil had its Rockefeller, literature had its Stratemeyer."
The Mark on the Door is Volume 13 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Tom Swift IV is the unofficial name of a series of juvenile science fiction adventure novels, the fourth to feature a protagonist named Tom Swift. The series ran for thirteen titles from 1991 to 1993, and were published by Simon & Schuster imprint Archway Paperbacks; like the previous three series, the series was written under the pseudonym Victor Appleton. Unlike the previous series, it was not created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate; by this time, the Syndicate had been sold to Simon & Schuster, who created the series in response to the successful, more mature spin-offs of Syndicate properties Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.
The House On The Cliff is the second book in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap. The book ranks 72nd on the Publishers Weekly's All-Time Bestselling Children's Book List in the United States with 1,712,433 copies sold as of 2001. This book is one of the "Original 10" Hardy Boys books and is an excellent example of the writing style used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate's writers. This style influenced many other "youth adventure series" books that the Stratemeyer Syndicate also published, including the Nancy Drew series, the Tom Swift adventure series, the Bobbsey Twins and other lesser known series. All of them used a unique writing style that made them very recognizable as Stratemeyer product.
The Secret of Wildcat Swamp is Volume 31 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.
The Mystery at Devil's Paw is Volume 38 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.
The Mystery of the Chinese Junk is Volume 39 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.
The Secret Agent on Flight 101 is Volume 46 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.
Andrew E. Svenson was an American children's author, publisher, and partner in the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Under a variety of pseudonyms, many shared with other authors, Svenson authored or coauthored more than 70 books for children, including books for the Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins, Tom Swift, and Honey Bunch series. He wrote the series The Happy Hollisters using the pseudonym Jerry West and The Tolliver Family as Alan Stone.
The Ghost at Skeleton Rock is Volume 37 in the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories published by Grosset & Dunlap.
The Alien Factor is a Tom Swift and Hardy Boys Ultra Thriller novel.
River Heights was an American paperback spinoff series (1989-1992) from The Nancy Drew Files series of mystery stories for preteen girl readers published by Simon & Schuster. Due to a scene in the epilogue to the first book, Love Times Three, River Heights also connects the entire Files-Casefiles continuity into the same continuity as the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories. The connection is that Nikki spots the clock in Nancy's bedroom and remembers that Nancy had been given that clock for solving her first mystery, The Secret Of The Old Clock. The pilot story for this series was The Nancy Drew Files #39, The Suspect Next Door. This series involved Nancy's neighbor, Nicki Masters, and revolved around Nicki's friends and rivals at River Heights High School.
James Duncan Lawrence, best known as Jim Lawrence, was an American author best known for authoring most of the Tom Swift Jr. series of books and Friday Foster comic strip.
