In my mid-teens I got a library card for the first time. By this point in time I had read a LOT of the 'classic' teen mystery series, starting with the Boxcar Children and the Bobbsey Twins (good luck finding *those* anymore), Encyclopedia Brown and of course the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. Of those, the Hardy boys were my favorite and so you can perhaps imagine my delight to find out that Franklin W. Dixon was still around and kicking and putting out new mysteries to read!I didn't even mind that these stories were like a decade old by the time I got around to reading them. I was basically exactly what I wanted, the classic mystery-solving teens premise given some extra punch for the nineties with an actual overarching plotline and villains, some ramped up violence (they KILLED a significant character in the *first* novel!) AND some mysterious shadowy government agents both aiding and hindering the protagonists. Suffice it to say this blew my young mind. I would certainly read through them again (I could knock out at least one a day before) if I didn't fear that they wouldn't hold up in either the literary or temporal sense. They've probably aged badly. The fact that the library didn't have all of the series also meant that certain plotlines never got resolved, but even reading them in a scattered order they were a rollicking ride that I have fond memories of reading.This particular book in the series is the one that sticks with me the most for a lot of reasons. It was a major mindfreak on my first readthrough, as it teased you with the idea that maybe characters could survive apparent death through the wonders of modern (for 1991) medicine and then, throwing in multiple twists that were just about as mindblowing... for young me. Where before mysteries would be relatively straightforward: you follow the clues and eventually catch up to the villain who then explains it all, this one kept you guessing and even left some questions UNanswered. It also really plays with the ideas of personal identity both in terms of what one thinks of oneself and how others view you, and the ethics of using medical science to do evil acts.Now, I'm probably lavishing too much praise on this book, but I cannot understate the value it had in young me's life, all the new concepts it introduced to me which would later be explored in more esteemed works. I don't think its a stretch to attribute this book with beginning my interest in the Sci-fi genre which I eventually transitioned over to from Mysteries (though I can still never resist a *good* mystery story).So I rate this one highly purely on the fact that it has stuck in my mind for so long and elicits such a fond feeling of remembrance. If I ever go back and reread it I'll revise my opinion as needed.
