The Witchmaster's Key

A.K.A. We need to talk about the Witchmaster's key. 

Book 55 of the Hardy Boys mysteries and one of the last from the original canon of mysteries. It's one of what I like to call the tour type of Hardy boys mystery, where they get to tour a country for some spurious reason, Aztec Warrior, the last title I put up fits into this profile quite neatly as does this.

The downside is this, if you have any familiarity with the country they tour you'll know its taking some liberties with the geography and places.  

The main plot is that some articles relating to witchcraft have been stolen from a museum from an old friend of Fentons and they boys jet over to England (with some stops in Eire and the Isle of Man for good luck) to track them down.  They visit Stonehenge (which in some fit of irony, was in the news) and get involved with the locals, who seem to be keen on practising the old religion.

There are subplots about an artisans village (no, me either) being targeted by mysterious arsonist and some genealogy with a distant relation of the Hardys being a witch or so it seems. Both would have made better main stories than the witch museum thefts.

Norfolk doesn't really have moorland being much more a place of either dry Heath or broadlands wetland habitat. Had family in Suffolk which is to the south and can tell you whenever we ventured to the north coast it was flat lands of gorse, and reeds. No heather here.

Ironically there is an actual witch museum in Boscastle, Cornwall, which also linked back to the Isle Of Man. A place known for witches, and extensive Fairy lore as well. 

There is a trip to Soho, up London which makes it seem much more seedier than it is. I guess they went round the porn bit as the gay quarter and record shops have always to my eyes seen quite respectable. There aren't many tea shops there or blacksmiths, think bougie coffee places and a few clothes places that could conceivably be from around that time. 

It is mainly a rats nest of streets and without a good map you can lose your bearings quite easily. One thing the did have quite right was Medmenhams book shop which is probably a cover for Foyles up on Shaftesbury Avenue near the edge of Soho.

Finally, this is one of the last books we got here before Armada shut down. It does not have reference to the next mystery in the series (the Sting of The Scorpion) as it wasn't released yet here due to contractual reasons.