Recap / Hardy Boys Case Files 13 The Borgia Dagger

End of Book 12 summary: Beautiful young heiress Tessa Carpenter thinks she needs protection, and the Hardy brothers are the ones to provide it. She has just forced the Bayport Museum to return her family's art collection to her—a collection that includes the infamous Borgia dagger. Legend says that if its owner touches the dagger, he (or she) will die within weeks.

Tessa has touched the dagger, and now she's become the target of many dangerous accidents. But there is more menace in Tessa's life. A disgruntled former servant has been threatening her; an old family friend nearly poisons her; even Tessa's boyfriend may not have her best interests at heart. Frank and Joe must discover the true secret of the antique treasure—before it's too late for them all.

Back cover summary: Beautiful, rich, and very spoiled, Tessa Carpenter is all trouble from the moment she sideswipes Callie Shaw's car—and meets Frank Hardy. She invites Frank and Joe to a party for a closeup look at her priceless treasure, the Borgia dagger. But in the middle of the party the lights go out and Tessa is almost killed. Fearing the ancient curse on the jeweled dagger, Tessa asks the brother detectives to protect her. The question is—will two bodyguards be enough for someone with enemies on both sides of the grave?

Tropes found here are:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Tessa for Frank. Although she's very beautiful, she's also a Spoiled Brat not willing to take "no" for an answer and continually tries to play homewrecker to his relationship with Callie (including pretending to think that Callie is his sister when they first meet), and shows little shame about the fact that she's pursuing him despite already having her own boyfriend, all of which creates quite a bit of tension between everyone in the group. Frank tries several times, via sidestepping her attempts to hit on him, to politely get the point across that he doesn't reciprocate and only has eyes for Callie, finally outright telling her so after her Anguished Declaration of Love. And then she still gives him a Forceful Kiss.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Tessa finally outright admits her love for Frank shortly before the climax when they're alone together. Frank does his best to let her down easy, but still firmly makes it clear that he doesn't return her feelings, nor does he approve of Tessa repeatedly coming on to him while knowing he's in a committed relationship with someone else, also two-timing her own boyfriend in the process.
• Bodyguard Crush: In both directions; Joe has one of these for Tessa, and she has one for Frank. The feeling is not mutual in either case.
• Brick Joke: It's a Running Gag throughout the story that Tessa and Edwin Squinder, one of her former employees she fired, are Sitcom Archnemeses who quite dislike each other. It's also shown several times that Squinder is a small-time actor who's very melodramatic. In the denouement, the boys see on TV that Tessa, who had to get a job to support herself, has become an actress and is starring opposite Squinder in a new TV show, wherein their characters are having a very over-dramatic argument.
• Calling the Old Woman Out: Once Dr. Lansdale shows up and reveals herself as the true Big Bad, Tessa—who was planning to conceal her involvement to protect her—at first passively goes along with her orders. But once the not-so-good doctor prepares to murder Tessa's new friends, starting with Frank (whom she has feelings for), she finally reaches the end of her rope and attacks Lansdale while shouting:
  Tessa: Enough! Enough! This was your idea in the first place! You turned Harley into an animal, you ruined my life—and now I see you for what you really are!
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Downplayed. Callie understandably does not like Tessa—both for trying to steal her boyfriend and for being spoiled rotten—and has several moments of being annoyed with Frank about the whole thing too, like when he chooses to go to the party Tessa invited him and Joe to instead of going on a date with Callie. Nonetheless, she still chooses to help the other girl on the case along with Frank and Joe, and overall doesn't get overly insecure about her relationship with Frank, aware that he truly loves her and isn't interested in Tessa at all.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Harley Welles, Tessa's boyfriend, grows more and more unhinged as the story goes on and Tessa becomes increasingly lukewarm towards him, although he believes that she's faking her feelings for Frank as an excuse to break up with him and cut and run with his share of the money. It culminates in Harley attacking her with the dagger and then trying to strangle her, to the point that Tessa calls him a "beast" and "an animal" by the end.
• Cursed Item: The titular dagger is said to be this, cursing its owner to die within weeks after touching it. Tessa does indeed become the target of several attempted killings...or so it seems. The attacks on Tessa are revealed to be a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax by her, Harley, and Dr. Lansdale to perpetuate the legend of the "cursed" Borgia dagger so they can sell it for a much higher price at the upcoming auction and split the profits.
• Deuteragonist: Callie is once again the third focal character after Frank and Joe, with her relationship with Frank getting a large amount of limelight. She's also the one who deduces that Tessa and Harley must have had an accomplice right before Lansdale arrives and reveals herself, and gets to play a vital role in saving the day by disarming her before she can shoot Tessa.
• Evil Old Folks: The true Big Bad and mastermind behind Tessa's and Harley's Borgia dagger hoax turns out to be Harriet Lansdale, the "doddering old lady doctor" as she herself mockingly puts it to the boys and Callie when revealing her involvement, who then tries to murder them, only failing because of Tessa's intervention.
• Forceful Kiss: After Frank gently rejects her Anguished Declaration of Love for him, Tessa appears to accept it, only to suddenly plant a kiss on him unexpectedly. Unfortunately, this is witnessed by Joe, Callie, and Harley, and is the last straw that sends the latter over the edge.
• Girl of the Week: Rich heiress Tessa Carpenter hires the boys to protect her from murder attempts that she believes (or rather, claims to believe) are being caused by a "curse" on the Borgia dagger. She plays this straight for Joe, who is attracted to her, but Tessa falls for Frank instead, which causes quite a bit of trouble and drama for everyone since both of them are in relationships with other people.
• Heel Realization: Tessa's partner in crime and longtime boyfriend Harley goes off the deep end and tries to kill her in a jealous rage while accusing her of faking her love for Frank as an excuse to betray him, which happens as a result of Tessa attempting to push her feelings onto Frank (despite him having a girlfriend already) and giving him a Forceful Kiss. All of this combined seem to hammer it home for Tessa how badly her selfishness has messed up all her plans and hurt everyone around her, and she finally regrets and apologizes for her actions, and then redeems herself further soon after by saving the Hardys and Callie from Dr. Lansdale.
  Tessa: Please forgive me, Frank. Harley was wrong. I did everything out of love for you, a love that was foolish and selfish.
• Honorary Aunt: Tessa addresses and refers to Dr. Lansdale, her Parental Substitute who delivered her when she was born, as "Aunt Harriet".
• Idle Rich: Tessa has been this since her parents passed away and she inherited their fortune, but she's spent it all by the start of the book, and instigates the plot in an attempt to drive up the price of the Borgia dagger at an auction so she can continue to be this. Unfortunately for her, her plan fails, and she's neither rich nor jobless by the end, having begun working as an actress (opposite Squinder, of all people).
• It's All About Me: Tessa, an Idle Rich Spoiled Brat heiress who's blown through all her inheritance money, has this attitude for most of the book. She forces the Bayport Museum to return the Carpenter family's art collection to her—even though it was intended to be a permanent donation—just so she can sell it for money, and is unsympathetic when the museum curator is understandably upset about this. The events of the book happen because Tessa plots a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax with her boyfriend and Parental Substitute to sell an artifact from the collection for even more money that they will split, only to start emotionally cheating on said boyfriend after falling for Frank, and being very pushy about her feelings for him despite knowing he's dating someone else, all while showing very little care about how her actions are hurting Harley, Callie, and Frank. She only really starts feeling remorse for what she's done and apologizes for it when everything blows up in her face at the climax.
• Love at First Sight: Tessa apparently gets this for Frank, telling him that Harley, her boyfriend, has meant absolutely nothing to her from the moment she met Frank. Since he himself is very much in love with Callie, he does not return the sentiment.
• Love Dodecahedron: Joe's latest crush is Girl of the Week Tessa, who's thoroughly uninterested in him. She's been in a long-term relationship with Harley since they were kids, but falls in unrequited love with Frank, who is likewise in a happy, long-term relationship with Callie. This makes Harley jealous, Callie very annoyed, and Frank quite uncomfortable, while Joe is just irritated and exasperated by the whole thing.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Played with. Tessa's Forceful Kiss on Frank is witnessed by Harley and Callie (their respective partners); however, while Callie is confused by it, she seems to grasp pretty quickly that Tessa initiated it and the latter apologizes for everything she's done soon after, so it doesn't cause problems between Frank and Callie. This is subverted with Harley, though, as there was no "mistake" at all; Tessa was cheating on him, and this is the final straw that causes him to turn on her.
• Parental Substitute: The Big Bad, Dr. Harriet Lansdale, Tessa's Honorary Aunt who delivered her at birth, has been this to her since her parents passed away. This is why Tessa mostly meekly goes along with her plans and even intends to take the rap for the entire Borgia dagger plot to protect her, only deciding to stand up to her when she tries to kill Frank, Joe, Callie, and Harley.
• Riches to Rags: Tessa Carpenter, once a rich heiress, squandered all the money left to her by her deceased parents, such that she had to fire all of her hired help because she couldn't pay them anymore and took back an art collection her family donated to the local museum so she could sell it for cash. She was behind the plot along with Harley and Dr. Lansdale so she could try to sell the Borgia dagger for additional money, but by the end, her plan is foiled and her family mansion is damaged by fire, forcing her to actually work for a living; the boys learn at the end that she's become a moderately successful actress.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Harley is correct that his girlfriend and partner in crime, Tessa, has loss interest in and fallen out of love with him. However, he thinks that her motive is greed and she was only pretending to fall in love with Frank as her excuse to dump Harley and cut him out of his share of the auction money she promised him, when, in fact, her love for Frank is completely genuine and is what caused her to have a change of heart, and also motivates her to save them all from Dr. Lansdale.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The Borgia dagger, an artifact in the art collection that Tessa took back from the museum, is said to be cursed, and she's subjected to multiple murder attempts once she reveals that she has touched it, prompting her to hire the Hardys to protect her. It turns out that she, Dr. Lansdale, and Harley were staging all the incidents to create a ton of publicity around the dagger so it would sell for a fortune at the auction and solve her money problems; Tessa only hired the boys as "bodyguards" as an excuse to be around Frank.
• Sibling Triangle: Downplayed. Joe's newest crush is Tessa, the book's Girl of the Week, who has zero interest in him but catches very strong, very one-sided feelings for his older brother, Frank. However, Joe isn't all that serious about Tessa anyway, especially since she doesn't exactly have a winning personality, and gives up on her relatively quickly because the whole Harley-Tessa-Frank triangle is messy enough as it is; meanwhile, Frank finds Tessa's affections for him and pushiness about it to be very awkward and unwelcome.
• Title Drop: The Borgia dagger is the actual name of an artifact that Tessa owns, and seeing as it's mentioned many times, there are naturally quite a few of these.