Nancy Drew #107 Miner's Creek and #108 Tibetan Treasure

In Nancy Drew #107, The Legend of Miner's Creek, Nancy, Bess, and George enjoy a vacation at the ranch of Carson Drew's friend, Charlie Griffin, in the state of Washington.  Soon after their arrival, the girls find themselves in the middle of a mystery.  It seems that someone is after the lost gold mine discovered by Jeremiah Benner and will stop at nothing to find it.

I found that this book didn't keep me interested as much as others despite the western setting that I usually enjoy.  It might be that this book seemed too much like too many other books.  It's another one of the endless stories of someone's property being vandalized because someone is trying to scare them off or find something.  Exciting events were happening far too often, and characterization was lacking.

About halfway through I thought I recalled the villain's identity, so I was much more interested in the story from that point on.

In Nancy Drew #108, The Secret of the Tibetan Treasure, Nelson Stone, curator of the Clinton Park Museum in River Heights, calls Nancy for help because he fears for his life.  While Nancy is at the museum investigating Stone's concerns, a golden Tibetan horse is stolen from the museum.

The beginning of this book is a bit off.  After reading the entire book, I realize why, but I won't get into that since I would spoil the entire plot.  Just about the strangest part of the beginning occurs on page 10 when Nelson Stone unlocks the case that contains the $1 million golden horse, then hands the horse to Nancy so she can feel how heavy it is.  What curator in his right mind would take a $1 million artifact and casually hand it to someone else?  This scene is beyond bizarre.  I understood why it happened later in the story, and let's just say that it's a really big clue to the solution of the mystery.

Nancy pokes around in the museum looking for clues after the horse is predictably stolen.  On page 18, she finds an open window.  She closes it with no thought about fingerprints. 

Westmoor University is mentioned, and I recall that Westmoor is the university in #66 Race Against Time.

On page 29, chocolates are sent to Nelson Stone by someone unknown.  No one thinks anything of it.  Later, Stone gives the chocolates to a dog.  The dog becomes quite ill, so the assumption is that the chocolates were poisoned, although at the same time something is mentioned about chocolates being bad for dogs.  But then the final conclusion is that the chocolates were poisoned.  Of course this is all decided without anyone finding and testing the chocolates.  And I kept thinking, "Chocolates are bad for dogs.  Isn't that the problem?"  Ugh, I want to tear my hair out.  So much about this book is just plain strange.

On page 67, Nancy makes herself a list of clues.  Up to this point, Nancy has always been able to remember everything in her head.  She must be slipping.  

While I overall enjoyed this story, it was more than slightly strange at times, which reduced my enjoyment.