Nancy Drew #161 Lost in Everglades, #162 Lost Song, and #163 Clues Challenge

In Nancy Drew #161, Lost in the Everglades, Nancy, Bess, and George visit the Everglades in Florida.  They learn that Jade Romero, a park volunteer, has been missing for some time, and many people assume that she is dead.

George happens to look very much like Jade.  When Mrs. Fitzgerald sees George for the first time on pages 9 and 10, she screams repeatedly, saying nothing.  The entire scene is stupid.  It would have been more logical, and easier on the reader, for her to be astonished that Jade is alive instead of screaming and screaming.

Jade's boyfriend acts like Jade is dead with no possibility of being alive.  When someone disappears with no specific information about their disappearance known, there is always a chance. I thought that his behavior sent up a very obvious red flag.

The way Nancy nabs the villains is illogical.  All three are getting on a boat, so what does she do?  She crawls to the boat and jumps on it with them, right in front of them.  A struggle ensues, and of course it all works out.  However, the scene is not realistic.

I don't think I liked this book years ago, and I didn't like it this time, either.  I think it's another case of not really caring about the missing person, who was missing before the story began.  Besides that, much about the book is very strange.

In Nancy Drew #162, The Case of the Lost Song, Nancy, Bess, George, and Ned attend the Old Can Be Gold Show in Chicago.  George brings an old reel-to-reel tape recorder that has a tape inside.  After listening to the tape, the appraiser believes that it is of a rare jam session by a very famous singer.  Soon after the discovery, the recorder, along with the tape, are stolen!

I found it a bit annoying how offended Lisa becomes when Nancy suspects her coworkers.  Lisa knows that someone connected with the show must be responsible, and I can understand why she doesn't like Nancy investigating her friends.  However, I feel that her reaction is a bit much.

I really enjoyed this mystery.

In Nancy Drew #163, The Clues Challenge, Nancy and George visit Emerson University.  The girls plan to compete in the Clues Challenge on the same team as Ned and his fraternity, Omega Chi Epsilon.  A series of clues have been hidden by the sponsor of the Clues Challenge, and the teams compete to see who can find all the clues and claim the prize first.  Somebody sabotages the competition, causing some participants to become injured.

Initially, way too many characters are introduced in this story.  After a while, I was able to keep the main ones straight.

Page 43 has a mistake.  Nancy says that they need to get Randy to the infirmary, but C.J. was the person injured.

This is a very good book.