Nancy Drew Girl Detective #15 Framed, #16 Dangerous Plays, and #17 En Garde

In Nancy Drew #15, Framed, Prince Carlo from Italy has arrived in River Heights. Prince Carlo has been arrested for stealing a priceless painting and bringing it into the United States. Prince Carlo claims that the painting is a present for Mrs. Mahoney and that he is fulfilling the wishes of a relative. Nancy sets out to find out the truth so that she can clear Prince Carlo's name.

One chapter is titled "The Secret in the Old Attic."

I did not care about Prince Carlo or the mystery at all. I found this book to be boring from start to finish.

In Nancy Drew Girl Detective #16, Dangerous Plays, Carson, Nancy, and Bess have plans for a London vacation.  Before they depart, Ned's professor, Dr. Burnham, asks Nancy to check on his house in London.  He cannot get in contact with his servant, and he is worried about her. 

In London, Nancy discovers that Dr. Burnham's lock has been changed and that the furniture has been removed from his living room.  She contacts the police and calls the professor to let him know.  When Nancy goes back to the hotel, she discovers that her father has been abducted!  Although improbable, Nancy suspects that all of the events are connected.

This mystery intrigued me.  The problems at Dr. Burnham's home and the abduction of Carson Drew do not appear to be connected, yet they must be.  The suspect is not obvious early in the story, although I did begin to realize the truth partway through the book.  Even then, I was still surprised at the reveal.

This book is outstanding.

In Nancy Drew Girl Detective #17, En Garde, George takes fencing lessons from Bela Kovacs' fencing school.  At a fencing contest, Bela Kovacs and his archenemy, Paul Mourbiers, get into a nasty fight when one of Mourbiers' students gets injured while fighting Kovacs' student.  Nancy soon realizes that someone is sabotaging either one or both fencing schools.

This book reminds me of various parts of the Nancy Drew Digest books #96 The Case of the Photo Finish, #110 The Nutcracker Ballet Mystery,  and #147 The Case of the Captured Queen.  The ending was wrapped up way too nicely like in #102 The Secret in the Dark.  This book is like a composite of a number of Nancy Drew books.

I greatly enjoyed this mystery for most of the book, and then somewhat less so as I realized that the conclusion was going to be like The Case of the Captured Queen.  Since I have read that book before, I correctly guessed the culprit and was absolutely certain I was correct even though I had not read this book before.