Brady recently suggested that a woman who interrupted him during a show be mugged outside by other audience members. Ever since, protesters have been after him and might be the ones who trashed the hotel room. The director of the River Heights Arts Complex wants to call off that night's show due to safety concerns. Nancy has just hours to solve this mystery.
This book is an interesting contrast to some of the other books in the series, particularly the poorly executed The Haunting on Heliotrope Lane. In Heliotrope Lane, Nancy is so frightened that she shakes in fear throughout the book. The Nancy Drew Diaries stories have mainly consisted of boring sabotage plots while the Hardy Boys Adventures books have had the more creative plots. The Hardy Boys have been depicted as great at solving mysteries while Nancy Drew has not been able to solve mysteries on her own and has had trouble motivating herself.
This book corrects all of the problems. First and foremost, the plot of this book is not sabotage. The story appears to be sabotage and is treated as such for most of the book. However, the book has a plot twist towards the end. I'll leave it at that.
On page 2, Ned's hands are shaking because he is nervous. On page 14, Ned admits that he is "freaked out." In these books, Nancy is usually the one who shakes and is freaked out. I found it rather interesting that Ned, a male, is the one who is shaking and freaking. Hmm.
Page 35 contains these interesting remarks by Nancy and Ned.
"I'm sure," I said. "Preventing sabotage is kind of my specialty."OMG. I had already noted Ned's fear, which I found rather interesting. After I read the comments about sabotage, I knew that the person who wrote this particular book must be aware of comments made by fans. This person might have read this blog or could have read comments on Facebook. Regardless, they know. This is good. Now, if we could only have this person write the rest of the books.
"There is a lot of sabotage in River Heights," Ned said.
On page 47, Nancy speaks to Bess and George on the phone.
"Yeah, he's okay, but we're on a case."I'll say it again: Let's keep this author writing the books. Please.
"What?!" Bess and George said in unison. Even though I wasn't with them, I knew they were both leaning into the phone excitedly. I may have the reputation for being a detective, but my friends have helped me on almost every case; they like solving mysteries about as much as I do.
Technology is used a lot in this book, and it is used properly, not as some kind of joke against Nancy like in several previous titles.
The text contains no mention of pee or restrooms, which has been a problem in previous titles. The story has no smirking or disparaging remarks made about Nancy and her sleuthing skills. Nancy is not forgetful.
I have no complaints. None.
The story is very modern with a modern theme, but that's actually great. Readers of the vintage Nancy Drew books probably would not enjoy this kind of story, but the story is not aimed at them. This story is for modern readers, and it succeeds. If Simon and Schuster will continue with this person as the writer and with similar stories, then Nancy Drew will continue to be a viable franchise.
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