Review of the Manuscript for Dana Girls #18 Strange Identities

In 1979, the last hardcover Nancy Drew book, #56 The Thirteenth Pearl, was published by Grosset and Dunlap.  The rights to publish new titles went to Simon and Schuster, which continued the numbering with #57, publishing the new titles in softcover Wanderer editions.

The last hardcover Dana Girls book, #17 The Witch's Omen, was published by Grosset and Dunlap in 1979.  Simon and Schuster planned to continue the Dana Girls series in softcover Wanderer editions, but the plan never came to fruition.

In Nancy Drew #58, The Flying Saucer Mystery, the Dana Girls are mentioned.  Nancy doesn't have time to solve a mystery, so she suggests that the Dana Girls solve it.  This was a cross-promotion for the softcover continuation of the Dana Girls series that never came to be.

Strange Identities was the proposed 18th book in the 2nd Dana Girls series, which would have been issued as a Wanderer softcover book.  The draft manuscript of Strange Identities used to be online but appears to have been taken down.  This review is based on a cleaned-up version of the draft manuscript, which I saved from a now-defunct Yahoo! group. 

According to James Keeline, the draft manuscript of Strange Identities was written by Camilla McClave, daughter of Harriet Adams.

In Strange Identities, Brenda Trowbridge wants the Dana Girls to help her locate her missing twin sister.  She originally asked Nancy Drew to solve the case, but Nancy suggested that the Dana Girls take it.  Brenda tells Jean and Louise that her sister, Bonny, was kidnapped when the girls were three years old.  Both girls had matching dolls that were designed to look like them.  Brenda's doll has blonde hair, and Bonny's doll had dark hair.  Brenda still has her doll, and she hopes that her sister still has hers.  During the search, the girls have Brenda wear a dark wig so that she will look like her sister.

An odd statement made by Brenda is that she just wants to find her twin because of a deadline concerning their inheritance.  She has supposedly never before had any desire to find her sister.  I find this rather odd that a twin wouldn't care about finding her missing twin.

A woman named Dame Ryerson has ESP.  She suggests that the girls meditate about their mysteries, and the girls proceed to follow her suggestion.  Jean apparently is clairvoyant and comes up with quite a few clues through meditation.  The girls conclude that Jean is indeed psychic and are enthused that this will really help them solve mysteries.

Jean dreams about the number 17.  The psychic tells the girls to "watch number 17."  The girls learn that a girl who looks like Brenda but is instead a brunette was seen on a parade float with men dressed as the numbers one, seven, seven, and six to make up the date 1776.  This is rather stupid.  Anyway, later in the story, a boat is named "17," and the girls go to Disco 17.

A woman in the town's health department is named Miss Trask.

The girls are warned not to get on a certain boat.  Jean meditates and retrieves the name of the boat.  The girls decide not to go on that boat, which then explodes.  This proves that Jean is clairvoyant.

Louise says, "One little bomb shouldn't scare us off the case."

Uncle Ned tells the girls some stories that have been passed down through the generations.  He relates a story about an encounter with cannibals.

This book has some really stupid plot points, but that did not decrease my enjoyment.  I wish this book had been published.  It would have been a good companion book to The Flying Saucer Mystery, which is a really crazy Nancy Drew book.  Strange Identities is just as crazy.  So long as I am entertained, books do not necessarily have to make sense.

I also don't care that Jean Dana suddenly has psychic ability.  In fact, Jean having psychic ability is logical considering how many psychics appear in the later Dana Girls books of the original set.  Not only that, but the Danas often think in unison without speaking, so they must have psychic ability.  Either that, or the girls are robots.

I love this story and consider it to be very good to excellent.