Nancy Drew Diaries #22 A Capitol Crime

This review is from May 2021, and I forgot to publish it.

In Nancy Drew Diaries #22, A Capitol Crime, Nancy heads to Washington, D.C., to find her father.  He has disappeared from a conference, and Nancy follows clues to trace his whereabouts.

I can't say much about the plot, because there are actually two mysteries.  The original case leads into another case, and I'll leave it at that.

Not only is this mystery not sabotage, it is also of a creative type that makes it refreshing to read.  In fact, it's about what I have come to expect from the Hardy Boys Adventures series. 

I have wondered all along why Nancy Drew has been stuck in Sabotage Land for nearly all titles in the series.  The writer acknowledges this in Chapter 1 with "Usually I help find items that have been stolen or track down saboteurs."  The books that actually point out the sabotage are among the ones that are better.  I knew right off that I was reading a book by one of the very few good authors of the Nancy Drew Diaries series.

The writer has knowledge of Nancy's past history.  The reader is told that Hannah has taken care of Nancy since Nancy's mom died when she was three.  Also, Hannah is away during this story because of her sister's broken leg.  That sounds rather familiar.

Nancy does show moments of weakness, but I'm okay with this when it isn't done in a sloppy fashion like what happened in certain other books I could mention.  The writer's skill makes all the difference.  After Nancy feels faint and is embarrassed, Bess tells her, "Being brave isn't about not being scared.  It's about doing what you need to do even when you are scared."

I always appreciate the use of "telltale" in a Nancy Drew book.

The reader learns that Nancy has helped her father solve "crossword puzzles and sudoku games."  This book gives off a Nancy Drew games vibe.  Sudoku is an important part of the Nancy Drew game, Shadow at the Water's Edge.  Nancy also searches various locations for obscure clues left behind by her father.  She picks them up as she finds them.

From pages 101-102:

After getting out, I took a deep breath and walked toward the guard station.  I've solved a lot of cases, and I know that people break the law for all sorts of reasons.  Most of them are good folks who got themselves in bad situations and made a poor decision.

I appreciate it when writers put statements like the above in books.  Most people are too judgmental of everyone who commits a crime.  They also have an unfortunate habit of blaming the family, like the family had anything to do with it.  The family needs support, not scorn, because their lives have been turned upside-down as a result of a bad decision made by a relative.

We get some commentary about malls failing.

I visualized Carson Drew as Scott Wolf (the actor who plays Carson on the show on The CW).  If you've watched the show, imagine Scott Wolf saying, "Nancy, it's okay.  I'm okay."  Perfect.

Nancy decides to steal files from a police station.  This is also just like the game version Nancy Drew.  It's also like the television show.

That was where I left off when I wrote this review last May.  I did not make note of how much I enjoyed this book, but as I recall, I considered it as very good.