Nancy Drew #56 The Thirteenth Pearl

In Nancy Drew #56, The Thirteenth Pearl, a valuable pearl necklace is stolen from Mr. Moto's shop.  Mr. Moto disappears, and the Drews must find him and the thieves.  This book bores me enough that I do not wish to put forth the effort to write any better of a synopsis than that.

This was the last Nancy Drew book that I attempted to read as a child.  I did not read the books in order and did read at least two or three of the books from #57-63 or so.  I do not know which ones, but they would have been read before #56.

I know that this was the last book, because after I began collecting Nancy Drew books in 1991, I found my original bookmark partway through the book.  I lost interest before I finished the book, and that was it.  I moved on to Sweet Valley High and other teen books.

I had trouble finishing this book in the middle 1980s the first time I tried to read it.  I read the book again sometime between 1991 and 2001, and I did not enjoy it that time.  I just finished reading it, and I was not very interested this time.  We have a bunch of different men and women involved in selling jewels, stealing jewels, and worshiping jewels.  It's hard to keep up with all the characters, and the plot is a bit weird.

I made note of a few oddities worth mentioning, at least when I was paying close enough attention to notice details.

Nancy calls on the Mises and brings Togo with her.  On page 24, Togo leaves the car and barks to get inside the home.  Nancy goes to the door, and Togo runs in, breaking a vase, which is most likely valuable.  Nancy wants to pay for the vase, but Mrs. Mise refuses, telling Nancy that she is not responsible.  I disagree.  Nancy's dog broke the vase, so Nancy is responsible. 

Nancy questions Mr. Kikichi about the mess in Mr. Moto's back room.  Nancy leaves with Bess and George, but then she walks back inside on page 34 to explain to Mr. Kikichi why they were asking questions.  I find it odd that Nancy feels the need to explain.  She usually asks questions and doesn't worry about what people think.  I also thought the intent of her questions was obvious and needed no explanation; she wanted to know about the back room.

On page 43, chrysanthemums are for sale in the marketplace.  The text makes a point of mentioning that the chrysanthemums are of every size and color and that they are not yet in season.  "Apparently they had been forced."  The comment seems strange to me, since we all know that people use greenhouses to grow flowers in order to sell them.

I was taken aback on page 57 when Nancy purchases cufflinks for Burt and Dave, in addition to purchasing presents for her other friends.  Wow, Nancy has started buying presents for her friends' boyfriends!  However, we learn on page 137 that Nancy purchased the cufflinks for Bess and George to give as presents.  I think that an explanation on page 57 would have helped since I almost thought that Nancy was making a play for Burt and Dave. 

Have you ever noticed that Burt and Dave are like the same person with two different names?  They are also pretty useless.

On page 95, a man named Mr. Natsuke introduces himself and immediately announces that "his name meant ornamental button."  Is that normal for someone to volunteer the meaning of his name as soon as he is introduced?  

As you can conclude from my comments, I have never enjoyed reading The Thirteenth Pearl.  Part of the problem is the travelogue aspect; I have never liked those books as much.  I also can never remember the plot of this book.  When I think of The Thirteenth Pearl, I always think of the story of The Mystery of the Fire Dragon, but I always quickly remember that story is The Mystery of the Fire Dragon.  I then wonder what the plot of The Thirteenth Pearl is and can never think of it.  I just need to remind myself:  crazy pearl worshippers.  That should do it.

Nancy Drew #55 Mystery of Crocodile Island

In Nancy Drew #55, Mystery of Crocodile Island, Carson Drew has been asked to investigate the Crocodile Ecology Company, located in the Florida Keys.  Roger Gonzales is concerned that the other partners in the company may be involved in an illegal scheme.  Nancy, Bess, and George travel to Florida under assumed names.

I was confused about a series of phone calls made during the story.  On page 13, Mr. Gonzales calls Carson Drew, telling him to cancel the trip.  Mr. Drew believes that Gonzales was forced to make the call, so Nancy makes the trip as planned.  Later, in the book, the Drews learn that the villains had wiretapped Mr. Gonzales' home.  But then we learn that Mr. Gonzales called Mr. Drew from the club instead of his home, which is why the villains were unaware that he canceled the trip.  But then the villains supposedly had Gonzales make the call.  Perhaps I missed something.

Nancy is given a piece of meat to throw to a crocodile on page 73.  Nancy decides that she is not in a good position to aim well, so she jumps into the pen with the crocodile.  After she throws the meat, she becomes so interested in watching the crocodile that she fails to leave the pen.  At the last moment, Nancy jumps out of the pen, avoiding injury. 

Joe tells Nancy, "You're some girl."  It is not appropriate for Nancy to be complemented about her foolishness.  It is also out of character for Nancy to be so foolish.  I mentioned this new, brash Nancy that appears in The Strange Message in the Parchment.  She is alive and well in this book as well.

This book is full of random events.  The girls find a message in a bottle and follow up on it.  A map is found in the woods, and the girls dig for treasure.  These subplots have nothing to do with the mystery.  

The young people plan to visit Key West Naval Base.   On page 134, Nancy wonders if she can tour a submarine.  George declares that it will be no problem.  "How could anyone ever say no to Nancy Drew?"  Insert an eye roll here.  A naval base would not let random visiting girls tour a submarine.  But of course Mr. Crosgrove is a friend of one of the officers, so Nancy gets her wish.

With no discussion, Nancy hands Captain Townsend her car keys on page 138 so that he can drive them around the base. What must young girls think when they read these books?  Nowadays, Nancy would drive instead of the man.

Nancy's face reddens on page 141 when Ned is mentioned.  Any hint of romance and Nancy is embarrassed.  But wait... on page 94, Nancy is called a doll and practically asked out, but she doesn't blush.

I was halfway through the book when I reflected that at least Ned, Burt, and Dave were not conveniently able to join the girls.  Oops, I was wrong.  On page 141, we learn that the boys want to come down to see them.  Don't they go to college?  They must have very bad grades.

The Haunted Bridge is mentioned by name on page 148, which is interesting. 

On page 157 Danny plans to take the girls to an uninhabited key.  He tells them that he "can almost guarantee that you won't find any mosquitoes." Now exactly how would he know that?  Isn't there a lot of water in the Florida Keys?  My backyard is swarming with mosquitoes, and my backyard has less water than the Florida Keys. 

A submarine docks at Crocodile Island, and the men from the submarine go into a nearby building.  Nancy and Ned get in the submarine!  Exactly how stupid are they to think that they have time to get in the submarine, investigate, and emerge before the men return?  Of course the men return, and the young people find themselves prisoners in the submarine.

I overall enjoyed this story.

Nancy Drew #54 The Strange Message in the Parchment

In Nancy Drew #54, The Strange Message in the Parchment,  Nancy is asked by Junie Flockhart to discover a message in a parchment.  The Flockharts purchased the parchment, and soon after, an anonymous caller informed them that the parchment is the key to righting a wrong.  Nancy, Bess, George, Ned, Burt, and Dave join Nancy at the Flockhart's farm and help her solve the mystery.

Lots is wrong with this Nancy Drew mystery, and it's like we can see how Harriet Adams descended into dementia as these books were written.  Nancy even acts out of character at times. 

The book gives too graphic of a description of the slaughterhouse on page 22.  I was eating a corn dog as I read that page, and I stopped, staring at my corn dog.  I was thinking about where that corn dog came from and then had to force myself to finish it.  I don't know what Harriet was thinking.

On pages 23 and 24, Nancy and Junie recite some bad poetry, like how Junie had a pet lamb that was taken away and made into a sheepskin coat.  Was Harriet trying to gross me out even more?

Mr. Rocco has lived on a farm near the Flockhart farm for many years.  Strangely, on page 38, Junie has no idea how to get to his farm.  Really?

On page 40, Nancy and Junie get what they deserve when they trespass on Mr. Rocco's property.  They are attacked by a flock of vicious birds!  Later in the story, we learn that the birds were lifelike mechanical birds.  This plot device reminds me of the events from The Invisible Intruder.

The painted parchment is stolen from the Flockhart's home.  Nancy draws copies of the pictures as best she can, thinking that the artist can be identified from her sketches.  How?  The reader is expected to believe that Nancy is so good that she can duplicate someone's painting well enough that the original artist can be identified.  Not only that, but Nancy can recreate the original artist's work completely from memory.  Seriously?

Eezy's constant quoting of bible passages annoyed me.  Everything about the book kind of annoyed me.

Here we are on page 113, and Nancy is masterfully painting the parchment pictures from memory.  Suddenly, two men pop up out of nowhere and throw paint onto Nancy, Junie, and the parchment!  How random!

After the paint attack, Nancy wants to go back outside to look for clues.  She asks Mrs. Flockhart to go outside with the girls because Nancy is "sure that two men would not want to tackle three women."  I'm not so sure about that, but even if Nancy is right, the men could be armed.  Three women does not guarantee that there will be no trouble.

Nancy trespasses on Mr. Rocco's property multiple times during the story.  At first, she has no just cause, and her actions are a bit brash and completely out of character.  Nancy even ignores signs warning trespassers away and climbs Rocco's fence to get inside.  She searches his barns when she really has no definite reason to do so. 

The early original text Nancy Drew books portray Nancy as a brash young girl who breaks the law at times.  These later revised text books typically portray Nancy as a law-abiding citizen.  Her behavior is unusual for these later books. 

Nancy's five friends do not appear in the story until page 142, and these higher-numbered Nancy Drew books almost always have Nancy sleuthing with others.  Nancy does have Junie, but Junie is not one of the regulars.  Nancy is away from her core group of friends for 80% of this story.  It's like Nancy remembers her brash side when her primary friends are not present.

On page 154, George is "intrigued by the idea of meeting a real thief face to face."  Has George forgotten that she has solved mysteries with Nancy since volume five and that she has met many thieves?

On pages 158 and 159, Nancy has a heart-to-heart talk with young Sid in the jail.  She gets him to understand how sad he would be if someone were to steal something important from him.  Sid decides that he wants to go straight.  What a happy ending!  A criminal decides to quit hurting others.  Aw, so sweet...  and unrealistic.

The bible passages and Nancy's reformation of a criminal make this book seem preachy. 

I did not enjoy reading this Nancy Drew book, aside from laughing at parts of it.

Nancy Drew #53 The Sky Phantom

In Nancy Drew #53, The Sky Phantom,  Nancy, Bess, and George stay at Hamilton Ranch, somewhere in the Midwest, while Nancy takes flying lessons at the Excello School.  Popular pilot Roger Paine has disappeared along with his plane.  Pop Hamilton's favorite horse, Major, has also disappeared.  Meanwhile, a strange cloud stays in one spot in the sky.  Planes that fly too close to or into the cloud lose control due to a magnetic force from within the cloud.

The book also has a subplot in which Bess has fallen in love with one of the cowboys, Chuck, and is worried about whether she should stay and marry him or whether she should remain true to Dave.  I remember how traumatized Bess was about the idea of marriage in The Invisible Intruder, so I say that she should dump both of them.  She's not ready for marriage!

I was never able to get into this story, simply because I did not care about Roger Paine or Major.  I never care as much about missing people and animals when they have not been introduced in the text prior to their disappearance.  The book gave me no reason to care.

I ran some online searches, trying to figure out whether a puffy cloud could stay in one place and be magnetic.  I could find nothing.  While a magnetic stationary cloud is interesting, I find it implausible.

A burr incident with a horse occurs on page 45, and this incident is just like one from The Secret of Shadow Ranch, 1965 revised text.  In both books, an unfriendly cowboy places a burr under the blanket of Nancy's horse.

On page 78, Nancy and Bruce investigate the cloud after Roger Paine's plane disappears into it.  They find nothing.  Bruce comments, "I guess it's just a hiding place for the sky phantom."  Say what?  Planes have a continuous forward motion.  A plane can't hide inside a cloud for an indefinite period of time.

Bruce flies back into the cloud, and they see a dark cloud inside shaped like a giant.  Soon after, the dark cloud reforms into the shape of a lion.  The giant inside the cloud is the image used for the cover art of this story.  And of course, the cover art is stupid.  This is the only Nancy Drew book that has Frankenstein's monster on the cover.

Nancy discovers a cave, an above ground cave.  The cave is full of mice and falling oily rain.  How very odd.  On page 117, Nancy tells Mr. Wade that since the oil comes from above ground that whoever owns the hill would have the rights to the oil.  Are we expected to believe that this above ground cave has a large supply of oil?

It turns out that a group of revolutionaries have buried weapons in the ground underneath the cloud.  This cloud must never move; it's a permanent fixture like a tree. 

The revolutionaries even went to the trouble of labeling the boxes so that Nancy and Ned would know that the boxes contain rifles and bombs.  How considerate!  We wouldn't want Nancy to open a box and accidentally touch a rifle or a bomb!

This is not one of the better higher-numbered Nancy Drew books.  While reading, I kept thinking about how the writing of Harriet Adams was noticeably going downhill as these books were published.

Nancy Drew #52 The Secret of the Forgotten City

In Nancy Drew #52, The Secret of the Forgotten City, Nancy, Bess, George, Ned, Burt, and Dave go on an archaeological expedition to Nevada.  They will work with a group from the University of Nevada, but Mrs. Wabash has also enlisted their help in finding an underground forgotten city.  Mrs. Wabash has a number of gold petroglyphs which contain a hidden message.  Unfortunately, Fleetfoot Joe steals Mrs. Wabash's petroglyphs, so Nancy must try to locate Fleetfoot Joe and the petroglyphs.

The manner in which the book begins is not a good sign of what will follow.  Ned plays a guessing game with Nancy, starting with exclaiming, "Au! Au! Au!"  Even Nancy expresses exasperation, which is nothing compared to how I, as the reader, felt.

The villain, Fleetfoot Joe, has a name that is too similar to Swahili Joe from The Spider Sapphire Mystery.  Both names sound catchy, but a different name should have been used in this book.  How about Fleetfoot Jack?  Or Fleetfoot Bob?  Perhaps not.

The villains get right down to business, attacking Mrs. Wabash on page 3.  Togo is taken away by one of the villains on page 18, and the villains wiretap the Drew home on page 31.
  
On page 40, we learn that Nancy owns a guitar, which just seems kind of random to me.

Nancy decides to make a fake copy of the one petroglyph tablet that was not stolen.  The boys bring Nancy a slab of rock that is presumably the same dimensions as the tablet.  How convenient!  Nancy uses modern chipping tools to reproduce the carvings from the original tablet.  Since Nancy is excellent at everything, she does so perfectly.  Last, Nancy just happens to know what substances to mix together to use to age the tablet.  After 30 minutes, she rubs off the paste and then waxes the imitation tablet.

From page 41, "The original and new tablets were compared, and it was agreed that anyone except an expert on artifacts would be fooled by the substitution."  Wow.

On page 84, Nancy and George lie down on the ground in the desert to rest.  They get what they deserve when a scorpion crawls on Nancy.  It seems to me that the girls could have rested in the car, but what do I know?

On pages 87 and 88, the young people giggle about the names they keep hearing while in a hotel, names like Shirley Rainbow and Rosemary Bluebird.  A big deal is made about how these names must be those of famous people who are there incognito.  Maybe it's just me, but if I were famous and at a hotel, I'd just pick an ordinary name to use—like maybe the one I actually have, Jennifer White.  A name like mine would draw far less attention than a name like Rosemary Bluebird.

On page 92, Nancy invites Wanna Antler (Okay, so this must be a fake name, right?) to join the archaeological expedition.  The next thing we know, Miss Antler is "leading the way to the spot where she thought they should make camp and work."  Miss Antler is now in charge?

On page 98, Nancy knows all sorts of different Spanish dialects.  She correctly guesses which dialect is spoken by the Mexicans and is able to speak fluently with them. Amazing!

The young people come up with this stupid code to use when they want to speak privately but are afraid of eavesdroppers.  They make up some nonsense statement, and the others can figure out the real meaning by using the third word in each sentence.  Ned uses this code on page 114.

"Run, because you should be in the shade.  Desert sunburns are deadly.  Any person being caught here is a target.  Be on watch for sunstroke."

Um, okay.  Nancy has to take a moment to figure out the message, which is "You are being watch."  She then runs after Ned, who tells her that Fleetfoot Joe was watching them (Is it bad that I almost typed Swahili Joe?).  Wouldn't it be easier and more to the point for Ned to just yell, "Run!" and then take off?  I'm sure Nancy would follow him, wouldn't she?

On page 127, Bess and Dave use a tube of statuary cement to repair a clay doll that Bess had found.  I am horrified that two young people would take it upon themselves to make a permanent repair to an artifact.  But then, on page 135, the museum curator tells them that they "did a great job mending this.  Very professional looking.  It is perfect."  Fine, I'll shut up now.

But the worst is yet to come on pages 140 and 141.  The young people take a skeleton that had been excavated and jiggle it around, making it dance.  Later, they use the skeleton to scare the other people on the camp.  Not only is this disrespectful of the dead, but they are running the risk of damaging important archaeological evidence.  I don't recall having an opinion of this scene as a child, but each time since then, I have been appalled.

On page 155, Nancy is foolhardy to get inside a car with people she doesn't know.  It works out fine, but I couldn't help thinking, "What if they had kidnapped her?"

I could mention lots more stuff, like Swahili Joe...er...Fleetfoot Joe hiding the tablets among a bunch of rocks in the desert where Nancy and her friends can find them.  However, I will stop here.

As I read The Secret of the Forgotten City, I felt about the same way I felt when reading The Spider Sapphire Mystery.  So much about this story is either highly annoying or stupid.  I recall greatly enjoying this story as a child, but it does not hold up to my memories.

Nancy Drew #51 Mystery of the Glowing Eye

In Nancy Drew #51, Mystery of the Glowing Eye, an unmanned helicopter lands on Nancy's front lawn.  Inside the helicopter is a note from Ned Nickerson:  Beware of Cyclops. This is how Nancy learns that Ned has disappeared without a trace.  Nancy surmises that the mysterious Cyclops is responsible for Ned's disappearance.

Meanwhile, Carson Drew has Nancy help him investigate a mystery involving a glowing eye that appears inside a museum.  The Drews suspect that Cyclops and the glowing eye are somehow connected.

Nancy is dismayed that Carson Drew's new assistant, Marty King, seems determined to solve the glowing eye mystery herself.  Not only is Nancy worried about Ned, she fears that Marty King plans to take her place!

This mystery is unusual in that Nancy's emotions take center stage.  She is heartsick over Ned and concerned that Marty will replace her.  Nancy is jealous! 

On page four, the helicopter "plummeted the last fifty feet.  It hit the grass with a thud and the door flew open."  Later, the helicopter is able to take off on its own, so the helicopter was not damaged by plummeting fifty feet.  Somehow I doubt the helicopter would just land with a thud.

On page 58, Nancy is standing right in front of a file cabinet when it explodes.  The explosion "tore the file cabinet apart" and "knocked Nancy against the opposite wall."  That was some blast!  As usual, Nancy is not even slightly hurt.

On page 76, Nancy draws the eye from Ned's notes on a chalkboard and writes the numbers from his notes around the eye.  She then works on memorizing the numbers.  Conveniently, the chalkboard faces the open window, and Nancy's back is to the window.   Of course, a man shows up and writes down the numbers.

On page 106, Nancy and her friends are returning to investigate an old farmhouse. A barricade consisting of rocks, a warning sign, and a lantern has been placed across the road. The book states, "There was no way to get around the wall at this point because trees grew rather solidly along the road."

Not only that, but the illustration shows that the trees have also grown across the road since the last time Nancy and her friends drove down it.  Amazing!

The idea of a light that paralyzes people for a short time seems a bit far-fetched.  Reading this story as an adult, I have trouble accepting that part of the story.

I remember really enjoying this book as a child.  I was worried about Ned and quite excited when Nancy and Ned were reunited near the end of the story.  The story did not have the same effect on me this time, but I already knew the outcome and am no longer a child.  I enjoyed the book this time, just not as much as when I was young.

Nancy Drew #50 The Double Jinx Mystery

In Nancy Drew #50, The Double Jinx Mystery, Oscar Thurston has hired Carson Drew because he is in danger of losing his farm.  Oscar has a small zoo and owns quite a few exotic birds.  The High Rise Construction Company has requested the city council have Oscar's farm condemned so that they can build apartments on it.  Nancy helps her father with the case.

During Nancy, Bess, and George's first visit to Oscar's farm, a man cuts a hole in one of the cages.  Bess stuffs branches into the hole so that the birds cannot escape.  On page 11, the birds "realiz[ed] that she was a stranger and about to cut off their chance for freedom," so "they made an earsplitting racket."

So these birds are capable of reasoning skills?  And the birds began squawking because they realized that Bess was cutting off their chance for freedom?  Really?  The birds were squawking because people were messing with them.

On page 13, Rausch asks the girls to help him block the hole because these birds are pretty shrewd.  Well, that's not what he says, but what he does say is rather odd.  Rausch comments, "These birds may think I'm here to feed them and fly through his hole before I can get it covered."

Wouldn't the birds fly through the hole because they are birds, can fly, and can see a hole?  Why does there have to be a specific reason?  If the birds thought he was there to feed them, wouldn't they be more likely to stay in the cage to be fed?  Why leave if food is coming?

Nancy decides to stop with Ned to watch a ballet.  Quite conveniently, the director knows the villain.  Even more amazing, the director suddenly asks Nancy and Ned if they have ever danced ballet.  Nancy has, but she has never learned to leap.  So of course the director has one of the men dance with Nancy, where she is able to immediately take long, high leaps in unison with her dance partner.  And she has never leaped before.  Wow.

Both Nancy and Ned become ill with ornithosis.  As is typical, Nancy's case is not as bad as Ned's, and she recovers quickly.  Nothing stops Nancy!

At the bottom of page 122, Nancy tells Kami that the Thurstons need her help.

"You know his wife is superstitious and believes in weird signs and omens and probably can be mesmerized.  If she refuses to cooperate about selling the farm, someone may threaten to put a curse on her.  We mustn't allow this to happen."

They mustn't allow what to happen?  Is Nancy saying that they can't allow someone to threaten Mrs. Thurston?  Or is Nancy saying that they can't allow someone to put a curse on Mrs. Thurston?  I have to laugh, because it almost sounds like Nancy believes in curses.

Page 148 has a gloriously bad illustration that seems to show Nancy and Ned sliding over the edge of a waterfall.  The huge man had pushed them into the water.  "Being excellent swimmers they were able to twist their bodies into perfect dives."  If so, why are Nancy and Ned floating on the water?  They don't even look wet!

On page 166, Bess and George completely talk Mrs. Thurston out of all of her superstitious beliefs, in just a few minutes.  Amazing!

The scene near the end of the book where Nancy leaps with Merv Marvel to the strange occult meeting at the barn is stupid.  It's also ridiculous that Merv confesses everything to Nancy as they leap through the air.

I overall enjoyed The Double Jinx Mystery, even though some aspects of the mystery are quite stupid.  I am much more tolerant of the ridiculous aspects of books like this one that are set in the vicinity of River Heights.  The ones which mix traveling with ridiculous events are much harder for me to enjoy.

Nancy Drew #49 The Secret of Mirror Bay

In Nancy Drew #49, The Secret of Mirror Bay, Nancy, Bess, and George travel with Nancy's Aunt Eloise to Mirror Bay to stay at the Bide-A-Wee cabin.  No trip is complete without a mystery, and Mirror Bay has plenty of that.  A mysterious woman can be seen walking on the water on misty mornings.  A strange glowing green man haunts the nearby woods.  Ned, Burt, and Dave also join the girls at Mirror Bay.

The girls arrive in Cooperstown amid chaos.  Five large travel buses are parked alongside the curb, with hundreds of people milling around.  The people paid hundreds of dollars to stay at a resort, but they arrived in Cooperstown to discover that their destination does not exist.  Nancy is spotted by the crowd and accused of being the perpetrator.  The girl responsible for the scam just happens to look just like Nancy.

It turns out that the people responsible for the scam just happen to have their hideout on the nearby mountain.  Exactly why would they scam people and have the fake destination be right where their hideout is?  If they had chosen someplace else, they would have never been caught.  Nancy's mysteries would be so much harder to solve if these villains would quit being so stupid.

Of course, one of the villains dresses up as the strange glowing green man to scare people away from the hideout.  Naturally, Nancy investigates near where he appears and discovers the hideout.  Dear me, these villains are stupid.

On page 64, Bess has been abducted, and a man is dragging her down the mountain.  Nancy and the others chase after them, down the mountain.  Once the man is within sight, Aunt Eloise yells at him to stop.  The man immediately drops Bess and runs down the mountain.

Nancy has one of her moments of sheer genius when she "kept wondering why the man had taken that route."  Um, the man ran down the mountain because he was already being chased down the mountain.  Why would he turn around and run at the young people?  I'm not understanding what was so strange about the direction he took. 

On page 88, Nancy finds some bobby pins up in the middle of the woods that were left behind by the mysterious girl.  Nancy decides to leave the bobby pins, because she believes the girl might come back for them and be captured.  I've always thought of bobby pins as very inexpensive.  Would the girl actually go back for them?  Would she know where she left them?  If I were the girl, I'd forget about them.

The villains have this great hideout up on the mountain.  It is an underground cave.  A wooden trap door is built into the ground, and the villains climb down the ladder into the underground cave.  I've always liked the hideout, but this time when I read the book, I couldn't help but think...  What if it rains?

The cave even has a refrigerator which is powered by energy acquired from fireflies that are kept in the cave.  I have some trouble believing that the villains are able to get enough energy from fireflies to power the refrigerator, but my bigger problem is...  What if it rains?

How do the villains keep the water out of the underground cave?  Or does it never rain on this crazy mountain?

The woman who walks on water cannot swim, so she was using stilts, hoping to feel a large metal box underwater.  This is, of course, stupid.  Later, Nancy and her friends find the box for the woman, and of course the contents are unspoiled by water.  Everyone is so lucky in this book that water never causes them any problems.

I have always enjoyed The Secret of Mirror Bay, and this time was no exception.  The mystery has the usual plot devices that make little sense, but ignoring them, it is a very good story.

Nancy Drew #48 The Crooked Banister

In Nancy Drew #48, The Crooked Banister, Carson Drew's client, Mrs. Melody, has been swindled by Rawley Banister, who has since disappeared.  Mr. Drew, Mrs. Melody, and Nancy travel to Mountainville.  They become acquainted with Rawley's sister, Mrs. Carrier, who turns out to be an old school friend of Mrs. Melody.  Mrs. Carrier doesn't think Rawley is ever coming back since he sent her the key to his house.  The visitors learn that Rawley calls himself the Crooked Banister. 

On page 11, Mrs. Melody and the Drews return to their hotel to find their rooms on fire.  Mr. Drew had copies of the documents that provide proof against Rawley in his room, and Mrs. Melody had the originals in her room.  How stupid to have both the originals and the copies with them!  And why was it necessary to bring the documents with them?

On page 28, Clyde Mead pushes himself on Nancy.  He reminds me of that pest, Bartescue, from The Haunted Bridge.

On page 71, Nancy suspects that the robot had something to do with the disappearance of Dave and Bess.  It seems to me that turning the robot on, while keeping back at a safe distance, might provide some useful information.  Instead, Nancy locks the robot up in the closet.  Next, the young people wander around trying to figure out what happened.

Nancy discovers a trap door, which cannot be opened.  Finally, four pages later, Nancy decides to get the robot out of the closet and replay the command tape in the robot.  Bingo!  The robot opens the trap door.

The young people discover a drop of six feet to an earthen floor.  On page 76, Nancy and Ned give "sighs of relief.  It was unlikely that Bess and Dave could have been injured by falling through the trap door!"  Apparently, a drop of six feet is nothing.  I disagree.  Bess and Dave easily could have been hurt. 

I notice pointless passages in these later books that seem designed to take up space.  On page 97, Mrs. Carrier asks the girls to guess who visited her.

"Guess who was here this morning?"

"Your brother, Thomas?" Bess questioned.

"No.  Guess again."

"My dad?" Nancy asked.

"No.  Give another guess."

George spoke up.  "Ned and Burt and Dave?"

Mrs. Carrier shook her head and Nancy said, "I give up."

"So do I," said Bess and George.

"Well, you're in for a big surprise.  Mr. Clyde Mead came to call."

Stop!  How about beginning with "You won't believe who visited me!" and then telling them.  Oh, but that would have taken up less space and would have been more to the point.

As I have revisited these books, many of them do not hold up to my past memories.  This story is one that I recall enjoying in the past, but I don't recall having any special feelings about it.  Upon this reading, my liking of the book doubled or tripled.  I love, love, love it!  And I know exactly why I like it so much better. 

This book is just like a Nancy Drew game from Her Interactive.  I have played all 28 of the Nancy Drew games, and the events of this book unfold just like the events of one of the games.  Everything that happens in Rawley's crazy house is just like what would happen in the games.

The Nancy Drew games have plot devices like stairs that play notes of music.  Guess what?  This book has stairs that play notes of music.  Awesome!

This book has lots of things that could have come right out of a Nancy Drew game, including a moat that sometimes catches fire, a drawbridge that disappears, a robot that attacks people, secret rooms, secret passages, a revolving bookcase, paintings covered with poisoned black paint, and hidden money.

The Nancy Drew games always have strange clues in which Nancy is supposed to find some object.  This book also has that.  Nancy finds two such messages, Hunt for the Skeleton's Bracelet and Find the Silver Armor Mask.  This book could have been based on a Nancy Drew game, yet the book came decades before any of the games!  This book delivers!

Most of these higher-numbered Nancy Drew books are wholly implausible with events that make little sense.  While on the surface this book seems crazy, it is fully plausible.

By everyone's description of Rawley, we know that he has mental problems of some nature.  People who suffer from mental illness do strange things.  Rawley's crazy house is exactly the sort of place that could be created by an insane or eccentric person.  Putting poisoned black paint on his relatives' portraits?  Sure!  Having a robot that attacks people?  Makes perfect sense!

I also like that Rawley never appears in the story.  This is also similar to the games, which often feature characters mentioned by name only or heard only during phone calls.

Nancy receives a warning phone call from a man claiming to be Thomas Banister, Rawley's brother.  Since Thomas did not make the call, we can conclude that Rawley must have been the caller.  However, we really do not know.  Anyone could have made that call, which adds to the mystery.  Rawley comes across as sinister and mysterious since he is never present.  Rawley's absence makes him larger than life.

An important point brought up in this book is that family members get blamed when a relative does something bad.  Mrs. Carrier and Thomas Banister are deeply embarrassed and upset about what their brother has done.  They are harassed by Rawley's victims.

I have seen over and over that when someone commits a crime, the family is unjustly blamed.  I see it in online comments in news stories about people who have committed crimes.  Many people blame the family, asking why they didn't stop the person.  They blame the parents, the spouse, the children.  People are responsible for their own actions, not for the actions of all of their relatives.  When a family member commits a crime, the family is not to blame.

I like everything about this book.

Nancy Drew #47 The Mysterious Mannequin

In Nancy Drew #47, The Mysterious Mannequin, Carson Drew receives a Turkish rug in the mail.  Mr. Drew suspects that a past Turkish client, Farouk Tahmasp, might be responsible.  Farouk was accused of smuggling rugs into the country and hired Mr. Drew to represent him.  Farouk disappeared before the case went to trial.

Nancy deduces that the rug has a hidden message from Farouk, so Mr. Drew assigns her the task of finding it.  Nancy spots a message asking Mr. Drew to find Farouk's mannequin and bring it to him.  Nancy recalls that Farouk ran a rug shop years ago and that he had a mannequin in the window.  She begins searching for the mannequin.

The message in the rug reminds me of The Clue in the Old Album, which also had a message hidden in a rug. 

On page 38, Nancy dives into a river to save a boy.  The owner of a nearby restaurant dries Nancy's clothes, and then the girls head on their way.  Shortly after leaving, Nancy decides to call on the realtor who owns the property that Farouk leased for his rug shop.

The man on duty is described as a "smart-alecky young man" who smirks at Nancy.  The man is rude, and Nancy dislikes him.  The entire time I read this passage, I kept thinking about how Nancy had just gone swimming in a river.  I doubt that her hair looked that great.  Nothing is ever mentioned about Nancy's appearance, so the reader has to assume that she looks well-groomed.  Regardless, I couldn't help but I wonder how Nancy's hair would have looked.  The man could have been smirking about Nancy's hair.

We have a rather convenient coincidence on page 64.  Nancy has just chased after a man who drops his wallet.  She finds a letter inside, and the letter is written in Greek.  When the police arrive, one of them is conveniently of Greek descent and can read the letter.  My exact reaction as I read the scene was, "Give me a break!"

We have another convenient coincidence on page 81.  Nancy and her friends are checking a mannequin that is in a hotel to see whether it could have come from Farouk's shop.  The mannequin has nothing to do with Farouk, but while Nancy is in the lobby, she spots a pile of magazines.  One of the magazines has an article about Turkish rugs.  It gets better.  The article about Turkish rugs contains a picture of Farouk's mannequin.  What are the chances?!  Of all the rug shops in America, one with a picture of Farouk's mannequin is randomly on a table in a random hotel more than two years after Farouk's shop closed.  Wow!

Every Nancy Drew book has to have at least one extremely stupid remark.  Nancy returns home to discover that the Turkish rug is downstairs instead of hidden in Nancy's closet.  On page 114, Nancy makes her insightful remark.

Prepare yourself.

"But how did he know where we had hidden the rug?"

Oh, dear.

Nancy, I thought you were better than that!  All the man had to do was search the house!  He didn't have to know where the rug was hidden!  You were gone for a long time with Ned and even had lunch while you were away.  The man had lots of time to search the house!

On page 129, Nancy and Aisha go for a drive.  We know from a later passage that Nancy learned what happened to the mannequin during that drive.  On page 175, Aisha states that Nancy "figured it out some time ago and spoke to me about it one day when we went for a drive.  I admitted she was right and asked that she keep the secret until we had Farouk's permission to reveal it."  Nancy definitely learned the solution to the mystery on page 129.

This makes Nancy's question to Haw-Haw on page 137 rather strange.  Nancy asks Haw-Haw, "Have you any idea where Farouk put the mannequin when he left?"  Nancy has already gone for the drive with Aisha on page 129, so she already knows what happened to the mannequin.  She has no reason to ask Haw-Haw about it.  The reader doesn't know at this point, so nothing seems strange.  But after reading the entire book, the sequence of events is off.  Nancy's drive with Aisha should have been between pages 137 and 175 instead of before page 137.

The Mysterious Mannequin is an enjoyable mystery.  I found very little wrong with it, and the story holds together well upon multiple readings.  While the book does have some amazing coincidences, it is not stupid like many of the higher-numbered Nancy Drew books.

Nancy Drew #46 The Invisible Intruder

In Nancy Drew #46, The Invisible Intruder, Nancy is invited by Helen Corning Archer and her husband, Jim, to go on a ghost hunting trip with them and three other married couples.  Nancy was invited because Helen and the other couples decided that they needed a sleuth with them to help solve the mysteries.  Bess, George, Ned, Burt, and Dave are invited to go as well.  This means that a total of 14 people will go on the ghost hunting trip.

Their first stop will be Pine Grove Camp on Lake Sevanee, where a self-propelling canoe appears on the lake.  The second location is Madam Tarantella's prophecy hut.  People hear thunder during séances, although no storms are in the area.  The third visit will be to the Red Barn Guesthouse, where at night, a phantom horse appears with its ghost rider chasing after it.  Fourth, the ghost hunters will stop at a mountaintop inn that was once an old fort.  People often see the ghosts of prisoners.  The final stop will be at the home of a skull and shell collector which has an "invisible intruder" visit each night.

This is an interesting mystery that would have been even better if all of the extra couples had not been invited.  They have no purpose, other than cluttering up the setting.  In fact, every single mysterious event is witnessed by Nancy's core group of six.  Occasionally, one or more of the other couples are present, but typically, Nancy's core group of six gets all the action.  It gets funny as this happens over and over throughout the book. Here are a couple of examples.

On page 9, Ned suggests that "he and Nancy, Bess, George, Burt, and Dave go swimming off the dock of Pine Grove Camp."  Soon after the young people begin swimming, the ghost canoe appears.  At supper, the other couples hear about the excitement.

Later in the story, the ghost hunters arrive at the Red Barn Guesthouse.  Right after the group arrives, a banging sound comes from the attic.  Rather than have 14 people go up to the attic, everyone agrees that only Nancy's group will go.  It seems that Helen and Jim miscalculated by having Nancy and her friends along.  They wanted Nancy to help them.  Instead, Nancy gets all of the excitement, and the other couples have no part in the mystery.

This book opens like so many other Nancy Drew books:  Nancy gets warned by the villains!  On page 3, Nancy receives a warning by phone.  I thought it was strange that the villains already knew Nancy would be on the case.  Nancy thinks it is strange as well, but then she decides that someone must have been near the fence while she was discussing the ghost hunting trip with her father in the backyard.  That makes sense, but then... how did the villains know that they needed to be eavesdropping on Nancy?

This story is full of the stupidity that is present in all of the higher-numbered Nancy Drew books.  On page 14, the couples are gathered around the fireplace when the front door opens and a large gust of air enters, scattering papers and sparks everywhere.  The couples chase after a man who has a large bellows under his arm.  This just seems stupid, kind of like when a man strapped peacock feet to his shoes in The Hidden Window Mystery.

On page 34, Ned is captured underwater by a huge octopus.  Seriously.  It turns out that the villain was carrying a rubber octopus and somehow managed to drag Ned away underwater while at the same time dragging the rubber octopus along as well.  Another theory given by the young people is that the man may have been inside the rubber octopus.  Um, okay. Wouldn't he have had trouble swimming?

On page 46, Mrs. Tarpey tells the young people about the theft of a shell collection and how many of the shells are valuable.  She then recites a bunch of historic information about specific rare shells.  I am surprised that Mrs. Tarpey knows all of this and can recite it perfectly for Nancy and her friends.

I don't understand why the thunder at the medium's hut is considered ghostly.  Had Nancy and her friends ever heard of a tape recorder or record player? 

On page 60, Bess is told by the medium that she will soon apply for a license for her own wedding.  Bess begins crying as though this is the worst news ever.  She is very concerned because Dave has to finish college first.  Well, Bess, if you are that upset about the idea of marriage, just dump Dave and then you won't have to worry about messing up his future plans.  

On page 69, Nancy finds a telegram in with Madame Tarantella's papers.  The telegram reads, "RARE.  MEDIUM.  WELL DONE."  Nancy deduces that the message is a code.  She thinks that "medium" means Madame Tarantella, that she did a "rare" bit of work, and that her work was "well done."

I have a better idea.  LAME.  IDIOTIC.  STUPID.  Really, did someone watch too many stupid cartoons and then create these plots?

On page 74, an attorney named Mr. Kittredge comes for Madame Tarantella's papers.  Helen shows Nancy a shell that she found that might have come out of Madame Tarantella's box.  Mr. Kittredge just happens to know all about the shell and tells the girls its nickname and scientific name.  He tells them where the shell can be found and about its value.  How convenient that everyone Nancy meets knows all about shells!

On page 98, Ned calls Nancy to tell her about his abduction and everything that has happened.  It is not until page 107 after several more events that Ned finally tells Nancy about a piece of paper he found in the kidnappers' car.  The paper said, "Force sale red barn."  I find it odd that Ned left out that one important piece of information until later.

The ghost hunters take turns watching for the phantom horse overnight.  Do you want to guess when the horse finally appears?  While Nancy's group is watching!  I am so shocked! 

On page 169, Nancy, Ned, Helen, and Jim are locked inside a cage with the skeleton of a dinosaur.  Ned escapes, and Nancy devises a plan to trick the villain.  She has Helen and Jim hide behind the skeleton.  Jim ducks out and back behind the skeleton.  He takes off his coat, messes up his hair, and appears briefly as Ned.  The villain falls for it.  This just proves how stupid all of these villains are.

Shells are mentioned all through the story.  The final stop at the skull and shell collector is mentioned at the start of the story, but Nancy never thinks about that as they find shells everywhere they go. Really, Nancy, shells are everywhere.  Think, girl!

But then... why exactly do the villains carry shells with them and accidentally drop them everywhere?  Oh, I know... it is a way of giving Nancy a trail of clues, except she never ties that trail to the skull and shell collector's house.  

The Invisible Intruder has a lot of problems, but I have always enjoyed it.  I like the idea of journeying from one haunted place to another in order to discover the source of the various haunts.  The book has some obvious flaws, but they have never prevented me from enjoying the story.  Far too many people go on the ghost hunting trip, and nearly everything of interest occurs whenever Nancy's core group of six is present.  The story would have been better if Jim and Helen were the only couple in addition to Nancy's group.  The remaining couples are hardly ever mentioned, so their presence just adds unnecessary clutter to the story.  Take out the other couples and make some of the events less stupid, and The Invisible Intruder could have been an outstanding Nancy Drew mystery.

Nancy Drew #45 The Spider Sapphire Mystery

In Nancy Drew #45, The Spider Sapphire Mystery, Nancy makes plans to go on a safari in Kenya with Bess, George, Ned, Burt, Dave, and a bunch of students from Emerson.  Coincidentally, Nancy's father has been hired to defend a man accused of stealing a fabulous sapphire that contains a spider.  This man has created a synthetic spider sapphire, and some men from Kenya have accused him of stealing the real spider sapphire from its owner.

The mystery opens with three men surrounding Nancy's car with their vehicles and running off.  Ah, one of the many Nancy Drew mysteries that begins with people harassing Nancy for no apparent reason.  If the criminals would simply stay away from Nancy, they would stand a far greater chance of getting away with their crimes.  But no, they chase after Nancy constantly.  It is all too easy.

The vehicle scene is the first of many instances where the book seems illogical.  Okay, so Nancy can't get out of her car because the convertible's top won't open and she can't open the doors.  Nothing is mentioned about the windows.  Couldn't Nancy have lowered a window and simply climbed out?  I am baffled.

Unknown to Nancy, Ned gets kidnapped by Swahili Joe.  Someone then calls Nancy and tells her that Ned won't be going to Africa.  Nancy investigates and discovers that Ned has disappeared.  Again, the criminals alert Nancy that a problem exists, thus speeding up the discovery that Ned has been kidnapped.

On page 34, Nancy and her friends are attacked by men with guns.  The men get tackled and drop their guns.  So what do Nancy and George do?  They grab the guns and throw them into the nearby stream.  The guns would have given Nancy and her friends added protection against the men. 

On page 37, the young people discover that someone has scratched "SJ" on a tree trunk with an arrow pointing left.  On page 38, Nancy explains that she believes that "Ned felt that it would not be safe to scratch his own initials, but we'd recognize SJ if we were able to follow his clues."  Um... Ned scratching anything on the tree with an arrow is rather obvious.  Somehow, I expect the villains would get upset about the arrow regardless of the initials next to it.  Why would it matter? 

I had to laugh when Bess pulls a box of crackers and a candy bar out of her purse for Ned.  She explains she always has a snack ready for an emergency.

On page 49, Nancy rather easily learns a song in Swahili from Madame Bulawaya, and is able to sing it flawlessly.  Of course later in the story, Nancy is able to sing the song in Kenya, also flawlessly.  There is nothing that Nancy can't do!

On page 50, Madame Bulawaya requests that Nancy help find her brother, Tizam, who disappeared in Kenya sometime before.  Guess what?  Tizam has a connection to the spider sapphire case; the villains pinned the blame on him!  Isn't it amazing that every random person Nancy meets has a connection to the mystery?

Oh, it gets better.  In Kenya, it seems that everyone knows Tizam.  And of course, while Nancy and her friends go sightseeing, they stumble across Tizam himself.  Amazing!  Tizam has amnesia, which Nancy is able to cure immediately by singing the Swahili song to him.  You go girl!

At the time this story was written, Kenya had a population of 10 million. Nancy has such incredible luck that in a nation of 10 million people, every single person she meets knows about her mystery.  Wow.

An obnoxious young woman named Gwen Taylor goes on the safari with the Emerson students.  Gwen is self-absorbed, snobbish, and wears a wig, which is snatched away by a baboon on page 78.  Gwen is devastated, but not for long.  Bess goes to Gwen's room, gives her some friendly advice, and Gwen emerges from her room within one hour with her hair styled.  Gwen's personality somehow changes completely because of the talk with Bess, or perhaps because Bess showed her how to style her hair.  Now everyone likes Gwen and is eager to be around her.

The villains are pretty mean in this book.  Ned is abducted.  George is abducted and taken into the jungle where wild animals roam.  The villains burn all of Nancy, Bess, and George's clothing.  They beat up Ned, Burt, and Dave.  They put acid on Nancy's suitcase handle.

Nancy and Ned submerge their hands in oil to counteract the effect of the acid.  They are apparently cured immediately and do not seek medical attention.  Nancy is indestructible, so naturally, the acid wouldn't harm her.

I was curious as to whether oil would be a correct remedy for contact with acid.  I ran some Google searches, and it seems that submerging an acid burn in water is the most common remedy.  I found no mention of oil in the top results.  I did find one page that mentions that mixing acid and oil will cause a chemical reaction.

On page 161, Nancy, Bess, and George return to the hotel and speak with Ned, Burt, and Dave about the mystery in a corner of the lobby.  In the middle of this passage is the statement, "Gwen, in the meantime, had asked to be excused and had gone to her room."  Huh?  Gwen is not part of the discussion, so far as I can tell, and mentioning her name is totally random.  I don't think I missed anything, but I will confess that by this point in the book, I had begun skimming the text.  The book had gotten to be very annoying, and I wanted it to be over.

Most everything about this book is stupid, and I did not enjoy it.  The book is mainly good for laughs.

Nancy Drew #44 The Clue in the Crossword Cipher

In Nancy Drew #44, The Clue in the Crossword Cipher, Carla Ponce invites Nancy Drew and her friends to come to Peru to solve the mystery of her wooden plaque that has a crossword cipher carved into it.  The cipher is hundreds of years old and features a strange message on one side and a monkey on the other.

A gang of criminals, headed by the mysterious El Gato, has been harassing Carla.  As soon as Carla invites Nancy to Peru, the criminals begin harassing Nancy as well.  El Gato and his allies continue annoying Nancy and her friends in South America as they work towards solving the mystery.

These later Nancy Drew books tend to feature villains that chase after Nancy constantly.  This book is no exception, but at least the chronology makes more sense than in some of the other books.  The villains were already after Carla Ponce's wooden plaque and harassing her.  When Carla enlists Nancy's help, the villains quite naturally begin harassing Nancy as well. Fortunately, they do not begin harassing Nancy before she knows about the mystery.

In Peru, Nancy is told to check with a man who sells wooden products in Lima.  His assistant just happens to be Luis Llosa, which is a strange coincidence.  Luis Llosa is the villain who is after Carla's wooden plaque.

On page 78, Señora Violetta is at police headquarters with Nancy and her friends.  After they leave, they go to a church service and then back to the hotel.  I find it strange that this woman who just met the girls takes them to church.  Page 78 also has a mistake in which Señora Violetta suddenly becomes Señor Violetta.

On page 80, Nancy is standing near a door of the plane when the door comes open.  Nancy is nearly sucked out of the plane, but of course she isn't.  In real life, I think she would have been sucked out, and that would have been the end of Nancy.

The girls go sightseeing at the ruins of Machu Picchu.  On page 108, the villain paints a large red cat on the ruins when the girls aren't looking.  Really?  Couldn't he do better than that?

On page 121, Bess is told that her weight must be more than 100 pounds since the alpaca carrying her refuses to stand up.  Bess grins and refuses to reveal her weight.  Making a big deal out of Bess weighing more than 100 pounds seems odd to me.  All of the girls would have to weigh above 100 pounds unless they all have small frames and are under around 4' 10".  Somehow, I doubt that all of them are that small.

On page 123, Nancy sees "a huge bundle of thatch rolling at fast speed in her direction."  When the thatch reaches her, "Nancy gave a mighty leap and hurdled the bundle."  Wow.  Nancy must be some athlete.  I guess we already knew that.

On page 149, Luis Llosa throws a bomb with a lighted fuse into the room where Nancy is.  The bomb is thrown towards Nancy.  Needless to say, Nancy does not have a scratch on her.  When Bess exclaims about how lucky Nancy is, Nancy comments that she "doubted that the bomb could have killed her."  Really, Nancy, you can't be serious.  Sadly, I'm sure Harriet Adams was serious when she wrote that.

I enjoyed this story more than I did The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes or The Mystery of the 99 Steps, but I still did not enjoy it very much.  This is a travelogue book and the type of Nancy Drew book that I never like quite as much as the ones set in River Heights.

Nancy Drew #43 The Mystery of the 99 Steps

In Nancy Drew #43, The Mystery of the 99 Steps, Nancy and her father depart for Paris to solve two different cases.  Mr. Drew has been asked to find out what has frightened a certain financier into selling his stocks.  Nancy has been asked by Mrs. Blair, a River Heights resident, to find out where she saw a long flight of stairs with 99 steps.  Mrs. Blair has recurring nightmares about the 99 steps.

Needless to say, Mr. Drew's case and Nancy's mystery are connected and have the same set of villains.  What are the chances of Mrs. Blair's childhood mystery connecting with Mr. Drew's current case?  Amazing!

From the beginning of the story, Nancy gets warning messages from Monsieur Neuf, or "Mr. Nine."  So, some Frenchman calling himself Mr. Nine warns Nancy about going to France.  Once again, the villains give Nancy lots of clues.  If they'd just leave her alone, she'd have so much more trouble bringing them to justice!

This book is full of incidents and remarks that seem a bit stupid.

On page 34, a prowler at the Drew home uses stilts.  Perhaps this was done to disguise his footprints, but a towel or bag tied over each shoe would have the same effect and might even make it easier to walk.  Even better, why not just wear someone else's shoes?  These villains!

Perhaps the villains have mental problems.  On page 36, the villain leaves a warning message, "BEWARE THE GREEN LION!"  The message is propped up inside Nancy's car.  Nancy figures out that the statement has to do with alchemy, so of course the villain has revealed himself as being tied to alchemy.  Continuing the tradition of these higher-numbered Nancy Drew books, the villains hand Nancy her clues on a silver platter.

On page 116, Nancy is with Henri Durant, who met up with Nancy after he went on an errand for his father.  While he is with Nancy, a telephone message is given to Henri, telling him that he is to call his father.  As soon as Henri walks off, Nancy is attacked.  It seems strange to me that the villains know enough about Henri to be able to give a plausible excuse to get him away from Nancy.  I just find it hard to believe.

On page 137, Bess remarks that Louis Aubert "must be a good mechanic to know how to damage brakes."  Nancy informs Bess that since Aubert is a scientist that he probably knows a good bit about machinery, which means that he would know how to damage brakes.  I don't follow the reasoning.  Sure, this is possible, but being a scientist who practices alchemy is not the same as being a mechanic who repairs vehicles.

On page 167, Nancy, Bess, George, two policemen, and Mr. Drew all go into the villains' hideout and secrete themselves behind some bins.  I am amazed that every single person went down into the cellar and not one person remained outside as a lookout.  Not surprising, every single one of them gets trapped in the cellar by the villain.  Of course, they manage to escape, but still, their behavior is ignorant.

I did not enjoy this story very much.  The Mystery of the 99 Steps is a travelogue Nancy Drew book with some incredible coincidences that have little believability. 

Nancy Drew #42 The Phantom of Pine Hill

In Nancy Drew #42, The Phantom of Pine Hill, Nancy travels to Emerson with Bess and George for Emerson University's June Week celebration.  Upon their arrival, the girls discover that their reservations have been lost, and they have no room.  Ned obtains lodging for the girls at Uncle John Rorick's home, upon the condition that the girls discover the phantom of Pine Hill.

A strange light is seen in the woods at night, and an intruder keeps entering the library, even though Uncle John has changed the locks.  Nancy and her friends learn that a ship called the Lucy Belle sank in the river in 1835.  The ship reputedly carried a fortune in gold.  Mr. Rorick tells the girls that the ship also contained some wedding gifts for Miss Abigail Rorick.

One theory about the phantom is that somebody is searching Mr. Rorick's library in order to find a clue that will lead to the missing treasure.  Book collectors will appreciate that Mr. Rorick's library contains thousands of books.  Nancy and her friends even find money hidden in some of the books.  Mr. Rorick uses books with titles such as The Roaring Twenties and The Roaring River in order to remember which books contain money.  "Roaring" is a reference to Mr. Rorick's name.

The housekeeper, Mrs. Holman, reminds Nancy of Hannah.  She also reminds me of Hannah.  In fact, I could swear that she is written exactly like Hannah and is actually Hannah in disguise.

In the woods, one of the villains tries to scare Nancy by dropping a piece of paper that has extremely large thumbprints on it.  Um, okay.  It just seems bizarre.

The illustration on page 87 does not match the description of Nancy's attire from page 85.  Nancy is supposed to be wearing a "pretty dress" with a "full-length smock over it" in order to keep it clean for church.  Nancy wears pants in the illustration.

Mr. Rorick's coin collection is valuable.  I always thought so as a child, but now I have a new perspective.  The most valuable coin was given as being worth $7,500.  That coin sold for $1,380,000 in a 2008 auction.  Mr. Rorick's coin collection is worth millions of dollars in today's money.  Wow.

I thought it was a nice touch making Bess the hero near the end of the book.  Way to go, Bess!

The Phantom of Pine Hill is an enjoyable mystery.  Even though Nancy is away at Emerson, the story has the feel of a book set in River Heights.  Nancy Drew books set in River Heights have always been my favorites. 

Nancy Drew #41 The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes

In Nancy Drew #41, The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes, Nancy learns of an heirloom her maternal great-grandmother, Lady Douglas, was planning to give her.  The heirloom has disappeared and was possibly stolen!

Bess has won a vacation for two people to her choice of destination by entering a photograph of Nancy sleuthing.  Nancy will be famous because the picture will appear in a popular magazine.  Nancy is dismayed that she will be likely recognized while in Scotland, but she suggests that Bess and George use the prize to journey to Scotland with her.

When Ned learns about the trip to Scotland, he tells her that he read a story about a group of thieves who are stealing sheep and lambs in the Highlands of Scotland.  He suggests that Nancy try to solve that mystery.

Of course the missing heirloom and the stolen sheep end up being connected.  At least the first half of the book consists of the bad guys attacking Nancy and chasing after her, trying to keep her from arriving at her destination in Scotland.  This is not a mystery; it is a game of cat and mouse.  Since the villains chase after Nancy constantly, attacking her, and giving her warnings, she knows who they are.  The villains quite directly give Nancy all of her clues.

I mentioned in my review of The Secret of the Golden Pavilion that a lot of information about Hawaii was given, and that it detracted from the story for me.  That is nothing compared to the amount of historic and geographic information about Scotland.  Some entire chapters are devoted to sightseeing rather than anything to do with a mystery.  Of course, the villains attack Nancy and her friends on every sightseeing trip, so I suppose we can consider each trip to be part of the mystery.  That is, we can consider each trip to be part of the elaborate game of cat and mouse.

On page 5, Ned tells Nancy that she needs to be back by June 10 so that she can be at Emerson for a special event.  The event occurs in The Phantom of Pine Hill, so this is a rare example of two Nancy Drew books fitting together chronologically.

On page 52, a houseboat tips over.  The illustration depicts the houseboat tipped over in the water.  It seems to me that water would have seeped into the houseboat, but nothing about this is mentioned in the text.  The way the text reads, I get the idea that the houseboat was never in the water in the first place, which is strange since it is a houseboat.

The coincidences are a bit too much in this mystery.  The girls rescue the people in the houseboat and learn of a nearby houseboat with strange occupants.  Of course those occupants are the villains in this non-mystery.

The villains make a painting that can only be viewed by taking a circular object, such as a glass, and making it into a circular mirror by painting the glass with a reflective coating.  I can't understand why the villains would use such a difficult method of communication.  Actually, they did it so that the readers could learn about an interesting method of viewing a painting.

The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes was not enjoyable to me, since it has very little mystery and consists of the villains chasing after Nancy and attacking her all the time.  The entire story seems pointless.

Nancy Drew #40 The Moonstone Castle Mystery

In Nancy Drew #40, The Moonstone Castle Mystery, Nancy receives a moonstone in the mail.  The package contains a note informing Nancy that the moonstone is for good luck and that she will need it in the next few weeks.  Meanwhile, Mr. Drew enlists Nancy's help in solving the mystery of what happened to Joanie Horton.  Joanie's grandparents last saw her 15 years ago when they left for Africa as missionaries.  The Bowens were abducted in Africa and only recently released.  They returned to find that Joanie had disappeared soon after they left for Africa.

Nancy, Bess, and George travel to Deep River to investigate what happened to Joanie Horton.  Ned, Burt, and Dave join them later.

Not too long after the girls arrive in Deep River, they learn about a young woman named Jody.  When Nancy finds out that Jody was adopted, she suspects that Jody might be the missing Joanie Horton.  Anyone who lives near Deep River who was adopted has to be Joanie Horton.  After all, nobody else anywhere near Deep River has ever been adopted.

On page 82, Nancy sees a photo of Jody, who is described as having dark hair.  On page 99, Joanie is described as having blond curls.  Since the assumption is that Jody and Joanie are the same person, I was confused about the change in hair color.

The girls also investigate Moonstone Castle, which is conveniently part of the mystery.  How neat that every place Nancy goes and every person she meets is part of her mystery!

During one of the girls' visits to the Moonstone Castle, they anchor down the drawbridge so that no one from inside the castle can raise the drawbridge.  They use rocks and wire.  The girls are quite proud of themselves since they have anchored the drawbridge so that no one can raise it from inside the castle.  Exactly what would stop someone from leaving the castle, removing the wire, and then raising the drawbridge?  The girls act like whoever is in the castle will not ever come outside.

The criminals in this story are extremely dumb.  They swindled Joanie out of her inheritance 15 years ago, and now, 15 years later, they are still in the same area swindling people out of their inheritances.  It seems that the criminals should have moved their operations to another part of the country.  If they had, Nancy would not have caught them!

Page 89 has an illustration that is captioned " 'So you found me out!' Nancy exclaimed."  In the illustration, Nancy has a smile on her face.  The illustration depicts a scene from pages 86 and 87.

In her high-pitched voice, she asked, "Well, how are you, Nancy Drew, detective?"

When confronted with a startling statement, Nancy usually was able to hide her surprise.  This time she did not succeed—Mrs. Hemstead's greeting was too astounding.

"So you've found me out, "she said, after a moment.  "Who told you?"

Nancy doesn't sound like she is smiling at that moment; she seems taken aback and at a loss for words, so the caption does not fit.  The following passage from page 88 would have worked out much better.

Smiling, she said, "I just learned something amazing that happened in your town this morning."

Instantly the old lady leaned forward expectantly.  "What was it?" she asked eagerly.

The young sleuth laughed.  "Oh, I can keep secrets, too."

That last statement should have been the caption.

The Moonstone Castle Mystery is an enjoyable read that is an above average mystery for these later books.  While the mystery consists of a bunch of coincidences, it is still quite engaging.