Nancy Drew Girl Detective Reviews

As I published my reviews for Nancy Drew #57-175, I had the nagging feeling that many readers of this blog didn't care.  I'm sure everyone who has read the books has enjoyed the reviews.  I hope that at least a few people who haven't read the books have decided to read the reviews and perhaps have enjoyed them to some degree.  I get very little feedback of any type, so it is hard to know what people think.

I do know that all of these reviews have greatly increased overall traffic to this blog.  Furthermore, they have given me a nice record of which books I like and which ones I don't.  They have been beneficial to me.

As I prepare to publish my first Nancy Drew Girl Detective review, I have already written all of them.  I feel some of my reviews are quite good, such as for #11 and #12, and would be of interest to people who have never read the Girl Detective books.  However, I have that persistent nagging feeling that few people will bother to read the reviews, or at least, far fewer people than ones who read the reviews for #57-175.

This is because most all comments about the Girl Detective series have been bad when coming from collectors.  I actually thought that my experience in reading the series was going to be very tedious and unpleasant based on what I had heard.  Instead, I actually liked and enjoyed nearly all books in the series.  People have said that the later books are not good.  They are weaker than the earlier books, but they aren't bad at all.  I enjoyed most of them.

I have wondered why my response to the books is so different.  I believe that I am more open-minded to modern versions of series books because I have read so many modern books.  Not only that, I have very fond memories of reading the Sweet Valley High books in the 1980s, and those books are terribly superficial but so much fun to read.  Last, I am able to read these books in an impartial way where I do not spend my time comparing them to older Nancy Drew books.  I am able to read them and appreciate them in the way they were intended.  They were never supposed to be classic Nancy Drew.

My reviews should make you very happy if you like the Girl Detective series and feel alone.  I know that I felt alone 10 years ago when I read the first Girl Detective book when it was first published and loved it, while everyone else trashed it.  If you dislike the Girl Detective series, perhaps you'll still find my reviews interesting in that they represent an opposing viewpoint.

I wouldn't be surprised if some people had been anticipating these reviews thinking that they were about to enjoy seeing the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series get trashed.  That's not what will happen.  These reviews won't be very much different from the Nancy Drew Digest reviews.

So, I hope you'll humor me a bit longer as I review the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series. Even if you don't like the Girl Detective series or have never read it, I hope you'll come along for the journey.

My Thoughts on Nancy Drew #57-175

Today, April 28, 2014, is the 84th anniversary of the publication of the first three Nancy Drew books on April 28, 1930.

Now that I have finished reading and reviewing Nancy Drew #57-175, I went through my reviews and compiled a list of the titles that I enjoyed the most.  If you are someone who has never read the Nancy Drew Digest series and are interested in trying a few, these are the books to try first, unless of course you wish to read every single one of them in order.  I do not recommend that, since I found most of #57-78 to almost impossible to enjoy. 

While I believe that most titles on this list would be enjoyed by most people, the one exception is #58, The Flying Saucer Mystery.  It is one of those titles that is either dearly loved or strongly hated.  My impression is that more people hate it than love it, and I happen to be one of the people who loves it.

These are very good books, for what they are.  They aren't the same as reading Nancy Drew #1-56, but they are still very good modern Nancy Drew books.

 58.  The Flying Saucer Mystery
 70.  The Broken Anchor
 73.  Enemy Match
 75.  The Emerald-Eyed Cat Mystery
 85.  The Secret of Shady Glen
 86.  The Mystery of Misty Canyon
 94.  The Picture-Perfect Mystery
 97.  The Mystery at Magnolia Mansion
101.  The Mystery of the Missing Millionairess
104.  The Mystery of the Jade Tiger
105.  The Clue in the Antique Trunk
116.  The Case of the Twin Teddy Bears
117.  Mystery on the Menu
121.  The Fortune-Teller’s Secret
126.  The Riddle in the Rare Book
127.  The Case of the Dangerous Solution
128.  The Treasure in the Royal Tower
130.  The Sign of the Falcon
131.  The Hidden Inheritance
132.  The Fox Hunt Mystery
134.  The Secret of the Forgotten Cave
136.  The Wedding Day Mystery
138.  The Legend of the Lost Gold
139.  The Secret of Candlelight Inn
140.  The Door-to-Door Deception
141.  The Wild Cat Crime
146.  The Ghost of the Lantern Lady
150.  Mystery at Moorsea Manor
151.  The Chocolate-Covered Contest
152.  The Key in the Satin Pocket
153.  Whispers in the Fog
154.  The Legend of the Emerald Lady
162.  The Case of the Lost Song
163.  The Clues Challenge
165.  The Crime Lab Case
166.  The Case of the Creative Crime
167.  Mystery by Moonlight
168.  The Bike Tour Mystery
169.  The Mistletoe Mystery
174.  A Taste of Danger

Considering all of the titles in the series, here are my general thoughts.

#57-78 

These are the last of the Stratemeyer Syndicate books.  They have the same setup as #1-56 with the core group of Nancy, Bess, George, Ned, Burt, and Dave present in some of the books.  Unfortunately, the books have many problems.  A number of them have very complicated plots that are hard to follow and have far too many characters.  I found most of them to be unbearable.  However, some people enjoy them because they have the same premise as the original 56 titles and because the Stratemeyer Syndicate was involved.

#79-101

These are the early books created in their entirety by Simon and Schuster.  The books are very formula-driven and extremely consistent, much more so than #57-78.  Burt and Dave are no longer present, and Ned shows up sometimes.  Nancy often travels with only one of her friends, either Bess or George, but sometimes both of them.  The setup with Nancy appearing with just some of her friends is continued all the way through to #175.  This is a solidly good group of books, although not outstanding.

#102-127

The story creators get lazy and begin relying heavily on sabotage as the main part of the plot.  15 out of these 26 books deal with sabotage.  It gets boring.  Even though most books have good stories, the sameness of the plots is tiring.  During these books, I began to feel the way I felt around #80 in the Nancy Drew Files series when I read the entire Files series from #1-124 rapidly in consecutive order.  It's not a good feeling.

#128-143

The series partially moves away from sabotage, although that plot is still used fairly often.  The stories aren't much different, but since the plots are more varied, the books are more interesting.

#144-161

In #144, Bess becomes a computer genius, a title that she keeps all the way through to #175.  In this group of books, we begin to see more inconsistency.  Either the authors were less informed about the premise of the series, or the editors were getting sloppy.  Perhaps both.

#162-169

This is a surprisingly outstanding group of books, perhaps the best group of books in the Nancy Drew Digest series.  My supposition is that the people at Simon and Schuster were trying very hard to improve the series and gain new traction.  And then...

#170-175

... they dropped the ball.  During this time, Simon and Schuster was developing the Nancy Drew Girl Detective series.  It appears that they put forth a minimal amount of effort in this series while developing the other series.  Several of these books were written very poorly and come across as rough drafts.  Nancy's age changes back and forth between 17 and 18 for no reason during these books.  Ned suddenly has blond hair in the very last book.  Someone wasn't doing their job.

Are the Nancy Drew Digest books worth reading?  Yes.  Are they the same as classic Nancy Drew?  No.  Many people read and enjoy these books, while others do not.  I enjoyed the vast majority of them, and I consider them to be an important part of my collection.

Nancy Drew #173 Danger on the Great Lakes, #174 Taste of Danger, and #175 Winter Wonderland

In Nancy Drew #173, Danger on the Great Lakes, Nancy, Bess, and George go on a cruise across the Great Lakes.  They become friendly with a young woman named Amber, who says that her boyfriend, Craig, is acting strangely.  Nancy learns about stolen jewelry that is being smuggled on the cruise ship, so she begins her investigation.

Once again, Nancy is 17, and George has chestnut hair.  Both match the descriptions in No Strings Attached.  These are the only two books in the Nancy Drew Digest series that have the girls at age 17.

Ned very briefly appears in the beginning of the book, and later, he speaks to Nancy on the phone.

The authorship of the Nancy Drew Digest books is mostly unknown, but we do know that this book was written by George Edward Stanley, the same author who wrote #155 The Mystery in Tornado Alley.  I was reminded of that book as I read the first part of this book, because the way Nancy reacts towards Amber's boyfriend, Craig, is somewhat similar to her obsession with Derek in #155.

I feel like the narrative is trying to force us to think a certain way with no evidence to support it.  Nancy, Bess, and George have a normal shopping excursion with Amber right after they meet her, and Nancy immediately concludes that Amber is mysterious.  Later, Amber does behave strangely, but during the shopping trip, she behaves normally.  This reduced my enjoyment of the book, since I felt like I was being manipulated.

I also find it strange that Nancy trusts Craig so readily, and more importantly, that he trusts her so quickly and tells her all about his case.  I can't comment on whether Craig is what he says he is or not, since that would spoil the ending.  I can comment that Craig's behavior is odd whether or not he is telling the truth.  Nancy and Craig's interactions also reduced my enjoyment of this book.

This book is rather exciting, but for the reasons I just mentioned, I was not able to enjoy it very much.

In Nancy Drew #174, A Taste of Danger, Nancy, Bess, George, and Hannah stay at the Gourmet Getaway in Massachusetts.  The resort is run by Mike and Jillian Rinaldi.  The plot thickens when Mike's ex-wife, Lauren, shows up with a film crew, and an animal rights activist group stages protests.  Meanwhile, someone is sabotaging the resort, and the celebrity guest chef threatens to quit.

This book is noticeably longer than the other books.  The spine even looks thicker.  It has 169 pages, and all of the other books are right at about 150 pages.

I found A Taste of Danger to be very engaging from start to finish.  I really enjoyed this book.

In Nancy Drew #175, Werewolf in a Winter Wonderland, Nancy, Bess, George, and Ned volunteer at Holiday Winter Carnival.  Everyone grows uneasy when two wolves vanish from a nearby wolf preserve.  Meanwhile, a werewolf is sighted at the winter carnival. 

Nancy and her friends are once again 18.  The problem is that Ned now has wavy blond hair.  He's always had brown hair!

This book is ridiculous in many ways.  The werewolf is the main one, although we know from early on that most likely the villain is in costume.  Nancy Drew is grounded in reality, so readers can assume that a real werewolf is not on the loose.  I guess Simon and Schuster wanted to cash in on all the hype for books about vampires and werewolves.  Did they not realize that someone dressed as a werewolf is not quite the same thing? 

The author gets all cute with the names of characters:  Poodles McNulty, Brianda Bunch, and Markie Michaels.

This book is a rehash of #164 The Mystery of the Mother Wolf.  The villain has the same motivation and does the same thing with some wolves.  The story is mediocre, and I found it a bit boring.  I did, however, make sure I read the entire story so that I can now state that I have read all 175 Nancy Drew books.  In earlier reviews, I mentioned skimming or skipping certain books, but I read those books years ago.  I did not skip any of these last ones, so I have now read all of them.

Nancy Drew #170 No Strings Attached, #171 Grand Opera, and #172 Riding Club Crime

In Nancy Drew #170, No Strings Attached, Nancy, Bess, and George visit Paris, France.  The girls stay with Mimi Loiseau, who runs a puppet theater and museum out of her home.  Soon after the girls arrive, a fire is set in Mimi's home, and later, a puppet is stolen.

Inexplicably, Nancy and her friends are 17 in this book.  George has chestnut hair, when her hair is usually described as brown.  Not only are the descriptions off, but the writing is very sloppy in this book.

On page 21, the fire examiner calls Mimi to tell her the fire was arson and not to touch anything before they come back to investigate.  Why didn't they investigate before?

On page 64, Mimi and the girls use a folk legend in order to find the missing puppet, Esmeralda.  And it works!  This is just bizarre.

On page 85, Nancy makes shrewd observation.  "I have a hunch that most professional burglars don't steal puppets."  She does have a point.

Page 97 has an incorrect shift in tense in the second paragraph.  Someone didn't proofread this book very well.

The writing throughout the book is odd and unclear.  At times, I was not certain what the author meant.  Like on page 90, Nancy says, "Please, someone be here," as she rummages through her backpack while she is locked inside a book bin.  Huh?  Finally, Nancy finds her phone and tries to make a call.  She must have been hoping someone would be on the other end of the line.  I thought that they were in her bag.

I overall enjoyed this book, and I'm not sure how or why, since the book is not well-written and not that good.

In Nancy Drew #171, Intrigue at the Grand Opera, Nancy, Bess, and George work as extras for the American Grand Opera during its performances in River Heights.  Two famous actresses despise each other, and tensions run high.  Dangerous accidents occur on the set, and Nancy must find out who is sabotaging the opera.

I would not be surprised if this book was written by the same person who wrote the previous book.  The writing is strange and unclear in this book as well.

Nancy's age is not mentioned in this book.  I think she might be 18 since the book mentions a boy who was in her class who is taking a year off before playing football in college.  That makes it sound like they are 18. 

On page 12, a male stage manager is considered sexist in Nancy's opinion, after he accuses a female stage hand of being careless after an accident. I see nothing sexist, except that a woman is being accused.  She is standing right where the sandbag fell, so I can see why she would be accused.  I don't see the problem, yet we get a bunch of Nancy's thoughts about all of the sexist men she has encountered in past cases.  Alrighty then.

On page 64, Nancy throws her pizza crust back in the pizza box even though three-fourths of the pizza is left.  She plans to offer the pizza to Bess.  With her pizza crust in the box.

I could mention many other things that are strange in this book, but I'm going to stop there.  Suffice it to say that this book reads like a rough draft.

The book begins to get really interesting around page 105.  Up to that point, the book is mediocre.

In Nancy Drew #172, The Riding Club Crime, Nancy, Bess, and George go undercover as counselors at the Green Spring Pony Club so that they can discover who is sabotaging the pony club.

The girls are definitely back to age 18 in this book, because on page 9, they regret that they cannot enroll in the pony camp.  The pony camp has an age limit of 17. On page 15, the book gives Nancy's age as 18.

The beginning of the book has far too lengthy of an explanation of the various horse competitions in which the pony club is to compete.  Boring!

This book also lacks in editing.  Page 30 has "bighouse" as one word.  Oops.

This book is nothing special.  Really, it just rehashes several old plots from previous books.

Nancy Drew #167 Mystery by Moonlight, #168 Bike Tour Mystery, and #169 Mistletoe Mystery

In Nancy Drew #167, Mystery by Moonlight, Nancy and Ned join Bess and George as they house sit at a lakeside cottage in Pennsylvania for friends who are away on vacation.  Bess is convinced that the cottage is haunted.  The young people hear screams at night, and see prowlers in the area.  Mysterious sounds come from above the ceiling during the night, but the cottage has no attic.

This book has several good suspects.  I correctly guessed one of them very early in the book, because it was so painfully obvious. 

This is a very good book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish.

In Nancy Drew #168, The Bike Tour Mystery, Nancy, Bess, and George participate in a bike tour in Ireland.  Someone seems to be trying to hurt two girls from Australia, and Nancy tries to investigate while the girls rebuff her.

On page 83, George tells Nancy that she wrote down a license plate number and that she put the paper in her shoe because she doesn't have any pockets.  But then she must have used a pen or pencil to write the number down.  Where does she keep that?  On a chain around her neck?

Like all of the Nancy Drew Digest books, this book is written in the past tense.  Strangely, this book uses "today" and "tonight" and not as part of a spoken conversation.

From page 110:

Today's route lay along the wide lake called Lough Corrib.  Terry had dropped off lunch boxes at a grassy area picnic area on the seashore.

It doesn't sound right to me.  I feel that it should begin with "That day's route lay..."

I love the setting.  Ireland is described so vividly and in a way that is very interesting to the reader.  A tiny bit of history is thrown in, enough to be interesting, but not so much as to be boring.

This book is outstanding.

In Nancy Drew #169, The Mistletoe Mystery, Bess works for a company that is decorating Albemarle's department store for Christmas.  Merchandise is mysteriously disappearing from Albemarle's, and Bess's friend, Ali Marie, is fired.  Nancy gets herself hired by the decorating company so that she can work undercover at the store while George finds ways to hang out in the store all day long.

Bess has been skilled with computers since #144, The E-Mail Mystery.  On page 64, Bess has reached a new level.  We learn that Bess is "a skilled computer hacker."  Now she can hack into computers?  Wow!

This is a wonderful, suspenseful book.  The story is somewhat similar to the second Connie Blair book and one Nancy Drew Digest book, #84, The Joker's Revenge.  Fortunately, the mystery is resolved in a different fashion.  For a while, I thought that the resolution would be similar, because suspicion was cast on a certain person for no reason.  I was happy to see that this mystery is indeed different from the other two books.

This book is very good.

Grosset and Dunlap Series Book Advertising Sign

Earlier this week I happened upon an eBay listing for a Grosset and Dunlap advertising sign.  I briefly debated about whether to take the Buy It Now.  The starting bid was $49.99, and the Buy It Now was $99.99.  The shipping cost was $11.55.  I considered whether anyone else would care and whether deactivating the Buy It Now would be the better move since prices are generally quite low right now.  My luck would be that a like-minded person would come along and be willing to pay a high price, so I grabbed the Buy It Now.  Items like this survived in very low quantity, so I felt like my decision was the right one.  Chances were that someone else would have understood the scarcity of this item and would have wanted it as much as I did. 

1950's NANCY DREW, HARDY BOYS, TOM SWIFT, JR, PEGGY LANE & FURY Advertising Sign

I have been eagerly waiting for the sign to arrive all week.  It finally arrived today.  I was so excited when I saw the package!

I was so excited that I had to photograph the package right before I opened it!  Normally, I only photograph packages when I expect to have a problem, but this time, I wanted to document my excitement!  I could tell that the sign was packaged well, so I knew it had arrived undamaged.

I knew that I had made the right decision in purchasing the sign as soon as I picked up the package, seeing how large the package was and feeling how heavy it was.  I saw the frame in the auction picture, but I did not expect or care whether I received the frame.  I knew as soon as I felt the weight of the package that I had received the frame as well and that it was heavy.

After I extracted my purchase from the package, I then removed the sign from the frame, simply because I wanted to examine it closer.  That's just a requirement whenever a purchase like this is made.

The sign is in two pieces, and the split is very clean and straight, so it is possible that the sign has always been in two pieces.  The sign is on heavy cardboard.  I didn't think to measure it while I had it out of the frame, but the cardboard is probably around 1/8 inch thick.

I had to spend awhile cleaning adhesive off of the glass from the frame.  The seller placed tape on the glass to keep it from breaking during shipment, and a bunch of adhesive stuck to the glass when I removed the tape.  That took some effort to remove.  Finally, I got the sign back in the frame.  Even that part took effort because this is a frame that screws together.

I was able to get the two halves of the sign lined up better.

Since the Peggy Lane series was published from 1962 through 1965, this sign must be from that time period.  Notice that the sign has the books priced at $1.25, so I feel like the sign is most likely from around 1962 or 1963.

Also of interest is which series are featured on the sign.  Nancy Drew, the Bobbsey Twins, the Hardy Boys, and Tom Swift were all Stratemeyer Syndicate series.  Fury and Peggy Lane were Grosset and Dunlap series.  The series books written by independent authors, such as the Judy Bolton, Vicki Barr, Cherry Ames, and Rick Brant series, were not mentioned on the sign.  Those series were all in print at the time this sign was used.  Of course, another Stratemeyer Syndicate series, the Dana Girls, was also not mentioned on the sign.

I am extremely pleased with this purchase and believe it was worth the price paid.

Nancy Drew #164 Mother Wolf, #165 Crime Lab, and #166 Creative Crime

In Nancy Drew #164, The Mystery of the Mother Wolf, Nancy, Bess, and George visit Wyoming.  They stay at on a ranch owned by a friend of Nancy's Aunt Eloise.  Soon after their arrival, the girls learn that the ranch is involved in a controversy, since part of it is to be used as a wolf sanctuary, and some of their neighbors are unhappy.  Rainbow, the pet wolf, and her pups vanish, and Nancy suspects that the culprit opposes the sanctuary.

Nancy fails to follow up on one piece of evidence that she found.  A certain person had written a letter about being opposed to the captivity of wolves.  Nothing was ever mentioned later, and it's like it didn't matter.  Usually, when something doesn't matter, it's not in the book in the first place.

Nancy is quite rude in this book.  On page 110, she brazenly asks if Paul owns a stun gun.  She seems to be fishing for a reaction.

This book starts out very slow, and by page 40, I was getting rather bored.  It's great for the story to teach us about wolves, but we are given way too much information.  I figured that the wolf would be stolen, but that does not happen until page 46. 

The lengthy expository information paid off, because I did care about the missing wolves.  So often, these books don't give us any reason to care about a missing person or animal, but this book did.  However, the expository information should have been shortened by around 10 pages.  If that had been done, then I might have stated that this book is outstanding.  Since I was bored for part of the story, I'll just leave it at very good.

In Nancy Drew #165, The Crime Lab Case, Nancy helps set up a Crime Lab camp for high school students.  The purpose of the camp is to provide a crime scene with blood and hair samples and have the students use forensics to solve the case.  Bess, George, and Ned also volunteer at the camp.

Life imitates fiction when the leader of the camp, Charles Parris, is poisoned and nearly dies.  Nancy is left in charge of the camp in his absence, and she must solve the real life mystery before others get hurt.

This is a very good book.  The plot is quite creative, and I was captivated from start to finish.

In Nancy Drew #166, The Case of the Creative Crime, Nancy and Bess work undercover at an art school run by a friend of Carson Drew.  Someone is sabotaging River Arts, and that person is using potentially deadly force to get a point across. 

This book starts out good from the very beginning.  I love the setting.

The series seems to be trying for more continuity.  #163 used Ned's fraternity house, Omega Chi Epsilon, and that fraternity goes all the way back to the early Nancy Drew books.  It had not been mentioned in ages.

The art school in this book is set right on the Muskoka River, which is a river from the early Nancy Drew books.

The book has several strong suspects, and the reader is kept guessing as to what is really going on.

This book is outstanding.

Nancy Drew #161 Lost in Everglades, #162 Lost Song, and #163 Clues Challenge

In Nancy Drew #161, Lost in the Everglades, Nancy, Bess, and George visit the Everglades in Florida.  They learn that Jade Romero, a park volunteer, has been missing for some time, and many people assume that she is dead.

George happens to look very much like Jade.  When Mrs. Fitzgerald sees George for the first time on pages 9 and 10, she screams repeatedly, saying nothing.  The entire scene is stupid.  It would have been more logical, and easier on the reader, for her to be astonished that Jade is alive instead of screaming and screaming.

Jade's boyfriend acts like Jade is dead with no possibility of being alive.  When someone disappears with no specific information about their disappearance known, there is always a chance. I thought that his behavior sent up a very obvious red flag.

The way Nancy nabs the villains is illogical.  All three are getting on a boat, so what does she do?  She crawls to the boat and jumps on it with them, right in front of them.  A struggle ensues, and of course it all works out.  However, the scene is not realistic.

I don't think I liked this book years ago, and I didn't like it this time, either.  I think it's another case of not really caring about the missing person, who was missing before the story began.  Besides that, much about the book is very strange.

In Nancy Drew #162, The Case of the Lost Song, Nancy, Bess, George, and Ned attend the Old Can Be Gold Show in Chicago.  George brings an old reel-to-reel tape recorder that has a tape inside.  After listening to the tape, the appraiser believes that it is of a rare jam session by a very famous singer.  Soon after the discovery, the recorder, along with the tape, are stolen!

I found it a bit annoying how offended Lisa becomes when Nancy suspects her coworkers.  Lisa knows that someone connected with the show must be responsible, and I can understand why she doesn't like Nancy investigating her friends.  However, I feel that her reaction is a bit much.

I really enjoyed this mystery.

In Nancy Drew #163, The Clues Challenge, Nancy and George visit Emerson University.  The girls plan to compete in the Clues Challenge on the same team as Ned and his fraternity, Omega Chi Epsilon.  A series of clues have been hidden by the sponsor of the Clues Challenge, and the teams compete to see who can find all the clues and claim the prize first.  Somebody sabotages the competition, causing some participants to become injured.

Initially, way too many characters are introduced in this story.  After a while, I was able to keep the main ones straight.

Page 43 has a mistake.  Nancy says that they need to get Randy to the infirmary, but C.J. was the person injured.

This is a very good book.