56 Weeks with Nancy Drew - Password to Larkspur Lane

Week 10, Book 10

Welcome to the 56 Weeks with Nancy Drew series! If you are new here, welcome. You can find my introductory post to this series here. Please note I will be including plot spoilers in this review series. I explain my reasoning at the start of this post.

Edition pictured: Revised text (20 chapters, 175 pages)

Cover illustrated by: Rudy Nappi

Revised text publication date: 1966

Original text publication date: 1933

My edition printed: approx. 1977

Ghostwriter: Walter Karig

Editors: Edna Stratemeyer Squier & Harriet Stratemeyer Adams

Revised by: Patricia Doll

Setting: River Heights & Sylvan Lake

Originally published in 1933, I will be reviewing the revised text edition of Password to Larkspur Lane, published in 1966 and pictured above. This is the third of three books in this series that were written by Walter Karig. The other two are Nancy’s Mysterious Letter and The Sign of the Twisted Candles.

Nancy is picking larkspurs from her garden while chatting with Hannah Gruen, the Drews’ faithful housekeeper, when they hear a plane engine stall overhead. A wounded bird tumbles to the earth, landing amongst the flowers (1). Nancy identifies the bird as a homing pigeon and noticing a tiny metal tube attached to the bird’s leg, wonders if it is carrying a message (1). Just when it seems like the stalled plane is at risk of crashing into the house, the engines catch and the plane flies away, but not before Nancy has had a good look at the tan and black machine, with a winged horse painted on the side (2). That is a close look!

It turns out that the bird is carrying a message, and a strange one at that. “Trouble here. After five o’clock blue bells will be singing horses. Come tonight” (2). Nancy can’t make head or tail of it, but the fact that it sounds both urgent and mysterious has her interest peaked. She sends a telegram with the identification number from the pigeon’s leg ring to the International Federation of American Homing Pigeon Fanciers (who even knew there was such a thing?!), before rushing off with her arrangement of larkspurs to the annual charity flower show (3-4). 

On the way home, she passes an old car parked with leaves over it on the side of the road. She can’t see inside, but it has out of state plates and the four digits of the plate that aren’t covered in mud are the same as the ones on the pigeon’s leg ring (7). Surely, that’s just a coincidence! (Hold onto your hat. There are a lot of those ahead.) Then she passes family friend, Dr. Spire, the famous bone specialist, going the other way. Oddly, he pulls off the road by the parked car, and is suddenly whisked into the other car almost as if he was kidnapped (8). Nancy turns around and investigates the doctor’s car, and finding it locked, assumes the doctor must have expected to meet someone. Still, the whole thing seems a bit strange. When she returns home, there’s a reply telegram from the Pigeon Fanciers association. “LOCAL REPRESENTATIVE WILL CALL. BIRD NOT REGISTERED. SUSPECT TROUBLE. KEEP MESSAGE SECRET” (9).

The next day, just after getting her bag stolen, Nancy runs into Helen Archer née Corning. (Helen! We haven’t seen you since The Mystery at Lilac Inn!) It seems Helen’s grandparents are having a spot of trouble at their new home on Sylvan Lake and would Nancy visit the couple and see if she can sort it out for them? With two mysteries in two days, what’s a girl to do? Work twice as hard to solve them, of course!

In this one, Nancy finds a missing woman, blows the lid off a phoney sanitarium that preys on old women, and stops a gang of thieves. She still has time to enter a flower show, and take home first prize in the delphinium category, take Hannah to the doctor, chase a purse snatcher, watch a “television play”,  research larkspurs, take a load off while listening to her favourite “musical program”, crack a mysterious message, nurse a pigeon back to health and follow it to its home loft, discover the history behind a family crest, sneak out the back way to evade the baddies, get a shiny new convertible (thank you, Dad!), save a little girl from drowning/getting hit by a motor boat, go swimming, scour the countryside for larkspurs and bluebells, go to a dance at a country club, go to church, watch a swim meet, participate in an impromptu diving competition, and get offered a job as a camp counsellor as a result, turn the job down because she already has one, go undercover as an old lady, climb out of a cistern with the help of a single nail, put two cars and one plane out of commission, and eat 18 meals, including one of hers and her father’s favourites, hot biscuits and chicken.

Time of year

This is the tenth book in the series and by my count, it’s the ninth book to be set during the spring and summer months. We don’t get any specific references to what month it is, but it seems to be another one that is set around late June, early July.

Our first indication of the time of year comes at the very start of the novel. Nancy is out in the garden cutting larkspur to take to the annual charity flower show held in River Heights.

    Nancy Drew paused on the flagstone path of her garden in front of a border of beautiful larkspur. For a moment the attractive titan-haired girl of eighteen watched the tall blue plumes waving in the breeze. (1)

 

So we know larkspur is in bloom and that it is well enough along in the growing season to hold the annual flower show.

There are also other references to flowers. 

    Nancy halted the car beside a stone wall over which honeysuckle tumbled. (59)

    In the middle of the block was a yard full of bluebells. (86)

    A dozen yards ahead the trees ended. Just beyond was a high wire-mesh fence. Inside it grew a long border of exquisite tall larkspur. (107)

And there are also two non-botanical clues as to what time of year it is. When Nancy calls Bess to invite her and George to join her at the Cornings’ house on Sylvan Lake, Bess give a “whoop of delight”.

    “I just finished talking to Dave. He and Burt are going to that very lake as camp counselors. It happened suddenly, when three old counselors dropped out. You’ll probably hear from Ned soon.” (64)

Likely, the young men are not being hired midseason, but before camp has begun. I think, three counselors dropping out in the middle of the summer would be too much of a coincidence even for a Nancy Drew novel.

 

Another indication of the time of year is provided when Mrs. Eldridge explains that her husband is in Richmond, Virginia, searching for his aunt.

“She has been missing since early spring. Our aunt is a very wealthy woman, rather eccentric at times. Several months ago she disappeared from her home, leaving a letter.” (79)

The woman went missing in “early spring”, so that would likely mean sometime in late March or early April. And “several months” would most likely mean three or more, making it at least late June to early July when this conversation is taking place.

Timeline

This novel is set over nine consecutive days, running from Monday through to the following Tuesday. Although, the final 33 percent of the book takes place during that last Tuesday. Nancy really knows how to pack in her days! The compressed time frame creates a sense of urgency in the final third of the book and makes for very addictive reading.

The Case of Too Many Coincidences

There is no such thing as coincidence. Well, there is in most of the Nancy Drew books, and you really have to suspend your disbelief with this one. This story relies heavily on coincidence, and I would say, more so than most Nancy Drew books, which is saying something! The coincidences range from necessary clues that fall in Nancy’s lap, to unnecessary incidents that did not need to happen the way they did, but I imagine made for very swift and easy plotting. I’m looking at you, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams! 

Let’s whip through some of these coincidences. 

An injured bird drops into Nancy’s yard when she happens to be outside (1). We can forgive this one coincidence, as perhaps Nancy was outside gardening all afternoon and had not just gone outside to cut flowers for the flower show. But many of the plot points after this point are a bit insane.

Nancy knows of the International Federation of American Homing Pigeon Fanciers and thinks to contact them with the pigeon’s identification number. Of course, she knows the number will be registered with the association and they will be able to put her in touch with the pigeon’s owner (3). 

On the way home from the flower show, Nancy takes “a little-traveled shortcut” in an effort to get home quickly because she is eager to see if there is a reply to the telegram she sent off (7). She happens to pass by a partially covered car with the license plate number partially disguised with a smear of mud, but the four digits visible just happen to correspond to the number on the pigeon’s leg ring (7).

Then Nancy recognizes a family friend, Dr. Spire, drive past going the other way and spots from her rearview mirror that he disappears into the backseat of the suspicious car, which then speeds away with the doctor inside (8).

Not long after arriving home, Hannah falls on the cellar stairs and injures her back, prompting Nancy to take her to none other than Dr. Spire’s office (11).

Dr. Spire isn’t back yet and his wife is getting dinner ready, so she leaves them in the waiting room with the request that Nancy answer the office phone, if it rings. Of course, the phone does ring and Nancy receives a mysterious message that contains the words “blue bells”(12), just like the message in the pigeon was carrying (2)!

Phew! That’s a lot of coincidences and we haven’t yet reached the end of chapter two. I had an idea in mind that I would list all of the coincidences in this book, but I think I have made my point. I’ll just add the two coincidences that I found completely unnecessary and that I believe could have been altered to be more believable without wrecking havoc with the plot.

Just after Nancy has chased a purse snatcher through a department store, Nancy and Helen run into each other in the street. Just the person Helen wants to meet!Lucky Helen! (I seem to only run into people I don’t want to see!) I think this could have worked just as well if Helen had been waiting at the Drew home when Nancy arrived home, or even called Nancy up on the telephone.

The other coincidence that I believe is unnecessary, occurs when Nancy calls Bess up to ask if her and George would accompany her to Sylvan Lake to stay with Helen’s grandparents. Then we find out that the young men Nancy, Bess and George are all dating have just been hired as camp counsellors on the same lake (64). How incredible! They could have been working at a camp on a lake close by without altering the plot. And instead of canoeing up to the young women at the Cornings’ dock (80), the boys could have driven up in a camp vehicle and surprised their dates that way. They could have even brought a picnic lunch to make the surprise even more delightful!

What makes this book special?

This is the third and final book in this series that was written by Walter Karig. I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by Walter Karig’s contribution to the world of Nancy Drew. I have read a few disparaging remarks about the Nancy Drew books written by Walter Karig. I grant you, these books do have their issues. In this one, as discussed above, there are too many coincidences. And at times Nancy seems not just privileged, but spoiled. However, there are things that make these books stand out in a good way too.

If you read the post before this on The Sign of the Twisted Candles you know that I appreciate Walter Karig’s ability to create a sense of atmosphere through his descriptions of settings and the characters that inhabit those spaces. We see similar examples in this book too. I especially enjoyed the scene where Nancy and Hannah’s niece, Effie, follow the pigeon back to its home loft. With Effie, frightened and hiding in the trunk with the lid slightly ajar for fresh air, Nancy makes her way along the road with the prospect of facing a gang of kidnappers solo (59-60).

    Nancy slipped behind the wheel again and turned off the little-used, sandy road onto a well-kept gravel driveway. It swept in a great curve toward a long rambling white house.

    Nancy drove nearly a quarter of a mile. Then the path dipped under the trees, and Nancy saw that the house was a mansion. Whoever occupied it must be very wealthy. White columns supported the overhanging roof of a porte-cochère.

    The young sleuth did not stop there, but headed toward the outbuildings, to the far right of it. She pulled up in front of a stable.

    Quietly Nancy got out of the car. Her sweeping glance took in a nearby shed and a large coop beside it containing a number of pigeons. On the roof rested the pigeon Nancy had been following.

    The yard was empty. Except for the cooing and flutterings of the birds, the place was silent. Was it deserted? Nancy wondered.

    Suddenly she was startled by a noise that sounded like a pistol shot. She whirled. In the shadow of the stable doorway stood a dark, thin-faced man wearing a riding habit. He carried a long, knotted, leather whip which he cracked again.

    With an unpleasant grin, he said, "Scared you, didn’t I?” (60)

Nancy acts as cool as a cucumber in this scene, but I can tell you for a fact that he certainly scared me! There are many other examples in this book and the others written by Walter Karig, where he describes the setting in vivid detail and then places the character in the scene like the final brush stroke on a masterpiece. 

Favourite character

Hannah’s niece, Effie, fills in as housekeeper at the Drew home when Hannah is laid up in bed with a back injury. When we are first introduced to Effie she is wearing a pink kimono and high-heeled satin mules, while munching on a banana. All I have to say is that I wish Effie played more of a role in this book. I couldn’t get enough of the fun, lighthearted, movie star obsessed seventeen year old who is a surprisingly good cook. Just before the above scene, Nancy arrives home to find Effie, hair topped with a pink bow, whistling in the kitchen. Moments later, the injured pigeon gets loose, in part due to Effie’s ineffectual efforts to help capture it.

    Nancy grabbed Effie's hand. "Come on!" She pulled Effie toward her car, which was parked near the front door. "I'll drive. You watch for the bird. We must follow it!"

    Flustered, Effie climbed in beside Nancy, taking off her apron and chattering apologies.

    "Don't talk! Just watch," Nancy said crisply.

    Effie, clutching her pink bow to keep it in place, gazed skyward. "There he goes!" (57)

The image of Effie, flustered by the situation yet still taking off her apron and keeping her bow in place, really stuck with me. She certainly cut a comical figure climbing into the trunk of Nancy’s car! Then when the man with the whip shows signs of getting rough with Nancy, it’s Effie’s hysterical giggling that distracts the man long enough for Nancy to speed away. Effie is a breath of fresh air, providing a dash of comic relief just when things are starting to get a bit scary.

Effie will go down as one of my favourite characters in the Nancy Drew books. I would love to read the original text edition of this one to see if Effie plays a bigger part in the story. Do you have any favourite supporting characters from this series?

56 Weeks with Nancy Drew - The Sign of the Twisted Candles

Week 9, Book 9

Welcome to the 56 Weeks with Nancy Drew series! If you are new here, welcome. You can find my introductory post to this series here. Please note I will be including plot spoilers in this review series. I explain my reasoning at the start of this post.

Edition pictured: Revised text (20 chapters, 176 pages)

Cover illustrated by: Rudy Nappi

Revised text publication date: 1968

Original text publication date: 1933

My edition printed: approx. 1978

Ghostwriter: Walter Karig

Editors: Edna Stratemeyer Squier & Harriet Stratemeyer Adams

Revised by: Patricia Doll

Setting: River Heights, an inn called The Sign of the Twisted Candles, Maywood

Originally published in 1933, I will be reviewing the revised text edition of The Sign of the Twisted Candles, published in 1968 and pictured above. This is the second of three books in this series that were written by Walter Karig. The other two are Nancy’s Mysterious Letter and Password to Larkspur Lane.

Nancy Drew and her friends, Bess Marvin and George Fayne, brave a storm to visit The Sign of the Twisted Candles, an inn outside of River Heights. Asa Sidney, a relative of Bess and George, has just turned 100 years old and is living in a tower room unable to negotiate the stairs, and discouraged from leaving his room by the Jemitts, a couple he has hired to look after him (1-2). Thank goodness the adopted daughter of the couple, Carol, has befriended the old man and looks out for him as best she can. Nancy, Bess, George, and Carol hold a birthday party celebration in the man’s room, much to the dislike of the Jemitts. But as Nancy is a paying customer, they are coolly polite, for now, anyway. 

Nancy and her friends run into two relatives coming to visit Mr. Sidney, one from each side of the family. Nancy gets the impression that both men are calling to make their claim on the estate, because due to a family feud, Mr. Sidney’s relatives haven’t spared him much time before now (26).

Later that night Nancy receives a call from Carol. Mr. Sidney wants to make a new will and would like to hire Nancy’s father, Carson Drew, for the job. Soon, Nancy is up to her neck in the goings on at the Sidney mansion. Nancy spots Frank Jemitt surreptitiously burying a chest belonging to Mr. Sidney. And Mr. Sidney commissions Nancy and her friends with the task of finding treasures he has squirrelled away in hidden cupboards all over the house. The image of a twisted candle mark the hiding spots. 

The fact that Nancy and her father are helping Mr. Sidney has put the relatives’ noses out of joint. Nancy doesn’t shy away from doing the right thing, even if it means making some people upset. But it sure is disheartening when Bess and George give her the cold shoulder and accuse her of trying to keep their family from their rightful share of the inheritance!

Then Mr. Sidney dies. Although his will has already been signed and witnessed,   the case is a complicated one. Carson suspects that someone has been bleeding the man of his money. Nancy and Carson use their own specific talents to work different aspects of the case in this thrilling and atmospheric book.

In this one, Nancy uncovers the secrets of The Sign of the Twisted Candles, discovers the true identity of a young girl who was orphaned as a baby and saves the girl from the clutches of her abusive adoptive parents. Nancy still has time to get caught in a storm, visit a lonely old man and hear his life story, search for treasure, go shopping for clothes, go on a date, have a swim, keep an eye on Asa Sidney’s possessions, put an end to a family feud, eat 12 meals, one snack of cocoa and cookies, and a slice of Butterfly Pie, which sounds slightly less gross than the name would lead you to believe. 

Nancy narrowly misses an oak tree falling on her car, survives being beaten with a hairbrush, has a run-in with a snake, recovers from being drugged, and is almost pushed off the ledge of the Sidney mansion tower window. I still struggle to understand why she opted to use a ladder to access the high tower instead of going around the back of the house to get the key from her father and going through the front door. Apparently, time was of the essence! 

Speaking of hot cocoa, it looks like the previous owner of my copy of this book enjoyed a mug or two while reading the book they were gifted for Christmas, as you will see in the photos. While I cannot say I love having a stained book, I do think it’s sweet to imagine someone reading this book so intently that they accidentally spilled their cocoa. Hopefully, they weren’t too bothered by it!

Time of year

We have two indicators of the time of year in this book and both of them centre around Ned. The first is when Ned calls Nancy wanting to make a date.

    “Oh, Ned. I have so much to tell you. When can you leave your job and come down so I can talk to you?”

    “Camp closes tomorrow. I should be home the next day.” (114)

I think it is fair to assume that Ned works at a boys summer camp, which likely closes up at the end of August. This would also work well with the second clue we have, which comes at the end of the day Ned and Nancy spend together. 

    Presently Ned stood up and said he must leave. “I have to get up early tomorrow and drive to Emerson. Football practice starts early this year.” (144)

From these two comments made by Ned, I believe this book is set in late August or early September.

What makes this book different from the others?

I’m sensing a theme with the titles that were ghostwritten by Walter Karig. There are a lot of things that stand out as being different in this one from books one through seven, which had Mildred A. Wirt Benson as ghostwriter. Critiques of that ridiculous ladder scene aside, I really enjoyed this one. It might even be a favourite. Many of the aspects I appreciated about this book are things that I haven’t noticed in the other titles thus far. 

Sense of place

One of the things that I think these books generally lack is a strong sense of place. I’m not talking about how Nancy’s home of River Heights is not fixed in one American state. Although, this drives me a bit mad as an adult and I really want to solve this unsolveable mystery, as a child I imagined River Heights as having the same landscape as the one I called home. I suspect a lot of children reading these books felt the same. But what I think a lot of these books lack is a good description of the setting. The broad strokes are usually there, but in this one we really get a sense of the place and the feelings that location and moment in time evokes. 

One of my favourite examples of this is when Nancy, Carol, and a banker friend of Nancy’s father, Raymond Hill, go looking for the Jemitts at the old tenant house on the Sidney estate.

    They stood in silence close to a towering sycamore tree, their forms blending with the light, mottled background of the trunk. At last Nancy’s keen ears heard a sound that was different from the noises of the meadow insects. It had a metallic ring and was muffled and distant.

    Instantly she switched on her spotlight, and the beam cut through the blackness. The tumble-down tenant house sprang into view, and on the rickety front steps Frank and Emma Jemitt were etched sharply in the glare. He was carrying a long, narrow box over one shoulder. His wife held a pair of ornate silver candelabra. (111)

But perhaps one of the best examples of setting a scene is Nancy’s first impression of the tower room where Asa Sidney resides and the description of the man himself.

    Nancy gazed into one of the strangest rooms she had ever seen. It was fully twenty feet square, and from all of its walls candles gleamed—candles by the dozen, all winking in the draft from the open door. Evidently Mr. Sidney had not waited for Carol to light them.

    It was warm in the room, and the heavy air was pungently scented by burning tallow. In the great arched window directly in front of Nancy was the massive twisted candle whose light she had seen from outdoors.

    From a low, broad chair before this window the gaunt figure of a very old man arose. The candlelight showed his long, silver-white hair sweeping over stooped shoulders, and merging with the snowy beard that spread across his chest. Shaggy white eyebrows half concealed glowing eyes—strangely youthful eyes—that peered at Nancy from either side of a jutting, hawklike nose. (9-10)

This description tells us about the shape of the room, the lighting, the smell, and  places in that space an old man that is as unusual as the room itself. We get the feeling that Asa Sidney is a character out of a fairytale, and like a fairytale, we know this story is going to have a happy ending, though perhaps not for Asa Sidney. Unlike most of the characters in these books Asa Sidney isn’t entirely good or bad. When he tells his life story it’s apparent that he had a difficult start in life. He neglected his wife and children, and he sought fame and fortune instead. The result was that his wife left him, and he found out that his children had died (21-22). It’s only in later years and with his will that he tries to repair some of the damage his selfishness caused.

Another evocative scene is at the very start of the book. Nancy getting caught in a storm is a common enough occurrence in these books, and they often take place at the beginning too, but the storm in this book is particularly well described.

    Trees and bushes swayed in the wind, which had blown up suddenly and now shrieked like a siren. It slammed against the car with terrific force as dust and leaves swirled through the air.

    "Oh!" Bess screamed suddenly. "Look!"

    Not far ahead of the car a giant elm had started to topple. As Nancy jammed on her brakes, the tree fell with a thundering crash across the road.

    The three girls sat stunned, but finally Bess said, "Now we'll have to turn around and go home."

    "Don't be silly," said George. "I can see the inn just beyond the tree. We can walk there."

    Nancy drove up to the tree, which might offer protection for the car against the storm's blast. She and her friends stepped out into the wind, which whipped their hair and stung their faces. With eyes almost closed, they locked arms, skirted the fallen tree, and set off for the inn.

    Progress was slow, but finally they came to the inn's spacious front lawn and curving driveway at the end of the road. Several cars were parked there. The building was a rambling structure in three sections. Its central portion was two stories high and had a flat-roofed tower room. Wings on either side were one story and also flat-roofed.

    There was a dim glow of light from the ground-floor windows. In the arched casement of the tower a sturdy candlelight gleamed a welcome. Almost breathless, the three girls dashed up the broad front steps onto the wide porch just as it started to rain. (2, 4)

On the surface, this scene isn’t anything special. But I think what makes it work so well is how simple the writing is. The situation with the falling tree and the girls locking arms for support against the wind is plainly described and provides drama and a sense of mystery to their first sighting of the Sidney mansion, and the reader’s. The light coming from the ground-floor windows is dim, and perhaps a bit cold, as it is only the “sturdy candlelight” coming from the tower that “gleamed a welcome” (4). When the young women enter the building they find the inhospitable Jemitts reign on the ground-floor. It is Mr. Sidney, the resident of the tower, that welcomes them to his home. 

Final thoughts

There are a number of other aspects of this book that make it special and that, I think, make it different from the other Nancy Drew books. Unfortunately, there isn’t the space to discuss them all here. As usual, I have jotted them down and hope to revisit the topics in the future. For now, I would be interested to know if any of the books in this series stood out to you as having a strong sense of place.

Favourite quotations

It proved almost impossible to choose one favourite section from this book. Although, saying that I realize this entire blog post has been a means of sharing my favourite scenes. Usually, I choose a quotation that I find humorous in some way, but this week in keeping with our theme I thought I would choose something a bit different. I’ve chosen a section that I found touching. Nancy Drew books are a lot of things, but I cannot say I normally find them romantic. The following scene comes not long after Nancy has been drugged and hidden in the Sidney mansion. Ned returned from making a phone call and, after scouring the grounds, was unable to find her. He was so panicked that he reported her missing to the police. With the fear of losing Nancy fresh in his mind, Ned is afraid of letting Nancy out of his sight.

    “Ned, go for the police, will you? I’ll wait here in case he or the Jemitts come out.”

    “Promise me,” he said, cupping Nancy’s chin in his hand, “that you won’t disappear again.”

    “Not even to chase them?”

    “No.” Ned sat still until she gave her word, then hurried off. (140)

There is something about Ned “cupping Nancy’s chin in his hand” that makes their relationship feel more adult than it has up until this point. Ned has always made it clear that he likes Nancy. But I’ve always had the impression that it was along the lines of a school boy crush. Real enough in the moment, though easily replaced if he were to meet another young woman with a similar spirit to Nancy. I can’t say I really like Ned as a character. He’s a bit like a cardboard cutout of the boy next door. Dependable and sincere, but very boring. This section made me appreciate Ned, a little more. I think he really does care about Nancy and see a future with her, if she can survive that long! It remains to be seen if Nancy takes the relationship as seriously. 

What are your impressions of Ned? Do you think he’s a good fit for Nancy, or is there another character in this series that you believe would compliment Nancy better? I thought Major John McBride from The Mystery at Lilac Inn, would have been a good candidate for Nancy. They could solve mysteries together and he could even have his own series solving cases for the government.

56 Weeks with Nancy Drew - Nancy's Mysterious Letter

Week 8, Book 8

Welcome to the 56 Weeks with Nancy Drew series! If you are new here, welcome. You can find my introductory post to this series here. Please note I will be including plot spoilers in this review series. I explain my reasoning at the start of this post.

Edition pictured: Revised text (20 chapters, 174 pages)

Cover illustrated by: Rudy Nappi

Revised text publication date: 1968

Original text publication date: 1932

My edition printed: approx. 1973

Ghostwriter: Walter Karig

Editors: Edna Stratemeyer Squier & Harriet Stratemeyer Adams

Revised by: Harriet Stratemeyer Adams

Setting: River Heights, Ridgefield, Emerson College, & (briefly) New York City

Originally published in 1932, I will be reviewing the revised text edition of Nancy’s Mysterious Letter, published in 1968 and pictured above. This is the first of three books in this series that were written by Walter Karig. The other two are The Sign of the Twisted Candles and Password to Larkspur Lane.

Nancy Drew and her friends, Bess Marvin and George Fayne, are on their way to Nancy’s house after an overnight visit at Red Gate Farm. They notice the elderly mail carrier, Ira Nixon, struggling against the chill November wind. Ira thanks Nancy when she offers him a ride, but explains he has letters for every house on the block, including one for Nancy that has come all the way from London, England. Nancy tells Ira she will have a hot cocoa waiting for him when he gets to the Drew home and drives off wondering who could possibly be writing her from England!

Ira arrives, leaves his mailbag just inside the vestibule, and they all enjoy hot cocoa and Hannah’s homemade cookies. But when he goes to get Nancy her letter from his mailbag he finds all the letters have been stolen! Nancy and her friends run outside to look for the thief. They don’t see anyone. But noticing five-year-old Tommy Johnson playing on his tricycle, Nancy asks the little boy if he noticed anyone leaving her house. Well, what do you know? He did! Tommy not only gives Nancy a description of the man and his outfit, but also the colour and first four digits of his license plate. How convenient! 

Nancy gives Ira the description of the suspect and Ira collapses, because Nancy has just described his half-brother, Edgar, right down to his matching camel hair hat and coat. Hannah provides some background on Edgar Nixon. Ira lives in a small house that had belonged to his mother, who had outlived two husbands. When she died, she left the house and a little money to Ira. Edgar, who is thirty years younger than Ira, is demanding half of the money. So far, Ira had refused because the inheritance had actually been from Ira’s father. But Hannah worries that Ira is too old and weak to resist the obnoxious and intimidating Edgar for much longer. 

The stolen letters pose a lot of problems. Ira, who is less than two months away from retiring, is worried that the incident might put his pension at risk. One of Carson Drew’s clients has sent him payment in cash, despite his advice against the practice. And Nancy’s letter from London remains a mystery! Thank goodness, Ira noticed one of the names of the sender, which leads to discovering the law office the letter came from. A second letter is sent to Nancy, and when she sees that the law office is looking for a Nancy Smith Drew, regarding an inheritance, she knows it isn’t for her. But you had better believe she is going to find this Nancy and see that she gets her rightful inheritance!

From the start there is really no mystery as to who the baddie is. But the question throughout is what Edgar Nixon’s motive is and how he knew to take his brother’s mailbag on the day that he did.

In this one, Nancy finds a missing heiress and uncovers a Lonely Hearts Club that preys on lonely women by taking their money without even giving them the goods. The goods, being a husband for $100 paid in instalments of $25. (Umm… Don’t send cash in the mail no matter how convenient it is, or lonely you are, okay?) Nancy still has time to visit a friend in hospital, see a movie, go to church, go shopping, get the clasp of a necklace fixed, have a dress hemmed, reward two little boys on her street for their detective work, go to Emerson College for the weekend, see a play, a football game, attend a dance, go to church, again, all the while fitting in 13 meals, one snack of hot cocoa and cookies, and a slice of chocolate cake. 

Time of year

This book was a bit different from the others. If I hadn’t known that it wasn’t written by Mildred A. Wirt Benson, as all the other books have been thus far, then I would have wondered if a lot of changes had been made in revising the original text. Perhaps the most obvious difference is that this book isn’t set during the spring or summer months.

    Trudging along was an elderly mail carrier. He was lugging a heavy bag over one shoulder. His head was down and his eyes were almost closed agains the strong November wind that swirled leaves and dirt around him. (1)

This got me excited. Autumn and winter are my favourite seasons, as such, some of my favourite books are set in the colder months. I envisioned more descriptions of colourful leaves, crisp weather, and attractive outerwear. On just about all fronts I was to be disappointed. However, what we do get is a snowstorm. The effects of which we see in chapters 10 and 11 and then the weather is not mentioned again. But snow is snow. We’ve had so little of it this winter ourselves, that I’m willing to take what I can get!

    “It’s starting to snow,” Bess remarked as a few flakes hit the windshield of Nancy’s convertible.

Before leaving home, she had put the top up because the day was cloudy and raw, with a hint of stormy weather. (78)

Here we get some banter between Bess and George. Bess asks Nancy if her car  has snow tires. George accuses Bess of having little faith in people, because of course Nancy would have snow tires! Bess defends herself, but Nancy just laughs.

    “You girls have driven with me in snowstorms many times. Nevertheless I promise to be careful. Oh, it’s getting to be worse fast.” (78)

Is it just me, or did Nancy avoid answering the question? I mean, Nancy is always prepared no matter the circumstances, but she is driving a convertible in the winter, so she doesn’t always make the best choices. To give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe it’s a hard top!

The snow is deep in the outskirts of Ridgefield, where they are heading. A stalled “snow removal machine” blocks a road they want to do down, and they have to park on another street, trudging up a hill on a sidewalk that hasn’t been shovelled (79). By the time they get to their destination they are covered with snow. Thank goodness, they all had the foresight to wear boots!

    Bess suggested it would be easier to walk down the hill in the middle of the street rather than on the sidewalk.

    They had hardly started when a boy on a sled whizzed around the corner. The next second he skidded into Nancy.

    The impact knocked her sprawling into the snow. The bundle of letters flew from her hand and scattered in every direction. (87)

Nancy was fine after she sat down for a moment, and some good did come out of the experience. A couple of the letters had the contents sticking out, which provided evidence of a Lonely Hearts Club!

There is a long football scene, when Nancy and her friends visit Emerson College. The scene straddles chapters 15 and 16. And while it does create a collegiate atmosphere with Nancy and her new friend, Marian Wilson, cheering on their football player boyfriends from the stands, the scene does little to move the plot forward. For a scene that is unnecessary to the story one would think that it would at least have been well described. But there is no mention of the weather, Nancy’s outfit, or drinking hot chocolates to ward off the chill. I think that this was a missed opportunity. The trajectory of this scene is Ned having the wind knocked out of him, taking to the bench, and then recovering enough to make the winning play. I have to admit that the only thing that would have made the scene at all interesting for me is if Ned had been injured badly enough to be taken to hospital. Although, then we would have had to waste time with Nancy visiting him in hospital, and enough time was taken away from the mystery during the tedious game!

Timeline

This book is set over 10 days with no action taking place on the third day. This is pretty standard for the series so far. The Bungalow Mystery had the shortest timeline, being set over 6 days and very action packed days they were too! The Secret of Red Gate Farm fills the longest time frame. Set over a few weeks, this book is a bit slower, minus the climax, of course, but it feels like a more realistic amount of time to solve the mystery. In this one, I really had to suspend my disbelief when Nancy receives a replacement letter, for the one that was stolen, all the way from London, England in less than two days. Given the timing of the scenes it seems like the letter would have been mailed from London on Monday morning at the earliest and arrived in River Heights the next day. 

The long game

I remember really enjoying this book when I was little. I loved getting letters in the mail then, and still do! Getting a letter intended for someone else, but with almost the same name as you was such a exciting prospect! And the idea of tracking down the person and giving them the amazing news that they are to receive an inheritance from an uncle they didn’t know… That’s almost as thrilling as hearing you’re to receive an inheritance yourself! Well, almost.

Then, like now, I’m not keen on the Nancy and Ned storyline. Passages like the following annoy me.

    Nancy was torn between two desires. She hated to give up her pursuit of the other Nancy Drew. On the other hand, she would not miss seeing Ned play in this big and final game of the football season for anything. (125)

Nancy goes to the game, having committed to go with a friend whose boyfriend is also playing in the game. Taking time out for social activities is part of what makes Nancy a good detective and contributes to her sustainable work schedule. She knows having a social life is important and that solving mysteries shouldn’t come at the expense of leading a well-balanced life. I also think that Nancy deciding to go to the game is a way of showing that Nancy is a young woman who is able to have it all. She has a mystery to solve, as well as a steady boyfriend. 

However, I don’t want to have to read about a football game for most of two chapters and have Ned getting injured used as one of the end of chapter cliffhangers. Ned getting injured does not alter the main plot, and I have a hard time believing that anything, even Ned getting injured, would stand in Nancy’s way of solving the mystery. 

    As Nancy thought of an appropriate answer, she suddenly realized that this mystery which she had enjoyed so much was coming to a close. The young detective always felt a vacuum in her life when this happened. But the feeling was not to last long. In a short time she would be working on another case, Sign of the Twisted Candles. (173)

According to this, without a mystery to solve, Nancy feels like there is a vacuum in her life. A similar sentiment ends most of these books. The satisfaction in solving the mystery is quickly followed by a feeling of loss, of emptiness, even. I don’t think it is a stretch to assume that mysteries will always come first for Nancy. She took time out to go to Ned’s big game, but if there had been some time-sensitive clue to follow up on, Nancy would have made that her priority and Ned would have had to understand. I don’t remember Nancy ever having to make a decision like this, but I’ll be looking out for any cases of Nancy putting mysteries before social engagements as I continue on in the series.

Favourite quotations

I have a smorgasbord of favourite quotations from this book, but they each hinge on a particular word that made me giggle.

These first two are said by Nancy.

    Though Nancy tried over and over again to call the airline back, the wire continued to be busy.

    “Oh phooey!” she said to herself impatiently. (124)

Watch your mouth, young lady! Haha!

    “Perhaps Edgar Nixon is already married to somebody else who is in cahoots with him and is going to play the part.” (127)

If you have visited my blog before, you probably already know that I love the word “cahoots”!

And not to be outdone in the hilarious language department, my last favourite quotation for this week comes from Ned.

    “I don’t want to lose my girl to some kook. If you do come across Edgar Nixon while you’re alone, he may harm you.” (137)

A lot of these words, and others that I read for the first time in my Nancy Drew books, filtered their way into my vocabulary as a child. Is there a word or phrase from the Nancy Drew lexicon that particularly stood out to you?

56 Weeks with Nancy Drew - The Clue in the Diary

Week 7, Book 7

Welcome to the 56 Weeks with Nancy Drew series! If you are new here, welcome. You can find my introductory post to this series here. Please note I will be including plot spoilers in this review series. I explain my reasoning at the start of this post.

Edition pictured: Revised text (20 chapters, 174 pages)

Cover illustrated by: Bill Gillies

Revised text publication date: 1962

Original text publication date: 1932

My edition printed: approx. 1977

Ghostwriter: Mildred A. Wirt Benson

Editors: Edna Stratemeyer Squier & Harriet Stratemeyer Adams

Revised by: Harriet Stratemeyer Adams

Setting: River Heights, Sandy Creek, Mapleton, Stanford

Originally published in 1932 and written by Mildred Wirt, I will be reviewing the revised text edition of The Clue in the Diary, published in 1962 and pictured above. 

Nancy Drew and her friends enjoy a picnic by the roadside on their way home from a carnival in Sandy Creek (Diary 1-2). They spend the time reminiscing about their day until the light fades. On the way home, the girls drive through an affluent area. While admiring some of the homes, there is an explosion and they see a house burst into flames. Worried people may be inside, they rush to the scene (4). Nancy sees a man running away from the house and shortly after she stumbles across a diary that has been dropped on the ground (6-9). Could it be a clue to the mysterious explosion?  

Before they leave town, Nancy’s car is rear-ended, she meets the ever helpful Ned Nickerson, and she finds out that the man whose house was destroyed is unanimously disliked. How’s that for a day at the fair?

In this one, Nancy finds a missing person, uncovers a money order theft operation inside the post office, stops an unscrupulous business man, saves an innocent man from a life behind bars, and reunites a family. Along the way, she runs into the side of a doghouse, nearly knocking herself out, gets rear ended, slapped in the face, and shaken by the shoulders. 

And she still has enough time to have a picnic, invite herself and her friends over to someone’s house for dinner (it’s fine, she’s buying), prove she knows the Swedish language when she sees it, help out with the chores, go grocery shopping,  show she is just as susceptible to road rage as the rest of us, go to a frat party (better you than me, Nancy), see a historical mystery film, get questioned by the police, share an afternoon cuppa with Hannah, eat 13 meals, one ice cream soda, and flirt like mad with Ned Nickerson, who appears on the scene to offer his services so many times that any woman in her right mind would assume she had a stalker.

Time of year

I only noticed one clue as to the time of year in this book, and even then it doesn’t give much away. It is a comment made by an elderly man among the locals who have flocked to watch the fire.

    “ 'Pears mighty strange to me that a fire would start when the place ain’t been occupied all summer” (17-18)

From this we could assume it is still summer or the man is referring to the summer that has just past. I’m inclined to believe this one is set during the summer because Ned Nickerson is around home too often for someone who is supposed to be away at college. Ned does take Nancy to a dinner dance being held at the home of one of his fraternity brothers (91). But I think the fact that the party is being held at someone’s home and not the fraternity house, also suggests it could be summertime.

Timeline

This book is set over seven consecutive days, which is fairly standard for the books in this series. It could be set from Monday to Sunday, but the only indicator we have of this is what Bess says on day six.

    “I was to go out with Jeff Allan tonight, but I’ll put it off again.” (148)

Planned dates usually happen on Saturday nights in these books. However, if day six is a Saturday night then that means Nancy and Ned went to the dinner dance on a Thursday, which seems off. But I do think that that must be the case. If for no other reason than that no mention is made of Nancy going to church in this book and when she is at home she always makes time for church. The only activity that is mentioned on the last day in this book is a victory celebration at the Drew home. Unless she had been up very late the night before and Hannah thought she should sleep in, I’m sure Nancy would have gone to church. However, it may have been awkward to mention it with the way the scenes piece together. Nancy broaches the idea of having a victory dinner to Mr. Swenson and the plan is discussed, then it cuts to that dinner the next day. 

If Nancy and Ned did go out on a Thursday night, that would lend further credence to it being summertime. It does not seem likely that a conscientious person like Ned would go out on a school night. 

The Mystery of the Two Neds

There is a particular kind of joy that comes with reading a book series in order. In this case, it’s very particular! I’ll explain by showing you a bit of dialogue that made me cackle.

    “I’m Ned Nickerson,” he declared with a warm smile. “Anything I can do?” (16)

That sounds a lot like an introduction, doesn’t it? That’s because it is one. Which is odd because Nancy was supposed to have been dating someone named Ned two books ago, in The Secret of Shadow Ranch.

    “As for you, Nancy he’s really flipped!”

    “And what’ll poor Ned do?” George teased.

    Nancy grinned. “We’ll be home but the time he gets back from Europe.” (Ranch 111)

At first I thought this was a mistake. We have already established that in these books time is fluid. Way too many books are set in and around the summer for the timeline to work. From The Bungalow Mystery to The Mystery at Lilac Inn time is completely disregarded. At the end of The Bungalow Mystery we are told when the next book is set. 

    In less than a week, Nancy was facing up to the challenge of The Mystery at Lilac Inn. (Bungalow 179; emphasis added)

I believe The Bungalow Mystery is set during the last week of July. (You can find my reasoning with proof from the text here.) But instead of starting in August, The Lilac Mystery is set in May.

    The next second something rammed the canoe violently. The impact capsized the craft, hurling Nancy and Helen into the chilly May water. (Lilac 2; emphasis added)

Until now, we have never met a character for the first time that had been mentioned in a previous book. As far as I’m concerned, it’s absolute madness. That can mean only one thing. There must be two Neds!

I know, I know. These are books that have one person writing the outlines, another person writing the text, another editing, and still more people revising that text 30 years later. These books are for children, and perhaps they were not intended for close reading. It is also very possible that the publisher did not take as much interest in timelines as I do! But I think children are just as likely to pick up on details as adults are. Perhaps, more so when you consider that a lot of children reread books over and over again, and rereading seems to be a habit that is less prevalent with adult readers. Although, I do know many adults who revisit the same books again and again, and I count myself lucky to be among the number of people who know the joy that comes from rereading beloved books.

I would love to check the original text to see if Ned gets a mention in that version of The Secret of Shadow Ranch. Without the ability to do that, at this point, I would say that the Ned referred to there is an entirely different Ned. Nancy certainly treats him much more casually than she treats Ned Nickerson in The Clue in the Diary. In this book we are made to believe that this Ned is special. 

    He had been rather curious concerning Nancy’s new acquaintance. Mr. Drew sensed that his daughter was more interested in him than in other young men whom she dated. (Diary 33)

And besides Carson Drew’s interpretation of the situation, and the number of times George and Bess tease Nancy about Ned, Nancy is shown to be more excited about Ned than she has been about any other man in this series thus far.

    After Ned had hung up, Nancy fairly danced back into the bedroom. She sent one slipper flying toward the bed, and the other into the far corner of the room. The young sleuth attempted to convince herself that her jubilant spirits were the result of Ned’s discovery. The ring might be a clue to the identity of the person who had set the Raybolt house on fire. Bess and George, she knew, would have interpreted her reaction very differently! (27-28)

Nancy is attempting to convince herself that she is excited about Ned’s discover. It doesn’t say anything about her being successful in her attempt.

    “Ned Nickerson has phoned you five times, Nancy,” Hannah said with a smile. “It seems that he wants to invite you to a dinner dance. One of his fraternity brothers is giving it—on the spur of the moment—tonight. Ned would like you to call. I have the number.”

    Nancy’s heart was already pounding with excitement as she dialed. Of course she would accept! (91)

Nancy, full of excitement for something other than a mystery? It can’t be!

“Singing a gay tune” as she showers and changes, she is “[s]till humming gaily” when she heads downstairs three-quarters of an hour later (91, 92).

Now, this isn’t to say that Nancy is about to throw up all of this mystery malarkey for a young man. She is just as passionate about solving this mystery as she always is when she comes across a problem that needs solving. She even does a little sleuthing at the party, by questioning a young man whose father is the Stanford postmaster about missing letters.

    Just then a record of dance music began to play and Ned claimed Nancy. For the remainder of the evening there was no chance to resume the conversation about stolen letters. But throughout the evening, the matter was constantly on her mind. By the time the party was over and she had said good night to Ned, the young sleuth had a theory about the thefts. (95)

Despite her attraction to Ned, Nancy is just as focused on crime solving as she has ever been. From the passage above, there is every indication that Nancy can successfully balance crime solving and a relationship. Although, I’m not sure how much Ned would appreciate it if he knew his date’s mind wasn’t entirely focused on him!

There is only one other indication that Nancy might not be as serious about the relationship as Ned is, and it comes at the very end of the book.

    “Say,” said Ned, “I have a notion to start a diary of my own!”

    “Why don’t you?” Nancy asked lightly.

    She became conscious that Ned’s eyes were looking straight at her. “I will if I can fill most of the pages with entries of dates with you.”

    Nancy evaded the question. “I enjoyed your help in solving the Swenson mystery. Maybe we’ll soon find another one we can work on together.” (174)

This sounds like a brush off to me. Nancy might as well have said, ‘can we just be friends?’ or, ‘let’s keep this relationship professional’. The other side of this is that Nancy may not have felt it prudent to respond with too much excitement to Ned’s suggestion. Did nice girls in 1962 avoid appearing overly eager? Maybe. 

But if that’s the case, then why change now? She couldn’t have been more obvious in her feelings up until this point in the story. Is it that without the excitement of a mystery to solve, Ned has lost some of his allure? For Ned’s sake, I hope this isn’t the case. I hope there are two Neds, that Ned Nickerson and the Ned mentioned so offhandedly in The Secret of Shadow Ranch are two characters that happen to share the same first name. Otherwise, Nancy’s feelings for Ned really do go downhill. And he will always be at risk of being ousted for the next handsome man with a mystery for Nancy to solve.

Favourite quotation

Now, for my favourite quotation, which is completely unrelated to what we’ve been discussing.

I don’t know which came first. My love of Nancy Drew or my obsession with car chases, but I do know that scenes like the following fed my imagination when I was a child.

    Nancy stole a glance out of the rear window. Her spirits sank. The State Police car was gaining on them, but did not look as though it was going to pass the convertible.

    An uneasy thought crossed Nancy’s mind. “If those troopers are after Joe Swenson, then George, Bess, and I might be arrested for aiding a suspected criminal to escape!” (117)

The idea of being in a car and looking behind you to see that someone was “gaining” on you gave me such a thrill when I was little. The word still gives me a little thrill!

If you read this book, tell me which scene was your favourite. And I would love to hear any and all thoughts you have on my theory of the two Neds!