March 2011
1 post
#12 The Message in the Hollow Oak
@1972 Dammit, we’re back to “reddish-blond” again. It’s like the editors keep saying “Stop trying to make ‘titian’ work.”
Nancy is invited by her Aunt Eloise in NYC to help a detective with a baffling case. Without the internet, how does the news of her prowess spread far and wide? Bess and George, wearing casual summer dresses, drive Nancy, in a...
February 2011
2 posts
October 2010
1 post
#11 The Clue of the Broken Locket
©1965.This is difficult because (gasp!) I didn’t really like this one. I blame myself; I’m super cranky now that summer’s over. But I will press on with NancyFest through the fall. (Since I’m just doing #11 now it’s not likely I will finish by the end of the year, is it? I guess this is now a year-long project.)
We seem to have standardized on...
September 2010
4 posts
#10 Password to Larkspur Lane
@1966. We begin with Nancy’s preparations for attending a flower show. It may be because I am an old lady at heart but I love the olden days where young people acted elderly. So Nancy and Hannah are in the yard gabbin’ and prunin’ when a bird falls out of the sky and lands in the garden. It turns out to be a homing pigeon carrying a mysterious note:
“‘Trouble...
Almost there...
And now you have learned my definition of ASAP is misleading. But I’m almost done! It’s a really long one.
Back to School
Vacation’s over - Nancy #10 coming up ASAP.
August 2010
1 post
#9 The Sign of the Twisted Candles
@1968. Nancy, Bess and George are on their way to an inn called The Sign of the Twisted Candles which is exactly what I’d name an inn if I had an old man locked in the attic. Spoiler alert! Yes, the three are investigating a rumor about Bess and George’s great granduncle being held prisoner in his mansion-turned-inn. While I am a fan of the polite, genteel ways of Nancy’s...
July 2010
7 posts
#8 Nancy's Mysterious Letter
©1968. This is the best book thus far. Nancy is titian-blond and Bess gets to be blond too this time although she still gets a hard time from her cousin George “proto-Peppermint Patty” Fayne right off the bat:
“Maybe you have an unknown admirer in England, Nancy,” she said.
George gave Bess a dark look. “Do you always have to think of the romantic side of...
#7 The Clue in the Diary
Copyright 1962. Nancy is:
…pretty in a distinctive way. Her eyes were blue, her hair titian blond. She expressed her opinions firmly, but did not force them on others. Nancy’s abilities of leadership were welcome and depended upon in any group.
If that’s from her application essay, no wonder Nancy didn’t go to college. George gets the first sentence and poor Bess,...
#6 The Secret of Red Gate Farm
Back to 1961. Nancy is still titian-haired, Bess and George are still in on the action but there’s no Ned to be found.
And we’re off to the rac(ist)es from the very first sentence:
“That Oriental-looking clerk in the perfume shop certainly acted mysterious,” Bess Marvin declared…
This is so far the weirdest story the girl detective has gotten mixed up in. It...
#5 The Secret of Shadow Ranch
Copyright 1965. Finally the “titian-haired Nancy” I remember. Also, surprise! Bess and George are here. The “slightly plump blonde”* and “attractively tomboyish” brunette are spending the summer in Arizona at Shadow Ranch, the home of their Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Ed Rawley. As always, “the Rawleys had easily been persuaded to include Nancy in the...
#4 The Mystery at Lilac Inn
Copyright 1961. Nancy is now titian blond.
Despite the trouble they had with water transport last time, #4 opens with Nancy and good old Helen Corning paddling a canoe up the river to visit family friend Emily and her aunt at the lilac inn. Emily is also engaged and Nance and Helen are to be bridesmaids.
This time we have to wait til page 2 for our first adventure: the canoe is rammed by...
#3 The Bungalow Mystery
Copyright 1960. Nancy is now “blue-eyed, with reddish-gold glints in her blond hair.” Helen is once again along for the ride. She and Nancy are vacationing in Twin Lakes at the Pinecrest Motel. These girls take a lot of vacations. At first I figured well, it’s the summer after graduating high school, Carson Drew is obviously rich, so Nancy gets a summer to do what she wants....
#2 The Hidden Staircase
This one is also copyright 1959. Nancy’s still blond and still hanging out with Helen Corning. In fact Helen kicks off this adventure by asking Nancy to investigate a ghost at Twin Elms, the old family mansion of Helen’s Aunt Rosemary. Also, Helen is engaged!
There’s a lot of meal talk in Nancy Drew; longtime housekeeper Hannah Gruen is constantly whipping up hearty...
June 2010
1 post
#1 The Secret of the Old Clock
My copy of #1 is copyright 1959. I assumed they all would move forward from there but they jump from early 60s to 1968 and then back. These low numbered ones are all my original childhood editions so I don’t know how that happened. These were all bought in the late 70s/early 80s so I guess there were many different editions floating around wherever we bought books back then...